Orthographic Knowledge Research Articles

Cognitive–Linguistic Skills Explain Chinese Reading Comprehension Within and Beyond the Simple View of Reading in Hong Kong Kindergarteners

AbstractIn this study, we investigated the direct and indirect associations of different cognitive–linguistic skills and Chinese reading comprehension in Hong Kong kindergarteners. We assessed 179 children's nonverbal IQ, cognitive–linguistic skills, word reading, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. Results showed significant correlations between all variables and reading comprehension. Further path analysis results indicated that rapid automatized naming, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension via word reading. Nonverbal IQ and vocabulary knowledge were associated with reading comprehension through listening comprehension. Beyond that, nonverbal IQ and morphological awareness still contributed directly to reading comprehension. Overall, our findings elucidated the importance of nonverbal IQ and cognitive–linguistic skills within the framework of the simple view of reading in Chinese and highlighted the unique roles of nonverbal IQ and meaning‐related skills in Chinese reading comprehension, which contributed to understanding the simple view of reading in Chinese.

Connecting the dots: the contribution of orthographic knowledge to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through serial mediation of word decoding and listening comprehension

Connecting the dots: the contribution of orthographic knowledge to L2 Chinese reading comprehension through serial mediation of word decoding and listening comprehension

How Can Orthographic Representations in Arabic Contribute to Phoneme Awareness Development?

The contribution of the orthographic representations to the development of phonemic awareness in Arabic was tested among 289 native Arab readers from the second, the fourth, and the sixth grade. Phonemic awareness was tested by using two phonemic segmentation tasks: words and pseudowords. The participants' words and pseudowords reading and spelling skills beside to orthographic knowledge were tested also. The results revealed that the accuracy levels of phoneme segmentation of words were higher than pseudowords for all ages. In addition, the results revealed that the pseudowords reading skills and the orthographic knowledge contributed significantly to the phoneme segmentations of words and pseudowords. The results were discussed in light of the assumption that in transparent orthographies, such like Arabic, the grain size of phoneme awareness development is contributed by capturing the correspondences between the phonology and the orthography and the orthographic representations development.

Transposed and substituted letter effects across reading development: A longitudinal study.

Reading development involves several changes in orthographic processing. A key question is, "how does the coding of letters develops in children learning to read?" Masked priming effects of transposition and substitution primes have been taken to index the importance of letter position and identity coding. Somewhat contradicting results for developing readers have led to opposing theories. Here, we present new evidence from a large longitudinal study with over 100 children from grade 2 to 4. We investigate three different issues concerning transposition and substitution priming: (a) comparing priming both against an all-different and an identity baseline, (b) testing priming effects for nonword targets, and (c) taking into account interindividual differences in orthographic knowledge. The analyses of the longitudinal data show, respectively, (a) an increase of priming effects over development in comparison to both baselines, (b) identity priming for nonword targets in the elementary school years, and (c) an additional impact of orthographic knowledge on priming effects for word, but not nonword, targets that is similar to the effect of grade. Taken together, our examination suggests that letter identity is coded relatively strictly, whereas letter position is coded relatively flexibly already early in reading development for words, but not for nonwords. We discuss how this pattern fits with different developmental models of orthographic processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Word Knowledge Instruction: We Can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time

AbstractAlthough development of young children’s vocabulary knowledge is critical for their literacy, it often is neglected in classrooms, especially those pressed for time. In this article we explore a literacy coach’s implementation of SAIL (Survey, Analyze, Interpret, Link), an instructional framework that integrates academic vocabulary (AV) development with development of children’s orthographic knowledge during small‐group word‐study instruction. We also examine the teacher’s talk moves and their relationship to students’ learning of AV. The context is a pullout intervention with kindergarten and first‐grade children in a lower‐performing school. We identified five, teacher talk moves that characterize the AV instruction and describe them through transcript excerpts. Children demonstrated significant growth in orthographic knowledge and in learning taught AV. Our discoveries provide support for integration of these two areas. Integration provided a meaningful context for AV learning and opportunity for more efficient teaching, without detriment to learning in either area.

