The genesis of reading ability: What helps children learn letter-sound correspondences?

Knowledge of letter-sound correspondences underpins successful reading acquisition, and yet little is known about how young children acquire this knowledge and what prior information they bring to the learning process. In this study, we used an experimental training design to examine whether either prior letter awareness or prior phonemic awareness directly assists preliterate children in subsequently learning letter-sound correspondences. Here 76 preschoolers received 6 weeks of training in either letter awareness, phonemic awareness, or control tasks and then received a further 6 weeks of training in either letter-sound correspondences or control tasks. There was limited evidence that prior training in either phoneme or letter awareness directly assisted learning of letter-sound correspondences, although phonemically trained children appeared to show some advantage on recognition tasks. Overall, the data suggest that there is little value in training preschoolers in either letter forms or sounds in isolation in advance of providing instruction on the links between the two.     

Breaking the reading code: Letter knowledge when children break the reading code the first year in school

The aim of this study was to examine when children learn to read and how learning to read depends on a foundation of alphabetic knowledge. 356 children aged 5–6 years completed assessments of letter-sound knowledge, i.e. the names and sounds of uppercase and lowercase letters of the Norwegian alphabet. Each child was tested at the start, the middle and the end of the school year. The time that each child broke the reading code was also recorded. The results indicated that 11% of the children knew how to read before starting school and 27% of the children did not learn to read by the end of the first year. The remaining children typically knew 21 uppercase letter sounds before they were first able to read, and only a few (<5%) knew less than 11 uppercase letter sounds when they broke the reading code. The average of all four letter-scores at the time they broke the reading code was 19 ± 5 letters (mean ± standard deviation). Although letter sound knowledge was associated with the ability to read, it was not sufficient for breaking the reading code. 40% of children who knew 23 letter sounds or more, enough to read more than 80% of the most common Norwegian words, and 15% of children who knew all 29 letter sounds still could not read. Based on these data, it seems reasonable to advocate learning letter-sound correspondences early in the first year of school to form the best possible basis for breaking the reading code.     

THE ACQUISITION OF GRAPHEME‐PHONEME CORRESPONDENCES IN A WORD LEARNING TASK

Abstract

The relationship between reading ability with receptive vocabulary level and the ability to induce grapheme‐phoneme relationships was investigated using grade one students. The ability to induce relationships was assessed by a word learning task in which the stimuli were six consonant‐vowel‐consonant trigrams composed of seven letter‐like forms with a 1:1 grapheme‐phoneme correspondence. The word learning task was followed by a test of each student's acquisition of the grapheme‐phoneme correspondences that appeared in the word stimuli. The ability to induce the relationships was found to be much more strongly related to reading ability than receptive vocabulary. The results suggest that good and poor readers applied different word learning strategies, with good readers appearing to apply more readily a principled solution and poor readers an associative solution. The results are consistent with the theory of reading acquisition advanced by Gibson and Levin.     

Learning to read with underdeveloped phonemic awareness but lexicalized phonological recoding: a case study of a 3-year-old

Case studies on very precocious readers are useful for examining what sources of knowledge and processes are necessary in the acquisition of reading. This is a case study of a 40-month-old child with a word reading age of 8 years 6 months. Tests indicated that she had no phoneme awareness beyond initial phonemes, and that her productive spelling was undeveloped. In reading she was highly proficient at rapid phonological recoding, both by correspondences that were contextually sensitive and those that were not. The former determined her high level of irregular pronunciations for irregular consistent non-words. Experiments indicated that she had well-specified orthographic lexical representations. It was concluded that her phonological recoding was an implicit process based on sublexical relations induced from her lexical representations rather than explicitly taught letter-sound correspondences. The implications of the results for major developmental models of reading acquisition are examined.     

The Relationship Between Phonological Memory,Phonological Sensitivity,and Incidental Word Learning

This study investigated the cognitive abilities needed to succeed at incidental word learning, specifically by examining the role of phonological memory and phonological sensitivity in novel word learning by 4-year-olds who were typically developing. Forty 4-year-olds were administered a test of nonword repetition (to investigate phonological memory), rhyming and phoneme alliteration tasks (to investigate phonological sensitivity), and an incidental word learning task (via a computer-based presentation of a cartoon story). A multiple regression analysis revealed that nonword repetition scores did not contribute significantly to incidental word learning. Phonological sensitivity scores were significant predictors of incidental word learning. These findings provide support for a model of lexical acquisition in which phonological knowledge plays an important role.     

