Orthographic Knowledge Research Articles

EXPLORING THE ROLE OF L1 LITERACY SKILLS IN L2 READING COMPREHENSION AND VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT AMONG SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN GHANA

This study investigated the relationship between first language (L1) literacy skills and second language (L2) reading comprehension and vocabulary development among students in Ghana. The study was grounded in Cummin’s (1970) Linguistic Interdependence Theory (LIT). The qualitative approach was adopted, and three instruments- focus group discussions, interviews and classroom observations- were used to obtain data from the sample of 300 secondary school students and 40 teachers. The researcher assessed participants' views in L1 literacy domains (phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and reading fluency) as well as their views on L2 (English) reading comprehension and vocabulary. The findings revealed a significant positive correlation between students' L1 literacy skills and their achievement in L2 reading comprehension and vocabulary. Those with more advanced abilities in their native language consistently demonstrated higher levels of reading comprehension and broader English vocabulary knowledge. This underscores the critical role of strong foundational literacy in the first language as a precursor to successful second language acquisition. The study also identified key instructional strategies that could help bridge the gap for ESL learners, such as explicit instruction in L1 literacy, structured opportunities for cross-linguistic transfer, and the incorporation of culturally relevant, mother-tongue materials into the curriculum. The implications of these findings for policymakers, curriculum designers, and teachers working to improve educational outcomes for linguistically diverse student populations are discussed.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0799/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Orthographic knowledge as a predictor of reading and spelling in isiXhosa third graders

Background: Research acknowledges the importance of phonological processing and orthographic processing for reading and spelling in both consistently and inconsistently written languages. While the focus has tended to be on the role of phonological processing in languages with consistent orthographies, the role of orthographic processing, specifically orthographic knowledge has yet to be as extensively explored.Aim: To address this gap, this article explores the unique contributions of phonological awareness (PA) and orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in the consistently written language of isiXhosa. In addition, we investigate the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge by establishing whether letter-sound knowledge is a sub-component of orthographic knowledge, alongside word-specific and general orthographic knowledge.Setting: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted with 182 isiXhosa third graders.Methods: Participants completed word-specific and general orthographic knowledge tasks, which were specifically designed for the study, along with tasks of oral reading fluency, spelling accuracy, PA, rapid automatised naming and letter-sound knowledge.Results: Using confirmatory factor analyses along with regression analyses, the findings provide support for the multi-dimensional character of orthographic knowledge inclusive of word-specific orthographic knowledge, general orthographic knowledge and letter-sound knowledge. Further, it was revealed that for this sample of isiXhosa third graders, orthographic knowledge was more influential to reading and spelling performance over and above PA, providing evidence for the importance of orthographic skill for both reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Conclusion: The present study adds to a growing understanding of the multi-dimensional nature of orthographic knowledge and provides evidence for the importance of orthographic knowledge for reading and spelling in isiXhosa.Contribution: The findings support the need for phonics instruction that incorporates activities which build learners’ orthographic knowledge and other writing-related skills. Further, continuous exposure to books and reading will also strengthen learners’ orthographic knowledge.

Foveal crowding in children with developmental dyslexia.

Excessive crowding in the visual periphery has been demonstrated in children with developmental dyslexia (DD). However, less is known about crowding in the fovea, even though foveal crowding is at least equally important, as reading is mostly accomplished through foveal vision. Here we used a special set of digitstimuli (Pelli fonts) to measure foveal crowding in DD and DD + ADHD children, and compared it to that in TD (typically developing) and ADHD children. We also used the Chinese reading acuity charts (C-READ) to assess the maximum reading speed and reading acuity, along with tests to evaluate cognitive attributes including phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, and orthographic knowledge. The results indicate significantly stronger foveal crowding in the DD and DD + ADHD groups, as well as in the ADHD group, than in the TD group. Furthermore, the DD and DD + ADHD groups exhibited poorer maximum reading speed and reading acuity compared to the ADHD and TD groups.Within the two DD groups, theslower maximum reading speed and higher reading acuitycan be predicted bystronger foveal crowding. In addition, the DD and DD + ADHD groups performed the worst in four cognitive skills, with the DD group showing negative correlations between foveal crowding and performances across all these skills. Our findings thus move beyond previously well-documented peripheral crowding in dyslexia, and the easy administration of the Pelli-font-based crowding test may be useful for early diagnosis of developmental dyslexia in young children.

