Initial Teaching Alphabet Research Articles

Revisiting Pink Vanilla

Revisiting Pink Vanilla

Developing Thinking Skills: a Pedagogy Based on the Notion of Explanation

Courses in ‘thinking skills’ are being greeted with the same level of enthusiasm that once heralded the introduction of Nuffield Science, programmed learning, modem maths, Initial Teaching Alphabet, calculators, cooperative group work, real books, SMP maths, investigations, ‘advance organisers’ and much else. All of these have several things in common. They were accepted on the evidence of work with experimental groups that recorded better results than ‘control’ groups; the experimental studies were all conducted with enthusiasts doing the teaching: when the methods and materials were disseminated the de-facto programme differed markedly from the intended programme (it was in each case simplified). And they all fell into obscurity. The following article offers an explanation of why this could have happened.

The effect of orthography on the acquisition of literacy skills

The effect of the regularity of orthography on the acquisition of literacy skills was studied by comparing the reading and spelling of 70 Italian children aged 6–11 years with that of 90 English children learning traditional orthography (t.o.) and 33 children aged 6–7 years learning the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), using an Italian passage for adults which was also translated into English. The Italian children learned to read at an earlier age than the English t.o. children, but not than the English i.t.a. children. The English t.o. and i.t.a. children could read more words than they could spell, whereas the Italian children could spell most of the words they could read and even some they could not read.The English children read fast and inaccurately, whereas the Italian children read slowly and accurately using a systematic, phonological strategy until 10 years, when they read fast and accurately. All the children used a phonological strategy in spelling, but only the Italians were mostly successful. Thus the results suggest that, if the orthography is predictable and invariant, the children use a systematic, phonological strategy and learn to read and spell more quickly and accurately.

Computers and Education

Computers and Education

THE IMPACT OF I/T/A ON LOW‐LEVEL READERS IN THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL

The Initial Teaching Alphabet was contrasted with traditional orthography in remediation classes for slow readers at the junior high school level. Using the Iowa Test scales as the measure of achievement, the Initial Teaching Alphabet group demonstrated statistically superior gains. Differences in motivation and attitude were ruled out as major contributors. The Initial Teaching Alphabet potential as a remediation technique for higher grade levels appears to be dependent upon curriculum standardization and teacher preparation.

Spelling as a source of information about children's linguistic knowledge

Two studies of English speakers' understanding of the English spelling system are discussed. The first study is Groat's (1979) investigation of seven‐year‐old children's ability to assign stress appropriately to two‐syllable nonsense words embedded in otherwise normal sentences. This work is compared with an earlier study of university students' performance on a similar task (Smith & Baker, 1976) and suggests that seven‐year‐olds are as sophisticated as adults in extracting many of the linguistic factors (vowel quality, syllable structure, syntactic category) which influence stress assignment, but they lack the ‘heterogeneous’ structure of the lexicon that is characteristic of the adult (i.e. a lexicon where different classes of word are subject to different rules). Furthermore it is shown that experience with Pitman's initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.) leads to subtle differences in children's performance in this task, suggesting that children taught to read with i.t.a. are using different print‐to‐sound conversion rules even after they have transferred to traditional orthography.

The use of English stress assignment rules by children taught either with traditional orthography or with the initial teaching alphabet

This experiment examines children's use of spelling conventions as a guide to pronunciation, and their ability to handle stress assignment rules. The subjects, 7-year-old school children, of whom half had learned to read and write using traditional orthography (t.o.) and half had learned using the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), read out short simple sentences each containing a two-syllable nonsense word. The grammatical category and the spelling of the nonsense words were varied systematically. It was found that, in assigning stress, both groups of children were influenced by phonemic and grammatical features in a manner similar to that predicted by Chomsky and Halle (1968), but they differed in their handling of the silent final e. It was the i.t.a. children whose use of this orthographic device was more in accordance with Chomsky and Halle's theory, despite their relative lack of experience with it. A comparison with Smith and Baker's (1976) adult subjects indicated substantial differences between adults and children, particularly in their treatment of words with a lax final vowel.

Sensory handicaps and the initial teaching alphabet

This review surveys published and unpublished reports of the use of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) with several types of sensory handicaps. The evidence is slighter than in other areas of learning disability, but the subjective reports from teachers who have used i.t.a. with cerebral palsied children and partially‐sighted pupils is interesting and encourages further research on the use of this tool of reading improvement. The effectiveness of i.t.a. depends chiefly on its simplification of the relationships between spoken and printed language. This may facilitate the child's understanding of the learning task. This may help children with sensory handicaps by reducing their total burden of difficulties enough to allow them to cope with the learning situation.

