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Preparing to Read: The Foundations of Literacy
... Numerous studies have shown that early childhood is the optimal period for second language learning and even some researchers talk about this stage as the critical period (Bialystok, 1996;Hakuta, 2001;Hakuta et al., 2003;Singleton, 2005;Larson-Hall, 2008;Drew, 2009). Likewise, some researchers have focused on the benefits of early language acquisition for better pronunciation (Pfenninger & Singleton, 2017). ...
... Numerous studies have shown that early childhood is the optimal period for second language learning and even some researchers talk about this stage as the critical period (Bialystok, 1996;Hakuta, 2001;Hakuta et al., 2003;Singleton, 2005;Larson-Hall, 2008;Drew, 2009). Likewise, some researchers have focused on the benefits of early language acquisition for better pronunciation (Pfenninger & Singleton, 2017). ...
The CLIL pedagogical approach has put forward a notion of culture that goes beyond celebrating traditions and imitating the ways of living of stereotyped groups of native speakers. This challenging perception goes hand in hand with the societal need to promote intercultural understanding, which has been found to be at the core of severe social problems, such as social exclusion, gender inequality or racial discrimination. In this chapter, we will unveil the potential of literature to develop intercultural competence in pre-primary CLIL classrooms from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. The present contribution has a twofold objective, as it attempts to inform future research while also guiding classroom practice to promote CLIL intercultural education through literature. The last section of the chapter presents a real experience using Handa's Surprise in the pre-primary classroom in order to provide an authentic example of the use of children’s literature with intercultural purposes.
... According to Bialystok (1996), children growing up in different language environments may follow different routes in literacy development. Linguistic context and language exposure may vary greatly, depending on whether a language is learnt as a first language, a second language or a foreign language. ...
This study investigated the concurrent contributions of three components of metalinguistic awareness (i.e., phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and syntactic awareness) to the writing competence of primary three English–Chinese bilingual children in Singapore (n = 390) and monolingual Chinese-speaking children in Mainland China (n = 190). Hierarchical regression analyses found that the three components of metalinguistic awareness differed in their contributions to writing competence across the languages and between the two groups of children, with morphological awareness and syntactic awareness explaining markedly more variance than phonological awareness. Furthermore, SEM results revealed a robust cross-linguistic association between English and Chinese metalinguistic awareness in the bilingual children, which appeared to jointly undergird and support writing competence in both languages. Finally, home language use significantly predicted not only the bilingual children’s English metalinguistic awareness but also their writing performance in Chinese. These findings lend support to Cummins’s Common Underlying Proficiency and Developmental Interdependence Hypotheses, and underscore the importance of language context, formal instruction, and language features in children’s literacy development.
... La relación entre lenguaje oral y lectura comprensiva se ha destacado en la adquisición de lectura. Bialystok (1993) y Rack, Hulme y Snowling (1993) afirman que el aprendizaje de la lectura se construye con base en el sistema de lenguaje que el niño ya conoce, es decir, el lenguaje oral. El lector principiante tiene que aprender la relación entre la forma hablada y la escrita del lenguaje (Dickinson y Smith, 1994;Lindsey, Manis y Bailey, 2003;y Senechal y LeFevre, 2002). ...
Boys and girls in the 5th grade were tested to evaluate the effect of extant abilities on reading comprehension. Experiment 1 examined how differences in lexical repertoires influence the level of reading comprehension; Experiment 2 examined the effect of providing a thematic background for the target text on reading comprehension; and Experiment 3 examined the effect of training instrumental skills (executive, imaginative, and theoretical) on reading comprehension. Results showed a positive correlation between lexical repertoire and comprehension; no effect of providing targeted thematic material; a positive correlation between instrumental skills and comprehension; and a demonstration that executive skills are more easily mastered. These findings are discussed in terms of different functional levels of reading comprehension.
... Due to a lack of Chinese exposure in school, literacy practice at home may be more critical for Chinese learning and maintenance ( Xiao, 1998 ). Since language learning contexts are important for children's literacy development, children in different contexts may follow different developmental trajectories ( Bialystok, 1996 ). In the present study, we compared similarities and differences in how Chinese children and Canadian-Chinese children acquire orthographic skills. ...
This study investigated young Chinese children’s development of orthographic processing and the factors that contribute to development. The investigation was carried out in both China and Canada to examine the effect of language learning contexts on the development of orthographic processing. Participants were ninety-four kindergarten and Grade 1 children in the Mainland of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and ninety-one kindergarten and Grade 1 Canadian–Chinese children in Canada. Children received a battery of measures twice roughly 1 year apart, including Chinese and English orthographic discrimination, radical position awareness, phonological awareness (syllable and phonemic awareness), character reading, and rapid digit naming. Children's home print exposure was measured by a questionnaire at the onset of the study. In both countries, children were able to differentiate between Chinese and English orthographic
units at the beginning of kindergarten. Children in China, however, developed more advanced radical position awareness than their counterparts in Canada. Moreover, different factors contributed to individual differences in Chinese orthographic processing in different learning environments. In China, the phonological awareness and character reading measures significantly predicted radical position
awareness, whereas in Canada, home print exposure was the most consistent predictor across different testing times. The differences observed between the two groups of children underscore the impact of language learning environment on the development of orthographic processing.
Interest in cognitive development has been resurgent in recent years as a result of continuing improvements in technology and the new methods of research these enable. Introducing Cognitive Development brings a new focus and clarity to this theoretically complex area. Using numerous illustrations and examples it describes the specific changes that occur in cognition from infancy and throughout childhood. The reader is introduced to the topic with a review of traditional approaches to the study of cognitive development and a consideration of recent advances in the field, particularly in cognitive science. Key issues, including the relative contributions of nature and nurture, domain generality versus domain specificity and the child's own role in his/her development are considered in relation to a range of topics such as: The development of representational abilities. Theory of mind and social cognition. Development of language. This book provides an accessible introduction to cognitive development suitable for undergraduate students in psychology and related disciplines, as well as anyone involved in working with children.
This study examined preschool teachers’ (n=59) explicit print instruction during shared reading and considered whether the benefits of this practice to children's learning (n=379) varied as a function of the classroom environment and children's developmental characteristics. Measures of explicit print instruction and the classroom environment (global classroom quality, literacy environment) were obtained by aggregating observations taken across the 30 weeks of the study. Child outcomes were measured as spring print knowledge performance, controlling for fall. Child developmental characteristics were measured directly (language ability) and indirectly (attentional skills) in fall and winter, respectively. Findings showed that explicit print instruction contributed to children's learning, but its benefits decreased as the quality of the classroom and children's attentional skills increased. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Purpose
Many children with specific language impairment (SLI) demonstrate delays in print knowledge, yet the reasons for these delays are not well understood. The present study investigates the degree to which developmental risk factors and home literacy experiences predict the print knowledge of children with SLI.
