Word Spelling Research Articles

Project WINGS: Word-Banking to Address Gaps in Science Education

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused students to fear for their health and their studies. It has created gaps that educators need to fill when they return to formal education. The main purpose of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of word banking in science for improving the proficiency levels of seventh-grade students. The study aims to address gaps in science education arising from new-normal circumstances. It also seeks to assess students' proficiency in science before and after the implementation of Project WINGS. The research found that implementing Project WINGS, which incorporated the SPURN strategy (Spelling, Pronunciation, and Usage of words, Reading, and Numeracy), significantly improved seventh-grade students' proficiency levels in science. The quasi-experimental design, utilizing pre-test and post-test data, indicated a notable enhancement in students' performance, suggesting that daily word banking effectively addressed educational gaps exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

What role, if any, should phonics play in a middle school or high school? The answer may surprise you

AbstractResearch shows little benefit from phonics instruction in Grades 2 through 12. However, more recent studies show that students who fall below a decoding threshold fail to benefit from other kinds of reading instruction. This exploration of the evidence suggests that these students are likely to need support in the reading and spelling of multisyllabic words and words with common morphological elements. Explicit instruction with a focus on the decoding, spelling, and meaning of such words would make a lot of sense.

Academic vocabulary for L2 argumentative writing: Perspectives from Chinese university EFL learners

Academic vocabulary plays a critical role in L2 argumentative writing. Recent studies have specifically examined the importance of academic vocabulary and academic word lists for EAP and ESP learning and research. However, it is unclear how English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners perceive academic vocabulary and the challenges they face using this vocabulary in university argumentative essays. The present study adopted a case study approach to investigate Chinese university EFL learners’ perceptions of, and problems with, academic vocabulary in an argumentative writing task. Five fourth-year advanced EFL learners were assigned to write an IELTS essay before participating in a one-on-one interview. The results indicated that while participants had a heightened awareness of the importance of academic vocabulary, they lacked a comprehensive understanding of this construct. More specifically, they knew little about the academic register, and their academic vocabulary size was small. Consequently, various problems arose in relation to the use of academic words in their argumentative writing, including word choice and the over-reliance on Chinese word meaning and word spelling knowledge. The EFL learners also reported that the biggest challenge to their academic writing was the lack of academic collocation knowledge. These findings have pedagogical implications for understanding the academic lexical problems facing Chinese EFL learners in their academic writing.

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) for the diagnosis of pronunciation of speech sound disorders in Korean children.

This study presents a model of automatic speech recognition (ASR) that is designed to diagnose pronunciation issues in children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) to replace manual transcriptions in clinical procedures. Because ASR models trained for general purposes mainly predict input speech into standard spelling words, well-known high-performance ASR models are not suitable for evaluating pronunciation in children with SSDs. We fine-tuned the wav2vec2.0 XLS-R model to recognise words as they are pronounced by children, rather than converting the speech into their standard spelling words. The model was fine-tuned with a speech dataset of 137 children with SSDs pronouncing 73 Korean words that are selected for actual clinical diagnosis. The model's Phoneme Error Rate (PER) was only 10% when its predictions of children's pronunciations were compared to human annotations of pronunciations as heard. In contrast, despite its robust performance on general tasks, the state-of-the-art ASR model Whisper showed limitations in recognising the speech of children with SSDs, with a PER of approximately 50%. While the model still requires improvement in terms of the recognition of unclear pronunciation, this study demonstrates that ASR models can streamline complex pronunciation error diagnostic procedures in clinical fields.

Behavioural engagement with notes and note content in digital game-based vocabulary learning and their effects on EFL vocabulary development

ABSTRACT Purpose Research on digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGBVL) has rapidly grown. Most of these studies have overlooked note use based on two tacit assumptions: (a) learners do not need notes in DGBVL, and (b) note use reduces the effectiveness of DGBVL. However, evidence suggests that vocabulary learners may need notes, and note use can promote vocabulary knowledge development in various settings, which may be generalised to DGBVL. Methodology To test the assumptions and gain a deeper understanding of DGBVL, we conducted a study involving 50 Chinese university students who learned vocabulary in a DGBVL programme that allowed note use. Data were collected using a Tobii X2-30 eye tracker, tests of productive vocabulary knowledge, and interviews. Findings The finding showed that in note-allowed DGBVL, learners actively used notes and created six types of note content: spellings, meanings, L1 equivalents, word learning strategies, parts of speech and example phrases and sentences. Writing example phrases and sentences in notes significantly promoted vocabulary knowledge development, while word spellings in notes and frequent fixations on notes had the opposite effects. Originality Based on the findings, we reject the two tacit assumptions of note use in DGBVL and suggest explicit training on note use in DGBVL.