内隐学习中的知识习得及其无意识性测量*

本研究采用经典的人工语法范式,并引入迁移任务探讨在记忆和规则探索两种指导语条件下,被试所习得的究竟是规则还是组块？同时采用结构知识主观测量的方法,对内隐学习习得知识的无意识性进行测量。结果发现记忆指导语条件下的被试能成功区分合法串和非法串,即出现语法学习效应,但规则探索指导语条件下的被试并没有表现出语法或组块学习效应,结构知识的主观测量发现这种内隐学习的优势效应主要来自无意识结构知识的贡献;在迁移研究中发现附带学习组和有意学习组均在迁移任务上表现出语法学习效应,这表明在人工语法学习中所获得的语法规则是抽象的和可迁移的。     

Psychometric Properties of the Book Readings for An Affective Classroom Education (BRACE) Coding System

Abstract

In the present study, the relation between children’s emotion knowledge and preschool teachers’ book reading behaviors during shared book reading in the classroom was examined. A new coding system, the Book Readings for an Affective Classroom Education (BRACE), was developed to capture teachers’ macro-level book reading behaviors (i.e., dialogic reading) and micro-level use of emotion language (i.e., emotion coaching) during shared book reading. Results showed good reliability and validity of the BRACE. Further, teachers’ dialogic reading and emotion coaching behaviors during shared book reading positively predicted child emotion knowledge in Spring (T2), after controlling for children’s initial level of emotion knowledge in Fall (T1). In addition, a significant interaction between teachers’ book reading style and child emotion knowledge at T1 on emotion knowledge at T2 indicated that teachers’ effective book reading style was especially beneficial to children who had lower emotion knowledge at the beginning of the school year.     

Implicit and explicit processes in a second-language learning task

Abstract

Two experiments examined the learning of a set of Greek pronunciation rules through explicit and implicit modes of rule presentation. Experiment 1 compared the effectiveness of implicit and explicit modes of presentation in two modalities, visual and auditory. Subjects in the explicit or rule group were presented with the rule set, and those in the implicit or natural group were shown a set of Greek words, composed of letters from the rule set, linked to their pronunciations. Subjects learned the Greek words to criterion and were then given a series of tests which aimed to tap different types of knowledge. The results showed an advantage of explicit study of the rules. In addition, an interaction was found between mode of presentation and modality. Explicit instruction was more effective in the visual than in the auditory modality, whereas there was no modality effect for implicit instruction. Experiment 2 examined a possible reason for the advantage of the rule groups by comparing different combinations of explicit and implicit presentation in the study and learning phases. The results suggested that explicit presentation of the rules is only beneficial when it is followed by practice at applying them.     

Eliciting false memories on implicit and explicit memory tests after incidental learning

Abstract: In a false memory experiment, lists of semantic associates (e.g., newspaper, letter, book, etc.) were presented to three groups of participants to induce false memories for critical nonpresented (CN) words (e.g., read) in an incidental learning task. The control group simply estimated the frequency rate in everyday Japanese discourse of each word on a list. The imagery instruction group received an additional instruction to imagine a thematically related converging word from the target words on a list. Participants in the imagery plus writing group received the same instructions as those in the imagery instruction group, but were also required to write down the word they imagined for each list. The results from the implicit and explicit memory tests given after the incidental learning episode showed that the level of priming for CN words was equivalent to that for actually presented target words for all three groups on the implicit test, whereas explicit memory results showed that participants explicitly recognized more target words than CN words. The implications for implicit associative response and fuzzy‐trace theories of false memory, as well as implicit priming, are discussed.     