Method
Direct child measures, maternal reports, and observations from 41 mothers and their preschool-aged children with SLI assessed child language and attentional difficulties, family socioeconomic status, the frequency and quality of home literacy, and children’s print knowledge.
Results
Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that individual differences in children’s oral language abilities did not explain individual variability in print knowledge. The quality of home literacy was the only significant predictor of print knowledge, but its influence was moderated by children’s attentional difficulties.
Conclusions
Findings reveal that language difficulty is not an adequate explanation for the print knowledge delays of children with SLI and suggest that literacy experiences may play an important role in the print knowledge attainment of children with SLI. The quality of home literacy appears to foster print knowledge by compensating for attentional difficulties in children with SLI but is not sufficient to promote print knowledge in children with SLI without attentional difficulties.
The development of a variety of grammatical-sensitivity and phonological skills was studied in 138 normally achieving, 65 reading-disabled, 63 arithmetic-disabled, and 15 attention deficit disordered (hyperactive) children 7 to 14 years old. Word recognition and phonics skills were highly related, and reading comprehension and phonics skills were less so. Grammatical sensitivity and short-term memory were significantly correlated with a variety of reading skills. Children with a reading disability showed a significant lag in the development of grammatical sensitivity and short-term memory and an even greater deficit in phonological skills. The children with a specific arithmetic disability had adequate grammatical abilities, but below-average memory skills at all ages. Children with an attention deficit but normal achievement scores did not have any major difficulties except on a reading-comprehension task that appears to have significant memory and attention components. The acquisition of reading skills is closely related to the development of grammatical and phonological skills, and deficiencies in these areas are related to difficulties with the acquisition of written language skills.
Three bodies of research that have developed in relative isolation center on each of three kinds of phonological processing: phonological awareness, awareness of the sound structure of language; phonological recoding in lexical access, recoding written symbols into a sound-based representational system to get from the written word to its lexical referent; and phonetic recoding in working memory, recoding written symbols into a sound-based representational system to maintain them efficiently in working memory. In this review we integrate these bodies of research and address the interdependent issues of the nature of phonological abilities and their causal roles in the acquisition of reading skills. Phonological ability seems to be general across tasks that purport to measure the three kinds of phonological processing, and this generality apparently is independent of general cognitive ability. However, the generality of phonological ability is not complete, and there is an empirical basis for distinguishing phonological awareness and phonetic recoding in working memory. Our review supports a causal role for phonological awareness in learning to read, and suggests the possibility of similar causal roles for phonological recoding in lexical access and phonetic recoding in working memory. Most researchers have neglected the probable causal role of learning to read in the development of phonological skills. It is no longer enough to ask whether phonological skills play a causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. The question now is which aspects of phonological processing (e.g., awareness, recoding in lexical access, recoding in working memory) are causally related to which aspects of reading (e.g., word recognition, word analysis, sentence comprehension), at which point in their codevelopment, and what are the directions of these causal relations?
Twenty-five children, selected for verbal precocity at 20 months of age, participated in a longitudinal study investigating predictors of later language and literacy skills. Although children remained verbally precocious, there was a low incidence of precocious reading. Exposure to instruction in letter names and sounds was a significant predictor of children's knowledge of print conventions, invented spelling, and phonological awareness at age 4 1/2. Frequency of story reading in the home and child engagement in a story reading episode at age 24 months were significant predictors of children's language ability at age 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 and knowledge of print conventions at age 4 1/2. It is concluded that story reading with parents as well as literacy instruction contributes to the development of emergent literacy in verbally precocious children.
The authors tested theoretical models of the development of print concepts and word reading. Eighteen measures of print concepts and word reading were obtained from 81 children three to seven years of age. A five-component model hypothesized from previous findings fit the data better than a four- or two-component model. The five component model included a concepts-about-print component which influenced a graphic awareness component, which in turn influenced a phonemic awareness component, which influenced a grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge component, which ultimately influenced a word reading component; in addition, concepts about print also influenced grapheme-phoneme correspondence knowledge. According to results of developmental analyses, children expand their knowledge in each of these print components with age. /// [French] Les auteurs ont testé modèles théoriques de développement des concepts de l'écriture et la capacité de lecture des mots. On a recueilli 18 évaluations des concepts de l'écriture et de la lecture chez 81 enfants âgés de trois à sept ans. Un modèle hypothétique à cinq composantes semblait mieux convenir qu'un modèle à quatre ou deux composantes. Le modèle à cinq composantes présentait une composante de concepts de l'écriture influençant la composante de conscience graphique, influençant à son tour la composante de conscience phonémique, influençant la composante de connaissance de la correspondance graphème-phonème, laquelle influençait finalement la composante de lecture des mots; d'autre part, les concepts de l'écriture influençaient aussi la connaissance de la correspondance graphème-phonème. Selon les résultats des analyses de développement, la connaissance de chacune de ces composantes de l'écriture s'accroît avec l'âge chez l'enfant. /// [Spanish] Los autores probaron dos modelos teóricos de desarrollo sobre conceptos de la letra impresa y lectura de palabras. Se obtuvieron 18 medidas de conceptos de la letra impresa y lectura por palabra de 81 niños de tres a siete años de edad. Un modelo hipotético de cinco componentes corresponde mejor a los datos que lo que los modelos de cuatro o de dos componentes lo hacen. El modelo de cinco componentes incluía un componente de conceptos sobre la letra impresa que influía en un componente de percepción gráfica, el que a su vez influyó en el componente de percepción fonémica, que influenció en un componente de conocimiento de correspondencia de grafema-fonema, que por último influyó en el componente de palabra-lectura; además, los conceptos acerca de la palabra impresa también influyeron en el conocimiento de la correspondencia grafema-fonema. De acuerdo a los resultados del análisis de desarrollo, los niños expanden su conocimiento en cada uno de estos componentes de la letra impresa con la edad. /// [German] Die autoren prüften theoretische Vorbilder der Entwicklung von Druck-Vorstellungen und Lesen. Achtzehn Einheiten von Druck-Vorstellungen und Lesen wurden von 81 Kindern zwischen drei und sieben Jahren erhalten. Ein hypothetisches Fünf-Komponenten-Vorbild entspricht den Daten mehr als ein Vier- oder Zwei-Komponenten-Vorbild. Das Fünf-Komponenten-Vorbild enhielt eine Vorstellung-über-Gedrucktes-Komponente, welche eine graphische Erkenntnis-Komponente beeinflußte, welche dann ihrerseits eine phonetische Erkenntnis-Komponente beeinflußte, welche eine graphisch-phonetische Verbindungswissens-Komponente beeinflußte, welche dann letzten Endes eine Lese-Komponente beeinflußte; ausserdem beeinflußten Vorstellungen über Gedrucktes graphisch-phonetisches Verbindungswissen. Wie die Ergebnisse von Entwicklungs-Analysen zeigen, erweitern Kinder mit zunehmendem Alter ihr Wissen von all diesen Druck-Komponenten.