The Effects of a Morphological Awareness Intervention on Reading and Spelling Ability of Children With Dyslexia

This paper examines the effects of a morphological awareness intervention on the word reading and spelling skills of Grades 4 to 6 children with dyslexia. Sixteen children in eastern Ontario, Canada, received 20 hours of morphologically oriented instruction spread over 6 weeks and eight served as controls, and all received a battery of reading and spelling tests before and after the intervention. Students were taught the nature of morphology and the types of morphemes, how words could be assembled from morphemes or deconstructed into morphemes to make meaning from print and access the correct pronunciation, and how to use morphology in reading and spelling words. Repeated measures analyses of variance and analyses of covariance indicated that the experimental group showed significantly larger gains than the control group on measures of morphological awareness, morphological decoding, morphological analysis, and morphological spelling. There were no significant effects on word reading (fluency and accuracy) or on standardized spelling measures.

Effectiveness of Reading Interventions on Literacy Skills for Chinese Children with and Without Dyslexia: a Meta-analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

This meta-analysis synthesizes 49 standardized mean-change differences between control and treatment groups as effect sizes from 28 independent studies, investigating the efficacy of existing reading interventions on literacy skills for Chinese children. Six potentially important moderators were considered in this study. These moderators included intervention outcome, intervention method, intervention timing, participant type, intervention form, and intervention implementer. Overall, the existing reading intervention significantly impacted Chinese children’s literacy achievement (g = 0.68). Different intervention methods showed somehow different effects on literacy outcomes. Specifically, fluency training (g = 1.78) appeared as the most effective intervention method with a large effect. Working memory training (g = 0.80), phonological training (g = 0.69), orthographic training (g = 0.70), and morphological training (g = 0.66) had significant and medium effects on improving literacy skills of Chinese children. In addition, reading intervention improved literacy skills of older children (g = 0.90) and younger children (g = 0.63) comparably. However, children with dyslexia (g = 0.87) seemed to benefit more than typically developing children (g = 0.49) from reading interventions. Reading interventions seemed to have a better effect on word spelling (g = 0.93) than word reading (g = 0.63). Interventions delivered in group (g = 0.78) seemed to be more effective than interventions delivered individually (g = 0.45). Children gained more from interventions administered by researchers (g = 0.85) or combined implementers (g = 1.11) than by parents (g = 0.27). These findings suggest that appropriate reading interventions are effective and essential for improving the literacy outcomes of Chinese children, but the efficacy might be different depending on the intervention methods, children’s literacy status, outcome measures, and intervention settings.

Языковые особенности молодежных субкультур (на примере субкультуры эмо)

The article examines the linguistic features of various subcultures, which is an urgent problem of modern linguistics. This is because of their wide and rapid spread among young people. A special case of this type of linguistic personality is the emo linguistic personality, which is the object of this study. The study of linguistic material, which is an emic discourse, allows you to cover the intellectual sphere of the personality, the linguistic personality of EMO, characterized by its worldview, worldview, which is based on the emic philosophy of death and immortality. The pur-pose of the article is to identify the linguistic features of the EMO subculture, reflecting the phi-losophy, life values and principles of its representatives. The article summarizes new material on the topic under study, taken from EMO forums, which allows us to identify certain specifics of the subcultural language of EMO kids. Based on the study, several deliberate phonetic, spelling, and grammatical distortions of words have been detected, resulting in the development of occasional words, some of which may be conditionally recognized. An attempt was made to determine the ways of creative expression in the speech of emo subculture members. The examination of EMO forums revealed that aphorisms are often used in the speech activity of representatives of this sub-culture, which may be classified relativistically into groups. It has been shown that language is an important means of representing the philosophy and life beliefs of representatives of the emic subculture, which encourages the free expression of one’s own feelings.

Metalinguistic Effects on English Spelling: A Structural Equation Model for Early Literacy Instruction

English word spelling attempts originate from spellers’ linguistic and metalinguistic processing. Our study examines the concerted impact of English metalinguistic skills- morphological, phonological, and orthographic processing- on English-as-a-foreign language spelling of a group of young English learners. Structural equation modeling confirmed a three-factor confirmatory factor model, validating phonological awareness on spelling with highest factor loading with degrees of morphology and orthography contribution to spelling. The qualitative spelling analyses also validated phonologically-oriented spelling errors as the most pervasive followed by unique contribution of orthography and morphology. Results, converging with existing literature, emphasize the metalinguistic skills impacts on early EFL literacy development.

