Orthographic Processing Skills Research Articles

The Role of Second Language Reading Proficiency in Moderating Second Language Word Recognition

Drawing upon the division of labor between orthographic and phonological information, this study investigated whether and how L2 reading proficiency moderates learners’ reliance on phonological and orthographic information in retrieving word meanings. A total of 136 Chinese collegiate students who learned English as a foreign language (EFL) completed English reading proficiency tests and were divided into higher and lower reading proficiency groups using an extreme-group approach. Behavioral tasks were used to measure the participants’ sensitivity to and processing skills of orthographic and phonological information. The analysis showed that the reliance on phonological and orthographic information differed significantly across L2 reading proficiency groups: The higher reading proficiency group was sensitive to both phonological and orthographic information within words, while the lower reading proficiency group was only sensitive to orthographic information; only orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to the word meaning retrieval of individuals in the higher reading proficiency group, while phonological processing skills were the only predictor for the lower reading proficiency group. These results suggest that the use of phonological and orthographic information vary as a function of L2 learners’ English reading proficiency. Implications regarding the changing patterns of L1 influences and the language-universal and language-specific aspects of word recognition were discussed.

Contribution of orthographic knowledge to reading and spelling in Bosnian highly transparent orthography.

The link between orthographic processing skills and reading and spelling abilities has been demonstrated in different studies and languages. However, previous research has not fully clarified this relationship. We examined the relationship between orthographic knowledge and reading and spelling performance in children from the second to the fifth grade of elementary school. We included measures of orthographic knowledge in two scripts (Latin and Cyrillic) for the same language, at both the lexical and sublexical levels. Word-specific orthographic knowledge was assessed by presenting children with pairs of words in which one word followed the orthographic rules of the Bosnian language, while the other was spelled incorrectly. General orthographic knowledge was assessed with an orthographic word-likeness task, where children had to choose the correct pseudoword, which followed legal orthographic patterns, while the incorrect ones did not. Reading and spelling, phonological awareness, and working memory were also included in the research. In Latin, no relationship was found between reading and spelling and orthographic knowledge, independent of the measure of orthographic processing. In Cyrillic, spelling performance predicts progress in general orthographic knowledge. The results of the study suggest that orthographic knowledge does not contribute to reading and spelling between Grades 2 and 3. General orthographic knowledge was an independent predictor of spelling in Grades 4 and 5 for Cyrillic, the second script. The findings suggest that the development of orthographic knowledge should be considered in the context of the specific language, script, and orthography.

Evaluation of the Computer-Based Orthographic Processing Assessment: An Application of Cognitive Diagnostic Modeling

The Computer-based Orthographic Processing Assessment (COPA) is a newly developed assessment to measure orthographic processing skills, including rapid perception, access, differentiation, correction, and arrangement. In this study, cognitive diagnostic models were used to test if the dimensionality of the COPA conforms to theoretical expectation, evaluate individual items’ quality, and examine the validity and the learning sequence of each skill. Results showed that the COPA captures five distinctive operating attributes, but some items could be revised to increase their item quality. Correlations with external variables confirmed that performances on the COPA are more strongly related to literacy outcomes than to oral language outcomes but that the COPA also demonstrates discriminant validity relative to even proximal measures of word reading and spelling. The mastery probabilities and best-fitting hierarchical model indicate that four of the five attributes follow a learning progression that is consistent with information processing theory and that was assumed by developers of the COPA.

Who are the nonresponders to intervention among Chinese children learning English as a second language?

The purpose of this study was to examine the profiles of nonresponders among native Chinese-speaking students struggling in English reading before and after an intensive intervention in phonological awareness as well as letter knowledge. Struggling English learners (n = 72) were screened from 668 Grade 4 students based on their English word recognition, school English examinations, and nominations by teachers. About 43% of struggling readers were remediated in decoding skills after the intervention. Nonresponders were profiled on both phonological and orthographic processing skills in their first and second languages. More than 76% of nonresponders showed deficits in English rapid letter naming, letter sound knowledge and English orthographic image. Nonresponders also had deficits in Chinese phonological memory and rapid digit naming. Rapid letter naming made the most contribution to word reading after intervention and letter sound knowledge was the only significant predictor in 1-year follow-up word reading. The findings suggest that Chinese poor English learners have difficulties in both phonological and orthographic processing in English reading. Educational implications are discussed using the triangle model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

From the Editors

From the Editors

ERP evidence for asymmetric orthographic transfer between traditional and simplified Chinese.

