Phonological Reading Research Articles

READING IN ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE: RELATIVE CONTRIBUTIONS OF VOCABULARY AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

This study was designed to examine the relative contributions to EFL learners’ reading comprehension of vocabulary size and phonological awareness, potentially significant for the mainly Japanese university students who were the subjects of the study, because of the transfer of L1 reading behaviors which may interfere with fluent reading in English which is a growing necessity for the ‘global human resources’ Japan needs to participate fully in international society. Since both vocabulary size and pronunciation are known to be related to reading skill, this study measured learners’ vocabulary size, phonemic distinction ability, and reading comprehension ability, all using well-known standard tests. A further test of general awareness of English phonology, suggested by Coulson et al. (2013), was also carried out. The results were then statistically examined for any possible correlations, and what they might tell us about the relationships between these various abilities. Although no evidence was found to support a strong relationship between vocabulary alone and reading comprehension, there were indications of interaction between phonological awareness and vocabulary. A relationship between aural phonological distinction ability and reading comprehension was clearly indicated, and there was strong evidence of an effect for the subjects’ first language. These results suggest that phonological knowledge does, indeed, have a part to play in reading comprehension, and possibly reading speed. This underlines the importance of reading aloud practice and encouraging learners’ to acquire accurate pronunciation when teaching reading.

Neural processing of lower- and upper-case text in second language learners of English: an fMRI study

ABSTRACTUpper-case text is considered detrimental to the reading comprehension of second language learners of English. Little is known about the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of upper-case text. To investigate this issue, Korean students (n = 23) performed 40 reading trials, and their reading comprehension of text written in either upper- or lower-case letters was recorded while their brain activities were scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. Compared to lower-case text, upper-case text elicited greater activation of the primary visual areas in both hemispheres associated with orthographic processing. In contrast, lower-case text increased neural activity in brain regions associated with higher-order reading comprehension processes (e.g. the integration of text information) and the premotor cortex. Collectively, based on automacity theory, these results suggested that upper-case text interferes with reading comprehension because it requires increased orthographic processing, which in turn leaves fewer neural resources for phonological processing and higher-order reading comprehension processes.

Reading Performance Profile of Children with Dyslexia in Primary and Secondary School Students

The purpose of the present research was to provide information to the community about the reading subskill profiles of children with dyslexia in primary and secondary school students. 175 children (aged 7-15 yrs) were examined on a varied set of phonological coding, spelling and fluent reading tasks. For this purpose, students’ fluent reading were determined using The Informal Reading Inventory. The student’s letter recognition and phonetics were measured by the alphabet test. The syllable test was used to measure the learner’s ability to read syllables. Results have shown that most of the dyslexic students have the spelling problem (35%) and fluent reading problem (51%). The proportion of students who can only learn letters (5%) and students who never learn to read (7%) is very small. Results revealed that dyslexic students do not have any significant problems in the phonological coding process but these students at each grade level have problems especially in spelling and fluent reading processes.

The Role of Literary Instruction in the Development of Reading and Writing Skills in Spanish as a Heritage Language during Childhood

The present study examines the role of instruction in the development of reading and writing skills in Spanish as a heritage language during childhood. Sixty-six (n=66) Spanish heritage speakers in K-4th grade participated in an 18-week Spanish intervention. The curriculum included the development of phonological awareness, reading fluency and accuracy as well as vocabulary via cognate instruction. Undergraduate students majoring in Spanish conducted the intervention as part of a service-learning program. Standardized measures given to the students before and after the intervention included phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary knowledge, word reading accuracy, and word reading fluency. The treatment group was compared to a group of twenty-five children (n=25) who did not participate in the program. The two groups were matched by age and non-verbal reasoning. Results from pre and post-tests showed significant gains for the treatment group in vocabulary growth, word reading fluency and word reading accuracy. Phonological awareness developed significantly for both groups, but there was no advantage for the experimental group. Overall, the intervention was effective at promoting both Spanish language and literacy skills (Rhoades, 2009). Contextualized and explicit instruction on word reading and decoding, as well as oral language and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish, helped Spanish heritage learners develop academic language and literacy skills in their first/minority language. Furthermore, the results provide strong evidence supporting the efficacy of a service-learning program aimed at facilitating the development of literacy skills among child heritage language learners.