Development and Evaluation of Orthographic Knowledge Awareness Scale for Children Aged 6-12 Years.

ObjectiveThis study primarily aimed to develop an orthographic knowledge awareness scale in Mandarin for children aged 6–12 years. Related factors affecting orthographic knowledge awareness in children were analyzed, and a basis for individualized intervention was provided to improve reading and writing.MethodsA conceptual framework for orthographic knowledge awareness in children aged 6–12 years was determined through a detailed reading of the literature on Chinese character orthography, combined with qualitative interviews of the target population and consultation with experts. The orthographic knowledge awareness scale initially consisted of three versions: for grades 1–2 (210 items), grades 3–4 (207 items), and grades 5–6 (220 items), accumulating a total of 637 items. The initial scale was then used for the study involving children aged 6–12 years in Maanshan City, Jiangsu Province. Various approaches to screening items were comprehensively used to determine the formal version of the orthographic knowledge awareness scale. The official scale was ultimately used to conduct the third round of surveys among 1,354 children aged 6–12 years in ordinary primary schools located in 5 cities in Jiangsu Province, namely, Changzhou, Lianyungang, Nantong, Xuzhou, and Yangzhou. The reliability, validity, and discriminating power of the formal scale were evaluated.ResultsA total of 360 items were included in the formal version of the orthographic knowledge awareness scale. The formal scale was divided into three versions for grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6. Each grade version consisted of 120 items. The scale was composed of the stroke awareness test, radical awareness test, and left–right reversal test. The cumulative variance contribution rates of grades 1–2, 3–4, and 5–6 were 82.47, 61.71, and 64.19%, respectively. The Cronbach's α coefficients of the three-grade version of the scale were 0.989, 0.946, and 0.938; the split-half reliability coefficients were 0.925, 0.766, and 0.847; and the test–retest reliability coefficients were 0.847, 0.895, and 0.8928, respectively.ConclusionThe proposed orthographic knowledge awareness scale for children aged 6–12 years exhibits good reliability and validity. The formal scale consisted of two dimensions: identification of left–right reversal at the stroke and radical levels and the left–right reversal at the whole character level. The two dimensions can more comprehensively reflect the ability of children to discriminate orthographic structures.

Orthographic and feature-level contributions to letter identification.

Word recognition is facilitated by primes containing visually similar letters (dentjst-dentist), suggesting that letter identities are encoded with initial uncertainty. Orthographic knowledge also guides letter identification, as readers are more accurate at identifying letters in words compared with pseudowords. We investigated how high-level orthographic knowledge and low-level visual feature analysis operate in combination during letter identification. We conducted a Reicher-Wheeler task to compare readers' ability to discriminate between visually similar and dissimilar letters across different orthographic contexts (words, pseudowords, and consonant strings). Orthographic context and visual similarity had independent effects on letter identification, and there was no interaction between these factors. The magnitude of these effects indicated that high-level orthographic information plays a greater role than low-level visual feature information in letter identification. We propose that readers use orthographic knowledge to refine potential letter candidates while visual feature information is accumulated. This combination of high-level knowledge and low-level feature analysis may be essential in permitting the flexibility required to identify visual variations of the same letter (e.g., N-n) while maintaining enough precision to tell visually similar letters apart (e.g., n-h). These results provide new insights on the integration of visual and linguistic information and highlight the need for greater integration between models of reading and visual processing.

Orthographic knowledge: a predictor or an outcome of word reading and spelling in bilingual children?

Orthographic knowledge: a predictor or an outcome of word reading and spelling in bilingual children?