Learning to read and write depends on abilities that are language related but that go beyond the ordinary abilities required for speaking and listening. Research has shown that the success of learners, whether they are children or adults, is related to the degree to which they are aware of the underlying phonological structure of words. Poor readers are often unable to segment words into their phonological constituents and may have other phonological deficiencies as well. Their difficulties in naming objects and in comprehending sentences, for example, may also stem from a basic problem in the phonological domain.
Drawing upon scholarship in the classics and in anthropology, Kieran Egan traces the richness of oral forms of expression used in non-literate societies from ancient times to the present. In the absence of written records, these peoples have used a particular array of intellectual resources and strategies in order to make sense of their world and to preserve their cultural histories. All children, before they learn to read and write, also depend upon the spoken word for learning and communication; the author therefore suggests that a better understanding of orality may help us to gain a fuller sense of the cognitive tasks that children undertake during their transition from orality to literacy.
Studied acquisition of the alphabetic principle in preliterate children, 3–5 yrs. The dependent variable throughout was a forced-choice between, e.g., "mow" and "sow" as pronunciations for the written word
mow after the child had been taught to read the words
mat and
sat. Reliable performance on this transfer task was only achieved by children who (a) understood two aspects of phonological organization—phonemic segmentation of the speech items and the identity of their initial segments, and (b) had learned graphic symbols for the sounds "m" and "s." Most children who demonstrated alphabetic insight with symbols in word-initial position were also successful at transfer when the symbols were word-final. Thus, phonemic awareness and grapheme-phoneme knowledge were needed in combination for acquisition of the alphabetic principle, and, once gained, alphabetic insight proved relatively robust. Implications for reading acquisition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this article, 3 views of the relation between various forms of phonological awareness (detection of rhyme and alliteration and detection of phonemes) and children's reading were tested. These are (a) that the experience of learning to read leads to phoneme awareness and that neither of these is connected to awareness of rhyme, (b) that sensitivity to rhyme leads to awareness of phonemes, which in turn affects reading, and (c) that rhyme makes a direct contribution to reading that is independent of the connection between reading and phoneme awareness. The results from a longitudinal study that monitored the phonological awareness and progress in reading and spelling of 65 children from the ages of 4 years 7 months to 6 years 7 months produced strong support for a combination of the 2nd and 3rd models and none at all for the 1st model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Outlines the important similarities in the development of both language and literacy, drawing on research findings and the author's case study of a young boy as he learned to talk and read. S was tape-recorded at home (from 18–36 mo of age) during everyday activities such as meals, dressing, undressing, playtimes, and reading books. It is concluded that the characteristics of parent–child interaction that support language acquisition—semantic contingency, scaffolding, accountability procedures, and the use of routines—also facilitate early reading and writing development. The author dismisses the explanation that variations in the level of literacy in the home are responsible for social class differences in school achievement. It is emphasized that there are distinctive ways in which middle-class families prepare preschoolers to understand and produce decontextualized language. (62 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In a cross-sectional study of 184 kindergarten and 2nd grade students, confirmatory factor analysis of a battery of phonological and control tasks were used to compare alternative models of young readers' phonological processing abilities. The authors found evidence for 5 distinct but correlated phonological processing abilities. Latent phonological processing abilities were more highly correlated with general cognitive ability than previous reports would suggest, although they accounted for variance in word recognition independent of general cognitive ability. The results of this study, coupled with those of a previous study of prereaders, suggest that phonological abilities are best conceptualized as relatively stable and coherent individual difference attributes, as opposed to relatively unstable measures of reading-related knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Argues that segmental analysis ability does not develop without specific stimulation and that it usually appears when learning to read and write in an alphabetic system. It is also argued that segmental analysis ability can develop outside learning to read in the alphabetic system, that it contributes to success in reading and writing, and that it is a good predictor of reading ability even when learning to read in a whole-word setting. Several forms of phonological awareness are distinguished, and it is claimed that rhyme appreciation and manipulation do not require segmental analysis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigates the ability of a dynamic measure of phonemic awareness to predict progress in beginning reading. 38 kindergartners who were nonreaders were assessed in the fall on receptive vocabulary, letter and word recognition, invented spelling, phoneme segmentation, phoneme deletion, and dynamic phoneme segmentation. They were retested near the end of the school year on reading, spelling, and phonemic awareness. The results of the multiple-regression analyses supported the hypothesis that dynamic assessment enhances the predictive utility of a phonemic awareness measure. Performance on dynamic phoneme segmentation was the best predictor of end-of-year reading scores and of growth in phonemic awareness. The study demonstrates the applicability of principles of dynamic assessment to the measurement of phonemic awareness and provides further evidence regarding the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading acquisition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Sought to determine whether the Reading Recovery Program would be more effective if systematic instruction in phonological recoding skills were incorporated into the program. First-grade at-risk readers were divided into 3 matched groups of 32 children each; a modified Reading Recovery group, a standard Reading Recovery group, and a standard intervention group. The children in the modified Reading Recovery group received explicit code instruction involving phonograms. Results indicated that, although both Reading Recovery groups achieved levels of reading performance required for discontinuation of the program, the modified Reading Recovery group reached these levels of performance much more quickly. Results further indicated that the children selected for Reading Recovery were particularly deficient in phonological processing skills and that their progress in the program was strongly related to the development of these skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Videotapes of play behavior were made each month for a year at the homes of 5 girls, ages 14–19 mo. S's play with a standard set of toys was scored using a scale of 8 categories of realism vs symbolism based on Piaget's description of the process of cognitive development. Ss' play progressed from realistic to symbolic stages at different ages, but followed the same orderly sequence of stages. