THE ECOLOGY OF SPELLING: A LENS MODEL ANALYSIS OF SPELLING ERRORS AND STUDENT JUDGMENTS OF SPELLING DIFFICULTY

Abstract

Students who were identified by their teachers as poor spellers were asked to judge the difficulty they would have in spelling each of 100 words that were representative of the sorts of words they tended to misspell in their various subject areas (the spelling ecology). After making difficulty judgments, the students were then asked to spell each word on the list. Spelling errors were scored as either phonetic or nonphonetic. The researchers rated each of the 100 words on ten characteristics: number of letters, syllables, letters per syllable, double and silent letters; schwa, ambiguous, and unusual sounds; and two measures of familiarity to the student. This task was replicated after a four‐week period to check for spelling and judgment consistency. Spelling errors and judgments of spelling difficulty were analyzed using the double system Lens Model using the ten word characteristics as “cues” in the analysis. Results showed only moderate agreement between difficulty judgments and spelling errors, and fairly consistent differences between those word characteristics that were predictive of perceived spelling difficulty and those predictive of phonetic and nonphonetic errors. Several different patterns of cue weights were noted for spelling errors whereas spelling difficulty judgments were primarily based upon word familiarity. Implications are drawn for the further investigation of spelling errors and of how students decide what constitutes a “hard” word to spell and for the potential improvement of the spelling judgment process using cognitive feedback from the Lens Model.

The characterization of spelling as a cognitive activity has received increasing attention in the educational research literature. For example, two recent issues of Reading Psychology (Numbers 2 and 3, 1989) were entirely devoted to research on spelling. Much of this work has focused on spelling strategies (e.g., Anderson, 1985, Kreiner & Gough, 1990, and Olson, Logan, & Lindsey, 1989), spelling problems and types of errors (e.g., see Frith, 1980, and Weber & Henderson, 1989), and the relationship between spelling and reading (e.g., Templeton, 1989, and Zutell & Rasinski, 1989). However, there has been very little research on the issues of the criteria individuals use in deciding that a particular word is difficult or easy to spell, and the accuracy and effects of such a decision. We refer here to the more metacognitive aspects of the task ecology of spelling, and the effects of which may be shown in decisions to avoid or at least minimize the cognitive efforts expended in spelling a perceived “hard” word.

The issue of judging spelling difficulty forms the focus of the present study. Here we attempt to document those features of a word that make students think it would be hard or easy to spell. We then relate this judgment process to errors made when students attempt to spell words. Finally, we compare the relative importance of various features of words as predictors of both difficulty judgments and actual spelling errors.     

USING NUMBER LINE PROCEDURES AND PEER TUTORING TO IMPROVE THE MATHEMATICS COMPUTATION OF LOW-PERFORMING FIRST GRADERS

Recommendations for mathematics instruction frequently include the use of manipulatives as a critical component. There are few experimental analyses of teaching strategies involving the use of manipulatives (e.g., the number line). This investigation used a multiple baseline design across three groups of students to examine the effectiveness of an experimental procedure for improving low-performing children's skills in solving missing addend arithmetic problems using the number line. To address concerns about inadequate time for instruction and insufficient practice in most mathematics instruction, trained peer tutors implemented the procedure. The results suggest that student performance improved when trained tutors taught the students number line procedures and gave them feedback on accuracy. Further, social validation data indicate that the students, their tutors, and their classroom teachers liked the procedures.     

小学生字词概念综合性分类能力的实验研究

分类是人类思维活动的重要方法之一。本研究通过小学生对字词概念进行综合性分类,考察他们思维的概括能力发展的年龄特点,并探讨分类材料、文化背景、个体经验、教学状况等对分类水平的影响。 研究结果表明:小学生对字词概念的综合性分类能力有明显的年龄特点。他们说明分类根据的能力,远远落后于分类能力。小学五年级中有少数学生具有初步的组合分析分类能力。分类材料,文化背景,个体经验,教学状况的差异,均对分类水平产生一定的影响。     

PHONOLOGICAL CONTRASTS AND WORD‐DECODING SKILLS OF THE READER OF ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the following study was to investigate the extent to which phoneme and grapheme‐phoneme contrasts between English and Spanish are associated with word‐decoding problems in Spanish‐speaking adults who are early readers of English. To test whether such a co‐occurrence exists, word‐decoding exercises were administered to four groups of Spanish‐speaking subjects. The groups were organized on the basis of English‐language proficiency. Significant differences in word‐decoding performance appeared between words containing letter‐sounds found in both Spanish and English and those with letter‐sounds not found in Spanish.     

EFFECTS OF INVENTED SPELLING AND DIRECT INSTRUCTION ON SPELLING PERFORMANCE OF SECOND-GRADE BOYS

Four second-grade boys, 2 rated by their classroom teacher as below average and 2 as above average in basic language skills, participated in a 16-week spelling investigation. The participants alternately received, in counterbalanced order, 5 weeks of an invented spelling approach that incorporated 15-min creative writing periods and 5 weeks of direct instruction that involved 15-min periods of guided practice on spelling word lists. At the end of 10 weeks, each condition was replicated for 3 additional weeks. Although direct instruction resulted in more targeted words spelled correctly, invented spelling resulted in more nontargeted words spelled correctly, higher preference ratings by children, and higher teacher ratings of the quality of 3 of the children's writing samples.     