Bakron’s Linguistic View on “Jahon-Name”

The article dwells on the issue concerned with the study of Bakron’s linguistic view on “Jahon-Name”. It is underscored that the relevant geographical production is considered to be one of the most important works. It is determined that the word stock of “Jahon-Name” includes the following lexicons denoting: locality, natural phenomena, elements, social areas, notions of quantity, period and seasons, person, occupation, profession, skill, animals, somatisms, scientifico-professional terms, minerals, agricultural, food and beverage, notions dealing with religion and various objects. Adducing the result of an analysis beset with the theme explored one can come to the conclusion that “Jahan-Name” refers to geographical literature and its author makes an endeavor to edit the language; to use public vocabulary; to indicate correct pronunciation and spelling of words; to fix the meaning of various lexical elements; to determine linguistic belonging of words; to make obvious and hidden errors; to state hypotheses concerning the origin of names; to point out differences in the names of localities in written and colloquial form – all this is considered to be peculiarities of the language of the relevant work.

Developmental surface dyslexia and dysgraphia in a child with corpus callosum agenesis: an approach to diagnosis and treatment

ABSTRACT We present a case study detailing cognitive performance, functional neuroimaging, and effects of a hypothesis-driven treatment in a 10-year-old girl diagnosed with complete, isolated corpus callosum agenesis. Despite having average overall intellectual abilities, the girl exhibited profound surface dyslexia and dysgraphia. Spelling treatment significantly and persistently improved her spelling of trained irregular words, and this improvement generalized to reading accuracy and speed of trained words. Diffusion weighted imaging revealed strengthened intrahemispheric white matter connectivity of the left temporal cortex after treatment and identified interhemispheric connectivity between the occipital lobes, likely facilitated by a pathway crossing the midline via the posterior commissure. This case underlines the corpus callosum’s critical role in lexical reading and writing. It demonstrates that spelling treatment may enhance interhemispheric connectivity in corpus callosum agenesis through alternative pathways, boosting the development of a more efficient functional organization of the visual word form area within the left temporo-occipital cortex.

From spelling to reading: An intervention program with children at risk of reading failure

This study aimed to assess the impact of an interactive spelling program on reading acquisition of children at risk of developing reading difficulties as well as to assess its effect on spelling and phonemic awareness. From an initial pool of 144 first-grade children attending four Portuguese primary schools, 53 children with low performances in letter knowledge and phonemic awareness tasks, and considered by their teachers to be at risk of developing reading difficulties, were selected. These children were randomly assigned to three groups: an experimental group that underwent an interactive spelling program, a comparison group that underwent a phonological awareness program, and a control group that underwent a copying program. The programs, conducted in pairs, comprised 12 sessions lasting 20 to 30 min twice a week. The pretest and posttest included word reading, word spelling, and phonemic awareness assessments. Data analysis showed that the spelling group significantly outperformed the other groups across all measures except in the phonemic awareness task, where there were no differences with the phonological group. The word copying group consistently yielded the lowest results. Unlike the other two groups, the posttest results of the experimental group also reached the class average in word reading. For ethical reasons, after the final assessments the control group underwent a version of the interactive spelling program. This study suggests that spelling activities can contribute significantly to reading acquisition and can serve as a valuable pedagogical tool to proactively address challenges in learning to read.

Morphophonemic analysis boosts orthographic and semantic learning of academic words for Spanish–English bilinguals

BackgroundUpper elementary grade students encounter increasingly complex texts with abundant morphologically complex words. Despite the positive effects of morphology‐based vocabulary instruction, emergent bilinguals with limited word reading skills may need additional support.MethodsThis study investigated the effects of morphological analysis and morphophonemic analysis instruction on the orthographic and semantic learning of morphologically complex academic words. Fourth‐ and fifth‐grade Spanish–English bilingual students (N = 30) in the United States participated in two learning tasks. In learning task one, participants learned two sets of carefully matched derivational words under morphological and whole‐word learning conditions. In learning task two, the same participants learned two other sets of words under morphophonemic and whole‐word learning conditions. Each learning task included two learning sessions interweaved by meaning recall and spelling production assessments. Cross‐classified multilevel regression was used to assess the effects of intervention conditions, child and item predictors, as well as cross‐level interactions.ResultsFindings showed no significant difference in meaning recall and spelling measures between morphological and whole‐word conditions. Students performed significantly better in the morphophonemic condition than in the whole‐word condition for both meaning and affix spelling outcomes. The effect of morphophonemic intervention over whole word condition was stronger for younger students and words of lower base frequencies. Student meaning and spelling performance was significantly predicted by their word reading skills.ConclusionsMorphophonemic analysis instruction enhances word meaning recall and spelling of complex derivative words.