人工语法范式下的无意识知识探析

人工语法范式不仅是内隐学习领域广泛运用的范式,同时也是研究无意识知识的主要方法。文章通过对人工语法范式组成材料中的刺激频率、组块等方面进行深入探讨,不仅使人们对无意识知识有了更全面的认识,而且也有利于对内隐学习获得规则知识的假设提出更确定的回答;并通过对无意识知识的神经机制研究以及考察镜射规则学习过程的脑神经激活状况,获得了规则学习对应更为准确的脑神经活动,推动了人工语法范式下无意识知识的深入研究。     

阅读发展相关的认知技能：汉语和英语的比较

对英语和汉语阅读获得所需要的认知技能及发展性阅读障碍儿童认知缺陷的研究进行了回顾。分析表明阅读发展所需认知资源表现出了跨语言的一致性,都要求有充足的学习与记忆能力和正常的视觉正字法技能,语音和语义知识表征足够精细;阅读障碍儿童的主要认知缺陷也表现出了跨文字的一致性,都包括语音缺陷和一般的学习与记忆问题。然而儿童所面临的语言文字特性会影响到阅读技能获得的难易和发展性阅读障碍的表现     

Incidental Learning of Gender Agreement in L2

Incidental learning of grammar has been an area of interest for many decades; nevertheless, existing research has primarily focused on artificial or semi-artificial languages. The present study examines the incidental acquisition of the grammar of a natural language by exposing adult speakers of an ungendered L1 (English) to the gender agreement patterns in Russian (a language that was novel to the learners). Both receptive and productive knowledge and the mediating role of working memory (WM) in learning were measured. Speakers of the ungendered language were able to successfully acquire receptive but not productive grammatical knowledge in a new language under incidental exposure. WM was engaged in production but not in a grammaticality judgment task in the incidental learning condition, indicating cognitive effort during knowledge retrieval.     

Incidental Learning of Melodic Structure of North Indian Music

Musical knowledge is largely implicit. It is acquired without awareness of its complex rules, through interaction with a large number of samples during musical enculturation. Whereas several studies explored implicit learning of mostly abstract and less ecologically valid features of Western music, very little work has been done with respect to ecologically valid stimuli as well as non‐Western music. The present study investigated implicit learning of modal melodic features in North Indian classical music in a realistic and ecologically valid way. It employed a cross‐grammar design, using melodic materials from two modes (rāgas) that use the same scale. Findings indicated that Western participants unfamiliar with Indian music incidentally learned to identify distinctive features of each mode. Confidence ratings suggest that participants' performance was consistently correlated with confidence, indicating that they became aware of whether they were right in their responses; that is, they possessed explicit judgment knowledge. Altogether our findings show incidental learning in a realistic ecologically valid context during only a very short exposure, they provide evidence that incidental learning constitutes a powerful mechanism that plays a fundamental role in musical acquisition.     

La connaissance des lettres chez les prélecteurs : aspects pronostiques, fonctionnels et diagnostiques

Letter-name knowledge measured during preschool years is one of the best predictors of reading achievement at the end of first grade. Starting from this longstanding and robust result, this paper aims at showing that letter knowledge is a critical preschool acquisition. Many findings are reported to emphasize its positive role, on the one hand at the beginning of learning to read, on the other hand, in the early steps of literacy. Backwardness and disabilities in letter learning, observed among pre- and beginning readers, are described in order to shed light on particular problems encountered by low-income and future dyslexic children. Some educative purposes are outlined in conclusion.     

The role of working memory capacity in implicit and explicit sequence learning of children: Differentiating movement speed and accuracy

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity on implicit and explicit motor sequence learning in young children. To this end, a task was utilized that required a gross motor response (flexing the elbow) and that could differentiate between movement speed (i.e., reaction time and movement time) and movement accuracy. Children aged 7–9 years practiced a serial reaction time task that involved the production of a fixed sequence of elbow flexions of prescribed magnitude across two consecutive days. Children in the explicit group were informed about the presence of the sequence and were shown this sequence, while children in the implicit group were not made aware of the sequence. Additionally, children's verbal and visuospatial working memory capacity was assessed. Results of day 1 regarding movement speed revealed no evidence of sequence learning for either group, but movement accuracy results suggested that sequence learning occurred for the implicit group. For both groups, only improvements in movement accuracy were consolidated on day 2, indicating both general and sequence specific learning. Working memory capacity did not correlate with learning in either of the groups. Children in the explicit group accumulated more sequence knowledge compared to children in the implicit group, but this knowledge did not translate to more or better sequence learning. The minimal differences found between the implicit and explicit condition and the absence of a role for working memory capacity add to the increasing evidence that the observed differences between implicit and explicit sequence learning in adults may be less distinct in children.     

