Understanding Language Attrition through Orthography

The decay in the proficiency of the native language (L1), known as first language attrition, is one of the least understood phenomena associated with the acquisition of a second language (L2). Indeed, the exact cause for the deterioration in L1 performance, be that either the interference from L2 acquisition or the less frequent use of L1, still remains elusive. In this opinion paper, we focus on one largely understudied aspect of L1 attrition—namely, the erosion of the L1 orthographic knowledge under the influence of L2 orthography. In particular, we propose to study differences in orthographic processing between mono- and bilingual populations as an approach, which, in turn, will allow to address both cognitive and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying L1 attrition. We discuss relevant experimental paradigms, variable manipulations and appropriate research methods that may help disentangle the largely debated question of L2 interference vs. L1 disuse, clarifying the nature of the L1 orthographic attrition.

Orthographic Knowledge and Clue Word Facilitated Spelling in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Purpose This study investigated the orthographic knowledge and how orthographic and phonological information could support children with developmental language disorder (DLD) to make more accurate spelling attempts. Method Children with DLD ( N = 37) were matched with chronological age–matched (CAM) children and language age–matched children. These children completed specific and general orthographic knowledge tasks as well as spelling task conditions with either no clue word (pretest), a phonological clue word, or an orthographic clue word. Results Children with DLD were significantly less accurate in their specific orthographic knowledge, compared with CAM children, but had similar scores for general orthographic knowledge to CAM children. Children with DLD and both controls had significantly higher spelling scores in the orthographic clue word condition compared with a pretest pseudoword spelling task. Conclusions Children with DLD acquire the general knowledge of a written language's orthography but, possibly through less print exposure, have less well-represented word-specific orthographic knowledge. Moreover, children with DLD are able to extract the orthographic features of a clue word and employ these to produce more accurate spellings. These findings offer support for a spelling intervention approach based on orthography.

The abc of the b and c in Spanish: inconsistent and context dependent letter errors and the development of orthographic knowledge in primary school children

This study presents the results of a cross-sectional reading and spelling assessment conducted among 118 Spanish children in 3rd, 4th and 5th grade. The first aim was to explore whether children´s use of orthographic knowledge was modulated by lexical variables—word frequency and orthographic neighborhood—or sublexical variables—context-dependent, inconsistent or neutral letters- as well as the developmental pathway of such knowledge in both tasks. The second aim was to provide insight into the type of errors committed by children in order to detect the words and structures that convey most difficulties. Data showed that children rely on sublexical processes more than on lexical ones in reading and writing. Persistent errors in context-dependent and inconsistent letters were evident even in 5th grade, and writing involved greater difficulty in all grades. The presence of other type of errors such as substitutions, omissions or lexicalizations was negligible. Finally, an item analysis revealed that errors were located in low-frequency syllables, particularly in the first position. Data point to specific and persistent difficulties in context-dependent and inconsistent letters that may hinder the consolidation of accurate orthographic word representations in Spanish.

Reading Process of Arab Children: An Eye-Tracking Study on Saudi Elementary Students

Many previous eye-tracking studies were conducted to examine how adult readers process different written languages. Relatively, only few eye-tracking studies have been conducted to observe the reading process of Arab children. This study investigated the influence of orthographic regularity on Saudi elementary grades’ English and Arabic words recognition. The eye movements of 15 grade-four students and 15 grade-six students were recorded while they read words that differ in frequency and regularity. Analysis of the visual information from the word-recognition process shows differences in the students’ eye movements for the two languages. There were statistically significant differences in the total fixation duration and fixation count between the two languages and between both groups. All the students showed longer processing time for English sentences than Arabic ones. However, Arabic-speaking students were influenced by English orthography with more processing difficulty for English irregular words. The visual information shows that more cross-linguistic differences are found in grade-four students’ results. Grade-four students transferred their first language (L1) reading strategies to read English words; however, Arabic reading methods cannot be effectively applied to reading irregular orthographies like English. This explains the increased eye-movement measurements of grade-four students compared to grade-six students, who fixated more on unfamiliar English words. Although orthographic regularity had a major effect on the word-recognition process in this study, the development of the students’ Arabic and English orthographic knowledge affected the progress of their visual word recognition across the two levels.

