Spelling-sound Correspondence Research Articles

The Effect of Orthographic Transparency on Auditory Word Recognition Across the Development of Reading Proficiency.

A question under debate in psycholinguistics is the nature of the relationship between spoken and written languages. Although it has been extensively shown that orthographic transparency, which varies across writing systems, strongly affects reading performance, its role in speech processing is much less investigated. The present study addressed this issue in Persian, whose writing system provides a possibility to assess the impact of orthographic transparency on spoken word recognition in young children at different stages of reading acquisition. In Persian, the long vowels are systematically present in the script, whereas the spelling correspondence of short vowels is progressively omitted from the script in the course of reading acquisition, thus, turning transparent into opaque spelling. Based on this unique characteristic, we tested 144 monolingual Persian-speaking nonreaders (i.e., preschoolers) and readers (second graders to fifth graders and young adults) in an auditory lexical decision task using transparent and opaque words. Overall, the results showed that, in accordance with the fact that the diacritics of short vowels are progressively omitted during the second year of schooling, the stimuli containing short vowels (opaque words) were recognized more slowly than transparent ones in third graders. Interestingly, there is a hint that the emergence of the transparency effect in the third graders was associated with an overall slower recognition speed in this group compared to their younger peers. These findings indicate that learning opaque spelling-sound correspondence might not only generate interference between the two language codes but also induce a general processing cost in the entire spoken language system.

Is the Science of Reading Just the Science of Reading English?

ABSTRACTThe science of reading has made genuine progress in understanding reading and the teaching of reading, but is the science of reading just the science of reading English? Worldwide, a majority of students learn to read and write in non‐European, nonalphabetic orthographies such as abjads (e.g., Arabic), abugidas/alphasyllabaries (e.g., Hindi), or morphosyllabaries (e.g., Chinese). Over a decade ago, I argued that the extreme inconsistency of English spelling–sound correspondence had confined the science of reading to an insular, Anglocentric research agenda addressing theoretical and applied issues with limited relevance for a universal science of reading. Here, I ask if the science of reading has moved forward. Acknowledging some limited progress over the past decade, it is evident that even today, mainstream reading research remains entrenched in Anglocentrism, Eurocentrism, and another form of ethnocentrism that I call alphabetism. Even the two dominant theoretical frameworks for describing cross‐script diversity, orthographic depth and psycholinguistic grain size theory, give little or no consideration to non‐European alphabets or nonalphabetic scripts, promoting a one‐dimensional view of script variation (i.e., spelling–sound consistency). Consideration of the full spectrum of the world’s languages and writing systems reveals multiple dimensions of writing system complexity, each liable to create obstacles for the developing reader. If the science of reading is to contribute meaningfully to assessment, diagnosis, instruction, and intervention for all readers around the world, then we must extricate our field from entrenched ethnocentrism and embrace global diversity.

Spelling-sound correspondence and integrated education of Choi, Nam-Sun : Focusing on dash of Changga in Sonyon

Spelling-sound correspondence and integrated education of Choi, Nam-Sun : Focusing on dash of Changga in Sonyon

Does the Reading of Different Orthographies Produce Distinct Brain Activity Patterns? An ERP Study

Orthographies vary in the degree of transparency of spelling-sound correspondence. These range from shallow orthographies with transparent grapheme-phoneme relations, to deep orthographies, in which these relations are opaque. Only a few studies have examined whether orthographic depth is reflected in brain activity. In these studies a between-language design was applied, making it difficult to isolate the aspect of orthographic depth. In the present work this question was examined using a within-subject-and-language investigation. The participants were speakers of Hebrew, as they are skilled in reading two forms of script transcribing the same oral language. One form is the shallow pointed script (with diacritics), and the other is the deep unpointed script (without diacritics). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while skilled readers carried out a lexical decision task in the two forms of script. A visual non-orthographic task controlled for the visual difference between the scripts (resulting from the addition of diacritics to the pointed script only). At an early visual-perceptual stage of processing (∼165 ms after target onset), the pointed script evoked larger amplitudes with longer latencies than the unpointed script at occipital-temporal sites. However, these effects were not restricted to orthographic processing, and may therefore have reflected, at least in part, the visual load imposed by the diacritics. Nevertheless, the results implied that distinct orthographic processing may have also contributed to these effects. At later stages (∼340 ms after target onset) the unpointed script elicited larger amplitudes than the pointed one with earlier latencies. As this latency has been linked to orthographic-linguistic processing and to the classification of stimuli, it is suggested that these differences are associated with distinct lexical processing of a shallow and a deep orthography.