Spelling Facilitates Reading: A Tutorial on the Spell-to-Read Approach.

According to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), prevention, identification, assessment, and intervention of children who are learning to read and write are within the scope of practice for school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs). Furthermore, for SLPs who work in the school setting, it is not uncommon to have struggling readers and poor spellers on their caseloads. Importantly, for students who have difficulty in spelling, their spelling errors are among the early indicators of dyslexia and can provide a means for identifying readers who may benefit from early intervention. SLPs can both assess spelling skills and implement evidence-based spelling and literacy diagnosis and instruction. Spelling instruction in kindergarten through the high school grades that is heavily grounded in metalinguistic activities can provide access to mental representations of word spellings, pronunciations, and meanings; links between whole-word and phonics approaches to reading instruction; and a foundation for reading fluency and comprehension. Learning to spell is essential for learning to read. Accordingly, this tutorial aims to elucidate how to (a) assess and identify phases of spelling development and (b) teach spelling to facilitate reading through a listening-first approach.

Orthographic and Semantic Learning During Shared Reading: Investigating Relations to Early Word Reading.

Shared reading provides preschool-age children with the opportunity to learn novel, low-frequency words. Abundant empirical evidence demonstrates that children can learn the meanings of such words during shared reading, referred to as "semantic learning." However, less is known about whether children learn the spellings of words during shared reading, referred to as "orthographic learning," and whether this learning is related to early word reading. The present study tested relations between individual differences in 4- to 6-year-old children's semantic and, critically, orthographic learning during shared reading and their early word reading skill. In an adaptation of the self-teaching paradigm, children listened to a storybook about novel inventions referred to with nonword names. Children then completed orthographic and semantic choice tests, as well as standardized measures of early word reading and phonological awareness. Individual differences in orthographic, but not semantic, learning during shared reading were related to early word reading, after controls for age and phonological awareness. This study provides a novel test of learning during shared reading, helping to specify the relation between orthographic and semantic learning and early word reading skill. These findings hold implications for theoretical perspectives on relations between learning during shared reading and early word reading, as well as implications for educational practice. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25492765.

Ergonyms of the thematic group “Educational institutions” of Naberezhnye Chelny

INTRODUCTION. At the present stage of studying proper names, a special place is given to urban ergonyms, which form the urban onomasticon. Ergonyms, being an integral part of the appearance of a modern city, reflect not only the lexical and grammatical systems of the language, but also represent scientific value as an additional source of information about the social, cultural and historical situation in a certain territory. The purpose of the study is to describe the ergonymic space of Naberezhnye Chelny, Republic of Tatarstan, which includes the names of educational institutions.MATERIALS AND METHODS. The research material is the modern names of educational institutions from the official website of the directory of organizations of the city of Nab erezhnye Chelny 2023. The factual material analysis is carried out based on the use of general li nguistic methods (structural and descriptive), as well as the use of elements of the synchronic method and nominative technique analysis.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION. The main technique for creating new ergonyms is symbolic nomination, which is expressed in nomination using metaphor and metonymy. The emergence of innovative ergonyms in the urban space of Naberezhnye Chelny is mainly associated with the appearance of names in the Tatar language, but with the presence of spellings of words dating back to the English language and Russian words in English transcription. The study of urban ergonoms is carried out in three aspects: analysis of the nominative appearance of a modern city, analysis of thematic groups of urban ergonyms and identification of the peculiarities of the functioning of ergonyms in the speech of modern citizens.CONCLUSION. The names of various children's and youth clubs serve as a certain attribute to attract the target audience. Basically, secondary educational institutions in the city of Naberezhnye Chelny are called by a certain number, but there are a number of specialized institutions that have a name in the Tatar language, indicating the essence of these schools. The city names of additional education institutions for school-aged children reflect Russian names, many of which remain from the Soviet past. Onimization is carried out using metaphorical components in order to expand the semantic structure of the word, its functionality, and the significance of ergonymic vocabulary in communication.