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the assumptions that phonemic segmentation skill is learned best in the oral mode and that teaching segmentation with alphabet letters confuses learners. Three treatment groups of 8 prereaders (mean age 67.8 mo) were formed. The letter group was taught to segment nonword blends using letter tokens. The nonletter group was taught to segment blends with tokens lacking letters. A control group received no training. Experimental groups took about the same time and number of trials to reach criterion during training, indicating that neither method was more difficult or time consuming. Errors indicated that letters helped Ss learn to distinguish phoneme-size units and to remember the correct sounds during the task. On a segmentation posttest, letter and nonletter Ss segmented unpracticed blends better than controls, indicating that both groups acquired general segmentation skill. Letter Ss were superior to nonletter Ss in segmenting practiced sounds, with both groups surpassing controls. It is suggested that letters provide learners with a mental symbol system for representing and thinking about specific phonemes. (53 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A framework for relating degree of bilingualism to aspects of linguistic awareness is presented in which metalinguistic tasks are described in terms of their demands for analysis of knowledge or control of processing. Two studies are reported in which children differing in their level of bilingualism were given metalinguistic problems to solve that made demands on either analysis or control. The hypotheses were that all bilingual children would perform better than monolingual children on all metalinguistic tasks requiring high levels of control of processing and that fully bilingual children would perform better than partially bilingual children on tasks requiring high levels of analysis of knowledge. The results were largely consistent with these predictions. The findings are discussed in terms of the implications of bilingualism for cognitive and linguistic development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Metalinguistic activity involves the ability to treat language objectively and to manipulate language structures deliberately. This ability to focus attention on language forms per se becomes possible for children only gradually as their cognitive development proceeds. In the understanding of spoken language, the focus of attention is typically on the meaning of the utterance, and little attention is paid to the particular acoustic forms of the message. Written language, on the other hand, requires analysis and manipulation of language forms in order to extract the meaning from them. According to Vygotsky (1934), Mattingly (1972), and Cazden (1972, 1974), the additional cognitive demands of this analysis and manipulation underly the observed discrepancy between the adequate speaking and listening abilities of the young, school-age child and his limited ability to deal with written language.
In this chapter, the evolution of the thoery and research in the area of phonemic awareness in reading in the last two decades is first discussed. Several related disciplines or sources of converging influences are the early work of Elkonin (1963,1973); contributions from speech perception, especially in relating phonology to reading; work in psycholinguistics, particularly generative phonology; and the cognitive componential perspective. In the broader aspect of phonological processing, some interrelated issues are seen as important. Different groups of researchers agree that phonemic awareness is necessary for early reading. Detailed task analysis is needed, however, as well as further refinement of the “units of perception” in relating speech to print. Although evidence shows that phonemic awareness presages reading, “causality” can only be inferred. Stringent methodology and modeling of the reading process are needed to tease out the direction and strength of the interactive effects. The claim that phonemic awareness develops only in learning to read and write an alphabetic language still must be empirically validated. Evidence thus far suggests that the alphabet transcribes the phoneme; the Japanese syllabary, the mora (approximation to the syllable); and the Chinese language, the morpheme. The broader aspect of phonological processing is also important in reading by older children, but the interactive effects of morphological processing of internal word structure and sentence comprehension are just as important.
The results of research with 4- to 6-year-old, Spanish-speaking children, aimed at investigating the meaning they attach to the segmentation of a written sentence, are classified in six developmentally ordered categories of responses. Children who cannot yet read (in the conventional sense) nevertheless have very precise ideas about what can be found in a written text. They do not deal with the different parts of a sentence in the same manner: at first children do not expect the verb to be written; then the verb is supposed to be graphically represented, but articles are not. Acquiring knowledge about the writing system is a cognitive process that appears to be very close in nature to those studied within the framework of Piaget's theory.
The authors examine recent research on the effect of children's symbolic play on their literacy development. First, the roles of Piagetian and Vygotskyan theories are discussed. These two theories, it is noted, make different assumptions about the homogeneity of cognitive processing and the role of social interaction, generally, and of adults/peers, more specifically, in children's development. These differences have implications for research design and data analysis. Second, longitudinal naturalistic and experimental research on the role of symbolic play in literacy development is reviewed. While all studies reviewed were limited by possible observer bias, consistent results were found whereby adults' roles in children's symbolic play and oral language production were limited. Further, children's use of language to talk about language while interacting with peers was an important factor in early reading. Third, implications for pedagogy and future research are discussed. /// [French] Les auteurs examinent les recherches récentes sur l'effet du jeu symbolique des enfants sur leur apprentissage de la lectureécriture. Ils discutent d'abord du rôle des théories de Piaget et de Vygotsky. Ces deux théories, notent-ils, ont des positions différentes sur l'homogénéité des processus cognitifs et le rôle des interactions sociales, en générale, et, plus précisément, des interactions adultes/pairs dans le développement de l'enfant. Ces différences ont des implications sur les projets de recherche et l'analyse des résultats. On a effectué ensuite une revue des recherches, longitudinale sur le terrain et expérimentale, sur le rôle de jeu symbolique dans le développement de la lecture-écriture. Alors que toutes les études examinées sont limitées par un éventuel biais de l'observateur, on a trouvé des résultats solides suivant lesquels le rôle des adultes dans le jeu des enfants et dans leur production de langage oral est limité. Par ailleurs, l'usage du langage que font les enfants pour parler du langage lorsqu'ils sont en interaction avec d'autres enfants est apparu comme un facteur important en début d'apprentissage de la lecture. On a discuté, enfin, des implications pour la pédagogie et les recherches à venir. /// [Spanish] Los autores examinan la investigación reciente acerca del efecto del juego simbólico en los niños sobre el desarrollo de la alfabetización. En primer lugar, se discuten los roles de las teorías piagetiana y vigotskiana. Estas dos teorías hacen diferentes consideraciones sobre la homgeneidad del procesamiento cognitivo y el rol de la interacción social, en general, y más específicamente, entre adultos/pares, en el desarollo. Estas diferencias tienen implicancias para los diseños de investigación y el análisis de los datos. En segundo lugar, se revisó la investigación longitudinal naturalista y experimental sobre el rol de juego simbólico en la alfabetización. Si bien todos los estudios revisados estaban limitados por un posible sesgo del observador, se hallaron resultados consistentes en cuanto a la limitación del rol de los adultos en el juego y la producción oral de los niños. Más aún, el uso del lenguaje por parte de los niños para hablar acerca del languaje mientras interactúan con sus pares fue un factor importante en la lectura inicial. En tercer lugar, se discuten implicancias para la pedagogía y la investigación futura. /// [German] Die autoren analysieren aktuelle Untersuchungen über den Effekt kindlichen symbolischen Spiels auf die Entwicklung ihrer Lese- und Schreibfähigkeiten. Zunächst wird die Relevanz der Theorien von Piaget und Vygotsky diskutiert. An beiden Theorien wird beobachtet, daß sie verschiedene Annahmen über den Zusammenhang von kognitiver Entwicklung und sozialer Interaktion generell und im speziellen über den Einfluß Erwachsener bzw. Gruppenzugehöriger auf die kindliche Entwicklung machen. Diese Unterschiede haben Implikationen für Untersuchungskonzepte und Datenanalyse. Des weiteren wird ein Überblick gegeben über die Feldforschungen und Experimente im Längsschnitt, die die Rolle von symbolischem Spiel bei der Entwicklung der Lesefähigkeit untersuchen. Obgleich alle geprüften Studien durch eine mögliche Beobachtervoreingenommenheit eingeschränkt waren, wurden konsistente Ergebnisse aufgewiesen, aufgrund derer die Rolle der Erwachsenen beim kindlichen Spiel und der mündlichen Sprachproduktion begrenzt scheinen. Als weiterer wichtiger Faktor beim frühen Lesenlernen erschien der kindliche Gebrauch von Metasprache in der Interaktion mit Gruppenzugehörigen. Drittens werden Implikationen für Pädagogik und zukünftige Untersuchungen diskutiert.