Transferring orthographic processing skills from one language to new languages is important for language learning. However, the specific orthography hypothesis and condition-based transfer hypothesis have debated orthographic transfer. No study has ever examined these debates in a logographic language, and the neural correlates of orthographic transfer in a logographic language remain unknown. Therefore, the present study uses event-related potentials to examine orthographic transfer with Hong Kong (Experiment 1) and mainland China (Experiment 2) participants who only use traditional or simplified Chinese, respectively. The participants sequentially read two of the same (repetition) or different (nonrepetition) traditional or simplified Chinese characters and judged whether they were identical. The results showed that the orthography-related N200 component was smaller in the repetition condition than in the nonrepetition condition. Importantly, for traditional Chinses users, this effect was more salient in traditional Chinese than in simplified Chinese, suggesting limited transfer from traditional to simplified Chinese. For simplified Chinese users, this effect was comparable in traditional and simplified Chinese, suggesting a smooth transfer from simplified to traditional Chinese. The results supported the condition-based transfer hypothesis, and showed asymmetric transfer between simple orthographic rules and complex ones. That is, simple orthographic rules can be transferred to complex ones smoothly, but not vice versa.

The Effect of Orthographic Neighbors on Second‐Grade Students’ Spelling Acquisition

ABSTRACTMany words in English resemble one another in multiple ways. Words with similar spellings are referred to as orthographic neighbors. The purpose of this within‐subject experimental study was to examine the effect of orthographic neighbors on the spelling acquisition of second‐grade students. In each of five sessions of a computer‐based experiment, 71 participants were presented with two prime words and prompted to learn the spelling of seven novel words. The latter seven words were control words (no meaningful connection with the corresponding prime word) and neighbor words (words representing various types of connections with the corresponding prime word). Spelling tasks were administered twice: immediately after the experiment and two days later. The findings suggest that spelling acquisition depends on two critical factors: orthographic neighbor type and orthographic processing ability. Students’ spelling acquisition was supported by analogizing rime neighbors (e.g., rain/vain). However, facilitative effects were not found for substitution neighbors (e.g., rain/ruin) and transposition neighbors (e.g., clam/calm). Additionally, a student’s level of orthographic processing was an important determinant of spelling acquisition; students with well‐developed orthographic processing ability correctly learned the novel words regardless of the presence of rime neighbors. In contrast, acquiring spelling was far more difficult for students with less developed orthographic processing ability, but their spelling acquisition was strongly facilitated by the presence of rime neighbors. Implications of this research are (a) learners’ orthographic processing skills should be considered when designing spelling instruction and (b) early elementary students need instructional support when making orthographic analogies for substitution and transposition neighbors.

Morphological awareness and reading achievement in university students

AbstractWe examined morphological awareness and reading achievement in university students in two ways. First, students with and without a self-reported history of reading difficulties were compared on word reading and text reading achievement, and on the reading-related skills of morphological awareness, orthographic processing, and phonological processing. Second, the unique contribution of morphological awareness to reading achievement was examined for a larger sample of first-year university students. Students with a self-reported history of reading difficulties (n = 54) showed moderate to large gaps in each area of reading achievement, and timed reading comprehension appeared more severely impaired than word-reading efficiency. These students had a deficit in morphological awareness that persisted even when (a) phonological awareness and orthographic processing skills, or (b) word-reading accuracy were statistically controlled. In the larger first-year sample (N = 211), morphological awareness contributed to variance in word reading beyond that accounted for by phonological awareness and orthographic processing. Furthermore, of the reading-related skills, only morphological awareness made a unique contribution to reading comprehension beyond variance accounted for by word reading. Taken together, these results demonstrate that morphological awareness makes unique contributions to university students’ reading achievement and is an additional difficulty for students with a self-reported history of reading difficulties.

High-level Integrative Networks: A Resting-state fMRI Investigation of Reading and Spelling.

Orthographic processing skills (reading and spelling) are evolutionarily recent and mastered late in development, providing an opportunity to investigate how the properties of the neural networks supporting skills of this type compare to those supporting evolutionarily older, well-established "reference" networks. Although there has been extensive research using task-based fMRI to study the neural substrates of reading, there has been very little using resting-state fMRI to examine the properties of orthographic networks. In this investigation using resting-state fMRI, we compare the within-network and across-network coherence properties of reading and spelling networks directly to these properties of reference networks, and we also compare the network properties of the key node of the orthographic networks-the visual word form area-to those of the other nodes of the orthographic and reference networks. Consistent with previous results, we find that orthographic processing networks do not exhibit certain basic network coherence properties displayed by other networks. However, we identify novel distinctive properties of the orthographic processing networks and establish that the visual word form area has unusually high levels of connectivity with a broad range of brain areas. These characteristics form the basis of our proposal that orthographic networks represent a class of "high-level integrative networks" with distinctive properties that allow them to recruit and integrate multiple, lower level processes.