The Relationship Among English Phonological Awareness, Reading Ability and Vocabulary Size of Chinese High School Students With Learning Difficulties

The Relationship Among English Phonological Awareness, Reading Ability and Vocabulary Size of Chinese High School Students With Learning Difficulties

A utilização da plataforma “Ainda Estou a Aprender” na avaliação e na intervenção nas dificuldades na aprendizagem da leitura: um estudo de caso

Reading disabilities are one of the main causes of signalization of students for educational support, given that these have implications in their educational trajectory, in their entrance in the job market and in their civic and social participation. The research performed in the last decades has identified key variables that maximize the efficacy of the intervention: teaching competences (phonological awareness, word reading and comprehension) explicitly, early, systematically, individually and intensively. The heterogeneity of the group of students with reading disabilities requires an assessment that allows the identification of the diverse profiles and the designing of adequate intervention programs. In turn, the assessment and intervention require specific materials and competences. The aims of this paper are: (a) to describe the educational platform “I’m still learning” illustrating how information and communication technologies can be used in the diagnostic and intervention in reading disabilities; (b) to analyse, through a case study, the perceptions about the activities presented in the platform AEA, and their impact on the patterns of motivation for learning to read. Keywords: reading disabilities, assessment and intervention, online learning platform.

Programa Multissensorial/Fônico: efeitos em pré-escolares em risco de apresentarem dificuldades de alfabetização

Este estudo avalia os resultados de um programa multissensorial com ênfase fônica sobre o desempenho em consciência fonológica (CF), conhecimentode letras (CL) e habilidades iniciais de leitura e escrita em pré-escolares. Participaram do estudo 36 alunos de uma Pré-escola Municipal, com idade média de 5,5 anos. O delineamento consistiu em Pré-teste, Intervenção e Pós-testes 1 e 2. As crianças que, no Pré-teste, obtiveram resultados inferiores nas provas de CL e/ou CF foram consideradas em risco para apresentar dificuldades na alfabetização. Habilidades de leitura e escrita também foram mensuradas. Os participantes foram distribuídos, aleatoriamente, em Grupo Multissensorial (GM) e Grupo Controle (GC). O GM participou de três sessões de intervenção semanais, durante quatro meses, totalizando 48 sessões. O GC realizou atividades alternativas. Os resultados indicam efeitos significativos da intervenção para as crianças do grupo de risco, para todas as habilidades avaliadas, sugerindo a eficácia do programa para prevenir dificuldades na alfabetização.

Reliance on orthography and phonology in reading of Chinese: A developmental study

BackgroundDisruptions of reading processes due to text substitutions can measure how readers use lexical information.MethodsWith eye‐movement recording, children and adults viewed sentences with either identical, orthographically similar, homophonic or unrelated substitutions of the first characters in target words. To the extent that readers rely on orthographic or phonological cues, substitutions that contain such cues should cause less disruption reading than do unrelated substitutions.ResultsOn pretarget words, there was a reliable reduction in gaze duration due to homophonic substitution only for children. On target words, we observed reliable recovery effects due to orthographic similarity for adults. On post‐target words, adults had better orthographic‐based and phonological‐based recovery abilities than children.ConclusionsThe combination of eye movement recording and the error detection paradigm offers a novel implicit paradigm for studying reading development: during sentence reading, beginning readers of Chinese may rely on phonological mediation, while skilled readers have more direct access to semantics from orthography.What is already known about this topic There is little evidence for early phonological activation during the reading of Chinese sentences among skilled Chinese readers There is a rich body of evidence supporting the view that phonological information is activated very early in alphabetic scripts, as indexed by shorter fixation durations when useful phonological information is present. What this paper adds Chinese beginning readers have early parafoveal activation of phonology during the silent reading of Chinese sentences, as indexed by the parafovea‐on‐fovea effect in the homophonic substitution condition. The early activation of phonology diminishes with the development of reading skills. Implications for theory, policy or practice The phonological parafovea‐on‐fovea effect was revealed during the silent reading of Chinese sentences for beginning readers. Chinese children may rely on phonological codes while skilled readers have more direct access to semantics from orthography. The teaching of phonological aspects of Chinese orthography is very important for beginning readers

