Orthographic Depth Research Articles

Multilingual dyslexia in university students: Reading and writing patterns in three languages

We investigated reading and writing in two domestic languages (Swedish and Finnish) and one foreign language (English) among multilingual university students with (n = 20) versus without dyslexia (n = 20). Our analyses encompassed overall speed and accuracy measures and an in-depth analysis of grapheme–phoneme–grapheme errors and inflectional errors. Dyslexic impairments were most conspicuous in word and sentence segmentation, accuracy in oral text reading, single word writing to dictation and free writing across the three languages, most prominently in English. The writing tasks exhibited significantly higher proportions of phoneme-to-grapheme errors in the dyslexia group, especially in English, and marginal differences in inflectional errors, again discernible in English. The results indicate that language proficiency and orthographic depth modulate the appearance of high-performing multilinguals' dyslexic problems in reading and writing. These problems surfaced most clearly in a less proficient foreign, orthographically opaque language.

A tone orthography typology

Discussions about tone orthography have long been hampered by imprecise terminology. This article aims to bring clarity by means of an explicit typology composed of six parameters. Each parameter is defined by a choice: domain, target, symbol, position, density, and depth. The orthographer assesses each typological aspect individually, while always bearing in mind that the six parameters together generate a complex matrix of responses. The result is a precise and informative character profile for any Roman script tone orthography. Keywords: typology; tone; orthography; orthographic depth

Measuring graphematic transparency

In this article, a quantitative method to calculate the graphematic transparency of an alphabetic writing system is suggested. Graphematic transparency is a part of the traditional concept of orthographic depth, dealing with the direction from written representation to phonological representation only. Based on a thorough analysis of German graphematics given in Neef (2005a) and a tentative analysis of Italian graphematics, the respective gt-values are calculated in a constant theoretical framework. As expected, the gt-value for Italian is lower than that for German. For assessing the relevance of these calculated gt-values, further analyses of other writing systems are necessary. Keywords: orthographic depth; graphematic transparency; graphematics; typology; correspondence rule; phonological filter; geminate; German; Italian

English phonological awareness in bilinguals: a cross‐linguistic study of Tamil, Malay and Chinese English‐language learners

To test the lexical restructuring hypothesis among bilingual English‐language learners, English phonological awareness (PA), English vocabulary and ethnic language vocabulary (Mandarin Chinese, Malay or Tamil) were assessed among 284 kindergarteners (168 Chinese, 71 Malays and 45 Tamils) in Singapore. A multi‐level regression analysis showed that English vocabulary, in interaction with mother's education, statistically significantly predicted Singaporean children's PA; ethnic language vocabulary did not. Thus, the present study supports the lexical restructuring hypothesis that growth in vocabulary changes how lexical items are stored, leading to the development of PA. Home language practices, as represented by mother's education, may also enhance children's PA after a threshold of English vocabulary is reached. In addition, specific ethnic language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) was a statistically significant predictor of PA, suggesting that orthographic depth as well as syllabic complexity of a bilingual's other language may influence their development of English PA.

Cross-language transfer of spelling strategies in English and Afrikaans Grade 3 children

This study examined strategies for spelling accuracy in Grade 3 children. Thirty bilingual, Afrikaans–English speaking children and 30 monolingual, English-speaking children were assessed on their ability to spell English words and non-words. The bilingual children were also assessed on their Afrikaans word and non-word spelling abilities. In terms of spelling accuracy, the monolingual children had significantly higher scores for the complex opaque English words and non-words than did the bilingual children. The bilingual children showed greater spelling accuracy in the spelling of Afrikaans words and non-words compared to their spelling of English words and non-words. Nevertheless, bilingual children may benefit from utilising spelling systems from two languages to facilitate spelling in both languages. Qualitative error analyses indicated that both lexical and sub-lexical strategies are available for spelling English and Afrikaans words, but that the assembled route contributes more to spelling in a transparent orthography, consistent with the orthographic transparency hypothesis. The bilingual children's ability to spell in Afrikaans and English was correlated, signifying a cross-language relationship for spelling both languages; but with language background and orthographic depth exerting an influence on the nature and development of spelling strategies used to spell in an orthographically different first language and second language.