Investigating lexical and sub‐lexical orthographic processing skills in French 3rd and 5th graders

BackgroundWhether lexical and sub‐lexical orthographic skills relate to each other and to reading was investigated in French 3rd and 5th graders.MethodsTwo homophone choice tasks were constructed (1) by manipulating the frequency of words sub‐lexical features (choose the correct spelling in boat ‐ bacht vs yacht ‐ yoat) and (2) by matching items on their sub‐lexical properties (beach ‐ beech). More, two orthographic choice tasks measured (1) sensitivity to legal versus illegal sub‐lexical patterns (rouve ‐ rouvve) and (2) distributional probabilities (doat ‐ dacht). Regular, irregular and pseudoword reading were assessed.Results/ConclusionsOn the one hand, performances were higher for words with more frequent sub‐lexical features, in favour of an impact of both lexical and sub‐lexical skills in the homophone choice task. This effect was however significant in the grade 3 group only, revealing stronger reliance on sub‐lexical orthographic knowledge during lexical retrieval in the younger group only. On the other hand, performances on orthographic choice tasks improved with grade and revealed to be higher for the task involving all‐or‐none patterns compared with that involving distributional probabilities. Regarding the relationships between this set of measures, the data revealed that the purer measure of lexical orthographic skills significantly correlated with sub‐lexical skills and irregular word reading; yet none of the measures that involved sub‐lexical orthographic skills correlated with reading.

Orthographic processing is a key predictor of reading fluency in good and poor readers in a transparent orthography

We used structural equation modeling to investigate sources of individual differences in oral reading fluency in a transparent orthography, Russian. Phonological processing, orthographic processing, and rapid automatized naming were used as independent variables, each derived from a combination of two scores: phonological awareness and pseudoword repetition, spelling and orthographic choice, and rapid serial naming of letters and digits, respectively. The contribution of these to oral text-reading fluency was evaluated as a direct relationship and via two mediators, decoding accuracy and unitized reading, measured with a single-word oral reading test. The participants were “good” and “poor” readers, i.e., those with reading skills above the 90th and below the 10th percentiles (n = 1344, grades 2–6, St. Petersburg, Russia). In both groups, orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to fluency and unitized reading, but not to decoding accuracy. Phonological processing skills did not contribute directly to reading fluency in either group, while contributing to decoding accuracy and, to a lesser extent, to unitized reading. With respect to the roles of decoding accuracy and unitized reading, the results for good and poor readers diverged: in good readers, unitized reading, but not decoding accuracy, was significantly related to reading fluency. For poor readers, decoding accuracy (measured as pseudoword decoding) was related to reading fluency, but unitized reading was not. These results underscore the importance of orthographic skills for reading fluency even in an orthography with consistent phonology-to-orthography correspondences. They also point to a qualitative difference in the reading strategies of good and poor readers.

Examining Reading Comprehension Profiles of Grade 5 Monolinguals and English Language Learners Through the Lexical Quality Hypothesis Lens

This study set out to compare patterns of relationships among phonological skills, orthographic skills, semantic knowledge, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension in English as a first language (EL1) and English language learners (ELL) students and to test the applicability of the lexical quality hypothesis framework. Participants included 94 EL1 and 178 ELL Grade 5 students from diverse home-language backgrounds. Latent profile analyses conducted separately for ELLs and EL1s provided support for the lexical quality hypothesis in both groups, with the emergence of two profiles: A poor comprehenders profile was associated with poor word-reading-related skills (phonological awareness and orthographic processing) and with poor language-related skills (semantic knowledge and, to a lesser extent, listening comprehension). The good comprehenders profile was associated with average or above-average performance across the component skills, demonstrating that good reading comprehension is the result of strong phonological and orthographic processing skills as well as strong semantic and listening comprehension skills. The good and poor comprehenders profiles were highly similar for ELL and EL1 groups. Conversely, poor comprehenders struggled with these same component skills. Implications for assessment and future research are discussed.