Orthographic influences on phonological processing in children with and without reading difficulties: an eye-tracking study

AbstractPhonological processing is an important contributor to decoding and spelling difficulties, but it does not fully explain word reading outcomes for all children. As orthographic knowledge is acquired, it influences phonological processing in typical readers. In the present study, we examined whether orthography affects phonological processing differently for children with current reading difficulties (RD), children with a history of reading difficulties who are currently presenting with typical word reading skills (Hx), and children with typical development and no history of reading difficulties (TD). School-aged children completed a phonological awareness task containing spoken words and pictures while eye movements were recorded. In this task, children had to pair a spoken stimulus word with one of four pictures that ended with the same sound. Within the task, stimulus-target picture pairs varied in the congruency and consistency of the orthographic and phonological mappings of their final consonant sounds. Eye movements revealed that children with typical word reading (the Hx and TD groups) showed better discrimination of the target from the foils compared to peers with underdeveloped word reading skills. All children were more accurate when stimulus-target pairs were congruent and consistent than when they were incongruent or inconsistent. Orthography plays an important role in the completion of phonological awareness tasks, even in the absence of written words and for children with a wide range of reading abilities. Results highlight the importance of considering orthography during interventions for phonological awareness and word reading.

The impact of orthographic knowledge on reading development in German third graders

AbstractOrthographic knowledge (i.e., the knowledge of conventions of a written language) has been identified as a predictor of both basic and higher-level reading processes, however, mostly examined in a cross-sectional design. It remains unclear, whether and how orthographic knowledge contributes uniquely in explaining differences in the acquisition of reading skills. The aim of this study was therefore to examine the effects of orthographic knowledge on basic (word-reading) and higher level (sentence- and text-comprehension) reading development in German third graders over the course of a schoolyear. 325 German speaking children (mean age = 8.35 years, standard deviation = 0.57; 49% girls) participated in the study, 100 of whom also provided data on vocabulary and naming speed. Data were analyzed via multiple regression in hierarchical models with random intercepts, since the children were nested in classes. The longitudinal analyses showed that orthographic knowledge contributes to the development of reading on the word- and text-level, over and above vocabulary knowledge and naming speed. These findings support and extend previous results, showing that orthographic knowledge not only supports reading processes, but also plays an important role in reading development over the course of a schoolyear. The fact that no significant interaction between orthographic knowledge and reading comprehension could be found implies that orthographic knowledge is relevant for reading development in German third graders, independent of the level of reading proficiency. The present findings suggest that orthographic knowledge should be considered in reading instruction at school as well as during reading related interventions.

L2 learners’ aural and orthographic phrasal verb knowledge in relation to their listening comprehension

The present study investigated the relationships between aural and orthographic knowledge of L2 phrasal verbs (PVs) and between these and listening comprehension. A total of 188 Chinese university English as a foreign language (EFL) students participated in the study. The research instruments were aural and orthographic PV meaning recall tests and a version of the listening section of the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC). The results indicated that the L2 learners’ orthographic PV knowledge was significantly correlated to their aural PV knowledge. In addition, the former was significantly larger than the latter. Regarding their relationships with L2 listening comprehension, aural PV knowledge was more strongly correlated to listening comprehension than orthographic PV knowledge; and these correlations were both significant. Further, although aural PV knowledge better predicted listening comprehension than orthographic PV knowledge, the differences between their predictive capacities were not large. Based on the findings of the study, implications are suggested.