Ortho-semantic learning of novel words: an event-related potential study of grade 3 children

IntroductionAs children become independent readers, they regularly encounter new words whose meanings they must infer from context, and whose spellings must be learned for future recognition. The self-teaching hypothesis proposes orthographic learning skills are critical in the transition to fluent reading, while the lexical quality hypothesis further emphasizes the importance of semantics. Event-related potential (ERP) studies of reading development have focused on effects related to the N170 component—print tuning (letters vs. symbols) and lexical tuning (real words vs. consonant strings)—as well as the N400 reflecting semantic processing, but have not investigated the relationship of these components to word learning during independent reading.MethodsIn this study, children in grade 3 independently read short stories that introduced novel words, then completed a lexical decision task from which ERPs were derived.ResultsLike real words, newly-learned novel words evoked a lexical tuning effect, indicating rapid establishment of orthographic representations. Both real and novel words elicited significantly smaller N400s than pseudowords, suggesting that semantic representations of the novel words were established. Further, N170 print tuning predicted accuracy on identifying the spellings of the novel words, while the N400 effect for novel words was associated with reading comprehension.DiscussionExposure to novel words during self-directed reading rapidly establishes neural markers of orthographic and semantic processing. Furthermore, the ability to rapidly filter letter strings from symbols is predictive of orthographic learning, while rapid establishment of semantic representations of novel words is associated with stronger reading comprehension.

UTAPIS Indonesian Word Error Detection Application: Design and Development

People misspell and incorrectly write Indonesian words without even recognizing it. Poor and incorrect language proficiency is a common cause of word spelling mistakes. Since PT Tribun Digital Online publishes between 600 and 700 articles a day, the U-Tapis website might be of great assistance to journalists in identifying grammatical problems. Three separate cities—Jakarta, Makassar, and Solo—have participated in the testing of the U-tapis website. @ Tribun Digital Online, PT. This department is in charge of using the Flask framework to create the U-tapis website design. This study develops software or applications that are comparatively brief, succinct, and quick using the RAD (Rapid Application Development) technique. In addition to system development methods. The implementation of this method uses the U-tapis Sentence Syntax Error Detection algorithm which functions to detect an algorithm comparing two pieces of data, calculated using a formula called the Jaccard Index to check spelling errors in words. UAT test results produce all the features according to the wishes of the company owner based on the problems faced.

Derivational Morphology Training in French-Speaking, 9- to 14- Year-Old Children and Adolescents With Developmental Dyslexia: Does it Improve Morphological Awaraness, Reading and Spelling Outcome Measures?

Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) display partially preserved morphology skills which they rely upon for reading and spelling. Therefore, we conducted explicit and intensive training of derivational morphology in individuals with DD, ages 9 to 14 years, in order to assess its effect on: morphological awareness, reading (speed and accuracy), and spelling. Our pre-posttest design included a group trained in derivational morphology and a group of children who continued their business-as-usual rehabilitation program with their speech-language therapist. Results showed effects on morphological awareness and on the spelling of complex words, with a large between-group effect size for trained items and a large to moderate effect size for untrained items. All these gains tended to be maintained over time on the delayed posttest, 2 months later. For reading, the results were more contrasted, with large between-group effect sizes for accuracy and speed for trained items, reducing to a small effect for accuracy on the delayed posttest. For untrained items, small effects were observed on accuracy (at both posttests) but not on speed. These results are very promising and argue in favor of using derivational morphology as a medium to improve literacy skills in French-speaking children and adolescents with DD.

Lexical and Sublexical Skills in Children's Literacy

Letter knowledge and word identification are key skills for reading and spelling. Letter knowledge facilitates the application of sublexical letter-sound mappings to decode words. With reading experience, word identification becomes a key lexical skill to support decoding. In transparent orthographies, however, letter knowledge might be an enduring predictor of decoding and spelling, even in children with some reading experience. This study investigated the association of children's sublexical (letter knowledge) and lexical skills (word identification and vocabulary) with word decoding and spelling accuracy in Spanish, which is a transparent orthography. The sample consisted of 117 Spanish-speaking children, aged 8 to 10. Results revealed that (1) letter knowledge and word identification were independently associated with children's word spelling; (2) word identification was uniquely associated with word decoding; and (3) children's vocabulary level was associated with word identification. The implications of these findings were examined within the framework of reading models and the characteristics of a transparent orthography.