The Effects of i.t.a. on the Reading Achievement of Mexican‐American Children

Abstract Fifty‐two Mexican‐American bilingual fourth graders, twenty‐six who were initially instructed via the Initial Teaching Alphabet and twenty‐six who were taught using traditional orthography, were tested on a variety of reading achievement tests. The children from the i.t.a. group scored significantly higher on all tests, including their reading grade level, than the T.O. group. Some reasons for the success of i.t.a. with Mexican‐American children are given.

I.t.a. revisited

i.t.a. revisited

Spelling Achievement and the Initial Teaching Alphabet: Analysis of Errors

Spelling Achievement and the Initial Teaching Alphabet: Analysis of Errors

The initial teaching alphabet.

The initial teaching alphabet.

A suburban school district's five year experience with the initial teaching alphabet

Abstract The i.t.a. (Initial Teaching Alphabet) was introduced experimentally in the West Genesee Central Schools in suburban Syracuse, New York in the Fall of 1964. The control groups for the first year of the study consisted of the three groups in the U.S.O.E. First Grade Study conducted by Dr. William D. Sheldon. Local control groups were used for comparison purposes for the second and subsequent years of the project. The i.t.a. instructed children made more rapid progress than the traditional control groups in first grade. The reading skills of i.t.a. instructed second and third graders improved over the three year comparisons of these groups. Spelling was not “damaged” by i.t.a. instruction. Some of the initial advantages of the i.t.a. groups dissipated after first grade. The decision to initiate i.t.a. instruction must be a local decision based on individual school characteristics and considering the data presented in this paper.

Auditory Perception, Reading and the Initial Teaching Alphabet

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the effectiveness of the i.t.a. reading program for children with auditory perceptual disturbances. The children studied were ten boys who were administered a specific, structured reading program. The Gray Oral Reading Test was employed both prior to and following completion of the program in order to measure reading improvement. Results of this investigation revealed that the ten children were reading significantly better at the conclusion of the forty-week program. Implications of the results are discussed.

Initial Teaching Alphabet and Traditional Orthography-Their Impact on Spelling and Writings

Previous articleNext article No AccessInitial Teaching Alphabet and Traditional Orthography-Their Impact on Spelling and WritingsGeorge B. NikasGeorge B. Nikas Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Elementary School Journal Volume 70, Number 6Mar., 1970 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/460588 Views: 1Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref Copyright 1970 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:J. R. Block BUT WILL THEY EVER LERN TO SPEL KORECTLY?, Educational Research 14, no.33 (Jul 2006): 171–176.https://doi.org/10.1080/0013188720140301

Comparative Effectiveness of Initial Teaching Alphabet vs. Traditional Orthography in First Grade in the Pittsburgh Public Schools

AbstractThis study compares the effectiveness in reading instruction of the i.t.a. Scott Foresman series and the traditional Scott Foresman series on 562 first-grade students as measured by three subtests of the Metropolitan Achievement Test (taken in the traditional alphabet) and four subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test (taken in the alphabet in which they were trained). Two readiness measures were used as pretests. An analysis of covariance clearly indicates a statistically significant difference in achievement favoring the i.t.a.

1: Learning Studies in Science Education

s, and Dissertation Abstracts, shows that there is a relatively standard set of categories (concept learning, problem solving, learning, critical thinking, etc.) for classifying learning studies. Each category might be thought to represent a closely bound set of ideas, but further problems emerge as one begins to read the studies. Take as an example the category learning. In a hypothetical study conducted by X and clearly labeled a discovery study in the title, second and third grade pupils were taught a series of on flowers. The pupils used programed directions written in the Initial Teaching Alphabet. The Mr. X Test of Discovery Learning was given as a preand posttest. The reader knows little about the test other than that it consists of twenty items constructed by X. After analysis of pre-post data, X reports that discovery learning was far superior to conventially taught lessons. In another hypothetical study, by Y, college freshmen in an introductory geology class were engaged in a series of lessons employing geological maps on field trips. An achievement test constructed by Y was given to classes using the discovery and to a control class using only the text and lectures. Analysis of data revealed significant differences in achievement in favor of the experimental discovery class.

The English Spelling System and the Initial Teaching Alphabet

The English Spelling System and the Initial Teaching Alphabet

Letter to the Editor

ReadingVolume 3, Issue 1 p. 37-38 Letter to the Editor Sir James Pitman, Sir James Pitman The Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation 154 Southampton Row London W.C.I.Search for more papers by this author Sir James Pitman, Sir James Pitman The Initial Teaching Alphabet Foundation 154 Southampton Row London W.C.I.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1969 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9345.1969.tb00406.xAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume3, Issue1March 1969Pages 37-38 RelatedInformation

Initial Teaching Alphabet: Results after Six Years

tional Research in England and Wales announced that they were initiating an investigation into the early stages of learning to read, when the matter to be read is printed in a special form alleged to be easy to learn and leading to a full reading skill (1). This announcement marked the beginning of six years of study of the initial teaching alphabet. Five of those years were devoted to controlled scientific re-