Desempenho do processamento fonológico, leitura e escrita em escolares com transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade

RESUMO Objetivo: comparar o desempenho do processamento fonológico, da leitura e escrita de palavras reais e inventadas entre os escolares com transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade e escolares com bom desempenho escolar. Métodos: participaram deste estudo 30 escolares, na faixa etária de 9 a 12 anos, de ambos os gêneros, do Ensino Fundamental de escolas públicas e particulares, divididos em: Grupo Experimental (15 escolares com diagnóstico interdisciplinar de transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade) e Grupo Controle (15 escolares com bom desempenho escolar), pareado com o Grupo Experimental em idade, gênero, escolaridade, tipo de instituição de ensino (pública e particular). Os instrumentos utilizados para avaliação foram: Instrumento de Avaliação Sequencial (CONFIAS), Teste de Nomeação Seriada Rápida (RAN), Prova de repetição de palavras sem significado e Prova de leitura e escrita. Os resultados foram analisados por meio de testes estatísticos (Mann Whitney e Teste t de Student), adotando-se nível de significância de 5% (0,05). Resultados: os resultados analisados por meio de testes estatísticos revelaram diferenças significantes entre o grupo experimental e o grupo controle nas provas avaliadas. Conclusão: escolares com transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade apresentaram desempenho inferior em habilidades de consciência fonológica, acesso ao léxico, memória operacional, leitura e escrita de palavras, quando comparados aos escolares sem transtorno de déficit de atenção e hiperatividade, com bom desempenho escolar.

An Examination of Reading Skills and Reading Outcomes for Youth Involved in a Crime Prevention Program

ABSTRACTThis study examined the incidence of reading impairments, the reading profiles, and the outcomes of a reading intervention for youth involved in a comprehensive crime prevention program. Rates of reading impairments were between 55% and 61%. Reading profiles for participants with reading comprehension impairments showed deficits in phonological decoding and word reading similar to a comparison group without behavioral risks. A subset of the prevention program participants and an age- and reading level–matched comparison group received a phonology- and word-focused reading intervention. Following the intervention, both groups showed reliable and academically meaningful improvements on word- and text-level reading outcomes. The comparison group tended to have higher scores on reading comprehension; however, both groups made significant gains in this area. The reading profiles and positive outcomes in this study suggest that word-focused reading remediation will be effective for youth at imminent risk for antisocial conduct and involvement with the criminal justice system.

Dejerines’ findings about alexia and their meaning for the Japanese language

Dejerine's Discovery of the role of the left angular gyrus as the center of reading and writing in 1891 and in 1892 was the beginning of a new field of neuroscience, which I called “Neurogrammatology.” His diagram of neuronal circuit of reading and writing was later revised by Geschwind in 1965 and has been widely accepted. Japanese neuropsychologists, however, have since long been puzzled about the problem of alexia and agraphia of “kanji” which can hardly be explained by Dejerine's diagram. Japanese language has two different types of letters; “kana” (phonogram) and “kanji” (morphogram). The reading and writing disturbances of “kana” in focal brain damage can be very well explained by Dejerine's diagram, but as to “kanji”, the left medial occipital lesion which usually causes alexia without agraphia in western language cause alexia with agraphia of “kanji”. On the other hand, a focal lesion of the left angular gyrus causes only agraphia for “kanji”. As the third type of alexia in Japanese language, we have found cases of alexia and agraphia affecting only “kanji” caused by lesions of the posterior-inferior part of left temporal lobe. Basing upon these clinical observations, we proposed a dual neuronal circuit model of reading and writing in Japanese language [1] . Then we did PET scan activation studies on the normal subjects and found the two cortical areas of the left cerebral hemisphere which are indispensable for reading: area 37 responsible for semantic reading and area 19 just behind the angular gyrus for phonological reading. The phonological reading circuit is the main stream of reading “kana” and the semantic circuit is requisite for reading “kanji” [2] . As a result, we proposed a new diagram of dual neuronal circuits of reading process of Japanese language as shown in Fig. 1 [3] .