The Percentages of Cognitive Skills Deficits among Chinese Children with Developmental Dyslexia: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

The current study was conducted to examine the percentages of cognitive skills deficits among Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Via a systematic review, we collated twenty-two available studies on the proportion of cognitive skills deficits, including phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge, short-term memory and working memory, and visual and motor skills deficits, among Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. The results of a meta-analysis showed that the rapid automatized naming deficits are the core deficit of developmental dyslexia among Chinese children, with a pooled percentage of 44%. This is followed by orthographic knowledge deficits (43%), phonological awareness deficits (41%), morphological awareness deficits (40%), visual and motor skills deficits (33%), and short-term memory and working memory deficits (25%). At the same time, we compared the proportions of different locations, ages, standards and control groups.

Contributions of orthographic awareness, letter knowledge, and patterning skills to Chinese literacy skills and arithmetic competence

This study investigated the unique contribution of orthographic awareness, letter knowledge, and patterning skills to early literacy and arithmetic competence. A total of 145 third-year kindergarten (K3) children (M age: 73.43 months, SD = 5.36; 70 boys, 48%) from Hong Kong participated in this study. Children were assessed on their patterning skills, orthographic awareness, letter knowledge, verbal short-term working memory, visual-spatial perception, Chinese word reading, word writing, and arithmetic competence. With demographic variables and cognitive skills controlled, multilevel regression models indicated that patterning skills uniquely contributed to Chinese word reading and arithmetic competence but not to Chinese word writing. Orthographic awareness was a strong predictor of the three academic outcomes. Letter knowledge was significantly predictive of word reading and word writing but not of arithmetic competence. These findings highlight the differential roles of orthographic awareness, letter knowledge, and patterning skills in children’s literacy and arithmetic skills.

Lexical Orthographic Knowledge Mediates the Relationship Between Character Reading and Reading Comprehension Among Learners With Chinese as a Second Language.

Reading in Chinese is complex because readers should not only recognize characters by basic units (i.e., characters) but also integrate characters into words when reading text. While many efforts have been devoted to investigating the effect of sub-lexical orthographic knowledge in Chinese character reading, less is known about the role played by lexical orthographic knowledge at word level. A total of 424 secondary learners with Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Hong Kong were assessed with character reading, reading comprehension, and two lexical orthographic knowledge tasks: lexical orthographic choice (OKC) and lexical orthographic choice in context (OKCC). Path analysis results demonstrated that these lexical orthographic skills significantly mediated the effect of character reading on comprehension, in which OKCC was a more critical mediator as its mediating effect was bigger than that of OKC. Further analyses showed that these mediating effects were significant only among students with richer learning experience (i.e., learning Chinese for 4 years or above). Our results illustrate the possible trajectory of CSL learners’ literacy development from character reading to reading comprehension and provide pedagogical implications for teaching and learning.

Orthographic literacy of Russian-speaking schoolchildren in Latvia

The research is devoted to one of the current problems of speech development of Russian-speaking schoolchildren of the diaspora (grades 4, 6 and 9) - orthographic literacy and is intended to contribute to the research on this problem. The topicality of the problem is substantiated by the necessity to explore the issues related to the quality of written speech, including orthographic knowledge and skills in the Russian (native) language of bilingual schoolchildren living outside Russia. The topic has not been sufficiently studied. The aim of the research is to describe the orthographic literacy of Latvian Russian-speaking schoolchildren of grades 4, 6 and 9 in 2015-2021. The research is based on the analysis of written works of 11 938 schoolchildren that were developed by the author of the article and specia- lists of education and science of Latvia. The methods of research include comparative, statistical, focus-group discussion. The research results: 1) the level of orthographic literacy of Latvian Russian-speaking bilinguals remains low; 2) the same typical spelling mistakes are found in the speech of schoolchildren of all ages, but the mistakes rate depends on the bilingual education model; 3) schoolchildren have difficulties in spelling arguments; 4) the main reasons of schoolchildrens spelling mistakes in Russian include the low motivation of school- children to develop literacy in written speech, interlanguage interference, insufficient amount of school hours on studying spelling material of the Russian language at school; 5) the literacy in Russian is less important than in English and Latvian in the value paradigm of schoolchildren. According to the new educational reform of Latvia (Skola2030), the number of Russian language lessons in schools for national minorities is significantly reduced. It is possible to predict a further decline in the level of spelling in schoolchildren in the coming years. Therefore, understanding objective orthographic difficulties encountered of bilingual schoolchildren open prospects for further exploration of effective orthography strategies in teaching the mother tongue to bilingual schoolchildren in a changing environment.