Early language and the development of children's reading skills

There is considerable agreement that vocabulary plays a central role in reading acquisition, but there is less agreement about whether this association is direct or indirect through phonological and print-related knowledge. Longitudinal data from 77 African-American children were analyzed to examine the relationship between language skills, phonological knowledge and print processing skills at pre-kindergarten and kindergarten with reading at pre-kindergarten through second grade. Analyses indicated that home and child care experiences were related to reading indirectly through language and that language and phonological knowledge were both directly related to acquisition of reading skill. This study of African-American children and previous studies of lower- and middle-income children indicate both language and phonological skills play an important role in children becoming successful readers, and that experiences at home and in child care during in early childhood play a role in the acquisition of reading through their enhancement of early language and phonological skills.     

Early predictors of letter knowledge

This study examined the influence of phonological memory and rapid naming on the development of letter knowledge. Participants were 77 Dutch children, who were followed from the start of their first kindergarten year (mean age 4 years 6.8 months) to the end of their second kindergarten year. Phonological memory was assessed by a nonword repetition test and a sentence repetition test. Rapid naming involved object naming. The study revealed found a substantial effect of phonological memory on the acquisition of letter knowledge that was particularly related to the ability to repeat nonwords. Vocabulary knowledge did not have an independent effect on letter learning after phonological memory was controlled. The study also showed a small effect of rapid naming on the acquisition of letter knowledge that was independent of the effect of phonological memory. Finally, the study also provided further evidence for a specific relation between phonological memory and vocabulary acquisition.     

LEARNING TO READ IN ARABIC: READING,SYNTACTIC, ORTHOGRAPHIC AND WORKING MEMORY SKILLS IN NORMALLY ACHIEVING AND POOR ARABIC READERS

ABSTRACT

While many studies point to a positive relationship between phonological skills and reading in English, little is known about these relationships for children learning to read in Arabic. Arabic orthography is considered deep if it is not vowelized but shallow if it is vowelized. The aim of this study was to examine the relationships among reading ability, phonological, semantic, orthographic and syntactic skills in Arabic. The participants were 143 Arab children, aged 8‐11, in Arab villages of central Israel. They were administered working memory, visual, oral close, phonological, word recognition, spelling, orthographic, and word attack tests. The results showed that word recognition test was highly correlated with phonological skills, semantic processing, syntactic knowledge and short‐term memory. Poor readers showed a significant lag in the development of these skills, the problems being most significant at phonological and semantic levels and less so at the visual levels. The similarities and differences between the acquisition of reading skills in Arabic and English are discussed.     

Degree of illiteracy and phonological and metaphonological skills in unschooled adults

Phonological and metaphonological skills are explored in 97 Brazilian illiterate and semiliterate adults. A simple letter- and word-reading task was used to define the degree of illiteracy. Phonemic awareness was strongly dependent on the level of letter and word reading ability. Phonological memory was very low in illiterates and unrelated to letter knowledge. Rhyme identification was relatively preserved in illiterates and semiliterates, and unrelated to letter and word reading level. Phonetic discrimination (minimal pairs) was fairly good and marginally related to reading ability. These results suggest that phonological sensitivity, phonological memory, rhyme identification, and phonemic awareness are distinctive cognitive processes, and that only phonemic awareness is clearly and strongly dependent on the alphabetical acquisition.     

Introduction

ABSTRACT

Subjects for the study were 65 children whose ages ranged from 5.6 to 9.5 years. Tasks from the Downing‐Oliver (1973‐1974) study were used to explore children's knowledge of spoken words and the relationship between this knowledge and reading achievement. Five examples from each of eight classes of auditory stimuli were presented to the child who indicated whether or not each example heard was a spoken word. Results from the investigation led the researcher to the following conclusions: (1) the average child's knowledge of a spoken word improves with age; and (2) significant relationships exist between children's knowledge of spoken words and reading achievement.