Leveraging Assistive Technology in Language Learning: The Effectiveness of Text-to-Speech (TTS) on improving Phonemic Awareness and Orthographic Knowledge of Dyslexic Children

Leveraging Assistive Technology in Language Learning: The Effectiveness of Text-to-Speech (TTS) on improving Phonemic Awareness and Orthographic Knowledge of Dyslexic Children

Linguistic challenges of pre-service teachers in English medium instruction and its relationship to their teaching self-efficacy beliefs

Using a latent profile analysis, we attempted to categorize Ghanaian pre-service teachers according to the levels of their English language linguistic challenges and to investigate how these challenges relate to their teaching self-efficacy beliefs. A sequential mixed method approach was adopted, surveying 300 participants and followed by eight interviews. We found that speaking skills were the most challenging for the participants. Qualitative results revealed that the participants have limited vocabulary, difficulty in developing coherent paragraphs, challenges with pronunciation, inadequate orthographic knowledge, and grammatical challenges. We observed that the higher the participants’ linguistic challenges, the lower their self-efficacy beliefs.

Mediation in the Relation of Orthographic Processing on the Lexical and Sublexical Level with Reading and Spelling Skills. A Large Cross-Sectional Study in Elementary School Children in Germany

ABSTRACT Purpose Two types of orthographic knowledge were examined: i) knowledge of permissible letter combinations (general orthographic knowledge) and ii) knowledge of whole words (word-specific orthographic knowledge), to gain further insights into the relationship of general and word-specific orthographic knowledge with literacy skills. Method Mediation models were estimated using a sample of 2,636 3rd and 4th grade children (50.6% female, ethnic backgrounds were not surveyed) to examine whether general orthographic knowledge predicts reading fluency and spelling performance and whether this path is mediated by word-specific orthographic knowledge. Using confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), we examined whether the responses to correctly spelled words/legal letter patterns and pseudohomophones/illegal letter patterns in word-specific and general orthographic knowledge tasks were generated by separate latent constructs. Results Our results confirm that word-specific orthographic knowledge is a facilitatory mediator in the relationship between general orthographic knowledge and literacy skills. The relationship of general and word-specific orthographic knowledge with literacy skills varies by item type, with a tendency toward higher correlations between literacy skills with pseudohomophones (vs words) and illegal (vs legal) pseudowords, which is in line with the two-factor solution of the CFA. Conclusion From a theoretical perspective, we conclude that general orthographic knowledge facilitates orthographic learning of words. From a methodological perspective, we encourage future researchers to distinguish between targets and foils in orthographic decision tasks.

The underlying neuropsychological and neural correlates of the impaired Chinese reading skills in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Impaired basic academic skills (e.g., word recognition) are common in children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The underlying neuropsychological and neural correlates of impaired Chinese reading skills in children with ADHD have not been substantially explored. Three hundred and two children with ADHD (all medication-naïve) and 105 healthy controls underwent the Chinese language skill assessment, and 175 also underwent fMRI scans (84 ADHD and 91 controls). Between-group and mediation analyses were applied to explore the interrelationships of the diagnosis of ADHD, cognitive dysfunction, and impaired reading skills. Five ADHD-related brain functional networks, including the default mode network (DMN) and the dorsal attention network (DAN), were built using predefined regions of interest. Voxel-based group-wise comparisons were performed. The ADHD group performed worse than the control group in word-level reading ability tests, with lower scores in Chinese character recognition (CR) and word chains (WS) (all P < 0.05). With full-scale IQ and sustained attention in the mediation model, the direct effect of ADHD status on the CR score became insignificant (P = 0.066). The underlying neural correlates for the orthographic knowledge (OT) and CR differed between the ADHD and the control group. The ADHD group tended to recruit more DMN regions to maintain their reading performance, while the control group seemed to utilize more DAN regions. Children with ADHD generally presented impaired word-level reading skills, which might be caused by impaired sustained attention and lower IQ. According to the brain functional results, we infer that ADHD children might utilize a different strategy to maintain their orthographic knowledge and character recognition performance.