Orthographic processing and children’s word reading

ABSTRACTTheories of reading development generally agree that, in addition to phonological decoding, some kind of orthographic processing skill underlies the ability to learn to read words. However, there is a lack of clarity as to which aspect(s) of orthographic processing are key in reading development. We test here whether this is orthographic knowledge and/or orthographic learning. Whereas orthographic knowledge has been argued to reflect a child’s existing store of orthographic representations, orthographic learning is concerned with the ability to form these representations. In a longitudinal study of second- and third-grade students, we evaluate the relations between these two aspects of orthographic processing and word-reading outcomes. The results of our analyses show that variance captured by orthographic knowledge overlaps with that of word reading, to the point that they form a single latent word-reading factor. In contrast, orthographic learning is distinctive from this factor. Further, structural equation modeling demonstrates that early orthographic learning was related to gains in word reading skills. We discuss the implications of these findings for theories of word-reading development.

Native Korean-Speaking Children Learning to Read in English: A Structural Analysis of L2-English Literacy Acquisition.

The current study investigated the potential components that affect second language (L2; English) literacy acquisition and cause-and-effect relationships of those factors to L2 reading comprehension via a structural equation model, with the recruitment of 129 4th-graders learning English as a foreign language. This study consists of two levels of literacy skills. Micro skills include phonological, orthographic processing skills, and word recognition. Macro skills comprise vocabulary knowledge and listening-/reading comprehension. Phonological and orthographic processing skills in L2 played important roles in L2 word recognition. L2 word recognition made a mediated contribution to L2 reading comprehension, while L2 vocabulary knowledge had a direct relationship with L2 listening comprehension and L2 reading comprehension. These findings suggest that sufficient phonological awareness and orthographic processing skill are important for successful English word recognition. Additionally improvement in L2 vocabulary knowledge along with L2 word recognition is significant for effective L2 listening-/reading comprehension.

WordDriver-1: evaluating the efficacy of an app-supported decoding intervention for children with reading impairment.

Fluent word reading is a key characteristic of skilled reading, yet most children with reading disorders have impaired word-reading skills. Previous research has demonstrated that multi-component interventions targeting phonemic awareness and the alphabetic principle are effective for children with reading disorders. However, about 25% of children fail to respond to these interventions. While it has been difficult to isolate the active ingredient, the findings of some studies suggest that tasks targeting phonological recoding and orthographic processing are essential elements in improving decoding. To develop and evaluate an intervention that specifically targets phonological recoding and orthographic processing (a decoding intervention) for children with persistent word-reading impairment. A single-subject crossover design with multiple treatments was used to examine the efficacy of the decoding intervention (15 × 20-min sessions) compared with a language intervention that controlled for individual therapy time. Eight children (aged 7:6-8:11 years) with persistent word-reading impairment were randomly assigned to one of two intervention sequences. The effect of the decoding intervention was evaluated by (1) changes in decoding accuracy measured by performance on researcher-developed non-word lists; and (2) generalization to other standardized measures of reading. The results showed that all participants demonstrated significant gains in non-word reading on researcher-developed non-word lists and standardized measures of non-word-reading accuracy and efficiency. Trends for improvement on standardized measures of word-reading efficiency, text-reading accuracy and reading comprehension were observed. This decoding intervention significantly improved non-word decoding skills in all participants who had not responded to previous reading interventions. As such, it may be an efficient adjunct to the first stage of reading interventions for this population. The relative lack of generalization to other word-reading skills may have been due to the nature of the outcome measures, the short intervention time and/or additional delays in participant orthographic processing skills.

Word Reading in L1 and L2 Learners of Chinese: Similarities and Differences in the Functioning of Component Processes

This study examined the similarities and differences in the functioning of component processes underlying first language (L1) and second language (L2) word reading in Chinese. Fourth‐grade Chinese children in Singapore were divided into L1 and L2 reader groups based on whether they used Mandarin or English as their home language. Both groups were administered a battery of tasks that assessed their orthographic processing skill (OP), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), oral vocabulary knowledge, as well as the ability to decode characters and multi‐character compound words. Separate Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses showed that in the L1 group, over and above all other variables, both OP and MA, as opposed to PA, were significant predictors of word reading, whereas in the L2 group, OP and PA, as opposed to MA, predicted word reading. Multiple‐group SEM analysis further revealed that the effects of OP and MA were significantly larger in the L1 than in the L2 group, whereas a converse pattern was found for PA. These findings are discussed in light of the linguistic and language‐to‐print mapping properties of Chinese as well as the influence of L1 and L2 learners’ differential experience on how they learn to read in Chinese.