SPELLING AND EMERGENT PICTURE-PRINTED WORD RELATIONS ESTABLISHED WITH DELAYED IDENTITY MATCHING TO COMPLEX SAMPLES

Students with academic deficits learned delayed matching-to-sample tasks that used complex sample stimuli, each consisting of a picture and a printed word. A touch to the sample complex removed it from the computer display and produced either picture comparisons or a choice pool of letters. If the comparisons were pictures, selecting the picture identical to the preceding sample was reinforced. If the letters appeared, letter-by-letter construction of the preceding printed word sample was reinforced. The procedure engendered new constructed-response spelling performances and arbitrary relations among pictures and printed words in matching to sample. The emergence of relations among different sets of printed words (paired with the same pictures) suggested classes of equivalent stimuli. Outcome tests involving spoken words as sample stimuli suggested expansion of subjects' spelling repertoires and stimulus classes.     

Gating技术与汉语听觉词汇加工

尝试对Gating技术的实施和运用,对数据进行探索性分析。被试为47名北京师范大学本科学生。实验中被试听到依次加长的单字词语音片段,每听完一个语音片段要尽快判断该语音是什么字音,并迅速写出想到的第一个符合该读音的汉字,同时在七点量表上评定作出判断的确定性等级。结果显示,Gating技术作为探讨汉语听觉词汇加工的一条途径可以提供丰富的信息,它不仅能得到词汇的语音识别点(Isolation Point,IP),也揭示出它与声调存在一定关系。对错误反应的分析还表明：声调信息可以独立于音段信息而被识别;即时影响声调识别的因素不一定局限于区别性特征;听觉词汇识别受到听觉语言特有的方向性特点的影响,这种影响不仅体现在音段信息、也体现在超音段信息的识别中。     

THE EFFECTS OF KNOWN-ITEM INTERSPERSAL ON ACQUISITION AND RETENTION OF SPELLING AND SIGHTREADING WORDS1

The use of well-documented procedures such as shaping, differential reinforcement, and fading may not be the most practical for teaching certain academic behaviors. An alternative procedure of interspersing trials on previously trained items with trials on unknown items has been suggested, but its effects on acquisition and retention have not been systematically examined. This study investigated the effects of interspersing known items during training on new tasks. Six mentally retarded adolescents were given pretests on spelling and sightreading words, which were divided into pools of learned and unlearned items. Training and baseline conditions were implemented concurrently, using a multi-element design. During interspersal training sessions, 10 known words from the pretest were alternately presented with each of 10 test words that were incorrect on the pretest. The ratio of previously mastered words to test words was gradually reduced. During baseline sessions, 10 different test words were presented without alternation of previously known words. During this condition, a procedure involving high-density social reinforcement contingent on task-related behaviors, but not necessarily correct responses, was later introduced, followed by a return to the original noninterspersal baseline. During all conditions, test words were deleted and replaced after meeting a mastery criterion of three consecutive correct trials. Retention tests were administered over learned test words for all conditions, at specified intervals. Results showed that both acquisition and retention of spelling and sightreading words were facilitated by the interspersal procedure. All subjects acquired more words during the interspersal condition than either the high-density or baseline conditions. The effectiveness of the procedure may possibly be attributed to better maintenance of attending behavior to unknown items as a function of the inclusion of known items, which directly increase the amount of reinforcement for correct responses during the early stages of skill acquisition.     

EXPLORING THE CONCEPT OF SPIRIT AS A MODEL FOR THE GOD-WORLD RELATIONSHIP IN THE AGE OF GENETICS

Abstract. The cultural impact of genetics focuses the intellectual and moral challenge of science to theology. Many traditional images of God and the God-world relation are inadequate to represent religious ideas in a world whose self-understanding has been transformed by genetics. Such images also lack the power to help in approaching the ethical challenges of this new era. The way conceptions of the God-world relation can be modified in the light of genetic knowledge is explored by examining how far a new conception of Spirit can function alongside contemporary genetic views of human life in nature. The relationship between genetic theories of human behavior and evolution is related to the revised conception of Spirit.     

首词和尾词频率对高熟悉度成语识别的影响

采用词汇判定法,考察首词频率和尾词频率对高熟悉度四字成语识别的影响。实验结果表明:(1)对高熟悉度成语的识别规律与多层聚类表征模型的观点比较吻合;(2)构成成语的成份词对成语表征有竞争和干扰作用,高频率成份词相对于低频率成份词,对成语表征的竞争和干扰作用较大。     

THE CONCEPT OF ENTITLEMENT AND ITS EPISTEMIC RELEVANCE

Crispin Wright has recently suggested that, in addition to the notion of justification, we also possess a non‐evidential notion of warrant, ‘entitlement’, that can play an important role in responding to various skeptical questions. My concern here is with the question of whether entitlement constitutes an epistemic kind of warrant. I claim Wright's argument for this thesis at most shows that entitlement has a pragmatic character. Having identified the sources of the troubles of this argument in its underlying assumptions, I examine and criticize a number of attempts that have sought to substantiate those assumptions. I offer some suggestions as to how one can improve on Wright's account and make some general observations about the prospects of showing that entitlement is an epistemic type of warrant.