Implicit Graphemes Learning among Poor Readers

Poor implicit learning was suggested to be associated with poor orthographic knowledge. The current study examined the differences between twenty typical (age 8.68 ±.15), and twenty poor readers (age 8.45 ±.22) in implicit learning of novel graphemes. In the first stage, each participant was passively displayed with 80 pairs of real and artificial words. The artificial words were composed from artificial symbols. After the passive learning stage, each participant was tested with a grapheme matching decision task. The results showed that the accuracy levels which were recorded among the typical readers were significantly higher than those of the poor readers. The accuracy levels which were recorded among the poor readers showed a type of chance level of performance indicating an absence of implicit learning consolidation. However, the results did not show any significant differences in the response times between the two groups. In addition, significant larger individual standard deviations were recorded for the poor group of readers, for both accuracy and the response time of performance, indicating a non-solid type of implicit learning consolidation among this group. The results were discussed considering the association between poor implicit learning capacities and poor orthographic learning.

How orthographic knowledge is related to efficient word reading? Testing competing hypotheses

How orthographic knowledge is related to efficient word reading? Testing competing hypotheses

Early handwriting performance among Arabic kindergarten children: The effects of phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, graphomotor skills, and fine-motor skills

This study aimed to delve into the under-explored domain of early handwriting performance among Arabic-speaking kindergarten children, focusing on the potential factors influencing early handwriting competency. The research encompassed 218 children from diverse socio-economic backgrounds in Israel. The underlying skills assessed were divided into linguistic skills (phonological awareness and orthographic knowledge) and graphomotor and fine-motor skills. Hierarchical regression analyses were utilized to evaluate the contributions of these skills. Results indicated that, within the Arabic orthographic context, orthographic knowledge stood out as a paramount contributor to early handwriting performance, more so than phonological awareness. Furthermore, graphomotor and fine motor skills significantly influenced letter-copying speed and legibility, but not the accuracy of letter-writing to dictation. In conclusion, while orthographic knowledge is paramount, the importance of graphomotor and fine motor skills for early handwriting performance in Arabic cannot be understated. The study suggests that a focused approach to these skills can lead to more effective interventions and teaching methodologies tailored for Arabic-speaking kindergarteners.

The development of reading comprehension ability of Chinese Heritage Language (CHL) learners in Indonesia

This study investigates the evolution of reading comprehension abilities in Indonesian learners of the Chinese Heritage Language (CHL), by comparing their scores on the Chinese Proficiency Test, a test specifically designed for CHL learners. A total of 275 candidates, divided into early adolescent (Mage = 13.56), late adolescent (Mage = 15.78), and adult (Mage = 22.83) groups, were evaluated on four dimensions of reading comprehension: orthographic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension. A detailed cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis of these four dimensions was conducted across the three groups. The results indicate that horizontally, the order of the four dimensions is orthographic knowledge > vocabulary knowledge > syntactic awareness > discourse comprehension, with significant differences observed in all dimensions. During adolescence, orthographic knowledge is significantly higher than vocabulary knowledge, while in adulthood, vocabulary knowledge is significantly higher than syntactic awareness, and syntactic awareness is significantly higher than discourse comprehension. Longitudinally, reading comprehension abilities appear to stall across adolescence in three dimensions (vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension), with a decline in one dimension (orthographic knowledge) occurring in late adolescence. However, the adult group shows improvement in all four dimensions compared to the late adolescence group. Considering both longitudinal and cross-sectional results, the developmental order of reading skills in Indonesian CHL learners is orthographic knowledge, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic awareness, and discourse comprehension. The main developmental peak for orthographic knowledge to vocabulary knowledge occurs in adolescence, while the major developmental peak for vocabulary knowledge to syntactic awareness and for syntactic awareness to discourse comprehension occurs in adulthood. The results suggest that reading comprehension improves significantly upon reaching adulthood in Indonesian. By understanding the trajectory of reading comprehension abilities in Indonesian CHL learners, this study can provide effective suggestions for Indonesian CHL learners and educators, and may also serve as a reference for other heritage languages.