Probabilistic modeling of orthographic learning based on visuo-attentional dynamics.

How is orthographic knowledge acquired? In line with the self-teaching hypothesis, most computational models assume that phonological recoding has a pivotal role in orthographic learning. However, these models make simplifying assumptions on the mechanisms involved in visuo-orthographic processing. Against evidence from eye movement data during orthographic learning, they assume that orthographic information on novel words is immediately available and accurately encoded after a single exposure. In this paper, we describe BRAID-Learn, a new computational model of orthographic learning. BRAID-Learn is a probabilistic and hierarchical model that incorporates the mechanisms of visual acuity, lateral interference, and visual attention involved in word recognition. Orthographic learning in the model rests on three main mechanisms: first, visual attention moves over the input string to optimize the gain of information on letter identity at each fixation; second, top-down lexical influence is modulated as a function of stimulus familiarity; third, after exploration, perceived information is used to create a new orthographic representation or stabilize a better-specified representation of the input word. BRAID-Learn was challenged on its capacity to simulate the eye movement patterns reported in humans during incidental orthographic learning. In line with the behavioral data, the model predicts a larger decline with exposures in number of fixations and processing time for novel words than for known words. For novel words, most changes occur between the first and second exposure, that is to say, after creation in memory of a new orthographic representation. Beyond phonological recoding, our results suggest that visuo-attentional exploration is an intrinsic portion of orthographic learning seldom taken into consideration by models or theoretical accounts.

Contributions of executive functions and linguistic skills to verbal fluency in children

ABSTRACT Despite the widespread use of verbal fluency (VF) tasks in child neuropsychological research and clinical practice, the contribution of executive and linguistic processes to variability in children’s fluency performance is still unclear. This is particularly important when considering the development of orthographic knowledge and semantic network during childhood. The present study investigated the contributions of executive functions and linguistic skills to performance in VF tasks in children. We examined the contributions of basic executive functions (i.e.,inhibitory control, working memory, and flexibility) and high-order executive functions (i.e., planning), vocabulary, lexical access speed, and phonological awareness to VF performance in 111 typically developing children (8–10 years old). Multiple regression analyses showed that phonological awareness was a predictor of performance in phonemic verbal fluency (PVF), and lexical access speed was the best predictor of performance in semantic verbal fluency (SVF). Among the executive function components, working memory was a predictor of performance in PVF and most categories of SVF (except animal fluency). In addition to working memory resources (i.e., a basic executive function), planning (i.e., a high-level executive function) was also recruited in the clothing category of SVF. These results highlight the importance of phonological processing skills in children’s performance on VF tasks and show similarities and differences in the contributions of various linguistic and executive skills to PVF and SVF. These findings have implications for interpreting the results of these measures in research and clinical practice.

What are the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers? Evidence from eye movements

This study investigated the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers by observing their eye-movement patterns in reading articles manipulated to highlight different linguistic features. Participants’ linguistic resources were included as covariant variables. Results showed that good readers should be defined as both accurate and fast readers, although the two traits did not correlate with each other. Accurate reading was predicted by good orthographic knowledge, while fast reading was predicted by good lexical knowledge. Longer sentences did not show a significant impact on readers’ performance, which might imply that higher-level processes did not contribute as much as lower-level processes to the construction of good reading capabilities. All results were validated, while text readability was checked across different reading materials. Both reading universals and writing system specific features were found to be effective in explaining Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading processes. The research findings also informed the instruction of CSL reading, as Chinese is a very challenging logographic text.