Correlation between phonological and morphological awareness and the reading of punctuated and non-punctuated words in Arabic as first language and Hebrew as second language

AbstractPhonological and morphological awareness and its correlation with reading punctuated and non-punctuated words in Arabic as a first language were examined, as well as its transfer to Hebrew as a second language. Research participants were 30 fourth grade pupils. Phonological awareness was examined by phonological decoding of actual and meaningless words. Morphological awareness was examined by morphological production and distinguishing morphological relationships. Participants read punctuated, non-punctuated, and meaningless words. Findings supported hypotheses: phonological awareness and reading words in Arabic positively correlated with phonological awareness and reading words in Hebrew and morphological awareness in both languages correlated with accuracy and speed of reading punctuated and non-punctuated words in Hebrew. Research findings have practical implications for the reading curriculum in both languages.

Poucavanje i usvajanje citalacke pismenosti u mladjim razredima osnovne skole u Crnoj Gori

The aim of this research was to examine the teachers' opinions on the contextualization of reading literacy in elementary schools in Montenegro and what should be done for its improvement. The context in question entails: Subject program (2011), teaching methods and learning strategies of reading, textbooks, family and school environment and their support for the development of the reading literacy. The research included qualitative methodology approach and group interviews. We set up a series of problem-solving questions related to the elements which are considered, according to previous research, critical for the development of reading literacy. These are: phonological awareness, grapho-phonemic skills, reading fluency, vocabulary adoption and development methods, reading comprehension monitoring, co-operative learning, the use of graphic and semantic knowledge organizers, asking and answering, identifying textual structures, and summarizing. These elements were analyzed in the above contextual framework. We started from the assumption that the respondents (N=36) would point out the flaws in the given context. The key findings were singled out and followed by the categorization of the questions. Our respondents, in each category, indicated the contextual elements that should be improved in order to improve reading literacy. They particularly singled out the need to work on: the adoption and development of vocabulary, collaborative learning, the use of graphic and semantic organizers of knowledge, and the identification of the structure of the text. All these elements are an integral part of language teaching, but they obviously need to be more explicitly set out in the program and their improvement demands additional methodological support.

The effects of phonological activities using picture books on 5-year-old children's phonological awareness and reading

The effects of phonological activities using picture books on 5-year-old children's phonological awareness and reading

An Analysis of the Relationship Between Phonological and Nonphonological Language and Early Reading Development

This study explores the relationship between preschool phonological and nonphonological language performance and first-grade reading performance. Data were gathered from the files of 149 students who had completed a universal kindergarten screening program in the spring prior to enrollment. Bivariate correlation analyses, Steiger’s Z comparisons, and hierarchical multiple regression analyses were completed to determine the associations between phonological and nonphonological language skills and subsequent first-grade spring word analysis and reading composite performance. Phonological and nonphonological tasks were moderately useful in predicting students’ subsequent first-grade word analysis and reading composite performance. No significant difference in association was found between the phonological and nonphonological composites. A combined phonological and nonphonological model provided the strongest predictive utility. This study supports a significant and equivalent association between preschool ph...

Prevention of dyslexia – short-term and intermediate effects of promoting phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence with at-risk preschool children

This study assesses the short-term and intermediate effects of preschool training stimulating phonological awareness and letter-sound correspondence for children at risk of developing dyslexia. Moreover, we examined whether training reduced the frequency of subsequent dyslexic problems. 25 children at risk of developing dyslexia were trained with Hören, Lauschen, Lernen 1 und 2 (Küspert & Schneider, 2008; Plume & Schneider, 2004) by their kindergarten teachers and were compared with 60 untrained at-risk children. The training revealed a significant short-term effect: The phonological awareness of trained at-risk children increased significantly over that of untrained at-risk children. However, there were no differences in phonological awareness, spelling, and reading ability between the first-graders in the training and control group. Furthermore, reading problems were reduced in the training group. In the future, phonological awareness as well as additional predictors should be included when identifying children vulnerable to developing dyslexia. Moreover, in order to prevent dyslexia, additional prerequisite deficits need to be identified, alleviated, and their effects evaluated.

Recruitment of the left precentral gyrus in reading epilepsy: A multimodal neuroimaging study.