The importance of vowel diacritics for the temporary retention of high and low frequency Hebrew words of varying syllabic length

This study investigates the importance of vowel diacritics for the retention of Hebrew word lists, with word lists being manipulated along the dimension of word frequency and syllabic length. Eighty university students participated in the study. Half of the participants (40) were tested with the word lists presented in fully-pointed (voweled) Hebrew while the other half (40) were given the word lists in unpointed Hebrew (with vowel diacritics removed). Analyses of each group's recall rates and recall-order accuracy indicate that, overall, the presence of vowel diacritics had no facilitating effect on the participants' quantitative and qualitative Short Term Memory (STM) performance. This was found to be true whether word frequency (high vs. medium to low) or syllabic length (mono vs. trisyllabic) were computed as within-subject factors. Attempts to adequately interpret the absence of a pointing effect on STM performance based upon Orthographic Depth Hypothesis (ODH) and Grain Size Theory (GST) proved unfruitful. The authors propose an adaptation of the GST to the peculiarities of Hebrew orthography and discuss a morphology-centered grain-size theory (MGST).

Longitudinal predictors of reading and spelling across languages varying in orthographic consistency

We examined the longitudinal predictors of nonword decoding, reading fluency, and spelling in three languages that vary in orthographic depth: Finnish, Greek, and English. Eighty-two English-speaking, 70 Greek, and 88 Finnish children were followed from the age of 5.5 years old until Grade 2. Prior to any reading instruction, they were administered measures of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and rapid naming speed. In Grade 2, they were administered measures of nonword decoding, text-reading fluency, and spelling. The results showed that the model for nonword decoding in Greek was similar to that of Finnish (both have consistent grapheme-to-phoneme mappings) while the model for spelling in Greek was similar to that of English (both have some inconsistent phoneme-to-grapheme mappings). In addition, the models for nonword decoding and spelling in Finnish were similar, because Finnish is consistent in both directions. Letter knowledge dominated the prediction in each language. The predictable role of orthographic consistency on literacy acquisition is discussed.

Orthographic characteristics speed Hindi word naming but slow Urdu naming: evidence from Hindi/Urdu biliterates

Two primed naming experiments tested the orthographic depth hypothesis in skilled biliterate readers of Hindi and Urdu. These languages are very similar on the spoken level but differ greatly in script; Hindi is a highly transparent script, whereas Urdu is more opaque. It was accordingly hypothesized that form-based priming would be greater for Hindi than Urdu, reflecting greater reliance on a phonological assembly route in the more transparent Hindi script. Proficient Hindi/Urdu biliterate readers were presented with primes either in Hindi or Urdu script (Exp. 1), or in Roman transcription (Exp. 2), while targets were always in blocks of Hindi or Urdu. Across both experiments, form-based priming was observed only in Hindi. Additionally, target words were named significantly faster and better in Hindi than in Urdu. The results are taken as support for the hypothesis of differential reliance on phonological assembly as a function of script transparency. Further, the greater graphemic complexity of Urdu script relative to Hindi appears to have contributed to slower and less accurate overall single word reading for Urdu than Hindi, despite the fact that Urdu was the first learned script.

Reading Acquisition, AAC and the Transferability of English Research to Languages with More Consistent or Transparent Orthographies

Research on reading in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is primarily provided for the English language, which has nontransparent orthographic depth and a complex syllable structure. While there is a great deal to learn about English reading in AAC, there is substantially more information regarding reading in AAC in English than in other languages. In this article we compare reading acquisition in English and German, drawing from the existing research regarding reading for children with complex communication needs and describing how that might apply to German and other European languages with orthography that is more consistent than English (e.g., Swedish, Spanish, Finnish; Aro & Wimmer, ). The goal is to support the development of cross-linguistic understandings in reading and AAC.

Advantages of Bilinguals Over Monolinguals in Learning a Third Language

The present study is an examination of the contribution of bilingualism to trilingualism, namely the influence of learning two different orthographies on learning a third. The participants were two groups of sixth graders from Israeli schools who were studying English as a foreign (second or third) language: Russian Israeli children for whom Russian was their native language and Hebrew was their second language and a control group of native Hebrew speakers. The participants were administered cognitive and metacognitive linguistic tests: IQ, reading strategies, syntactic judgment, orthographic choice, orthographic knowledge, and phonological awareness tests. In addition, language knowledge tests were also given: Vocabulary, word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension. The MANOVA procedures indicated stronger English skills among the native Russian speakers than the native Hebrew speakers on almost all measures. However, both groups showed similar proficiency on the Hebrew measures. Our findings give more support to the notion that knowledge of several different orthographies enhances rather than diminishes L1 and L2 proficiency. The results are discussed in light of across-language transfer, the orthographic depth hypothesis, and the psycholinguistic grain-size theory.