Individual differences in orthographic priming relate to phonological decoding skill in adults.

We examined relationships between individual differences in orthographic priming and a battery of measures assessing orthographic processing ability, reading history, current reading ability, and verbal intelligence in university students. Pronounceable and unpronounceable nonword primes preceded word and nonword targets. Individual differences in nonword reading skill and other measures of reading and spelling ability were associated with the degree of orthographic priming. Individuals with less phonological decoding skill benefited more from anagram primes for word targets preceded by unpronounceable primes and nonword targets preceded by pronounceable primes. Analyses of extreme groups revealed that the group with the lowest phonemic decoding efficiency scores showed a general benefit of orthographic relatedness, while the group with the highest phonemic decoding efficiency scores showed a benefit only under certain conditions. Thus, individuals with worse nonword reading skills may have less precise orthographic representations and therefore benefit more from overlapping coarse-grained orthographic information, regardless of the pronounceability of the prime or the lexical status of the target. These findings demonstrate that university students vary in their orthographic processing skill and the degree to which orthographic information is used during word recognition.

The Effects of Orthographic Pattern Intervention on Spelling Performance of Students With Reading Disabilities

Although the orthographic processing skill of recognizing and producing letters and letter patterns has been established as an important skill for developing spelling, a majority of the research focus has been on early orthographic intervention that did not progress beyond the unit of the letter. The purpose of this article is to provide a best evidence synthesis of current high-quality, peer-reviewed, experimental or control studies on spelling interventions with a focus on orthographic patterns ( N = 5). This small synthesis revealed that spelling interventions with an orthographic pattern focus appear to contribute to the significant improvement of spelling skills in kindergarten through ninth-grade students with and at risk for reading disabilities. Several intervention approaches with varying methods to improve orthographic pattern knowledge were considered and were related to moderate to large effect sizes on standardized measures of spelling. Thus, the reviewed interventions appear to reflect educationally significant changes in orthographic pattern knowledge that transferred beyond that of taught spelling words.

Impact of early home language exposure on phonological and orthographic skills and their contributions to English literacy abilities in English monolingual and Chinese–English bilingual adults

ABSTRACTRelatively little is known about the importance of phonological and orthographic processing skills for reading and spelling in monolingual and bilingual adults. We compared these underlying skills, using a series of phonological and orthographic tasks, in English monolingual (n = 28), English first language and Chinese second language bilingual (n = 21), and Chinese first language and English second language bilingual adults (n = 22) who were equally proficient in reading and spelling English, and examined the contributions of these skills to English word reading and spelling for each group. The results showed group differences in phonological processing, with English monolingual adults having better phonological skills than both groups of bilingual adults. No significant group differences were found for orthographic processing. Regression analyses showed phonological skills were a unique predictor of English word reading for both bilingual groups, but not for the English monolingual group. Orthographic skills were a significant predictor of English word spelling, but only for the English monolingual adults. This suggests there may be a long-lasting influence of being exposed to two contrasting languages on skills underlying literacy in bilingual individuals.

Importance of phonological and orthographic skills for English reading and spelling: A comparison of English monolingual and Mandarin-English bilingual children.

This cross-sectional study examines the importance of English phonological and orthographic processing skills to English word reading and spelling in 3 groups of younger (8–9 years) and older (11–12 years) children from different language backgrounds: English monolingual, English first language (L1)–Mandarin second language (L2), and Mandarin L1–English L2. Results showed that performance on tasks of English phonological and orthographic processing was dependent on age and language background status. Both English monolingual and English-L1 children had better phonological processing skills compared to the Mandarin-L1 children, while the younger bilingual children had better orthographic processing skills compared to the English monolingual children. Separate regression analyses found that different skills contributed to English word reading and spelling for each language background group and within each age group. Orthographic processing was the only significant predictor of word reading and spelling for the English monolingual children. In contrast, phonological processing skills were important for word reading for the bilingual children and for spelling for the younger bilingual children. Though the predictors of word reading remained the same across age groups for all language groups, the predictors of spelling were different between the younger and older bilingual children. These findings support previous research on the influence of bilingual children’s early linguistic experience on L2 English literacy acquisition and question whether bilingual children follow similar stages to learning English as English monolinguals. Educational implications for bilingual learners are discussed.