EXPRESS: Lexicality Effects on Orthographic Learning in Beginning and Advanced Readers of Dutch: An Eye-tracking Study

Orthographic learning is the topic of many recent studies about reading, but much is still unknown about conditions that affect orthographic learning and their influence on reading fluency development over time. This study investigated lexicality effects on orthographic learning in beginning and relatively advanced readers of Dutch. Eye movements of 131 children in Grades 2 and 5 were monitored during an orthographic learning task. Children read sentences containing pseudowords or low-frequency real words that varied in number of exposures. We examined both offline learning outcomes (i.e., orthographic choice and spelling dictation) of target items and online gaze durations on target words. The results showed general effects of exposure, lexicality, and reading-skill level. Also, a two-way interaction was found between the number of exposures and lexicality when detailed orthographic representations were required, consistent with a larger overall effect of exposure on learning the spellings of pseudowords. Moreover, lexicality and reading-skill level were found to affect the learning rate across exposures based on a decrease in gaze durations, indicating a larger learning effect for pseudowords in Grade 5 children. Yet, further interactions between exposure and reading-skill level were not present, indicating largely similar learning curves for beginning and advanced readers. We concluded that the reading system of more advanced readers may cope somewhat better with words varying in lexicality, but is not more efficient than that of beginning readers in building up orthographic knowledge of specific words across repeated exposures. Keywords: Eye tracking, lexicality, literacy development, orthographic learning, reading fluency.

Biscriptal bilingualism differentially affects segmentation of cross-language homophones: Evidence from Hindi and English users

Aims and objectives: Few previous studies of bilingual cognition have theorized the impact of being literate in distinct orthographies. This study examined: (1) How do differences in the way writing systems represent sound affect biscriptal bilinguals’ segmentation of spoken words in each language? and (2) What is the impact of the first learned orthography? These questions were addressed in native and non-native readers of Hindi and English. The primary unit of writing in Hindi is the akshara, which corresponds to a syllable in most cases, whereas for English the unit of writing corresponds to a phoneme. Method: Hindi-English users listened to cross-language homophones in Hindi and English. Participants were instructed to take away “the first sound” of each word and say aloud what remained. Data analysis: Percent deletion of the initial phoneme was examined. Exp. 1 included 44 bilinguals. Exp. 2 tested 13 bilinguals. Findings/conclusions: For native English readers the first phoneme was deleted regardless of language. For native readers of Hindi, performance differed by language: the “first sound” was a phoneme for English words but a syllable for Hindi words (except for vowel-initial words). Originality: Using a novel paradigm, this study demonstrates that biscriptal bilinguals’ conceptions of speech sounds are differentially shaped by their knowledge of the written forms of those sounds: deleting “the first sound” in /sʌfʌr/ resulted in /fʌr/ when it was presented as a Hindi word but as /ʌfʌr/ when presented as English. Thus, the very same spoken word can yield different conceptions depending on whether it is heard as a word belonging to one language or another. Significance/implications: The findings indicate that language-specific orthographic knowledge influences biscriptal bilinguals’ conceptualization of speech sounds in their respective languages. More generally, our study argues for more research on biscriptal bilinguals in the study of bilingual cognition.

Examining the growth trajectories and cognitive predictors of reading in a consistent orthography: Evidence from a 10-year longitudinal study

We examined the growth trajectories of reading in a consistent orthography (Greek) in two developmental periods (from Grade 1 to Grade 4 and from Grade 4 to Grade 10) and what cognitive skills predict the growth patterns. Seventy-five Greek-speaking children were assessed in Grades 1, 2, 4, 6, and 10 on word-, nonword-, and text-reading fluency. In Grades 1 and 4, they were also assessed on phonological awareness, rapid naming, phonological memory, orthographic knowledge, and articulation rate. Results of growth curve modeling showed that during the first developmental period, there was a rapid initial growth from Grade 1 to Grade 2 followed by a less rapid growth from Grade 2 to Grade 4. In the second developmental period, the slow growth continued. In both developmental periods, rapid naming and orthographic knowledge predicted the initial status of all reading outcomes and phonological memory predicted the initial status of nonword-reading fluency. Phonological awareness predicted the initial status of nonword-reading fluency in the first developmental period and the initial status of word- and text-reading fluency in the second developmental period. None of the cognitive skills predicted the growth rate in reading skills. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Online activation of L1 Danish orthography enhances spoken word recognition of Swedish

It has been reported that speakers of Danish understand more Swedish than vice versa. One reason for this asymmetry might be that spoken Swedish is closer to written Danish than vice versa. We hypothesise that literate speakers of Danish use their orthographic knowledge of Danish to decode spoken Swedish. To test this hypothesis, first-language (L1) Danish speakers were confronted with spoken Swedish in a translation task. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were elicited to study the online brain responses during decoding operations. Results showed that ERPs to words whose Swedish pronunciation was inconsistent with the Danish spelling were significantly more negative-going than ERPs to words whose Swedish pronunciation was consistent with the Danish spelling between 750 ms and 900 ms after stimulus onset. Together with higher word-recognition scores for consistent items, our data provide strong evidence that online activation of L1 orthography enhances word recognition of spoken Swedish in literate speakers of Danish.