Influence of L1 Orthography on Spelling English Words by Bilingual Children: A Natural Experiment Comparing Syllabic, Phonological, and Morphosyllabic First Languages

This study examined the influence of first language (L1) orthography on bilingual children's spelling performance in their second language (L2), English. The subtests of spelling and letter-word identification from the Woodcock Proficiency Battery were administered to a sample of 285 six-year-olds in Singapore. All children received literacy instruction in English through the “look-say” method. Analyses of covariance showed a statistically significant effect of L1 on conventional spelling but not on phonological spelling, controlling for reading proficiency. The Chinese (morphosyllabic) group not only scored higher than the Malay (alphabetic) and Tamil (syllabic) groups overall, but also made more real-word substitution and transposition errors. The results are discussed in terms of the influence of L1 orthographic depth on spelling, and how learning disability specialists can utilize the information while evaluating the spelling/literacy skills of English L2 learners.

Dyslexia and hyperlexia in bilinguals

This study explores the nature of reading difficulties of two bilinguals in Kannada and English, which vary in their orthographic depth and script layout. VN and MS manifest two different types of reading disabilities, dyslexia and hyperlexia, respectively. The performance of VN was below average on Kannada and English tests of phonemic awareness, spelling, and pseudoword naming. Despite his poor decoding skills, the listening comprehension skill both at the word level and at the sentence level of VN was within the normal range. VN, therefore, can be described to have developmental dyslexia. MS, in contrast, showed good decoding ability in both Kannada and English, but his listening and reading comprehension were poor in both languages. MS, therefore, displays a pattern of reading disability akin to that of hyperlexia. The deficits of both VN and MS, although dissimilar from each other, cut across the linguistic boundaries and affect their performance in both Kannada and English.

Orthographic Depth and Its Impact on Universal Predictors of Reading

Alphabetic orthographies differ in the transparency of their letter-sound mappings, with English orthography being less transparent than other alphabetic scripts. The outlier status of English has led scientists to question the generality of findings based on English-language studies. We investigated the role of phonological awareness, memory, vocabulary, rapid naming, and nonverbal intelligence in reading performance across five languages lying at differing positions along a transparency continuum (Finnish, Hungarian, Dutch, Portuguese, and French). Results from a sample of 1,265 children in Grade 2 showed that phonological awareness was the main factor associated with reading performance in each language. However, its impact was modulated by the transparency of the orthography, being stronger in less transparent orthographies. The influence of rapid naming was rather weak and limited to reading and decoding speed. Most predictors of reading performance were relatively universal across these alphabetic languages, although their precise weight varied systematically as a function of script transparency.

Dyslexic Subtypes and Literacy Skills in L2 Opaque English

In theory, opaque orthographies should pose more difficulties for people with developmental dyslexia than transparent ones. (Frost, 2005). However, studies (Miller-Guron & Lundberg, 2000; Van der Leij & Morfidi, 2006) show that some people with dyslexia are better at reading L2 English than their L1 transparent orthography. The current study suggests that they have a form of dyslexia known as phonological dyslexia. On the basis of the dual-route model (Coltheart, 2005), it is proposed that membership of a dyslexic subtype - phonological or surface - influences success in dealing with orthographic depth. To test this, Dutch teenagers with phonological and surface dyslexia performed Dutch and English orthographic competence and spelling tasks. The results seem to indicate that people with phonological dyslexia are more successful in reading English as an L2 opaque than Dutch as an L1 transparent orthography; however, in the case of spelling, the reverse pattern is observed.

Morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and reading in English–Arabic bilingual children

The paper reported an exploratory study that tested (a) the relationship between phonological and morphological awareness in English (L1)–Arabic (L2) bilingual children in Canada (N = 43), and (b) the relevance of these skills to word and pseudoword reading accuracy, and to complex word reading fluency. The results showed a significant correlation between phonological awareness in English and in Arabic. However, morphological awareness in the two languages was not correlated. Phonological awareness predicted reading cross-linguistically, but only Arabic morphological awareness predicted word reading in English. Moreover, while both phonological and morphological awareness in English predicted independent unique variance in English word reading, only phonological awareness in Arabic predicted Arabic word reading. Complex-word reading fluency was predicted by morphological awareness within both languages. Similarly, in both languages, phonological awareness was the single factor predicting pseudoword decoding accuracy. The results are discussed in terms of cross-linguistic differences between English and Arabic in orthographic depth and in morphological structure and transparency.