The development of four year old children's knowledge of letters and printed words was studied to determine if preschool children begin reading, and if so, how. Two classrooms of children were observed for nine-months while they attended a university-operated preschool. The children's parents filled out questionnaires in which they described (1) their child's interest in, and knowledge about, letters and words and (2) what role they played in helping their child learn to read. Several tests and tasks were devised to measure children's conceptual knowledge of letters, printed words and the kinds of strategies they used to learn, remember, and spell words. The results indicate when, under what circumstances, and how young children begin to read. The results suggest a natural hierarchy of knowledge development in learning to read words. With considerable parental help, children realize that letters are discriminable patterns, that letters provide clues for reading, and that sounds in words are determined by letters. These three developmental levels describe more efficient approaches to reading. Specifically, as the child becomes more attracted to letters and to figuring out what words say, he/she uses better strategies for learning and remembering words. Thus, children who are guided by parents to attend to letters, signs, and labels and are given opportunities to read, spell, and print words, learn some of the essential rudiments of reading even before going to kindergarten./// [French] On a étudié le développement de la connaissance des lettres et mots imprimés chez les enfants de quatre ans afin de déterminer si les enfants en âge pré-scolaire commencent à lire et si c'est le cas, quand. On a observé deux classes d'enfants pendant neuf mois durant leur séjour dans une école maternelle dirigée par une université. Les parents des enfants ont rempli des questionnaires dans lesquels ils décrivaient (1) L'intérêt et la connaissance de leur enfant en matière de lettres et de mots et (2) leur rôle en apprenant à lire à leurs enfants. Plusieurs tests et devoirs sont établis pour mesurer la connaissance conceptuelle des enfants envers les lettres et les mots imprimés et les genres de stratégies dont ils se servent pour apprendre les mots, s'en souvenir et les épeler. Les résultats indiquent quand, dans quelles circonstances, et comment les jeunes enfants commencent à lire. Les résultats suggèrent qu'il y a une hiérarchie naturelle de développement de la connaissance lorqu'on apprend à lire les mots. Avec une aide considérable de la part de leur parents, les enfants réalisent que les lettres représentent des modèles distincts, et que les lettres sont des indices pour la lecture, et que les sons des mots sont déterminés par les lettres. Ces trois niveaux de développement décrivent des approches plus efficaces vers la lecture. De façon spécifique, au fur et à mesure que l'enfant devient plus attiré par les lettres et par le fait de déchiffrer la signification des mots, il ou elle utilise des stratégies meilleures pour apprendre les mots et s'en souvenir. Ainsi, les enfants qui sont guidés par leurs parents à s'intéresser aux lettres, aux signes et aux désignations, et à qui l'on donne l'occasion de lire, d'épeler, et d'imprimer des mots, apprennent quelques uns des élèments essentiels de la lecture avant même d'aller à l'école maternelle./// [Spanish] Se investigó el aprendizaje de letras y palabras de niños de cuatro años de edad para determinar si pre-escolares comienzan a leer y de qué manera. Se observaron 2 clases de niños durante 9 meses en un centro pre-escolar dirigido por una universidad. Los padres de los niños Ilenaron cuestionarios que dieron información sobre (1) el interés y conocimiento del niño de letras y palabras; y (2) cómo ayudaban al niño a aprender a leer. Varias pruebas y actividades se diseñan para medir el conocimiento conceptual del niño de letras y palabras y las estrategias que utilizaron para aprender, recordar, y deletrear palabras. Los resultados indican cuándo, bajo qué circunstancias, y a qué temprana edad los niños empiezan a leer. Los resultados sugieren una escala natural de desarrollo de aptitud de aprendizaje de leer palabras. Con ayuda considerable de los padres, los niños descubren que letras son formas descifrables, que letras proveen claves para la lectura, y que sonidos de palabras se determinan por letras. Estos tres niveles de desarrollo, describen enfoques eficientes a la lectura. Concretamente, al mismo tiempo que el niño es atraído a letras y a descubrir el significado de palabras, éste utiliza mejores estrategias para aprender y recordar palabras. Por lo tanto, niños que son guiados por padres a observar letras, señales, y letreros, y son dados la oportunidad de leer, deletrear y escribir palabras, aprenden las bases esenciales de lectura, aún antes de entrar kindergarten.
The ability to read is a traditional criterion of academic achievement and is basic to success in almost every aspect of the school curriculum. It is a prerequisite skill for nearly all jobs and the primary key to lifelong learning. Despite its importance, however, it is well documented that not all children attending school attain full literacy in their native language. With regard to monolingual English-speaking children it is estimated that somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of school children having no apparent visual, hearing, or mental deficits encounter unusual difficulty of one kind or another in learning to read [Downing and Leong, 1982]. A significant number of children never learn to read efficiently or effectively. For those of us who can read, it is hard to understand why anyone should have trouble acquiring the skill, since once acquired reading seems so easy and natural. But even the average child does not learn to read easily. Citing the results of standardized reading achievement tests as evidence, Gough and Hillinger [1979] argue that “children almost never learn to read without instruction and even when given explicit, devoted, daily instruction, the average child learns to read very slowly, and with great difficulty” [p.4].