How well do schoolchildren and adolescents know the form and meaning of different derivational suffixes? Evidence from a cross-sectional study

AbstractAs children advance through school, derived words become increasingly common in their reading materials. Previous studies have shown that children’s knowledge of derivational morphology develops relatively slowly, but there is more to learn about this development. This study examined differences in knowledge of the form and meaning of suffixes across grade levels (Grades 3, 5, and 8) and different types of derivational suffixes (adjectives and nominals). We assessed 309 English-speaking children on word reading and receptive vocabulary tests and two tasks designed to assess the form (orthographic knowledge) and meaning (semantic knowledge) of 28 derivational suffixes (14 adjectives and 14 nominals). Overall, our findings showed a significant improvement in identifying and understanding derivational suffixes from Grade 3 to Grade 5 and a smaller, but still significant, improvement from Grade 5 to Grade 8. Our findings regarding suffix types were mixed. While written forms of adjectives were identified more accurately than nominals across all grades, this advantage did not extend to the students’ understanding of the meaning of the suffixes. These results highlight the distinction between the identification of suffixes and the understanding of their meaning. We discuss our results in relation to suffix frequency in children’s reading materials.

Teaching and learning spelling: an analysis of 6th grade students' writing

Understanding how students acquire orthographic knowledge has become an area of interest for many teachers, especially Portuguese language teachers. As different theorists have argued, a reflective teaching-learning process is important, enabling students to understand graphophonemic relationships and overcome the obstacles that can arise in appropriating knowledge of orthographic conventions. This paper presents the results of a study which aimed to: Identify the most productive spelling changes in the writing of 6th grade students. The investigative analysis, carried out by means of quantitative-descriptive and field research, was based on eight written productions by 6th grade students from a public and state school in Piauí. The theoretical framework was based on studies by authors such as Cagliari (1994), Zorzi (1998, 2009, 2018), Morais (1999, 2000, 2007), Simões (2006), among others. This research, like the studies by Zorzi (1998, 2009), Miranda, Medina and Silva (2005), Quadros (2015), concluded that multiple representations, resulting from the arbitrariness of the system, are the most recurrent types of errors in the written productions of elementary school students. In view of this, it is argued that these errors should be understood as hypotheses that students formulate in order to acquire knowledge of the written language.

Tracing the longitudinal role of orthographic knowledge in spelling development from primary to upper‐secondary school

BackgroundPhonological processing skills have been found to contribute to spelling development across different orthographies; however, less is known about the role of orthographic knowledge. This longitudinal study explores the contribution of phonological and orthographic knowledge to spelling development in a semi‐transparent orthography (Swedish) across a period of 10 years.MethodsA group of Swedish speaking children were assessed on phonological recoding (phonological choice‐task), orthographic knowledge (choice‐task) and spelling (dictation task) in primary school (grade 2, age 8, total N = 99), secondary school (grade 8, age 14, N = 99) and again in upper secondary school (year 2, age 17, N = 79). Furthermore, spelling in a natural writing assignment was collected in upper secondary school. Spelling scores from grade 8 (dictation) and year 2 in upper secondary school (dictation and text) were included as dependent variables in three sets of hierarchical regression analyses. In the first step spelling performance in grade 2 was included to control for the autoregressive effect. In the second step, orthographic knowledge and phonological recoding from grade 2 were entered into the model in order to test for the longitudinal prediction.ResultsTest scores within and across ages were significantly correlated in bivariate analysis. Regression analysis revealed that orthographic knowledge in grade 2 was a unique longitudinal predictor of spelling performance across time‐points (secondary and upper secondary school) and assessment formats (dictation and text), beyond the contribution of the control variables.ConclusionsThis study confirms the role of early orthographic knowledge in Swedish spelling development throughout the school years assessed in standardized dictation tasks as well as in naturalistic writing assignments.