On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an "outlier" orthography.

In this critique of current reading research and practice, the author contends that the extreme ambiguity of English spelling-sound correspondence has confined reading science to an insular, Anglocentric research agenda addressing theoretical and applied issues with limited relevance for a universal science of reading. The unique problems posed by this "outlier" orthography, the author argues, have focused disproportionate attention on oral reading accuracy at the expense of silent reading, meaning access, and fluency, and have significantly distorted theorizing with regard to many issues-including phonological awareness, early reading instruction, the architecture of stage models of reading development, the definition and remediation of reading disability, and the role of lexical-semantic and supralexical information in word recognition. The dominant theoretical paradigm in contemporary (word) reading research--the Coltheart/Baron dual-route model (see, e.g., J. Baron, 1977; M. Coltheart, 1978) and, in large measure, its connectionist rivals--arose largely in response to English spelling-sound obtuseness. The model accounts for a range of English-language findings, but it is ill-equipped to serve the interests of a universal science of reading chiefly because it overlooks a fundamental unfamiliar-to-familiar/novice-to-expert dualism applicable to all words and readers in all orthographies.

Syllable frequency in lexical decision and naming of English words

The importance of phonological syllables in recognition and pronunciation of visual words has been demonstrated in languages with a high degree of spelling-sound correspondence. In Spanish, multisyllabic words with frequent first syllables are named more quickly than those with less frequent first syllables, but receive slower lexical decisions. The latter effect is attributed to lexical competition from other words beginning with the same syllable. We examined syllable frequency effects on naming and lexical decision for 3029 visually presented words in English, a language with a high degree of irregularity in spelling/sound relationships, and in which phonological syllables are less clearly marked in printed words. The results showed facilitative effects of syllable frequency in both tasks, and these were stronger when syllables were defined orthographically than phonologically. The results suggest that activation of lexical candidates based on a syllabic code does not occur rapidly enough to interfere with lexical decision in English.

Reading in deep dyslexia is not ideographic

Abstract Reading that is not phonologically mediated is often assumed to be “wholistic” or “ideographic” in nature. This study demonstrates that patients who are unable to read by use of spelling-sound correspondence rules (“deep” or “phonemic” dyslexics) have the capacity to read words presented in unusual configurations (vertical and mixed-case presentation). This evidence suggests that these patients are using a non-phonological reading mechanism that is based on letter information rather on overall configuration.

Deterioration of word meaning: Implications for reading

We investigated six patients with progressive focal dementia or progressive aphasia, who showed impairments in knowledge of word meaning ranging from moderate to very severe. In all cases, a test of oral word reading demonstrated preserved reading of words with regular spelling-to-sound correspondences (e.g. MINT), but impaired reading of words with atypical correspondences (e.g. PINT). The level of success on these “exception” words was significantly related to word frequency, and the most common error was the assignment of a more typical spelling-sound correspondence. Various explanations are considered for this common association between loss of word meaning and a surface alexic pattern of reading performance.

Paired associate learning in reading-disabled children: Evidence for a rule-learning deficiency

Two experiments esamined whether normal and disabled readers differed in the utilization of rules in a paired associate learning task. Experiment 1 required children to learn symbol-word associates. Children were assigned to one of three conditions: (a) nonrule, (b) consistent rule, or (c) inconsistent rule. When present, the rule was based on semantic opposites. Subjects benefited from having the rule, but disabled readers showed less improvement across four test blocks than both chronological age (CA) controls and reading age (RA) controls, particularly in the inconsistent condition. Experiment 2 required subjects to learn symbolsymbol associations in one of three conditions: (a) nonrule, (b) consistent rule, or (c) inconsistent rule. When present, the rule specified the locations of a subsidiary figure in each symbol according to the pattern top-right, bottom-left. disabled and normal readers did not differ in the nonrule condition where reliance on visual memory would be an effective strategy. Normal readers were superior to disabled readers in both rule conditions. In addition, disabled readers in the inconsistent rule condition were less able than normal readers to apply the rule in a generalization task where memory demands were reduced. Results supported the hypothesis that disabled readers have greater difficulty than normal readers inducing and/or using rules, particularly when they are inconsistent. It is suggested that difficulties in acquiring or using complex and inconsistent rules may be one important source of problems learning spelling-sound correspondence rules, which in English are complex and inconsistent.