The results of many studies suggest that early reading problems are associated with deficiencies in certain spoken language skills. Children who encounter reading difficulty tend to be deficient in the perception of spoken words, the ability to retain linguistic material in temporary memory, and the ability to comprehend certain spoken sentences, as well as in their awareness about the phonological structure of spoken words. This paper summarizes these findings and provides an explanation in terms of the requirements of skilled reading. It further reviews the results of two longitudinal studies which show that inferior performance in kindergarten tests of language skills may presage future reading problems in the first grade. Based on these studies, procedures are suggested for kindergarten screening and for some ways of aiding children who, by virtue of inferior performance on the screening tests, might be considered at risk for early reading difficulties.
To examine the developmental course of children's understanding of print concepts, orthographic linguistic awareness, the Concepts About Print (CAP) test was given to 29 boys and 27 girls three times during their kindergarten year and on two occasions during their first‐grade year. That approximately 20% of these children did not understand print‐direction and letter‐word concepts at the beginning of the first grade confirmed previous findings that many children entering formal reading instruction may have little knowledge of the reading instruction register. Orthographic linguistic awareness, measured even at the beginning of kindergarten, was found to be highly correlated with reading achievement measured at the end of the first grade, and these relationships between orthographic linguistic awareness and reading achievement were consistently higher for the girls than for the boys. Path analyses including the Record of Oral Language, Metropolitan Readiness Test and Iowa Test of Basic Skills revealed strong direct influences of orthographic linguistic awareness at the beginning of the first grade on reading achievement measured at the end of first grade
Preschoolers' conception of the written system was analysed with respect to their use of referential and phonetic strategies in reading and writing. Referential writing involves writing a word using elements related to the features of the referent (e.g. writing "snake" with more signs than "butterfly" because a snake is longer). Similarly, referential reading involves relating to the graphic features of the written word (e.g. choosing the longer word as representing "snake"). Phonetic strategies relate written words to the sound pattern of spoken words. Children were asked to write pairs of spoken nouns. They were then shown pairs of cards on which these same nouns had been written, and were asked to decide which of the nouns appeared on which of the cards and to justify their decision. As predicted, there was a shift with age from the use of referential to phonetic strategies both in children's writing and in their reading although different referential links to the object's features were established when writing and when reading. The findings are interpreted as an outcome of the different processes involved in reading and writing, and of the particular constraints of the written system.
The purpose of this study was to determine the reliability and validity of tests that have been used to operationalize the concept of phonemic awareness. Ninety-six kindergarten children were given 10 tests of phonemic awareness and a test of the rate at which they learned to decode novel words. The reliability, validity, and relative difficulty of each test were determined. A principal factor analysis with oblique rotation revealed that two highly related factors underlie phonemic awareness tests. A multiple regression analysis indicated that a combination of two tests, one related to each factor, has greater predictive validity for the beginning steps in reading acquisition than does any test alone. /// [French] Cette recherche avait pour but de vérifier la fidélité et la validité de tests utilisés pour opérationnaliser le concept de conscience phonémique. L'auteur a fait subir à 96 enfants de maternelle 10 tests de conscience phonémique et un test pour évaluer leur rapidité de décodage de mots nouveaux. La fidélité, la validité et la difficulté relative de chaque test ont ensuite été évaluées. Une analyse factorielle principale avec rotation oblique a révélé que les tests de conscience phonémique s'appuient sur deux facteurs étroitement reliés. L'analyse de régression multiple a par ailleurs, indiqué, qu'une combinaison deux à deux de deux tests, présente une plus grande validité prédictive des premières étapes de l'apprentissage de la lecture que chaque test pris isolément. /// [Spanish] El propósito de este estudio fue determinar la confiabilidad y validez de los tests que han sido usados para definir operacionalmente el concepto de alerta fonémica (phonemic awareness). A 96 niños de jardín se les administraron 10 tests de alerta fonémica y un test de la velocidad a la que aprendían a decodificar palabras nuevas. Se determinó la confiabilidad, validez y dificultad relativa de cada test. Un análisis factorial principal con rotación oblicua reveló que hay dos factores altamente relacionados que subyacen a los tests de alerta fonémica. Un análisis de regresión múltiple indicó que una combinación de dos tests, uno relacionado con cada factor, tiene mayor validez predictiva para los pasos iniciales en la adquisición de la lectura que cualquier test por sí solo. /// [German] Der zweck dieser Studie war, die Verläßlichkeit und Gültigkeit von Tests festzulegen, welche benutzt wurden, das Konzept phonemischer Erkenntnis einzusetzen. Neunundsechzig Fünfjährige wurden 10 phonemische Erkenntnis-Tests gegeben und ein Test auf die Schnelligkeit hin, mit der sie lernten, neue Wörter zu entschlüsseln. Die Verläßlichkeit, Gültigkeit und verhältnismäßige Schwierigkeit von jedem Test wurden festgelegt. Eine Hauptfaktor-Analyse mit versteckter Rotation zeigte, daß zwei stark verbundene Faktoren phonemischen Erkenntnis-Tests zugrundeliegen. Eine Mehrfach-Regressions-Analyse zeigte auf, daß die Kombination von zwei Tests, jeweils auf einen der beiden Faktoren eingehend, eine bessere Voraussage-Gültigkeit für die Anfangsschritte beim Lesen hat als jeder Test für sich allein.
