Orthography, Word Recognition, and Reading

Orthographies differ from one another in terms of their scripts and in the specifics of the mapping from script to linguistic unit. Orthographic depth, the complexity of the mapping from script to language, modulates the ease with which an orthography is learned. Within an orthography, the consistency or regularity of a particular spelling pattern will temper the difficulty with which written words containing that pattern can be recognized. There is hope for a unified cross-orthography account of visual word recognition, although details of how non-alphabetic writing systems (e.g., syllabaries, morpho-syllabaries, alphasyllabaries) may be fit into theoretical frameworks built on a foundation of empirical work on alphabetic reading are not entirely clear. There is a substantial gap in the literature with regard to reading and literacy in languages that make use of non-alphabetic writing systems. This euro-centric bias in reading research continues to limit advances in our understanding of the potential for literacy as a universal human capacity.

Multisensory Associative Guided Instruction Components-Spelling

This article describes a multisensory presentation and response system for enhancing the spelling ability of dyslexic children. The unique aspect of MAGICSpell is its system of finger–letter associations and simplified keyboard configuration. Sixteen 10- and 11-year-old dyslexic students practiced the finger–letter associations via various typing games. They then were tested on the spelling of four-letter words with the “er” sound bordered on each end by a consonant. A pretest revealed that the students spelled the target words correctly 3% of the time. After practice with MAGICSpell, the correct responses rose to 84% for the practiced words. The students also significantly increased correct responses for nonpracticed words of the same spelling pattern. This trend held for both typing with the MAGICSpell configuration and writing responses.

Traditional and Virtual in Nigerian Oral English Pedagogy

This study examines the emerging phenomena in Nigerian oral English pedagogy in the light of recent developments in Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) worldwide. It compares learners’ sensitivity to the long established traditional classroom learning and the recently established internet-based (virtual) learning through a questionnaire methodology. Findings reveal that the influence of internet browsing and electronic dictionary-sourcing on oral English learners in Nigeria is becoming pronounced and the learning methodology preferred. The widespread American spelling pattern acquired through the aforementioned means is impacting learners’ performance as sound-spelling compliant English words enjoyed 75% patronage despite previous traditional classroom culture. The study suggests that oral English teachers embrace new and integrative teaching methodologies for the teaching and assessment of learners in line with recent technological developments.

Deafness, Spelling and Rhyme: How Spelling Supports Written Word and Picture Rhyming Skills in Deaf Subjects

Orally trained, congenitally deaf adolescents and hearing, reading-age-matched control subjects made rhyme judgements for pictures and for written words. Hearing children performed the task accurately. By contrast, the deaf group were very poor at rhyme judgement for words and for pictures. For hearing children, word rhyme judgement was more accurate when the words were congruent in their spelling pattern (e.g. bat/hat), less accurate when the spelling pattern of the rhyming words was incongruent ( hair/bear). Deaf subjects showed an even more pronounced effect of spelling congruence; their ability to match for rhyme when written words did not share the same spelling pattern was extremely poor. Moreover, spelling congruence predicted deaf subjects’ picture rhyming skills. We conclude that oral training for deaf people does not always permit them to achieve a reliable phonological representation of speech from lip-reading and residual hearing alone. Instead they use the written spelling of the word. This result is not predicted from some previous results that suggest that orally trained deaf people can make direct, spontaneous use of rhyme in the processing of visually presented material.

Lexical Priming and Sound-to-Spelling Contingency Effects in Nonword Spelling

Campbell (1983) demonstrated that nonword spelling may be influenced by the spelling patterns of previously heard, rhyming words (“lexical priming”). We report an experiment that compares two nonword spelling tasks: an experimental (“priming”) task, in which nonwords were preceded by rhyming words of different spellings (as in Campbell's task), and a free-spelling task in which only nonwords are presented. The frequency of production of critical spelling patterns was significantly greater in the experimental task than in the free-spelling task (a lexical priming effect). However, there were, and equally for both tasks, significant and substantial effects of sound-to-spelling contingency (i.e. the frequency with which spelling patterns represent vowel phonemes in words): subjects produced more high-contingency (i.e. common) spelling patterns of vowels than low-contingency (rare) spellings. Further, within high-contingency spelling patterns, subjects more frequently produced the most common spelling correspondence of vowels than the second most common spelling. The results are interpreted within a proposed model of assembled spelling, in which it is suggested that there exist a set of probabilistic sound-to-spelling mappings that relate vowel phonemes to weighted lists of alternative spelling patterns ordered by sound-to-spelling contingency, but that the selection of a spelling pattern from such lists is open to lexical influence.

Visual Motor Ability in Normal and Disabled Readers

A group of 42 third graders were grouped equally into sequentially deficient, simultaneously deficient, and normal readers based on their performance on Boder Reading and Spelling Pattern Test and Gates-Macginitie Reading Test. The subjects were then administered Bender Visual-motor Gestalt Test. There were significant differences among the three groups; the simultaneous-deficient group committed the most errors on the Bender test. The results were related to reading.

Word Mediation and Generalization in Beginning Readers

It has been theorized that children learning to read identify, retain, and use regular spelling-to-sound vowel and consonant combinations to decode unknown words. Some research indicates that the use of letter combinations to mediate unknown words is developmental, and generated by reading experience. One hundred and seventy-seven first and second grade students were administered a reading achievement test and three spelling pattern tests of vowel combinations to determine if accelerated beginning readers learning to recognize words with and without formal instruction differ from average and low beginning readers in the kind and amount of grapheme-phoneme correspondences they can pronounce. The data indicate that beginning readers with advanced word recognition skills may use different word mediation strategies, identify letter combinations that are rule related, and recognize spelling patterns that are defined as higher ordered correspondences. Previous method of instruction, age, and school did not influence test performance. Advanced readers at first and second grade induced more spelling patterns regardless of presentation. The study supports several contentions made by different theorists about how children learn to read, and specifically, endorses the position of Gibson (1971) that some form of perceptual learning occurs without intention and instruction as the child's reading experiences increase.