Speech-Language Pathologists’ Orthographic Knowledge

This study quantified the orthographic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of spelling conventions) of school speech-language pathologists (SLPs). On average, SLPs ( N = 48) answered 65% of the questions correctly on a measure of orthographic knowledge. SLPs need better preparation in written language structure to support reading acquisition in children with language disorders.

Measuring Orthographic Knowledge of L2 Chinese Learners in Vietnam Using a Handwriting Task - A Preliminary Report.

In the current study, the orthographic knowledge required for writing Chinese characters was assessed among participants with L1 Vietnamese background who learn Chinese as a foreign language. A total of 42 undergraduates were recruited. They were invited to participate in a delayed Chinese character copying task consisting of 32 characters. Their Chinese character reading abilities were also obtained using a character naming task. All the tests were conducted online during the pandemic in 2021. Results indicated that the participants’ accuracy in the copying task was affected by the familiarity of the characters and the number of strokes of the characters. These effects minimized as reading performance increased. In the inter-stroke interval (ISI) analysis, results indicated a significant boundary effect where ISIs between orthographic units were longer than ISIs within orthographic units, showing the participants’ tendency to chunk Chinese characters into functional units when they write. Only high achievers in the reading task demonstrated the use of both large and small grain-size units in writing (i.e., radical-boundary ISI > logographeme-boundary ISI > non-boundary ISI), while the low achievers only used small grain-size units in their writing. We suggest that the delayed copying task incorporated with handwriting measures is an effective method to assess orthographic knowledge of L2 Chinese learners.

Level of Orthographic Knowledge Helps to Reveal Automatic Predictions in Visual Word Processing.

The brain generates predictions about visual word forms to support efficient reading. The “interactive account” suggests that the predictions in visual word processing can be strategic or automatic (non-strategic). Strategic predictions are frequently demonstrated in studies that manipulated task demands, however, few studies have investigated automatic predictions. Orthographic knowledge varies greatly among individuals and it offers a unique opportunity in revealing automatic predictions. The present study grouped the participants by level of orthographic knowledge and recorded EEGs in a non-linguistic color matching task. The visual word-selective N170 response was much stronger to pseudo than to real characters in participants with low orthographic knowledge, but not in those with high orthographic knowledge. Previous work on predictive coding has demonstrated that N170 is a good index for prediction errors, i.e., the mismatches between predictions and visual inputs. The present findings provide unambiguous evidence that automatic predictions modulate the early stage of visual word processing.

The role of word knowledge in error detection: a challenge to the broken error monitor account of dyslexia.

Dyslexic children often fail to correct errors while reading aloud, and dyslexic adolescents and adults exhibit lower amplitudes of the error-related negativity (ERN)-the neural response to errors-than typical readers during silent reading. Past researchers therefore suggested that dyslexia may arise from a faulty error detection mechanism that interferes with orthographic learning and text comprehension. An alternative possibility is that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is primarily a downstream effect of low-quality lexical representations-that is, poor word knowledge. On this view, the attenuated ERN in dyslexics is a byproduct, rather than a source, of underdeveloped orthographic knowledge. Because the second view implies a direct association of the error response with comprehension skill in populations of all ability levels, the present study evaluates these alternatives through a reanalysis of behavioral and neural data from 31 typical adult readers. If it is true that faulty error processing can manifest as dyslexia, a model in which error monitoring contributes directly to comprehension should outperform a model in which it does not. ERNs recorded during spelling judgments were used as a measure of error detection aptitude in path analyses of reading comprehension. The data were better fit by a model in which error detection aptitude was a consequence of word knowledge than a model in which it contributed directly to comprehension. The findings challenge the notion that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is attributable to error processing deficits and are consistent with the hypothesis that comprehension difficulty in dyslexics is partially attributable to low-quality word knowledge.

Exploring the writing-reading connection among Arabic-speaking kindergarten children: the role of fine motor skills and orthographic knowledge

Exploring the writing-reading connection among Arabic-speaking kindergarten children: the role of fine motor skills and orthographic knowledge