A two-year longitudinal study was conducted to examine the role of metalinguistic abilities in the initial stages of learning to read. At the beginning of first grade, 118 students were administered three tests of metalinguistic ability, three prereading tests developed by Clay (1979), a test of verbal intelligence, and a measure of concrete operational thought, or operativity. At the end of first grade, the students were readministered the metalinguistic and Clay tests, and three tests of reading achievement; the latter were readministered at the end of second grade. Results suggested that children's ability to acquire low-level metalinguistic skills depends in part on their level of operativity, and that in the beginning stages of learning to read, metalinguistic ability helps children to discover cryptanalytic intent (that print maps onto certain structural features of spoken language) and grapheme-phoneme correspondences. It is also suggested that some minimal level of phonological awareness may be necessary for children to profit from letter-name knowledge in the acquisition of phonological recoding skill, and that phonological and syntactic awareness play more important roles in beginning reading than pragmatic awareness. /// [French] Les auteurs rapportent une étude longitudinale menée pendant deux ans pour étudier l'influence de la compétence métalinguistique durant les premiers stades de l'apprentissage de la lecture. Au début de la première année, 118 enfants ont subi trois tests de compétence métalinguistique, trois tests de pré-lecture conçus par Clay (1979), un test d'intelligence non verbale et une épreuve de pensée opératoire concrète. A la fin de la première année, ils ont subi à nouveau les tests de compétence métalinguistique et de prélecture en plus de trois tests de lecture qui ont également été passés à la fin de la deuxième année. Les résultats semblent indiquer l'existence de relations entre l'acquisition des activités méta-linguistiques de base et le niveau de développement de la pensée opératoire concrète; ils indiquent également qu'au début de l'apprentissage de la lecture, les habiletés métalinguistiques favorisent chez les enfants, la prise de conscience de relations entre certaines caractéristiques structurales de l'oral et de l'écrit et les correspondances graphèmes-phonèmes. Il semble également qu'un niveau minimal de conscience phonologique est requis pour l'apprentissage des mécanismes de décodage et que la conscience phonologique et la conscience syntaxique jouent un rôle plus important au début de l'apprentissage de la lecture que la conscience pragmatique. /// [Spanish] Un estudio longitudinal con duración de dos años fue hecho para examinar el rol de las habilidades metalingüísticas en los estadíos iniciales del aprendizaje de la lectura. Al inicio del primer grado, se administraron tres tests de habilidad metalingüística, tres tests de pre-lectura desarrollados por Clay (1979), un test de inteligencia verbal, y una medida de pensamiento concreto operacional. Al final del primer grado, se readministraron los tests metalingüísticos y los de pre-lectura de Clay, y tres tests de aprovechamiento de lectura; éstos últimos fueron administrados nuevamente al final del segundo grado. Los resultados sugieren que la habilidad de los niños para adquirir habilidades metalingüísticas de bajo nivel depende en parte de su nivel de pensamiento concreto operacional, y que en las etapas iniciales de aprender a leer, la habilidad metalingüística ayuda a los niños a descubrir la intención criptoanalítica (el hecho que se puede proyectar el lenguaje escrito en ciertas características estructurales del lenguaje oral) y las correspondencias de grafema morfema. También se sugirió que cierto nivel mínimo de alerta fonológica parece ser necesario para que los niños se beneficien del conocimiento de nombrar las letras en la adquisición de la habilidad fonológica de recodificar, y que la alerta fonológica y sintáctica juega un papel más importante en la lectura incipiente que la conciencia pragmática. /// [German] Es wurde eine Studie gemacht, die sich über zwei Jahre erstreckte, und bei der die Rolle untersucht wurde, die meta-sprachliche Fähigkeiten im Anfangslesestadium spielen. Zu Beginn des ersten Schuljahres wurden 118 Schüler folgenden Tests unterworfen: drei Tests ihrer meta-sprachlichen Fähigkeiten, drei Vor-dem-Lesen-Tests, von Clay (1979) entworfen, einem Test auf verbale Intelligenz und ein Maß konkreten Einsatzdenkens. Am Ende des ersten Schuljahres machten die Schüler erneut meta-sprachliche und Clay-vor-dem Lesen-Tests und drei Tests auf Leseleistung; die letzeren wurden am Ende des zweiten Schuljahres wiederholt. Die Resultate zeigten, daß die Fähigkeit der Schüler, Niedrig-Grad meta-sprachliche Fähigkeiten zu erwerben, zum Teil von dem Stand ihres konkreten Einsatzdenkens abhängt, und daß im Anfangslesenlernen meta-sprachliche Fähigkeit den Kindern hilft, Schlüssel-analytische Absicht (bestimmte Merkmale der gesprochenen Sprache kartographisch dargestellt) und grapheme-phoneme Korrespondenz zu entdecken. Es ist auch möglich, daß ein minimaler Grad von phonologischem Bewußtsein notwendig ist, damit Kinder profitieren von Buchstaben-Erkennen während der Aneignung von phonologischer Verschlüsselungsfähigkeit, und daß beim Anfangslesen phonologisches und syntaktisches Bewußtsein eine wichtigere Rolle spielen als prakmatisches Bewußtsein.
Preschool children were given an opportunity to produce pseudocursive scribbles and then assessed for their concepts of print. Prereading children who could identify letters and print their own names participated in four tasks examining their beliefs about what made written material readable. The tasks evaluated children's perceptual distinctions between writing and non-writing as well as more subtle distinctions between printed and cursive forms of writing. Children were first placed in situations that might result in their producing pseudocursive writing and then were asked questions about whether it could be read and who could read it. Following this, they solved three tasks in which they were asked to make judgements about what kinds of material could be read, who could read it, and what letters were represented in a sample of cursive writing. The tasks were progressively more difficult but showed that the children knew a lot about the forms of writing. In spite of this, virtually all the children produced pseudocursive scribbles and believed they could be read. The interpretation is that the knowledge these children have of the forms of writing does not include understanding the symbolic function by which these forms represent language.
A longitudinal study of children learning to read from kindergarten through first grade was conducted. The purpose of the study was to formulate hypotheses regarding the relationship between print awareness and reading during the reading acquisition process. Sixty‐three kindergarten children began the study; there were 47 subjects remaining at the end of first grade. During the fall, winter, and spring of kindergarten and the spring of first grade, children were administered a battery of print awareness, reading sub‐skill and writing measures. The school district provided additional test score information. Analyses of the data resulted in the following hypotheses: (a) print awareness and reading skills are both correlates of reading achievement; (b) print awareness is a consequence of print‐related experiences that in turn facilitate reading acquisition; and (c) print awareness is not a prerequisite to reading achievement. While it is clear that print awareness plays a role in children's transition towards literacy, that role is entwined with the role of other reading knowledge and skills. Together, the knowledge and skills comprise the precursors and consequences of formal reading instruction.
The question under study was whether context-free word reading skill evolves out of extensive experience with environmental print. Selected for the study were preschoolers aged three to five years who could identify at least 8 out of 10 samples of environmental print, such as a McDonald's sign in a photograph of the restaurant, and hence were environmental print “experts.” Their ability to read various types of print samples was examined. They were shown signs and labels printed either with full context cues or only with logos or without any context cues or logos. These stimuli were printed with and without color cues. Also, letters in the print were altered to assess subjects' awareness of specific graphic cues in the labels and signs (e.g., OcDonald's for McDonald's). Results revealed that subjects' ability to read print declined somewhat when full contexts were removed and only logos remained. Performance dropped dramatically when logos were removed and only stylized print remained. Color cues made no contribution to identification. Letter alterations were not detected, even when subjects were prompted to look for errors. Assessment of word reading ability revealed not a continuous distribution of scores but rather a bimodal distribution indicating two distinct groups of subjects: 96 who could read few if any words, and 6 who could read most of the words. The pattern of failure on the print samples characterized only the prereaders. The readers identified print correctly regardless of context, and they detected letter errors easily. Since most subjects exhibited little awareness of graphic cues and little word reading skill, it is concluded that environmental print experience does not by itself lead subjects into word reading.