PurposeIn a previous study, we investigated a 42-year-old male patient with primary reading epilepsy using continuous video-electroencephalography (EEG). Reading tasks induced left parasagittal spikes with a higher spike frequency when the phonological reading pathway was recruited compared to the lexical one. Here, we seek to localize the epileptogenic focus in the same patient as a function of reading pathway using multimodal neuroimaging.Methods and resultsThe participant read irregular words and nonwords presented in a block-design paradigm during magnetoencephalography (MEG), functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) recordings, all combined with EEG. Spike analyses from MEG, fNIRS, and fMRI–EEGs data revealed an epileptic focus in the left precentral gyrus, and spike localization did not differ in lexical and phonological reading.ConclusionThis study is the first to investigate ictogenesis in reading epilepsy during both lexical and phonological reading while using three different multimodal neuroimaging techniques. The somatosensory and motor control functions of the left precentral gyrus that are congruently involved in lexical as well as phonological reading can explain the identical spike localization in both reading pathways. The concurrence between our findings in this study and those from our previous one supports the role of the left precentral gyrus in phonological output computation as well as seizure activity in a case of reading epilepsy.

Predicting Dyslexia in a Transparent Orthography From Grade 1 Literacy Skills: A Prospective Cohort Study

We conducted this prospective cohort study to explore the predictability of dyslexia from 1st-grade literacy skills in Italian students. We followed 407 Italian students in primary school from the 1st through the 3rd grades. Students were diagnosed with dyslexia in the 3rd grade. We retrospectively tested participants’ 1st-grade performance in phonological awareness, reading, and spelling as predictors through a binary logistic regression analysis. The data confirmed that it was possible to detect dyslexic students from the 1st grade from reading and spelling performance, but phonological awareness was not predictive.

E-Book and Printed Book Reading in Different Contexts as Emergent Literacy Facilitator

Research Findings: We present 3 studies that focused on preschoolers’ electronic book (e-book) reading in different contexts aimed at supporting children’s early literacy. In Study 1 we researched the impact of children’s age and number of independent readings on phonological awareness and word reading. We found that all age groups benefited from e-book reading, and 5 readings benefited most skills better than 3. In Study 2 we investigated (a) parents’ behavior during joint e-book reading with their children compared to joint printed book reading and (b) parental mediation in joint reading of a considerate e-book compared to joint reading of an inconsiderate e-book. The joint printed book reading yielded more expanding talk than the joint e-book reading, and reading the considerate e-book yielded higher expanding talk than reading the inconsiderate e-book. In Study 3 we compared adult support in joint e-book reading to joint printed book reading and compared both readings to children’s independent e-book reading. Reading the e-book with adult support assisted children in progressing in phonological awareness and word reading compared to other group reading. Practice or Policy: Well-designed e-books may serve as good tools to support children’s early literacy, and when parents or educators read them with children, children’s progress is enhanced. We recommend that these findings be taken into account by e-book designers, policymakers, teachers, and parents.

The attentional blink is related to phonemic decoding, but not sight-word recognition, in typically reading adults

This research investigated the relationship between the attentional blink (AB) and reading in typical adults. The AB is a deficit in the processing of the second of two rapidly presented targets when it occurs in close temporal proximity to the first target. Specifically, this experiment examined whether the AB was related to both phonological and sight-word reading abilities, and whether the relationship was mediated by accuracy on a single-target rapid serial visual processing task (single-target accuracy). Undergraduate university students completed a battery of tests measuring reading ability, non-verbal intelligence, and rapid automatised naming, in addition to rapid serial visual presentation tasks in which they were required to identify either two (AB task) or one (single target task) target/s (outlined shapes: circle, square, diamond, cross, and triangle) in a stream of random-dot distractors. The duration of the AB was related to phonological reading (n=41, β=−0.43): participants who exhibited longer ABs had poorer phonemic decoding skills. The AB was not related to sight-word reading. Single-target accuracy did not mediate the relationship between the AB and reading, but was significantly related to AB depth (non-linear fit, R2=.50): depth reflects the maximal cost in T2 reporting accuracy in the AB. The differential relationship between the AB and phonological versus sight-word reading implicates common resources used for phonemic decoding and target consolidation, which may be involved in cognitive control. The relationship between single-target accuracy and the AB is discussed in terms of cognitive preparation.