Tracking children’s handwriting learning process using EEG: A system development and validation

BackgroundHandwriting is a fundamental component of school education, especially in the early phases. It is thus important to develop a scientific approach to refining the cost-efficiency of handwriting learning in young children. AimsIn this study, we proposed that an integration of behavioral and neural data tracking during the real-time process of handwriting learning can reveal the learning process and thus inform the design of handwriting training. The main rationale is that the two complementary information channels can reveal the dynamic learning curve during repetitive practices. SampleParticipants were 50 typically developing schoolchildren (aged 6–7) who had limited orthographical knowledge of Chinese characters and handwriting training. MethodsSynchronized EEG and handwriting kinematics data were collected when participants were performing a Chinese character copying task. Six unfamiliar Chinese characters at three different complexity levels were selected, and the participants copied each character repetitively for 15 times. The representative behavioral and neural features related to handwriting fluency were quantified, including writing duration, velocity, and event-related potentials (ERPs) extracted from the copying process of each character. By applying linear mixed models (LMMs), we found significant behavioral improvement and neural adaptation effect across the repetitive copying practices; and the observed behavioral and neural effects showed a systematic pattern of dependence on character complexity. ConclusionsThese findings validated the cognitive association of the non-invasively collected neural signals, demonstrated the feasibility of combing behavioral and neural signals to track the process of children's handwriting learning, and informed the design of handwriting training programs.

Metodički potencijal novijih istraživanja nastave pravopisa

This paper explores recent research on ortography, as well as the poten- tial use of the research with the purpose of improving teaching practice. Our goal was to include scientific papers and books relating to orthography, written and published in the 21st century. The corpus consists of four books by Veljko Brborić (Pravopis srpskog jezika u nastavnoj praksi, Pravopis i škola, O srpskom pravopisu and Muke oko jezika i pravopisa) and seven scientific articles by different authors. The results of previous research studies offer new approaches in teaching, which mainly relate to the creativity of teachers and students within the teaching process, thus contributing to the development of students’ creative activities. The studies provide ways of using orthography quizzes, illustrated materials and linguodidactic texts, which can con- tribute to modernising teaching orthography and to making students capable to use Pravo- pis srpskoga jezika and other orthography manuals. Given that orthographic knowledge is needed not only during schooling but also for further career development, it can be concluded that it is necessary to continue dealing with ways of modernising orthography teaching.

Orthographic learning in adults through overt and covert reading

Fluent reading and writing rely on well-developed orthographic representations stored in memory. According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, D. L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55(2), 151–218), children acquire orthographic representations through phonological decoding. However, it is not clear to what extent phonological decoding facilitates orthographic learning in adult readers. Across two experiments, we manipulated access to phonology during overt (aloud) and covert (silent) reading of monosyllabic and multisyllabic pseudowords by English-speaking undergraduate students. Additionally, Experiment 2 tested whether concurrent articulation during covert reading leads to poorer learning due to the suppression of subvocalization. The amount of incidental orthographic learning through reading exposure was measured a week later with a choice task, a spelling task, and a naming task. Overt reading, which leveraged phonological decoding, led to better recognition and recall of pseudowords compared to when readers read silently. Unlike in previous reports of child orthographic learning, concurrent articulation during covert reading did not reduce learning outcomes in adults, suggesting that adult readers may rely upon other processing strategies during covert reading, e.g., direct orthographic processing or lexicalized phonological decoding. This is consistent with claims that with increasing orthographic knowledge reading mechanisms shift from being more phonologically-based to more visually-based.