This article reports the findings relating the predictor variables identified through the analyses discussed in the previous articles to the outcome measures of early literacy from the test battery administered to the children in the Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development at age five. The test battery, called the SHELL-K (School Home Early Language and Literacy), uses a variety of assessment procedures to develop a componential view of each child's language and literacy development. The results demonstrate that both home and school measures contribute to children's literacy achievement at age five. Finally, profiles of the three selected children are presented demonstrating the variability in the experiences and outcomes for these children.
Pre-school children's understanding of the relation between numerosity and 1-to-1 correspondence was evaluated in 2 experiments. 3- and 4-year-old children answered questions that entailed making an inference about the correspondence between 2 sets from information about their numerosities or making an inference about the numerosity of a set from information about its correspondence to another set of a specified numerosity. Both age groups showed significant degrees of success. This success held across the 2 tasks and across several versions of the inference questions, and it was reflected both in group means and in individual patterns of performance. Better performance on problems that involved very small sets than on ones involving somewhat larger sets suggested that this knowledge may be acquired at first through experience with specific numerosities and generalized only gradually.
To investigate the development of perceptual differentiation of writing, 45 nursery school and kindergarten children were asked to label graphic displays varying in features shared with Roman letters and with letter strings. Ss ranged in age from 36 to 77 mo and were divided into 3-, 4-, and 5-yr-old groups, with 15 children in each. Number of writing displays correctly labeled as writing was the dependent variable. Analyses were carried out for displays contrasting on the independent variables of linearity, multiplicity, and variety of letter strings and on degree of similarity to Roman letter units. Significant effects were found for all variables except multiplicity. Developmental patterns support E. J. Gibson's (1969) model of increasing differentiation. Inferences are made about the self-teaching potential for early reading instruction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Recent theoretical and empirical evidence for relations between children’s symbolic play and literate behavior are reviewed. Symbolic play and literate behaviors are said to involve similar mental processes: the production and comprehension of decontextualized language and narrative competence. Studies are classified and discussed according to these similarities. Results of the studies are reviewed and critiqued in terms of methodological and theoretical issues. Observational results suggest that decontextualized language and narrative skills are involved in both symbolic play and school-based literacy events. Experimental results, however, raise a number of problems with the theory that symbolic play is related causally to literate behavior. Suggestions for future research are made
The independent influences of aging and schooling on the development of phonological awareness were assessed using a between-grades quasiexperimental design. Both schooling (first grade) and aging (5–7 years) significantly improved children's performance on tests of phonemic segmentation, but the schooling effect was four times larger than the aging effect. The schooling effect was attributed to formal reading instruction, whereas the aging effect probably reflects natural maturation and informal exposure to written language. These data support a strong mutual relation between reading acquisition and phonological awareness.
This study examines syllabic and morphological determinants of synonymic intrusions such as BEHORTMENT, an inadvertent combination of BEHAVIOR and DEPORTMENT. Statistical analyses of 133 synonymic intrusions in German suggested that syllables are composed of at least three subunits: segments (consonants and vowels), consonant clusters, and a subunit consisting of vowel and final consonant(s). Similar analyses of 46 synonymic intrusions in English suggested that mechanisms underlying this class of error may be universal or common to all speakers. A hierarchic model of the serial order of speech was advanced to explain the structure of words and syllables suggested by these findings. Independent support for the model was noted in the rules governing abbreviations, Pig Latin, poetic rhyme, and other types of errors in speech.
Reviews recent studies concerning writing and preschoolers and uses samples of children's writing collected in childcare, preschool, and kindergarten classes to illustrate the findings. Recent observations suggest that many young children bring a great deal of knowledge about written language to early childhood programs. Some ways young children experiment with written language are described, and ideas for teachers to encourage children to write are presented. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
purpose was to examine three closely related questions by testing children, at several points through their first year in school, on different phonemic knowledge tasks and tests of reading skill
can evidence be brought to bear on the contribution of phonemic knowledge to reading in relation to the contribution of reading to phonemic knowledge
can we model some components of phonemic knowledge by reference to performance on different phonemic tasks
are children who are taught by a direct code method more dependent on phonemic knowledge than are children taught by indirect code methods and commercial based readers (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the hypothesis that the experiences that a child has with rhyme before he/she goes to school might have an effect on later success in learning to read and write. Two experimental situations were used: a longitudinal study and an intensive training program in sound categorization or other forms of categorization. 368 children's skills at sound categorization were measured before they started to read and then related to their progress in reading, spelling, and mathematics over 4 yrs. At the end of initial testing and during the 4 yrs Ss' IQ, reading, spelling, and mathematical abilities were tested. There were high correlations between initial sound categorization scores and Ss' reading and spelling over 3 yrs. At the onset of study, 65 Ss who could not read and had low sound-categorization skills were divided into 4 groups. Two received 2 yrs of training in categorizing sounds. Group 1 was taught that the same word shared common beginning, middle, and end sounds with other words and could be categorized in different ways. Group 2 was also taught how each common sound was represented by a letter of the alphabet. The other groups served as controls. Group 3 was taught only that the same word could be classified in several ways. At the end of training, Group 1 was ahead of Group 3 and Group 2 was ahead of Group 1 in reading and spelling. This suggests that training in sound categorization is more effective when it also involves an explicit connection with the alphabet. Results support the hypothesis. (5 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Native Chinese speakers participated in character identification tasks that differ in the extent to which they involve prelexical vs postlexical phonological processes. A backward visual masking procedure previously found by C. A. Perfetti et al (see record
1989-00319-001) to show prelexical phonemic effects in English failed to produce such effects in reading Chinese characters. Two priming experiments, by contrast, found evidence for semantic and phonological priming in the identification of masked characters (Exp 3) and in speed of character naming (Exp 4). Results confirm the assumption that character identification is not mediated by phonemic processes but also demonstrate that the identification of a printed character immediately causes the activation of its pronunciation. Results support a general orthography-independent principle of reading. Printed word forms routinely and automatically arouse phonological representations as part of their identification. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)