LÉXICO ORTOGRÁFICO Y COMPETENCIA LECTORA

Se presenta un estudio en el que se analizan las relaciones entre la lectura eficiente y la disponibilidad de representaciones ortográficas léxicas en dos muestras de estudiantes universitarios españoles y uruguayos. Mediante el uso de una metodología de análisis de regresión tratamos de explicar los resultados de una prueba de lectura eficiente (TECLE) a partir de una prueba de conocimiento ortográfico (TECOR). Los resultados permiten confirmar el importante papel que juega el léxico ortográfico en la lectura eficiente en español. Esta relación se revela más intensa en la muestra uruguaya que en la española. El patrón de resultados se interpreta en el marco de los efectos de la transparencia ortográfica en el aprendizaje de la lectura y el procesamiento lector.

Predicting children's word‐spelling difficulty for common English words from measures of orthographic transparency, phonemic and graphemic length and word frequency

Spencer demonstrated that spelling and reading difficulty for English words can be predicted from a number of factors, including word frequency, phonemic length and measures of orthographic depth and complexity. In this study, spelling difficulty of high frequency words was investigated across five year groups (ages 7 to 11 years) with a wide ranging series of data sources from which to determine word frequency values and orthographic depth measures. A regression model accounted for 52-66% of the variance for 7- to 11-year-olds and 72% of the variance for the lowest performing quartile group, irrespective of age. The most influential factor, phonetic difference (being the difference in the number of letters and phonemes in a word, and representing grapheme complexity), links the relative influence of large graphemic units in foundation literacy to a similar phenomenon, the 'whammy' effect, which provides support for serial processing in the dual route cascade model of word recognition in skilled readers (Rastle & Coltheart, 1998). The study supports recent research on European orthographies, which concludes that both orthographic depth and complexity contribute to delayed acquisition of foundation literacy skills.

Visual laterality effects in readers of a deep and a shallow orthography

Using a tachistoscopic split-field paradigm, hemifield asymmetry for single word recognition was examined in monolingual English speakers and in fluent bilingual English–Welsh speakers. A robust right hemifield advantage was found for both groups and both languages. Among bilinguals, the laterality index was significantly greater for Welsh than for English, supporting previous findings. The magnitude of the laterality index was unaffected by which language was learned first (Welsh or English) and by the age of acquisition (before or after 5–6years old) of the second language. However, among bilinguals there was a significant difference in the laterality index for Welsh words compared with English words for those participants brought up in a predominantly Welsh-speaking environment, but not for those brought up in a predominantly English-speaking or dual-language environment. We attribute our results to the difference in orthographic depth between Welsh and English. and argue that the transparency of Welsh favours adoption of a left-hemisphere based phonological decoding strategy in reading. Such a strategy is not necessarily used exclusively by readers of Welsh, but is encouraged by regular exposure to the Welsh language on a day-to-day basis.

Semantic errors in deep dyslexia: Does orthographic depth matter?

Semantic errors of oral reading by aphasic patients are said to be comparatively rare in languages with a shallow orthography. The present report concerns three bilingual brain-damaged patients who prior to their stroke were fluent in both English, an orthographically deep language, and Welsh, an orthographically shallow language. On a picture-naming task, each patient made a similar proportion of semantic errors in the two languages. Similarly, in oral reading of the corresponding words, no patient produced proportionally more semantic paralexias in English than in Welsh. The findings are discussed in relation to the summation hypothesis as invoked by Miceli, Capasso, and Caramazza (1994) to explain apparent differences in frequency of semantic errors of reading in languages differing in orthographic depth.

Vivian Cook and Benedetta Bassetti (eds): Second Language Writing Systems. Multilingual Matters, 2005.

In a world where literacy in a second language holds the promise of prosperity for many individuals and communities, research into Second Language Writing Systems (L2WS) has undeniable significance. This volume brings together new contributions, in the form of research reports and theoretical discussions, to a field that has so far been characterized by sporadic and rare appearances in publications dedicated to disciplines such as psycholinguistics and neuroscience or broader issues such as bilingualism. This makes the volume an original and welcome addition to SLA and a valuable reference point for those interested in writing systems, biliteracy, and second and foreign language teaching. In Chapter 1, the editors present a critical introduction to and a comprehensive review of cross-linguistic writing systems and L2WS research. They offer definitions of the fundamental terms ‘writing system’, ‘script’, and ‘orthography’, and introduce parameters for classifying writing systems such as the sound- vs. meaning-based distinction, the represented linguistic units (phonemes, consonants, syllables, morphemes), the regularity of the correspondence between these units and the graphemes that represent them (i.e. orthographic depth or phonological transparency), the physical representations (or scripts) of a writing system (for example, the Roman, Greek, and Cyrillic alphabetic scripts), the sequence in which writing systems are introduced ontologically and their association with an individual's first or second language.