A Comparison of Analogy-and Rule-Based Decoding Strategies in Normal and Dyslexic Children

Use of two alternative decoding strategies, one based on spelling-sound correspondence rules and one based on analogies, was investigated in fifth-sixth-grade dyslexic and normal children, as well as a group of younger normal readers matched on reading age to the dyslexics. Children pronounced nonwords (e.g., fody) constructed so that use of one strategy would produce a difference response from the other. Results indicated that dyslexic children lagged behind age-matched normals in the use of both strategies, and behind reading-age matched normals in use of analogies but not rules. An analysis of decoding errors indicated that normals were more likely to notice and make analogies to real words embedded in the nonsense words than dyslexics. In addition, the likelihood of an analogy response to a nonword was found to increase in all groups as the frequency of the analogy word increased. The latter finding suggests that the mechanism by which analogy words are accessed in memory is similar across groups, although dyslexics produce analogy responses less often.

From SOFA to LOUCH: lexical contributions to pseudoword pronunciation.

A word can be pronounced by applying spelling-sound correspondence rules or by looking up its pronunciation in the lexicon. In contrast, a novel string with no lexical entry should be pronounceable only through rule application. Recent research, though, suggests that lexical information may contribute to the pronunciation of nonwords (Glushko, 1979; Marcel, 1980). The present three experiments tested this possibility with the logic of spreading activation. Experiment 1 found a decrease in naming latencies for target words preceded by either related words or pseudowords created from those words, implicating lexical activity in pseudoword pronunciation. In Experiment 2, words visually similar to target pseudowords were semantically primed prior to pseudoword presentation, but the expected facilitation in pseudoword naming did not appear. Experiment 3 provided strong support for the hypothesis, however, demonstrating a marked bias in the pronunciation chosen for an ambiguous pseudoword as the result of priming a visually similar word.

The Role of Word Shape as a Recognition Cue in Children's Automatic Word Processing

GUTTENTAG, ROBERT E. The Role of Word Shape as a Recognition Cue in Children's Automatic Word Processing. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1981, 52, 363-366. Thirdand fifth-grade children were presented a picture-naming interference task to examine the effects of printing words in mixed typecase on children's automatic word processing. Children who were skilled at using spelling-sound correspondence rules experienced approximately equivalent amounts of interference from mixed typecase and normal typecase printed words. Children who were poor at using spelling-sound correspondence rules, however, experienced less interference from mixed typecase than from normal typecase printed words. The results are discussed in terms of individual differences in the role of word shape as a recognition cue in children's automatic word processing.

Reading in deep dyslexia is not ideographic

Reading that is not phonologically mediated is often assumed to be “wholistic” or “ideographic” in nature. This study demonstrates that patients who are unable to read by use of spelling-sound correspondence rules (“deep” or “phonemic” dyslexics) have the capacity to read words presented in unusual configurations (vertical and mixed-case presentation). This evidence suggests that these patients are using a non-phonological reading mechanism that is based on letter information rather on overall configuration.

The role of grapheme-phoneme correspondences in the perception of braille

The function of grapheme-phoneme correspondences in the perception of Braille was investigated by presenting 26 Braille readers with pseudo-words which follow the rules of spelling-sound correspondence (pronounceable) and pseudo-words which do not (unpronounceable) and measuring the speed with which the two types of pseudo-words were read. Nearly all of the Ss spent more time reading the unpronounceable pseudo-words than the pronounceable pseudo-words. The results suggest that grapheme-phoneme correspondences function as grouping principles in the perception of Braille in the same manner as has been demonstrated for the perception of print by sighted Ss.