Orthographic Learning, Phonological Recoding, and Self-Teaching

Modeling item-level variance of polysyllabic word reading in developing readers: Exploring semantically related child, word, and child-by-word predictors

Across word reading development, there are important and evolving relationships between oral and written semantic knowledge. Recent research has focused on these relationships, with accumulating evidence supporting the role of word knowledge and related word characteristics as important factors influencing polysyllabic word reading abilities. The purpose of this study was to investigate how semantic-related effects across child-level skills (e.g., general vocabulary knowledge), word-level properties (e.g., age of acquisition), child-by-word-level familiarity (e.g., item-level familiarity), and interactions between key child attributes and word characteristics (e.g., word reading skill by age of acquisition) contribute to polysyllabic word reading. Specifically, we emphasize the semantic contributions of word-level features to word reading development, which have been relatively underexplored in the literature. A sample of elementary school students oversampled for word reading difficulty (N = 92) in Grades 3 to 5 read a set of polysyllabic words (J = 45) and completed a battery of reading and language-related measures. Using cross-classified random-effects models and accounting for various control variables, semantic-related variables representing item-level familiarity; child-level set for variability; and word-level age of acquisition and number of morphemes were significant predictors in the main-effects model. A significant interaction between sight word efficiency and age of acquisition indicated higher probabilities of correctly reading polysyllabic words at lower levels of acquisition for better readers. Results indicate important semantic-related influences on polysyllabic word reading at the child, word, and child-by-word levels, suggesting meaningful relationships between knowledge of the orthographic form of a word and semantic knowledge in developing readers.

Letters away from the looking glass: Developmental trajectory of mirrored and rotated letter processing within words

Discrimination of reversible mirrored letters (e.g., d and b) poses a challenge when learning to read as it requires overcoming mirror invariance, an evolutionary-old perceptual tendency of processing mirror images as equivalent. The present study investigated when, in reading development, mirror-image discrimination becomes automatic during visual word recognition. The developmental trajectory of masked priming effects was investigated from 2nd to 6th grade and in adults, by manipulating letter type (nonreversible; reversible) and prime condition (control; identity; mirrored; rotated). Standardized identity priming increased along reading development. Beginning readers showed mirror invariance during reversible and nonreversible letter processing. A mirror cost (slower word recognition in mirrored-letter than identity prime condition) was found by 5th-grade but only for reversible letters. By 6th grade, orthographic processing was no longer captive of mirror invariance. A multiple linear regression showed that letter representations, but not phonological processes or age, were a reliable predictor of the rise of mirror-image discrimination in 2nd-4th-graders. The present results suggest a protracted development of automatic mirror-image discrimination during orthographic processing, contingent upon the quality of abstract letter representations. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We traced the developmental trajectory of mirrored-letter and rotated-letter priming effects (e.g., ibea and ipea as primes of IDEA) in visual word recognition. Beginning readers (2nd-4th-graders) showed mirror invariance and plane-rotation sensitivity in orthographic processing, thus still being susceptible to the perceptual biases in charge in object recognition. A mirror cost was found in 5th-graders but only for reversible letters; orthographic processing was no longer captive of mirror invariance by 6th-grade. The automation of mirror-image discrimination during orthographic processing depends on the quality of letter representations but not on phonological processes or age.

Read at home to do well at school: informal reading predicts achievement and motivation in English as a foreign language

Introduction

Learning English as a foreign language is necessary for many students to actively participate in an increasingly globalized world. This study explores the role of informal English language engagement for students' reading and listening skills, as well as motivation to learn English. In an era of global interconnectedness, informal learning gains importance as a supplement to formal education.

Methods

This study extends the evidence base by analyzing extramural reading and listening activities in a large-scale longitudinal investigation involving secondary school learners (N = 1,994) in Germany.

Results

Our results show that frequent informal reading significantly relates to increases in students' English comprehension skills and their motivation for language learning, reaffirming previous cross-sectional findings.

Discussion

The results highlight the relevance of informal language activities for effective language learning and students' English as a foreign language motivation. Additionally, discrepancies between reading and listening outcomes are discussed.

Insights from Eye Blinks into the Cognitive Processes Involved in Visual Word Recognition

Behavioral differences in speed and accuracy between reading familiar and unfamiliar words are well-established in the empirical literature. However, these standard measures of skill proficiency are limited in their ability to capture the moment-to-moment processing involved in visual word recognition. In the present study, the effect of word familiarity was initially investigated using an eye blink rate among adults and children. The probability of eye blinking was higher for familiar (real) words than for unfamiliar (pseudo)words. This counterintuitive pattern of results suggests that the processing of unfamiliar (pseudo)words is more demanding and perhaps less rewarding than the processing of familiar (real) words, as previously observed in both behavioral and pupillometry data. Our findings suggest that the measurement of eye blinks might shed new light on the cognitive processes involved in visual word recognition and other domains of human cognition.

Phonological ability and neural congruency: Phonological loop or more?

OBJECTIVE

We explored neural components in Electroencephalography (EEG) signals during a phonological processing task to assess (a) the neural origins of Baddeley's working-memory components contributing to phonological processing, (b) the unitary structure of phonological processing and (c) the neural differences between children with dyslexia (DYS) and controls (CAC).

METHODS

EEG data were collected from sixty children (half with dyslexia) while performing the initial- and final- phoneme elision task. We explored a novel machine-learning-based approach to identify the neural components in EEG elicited in response to the two conditions and capture differences between DYS and CAC.

RESULTS

Our method identifies two sets of phoneme-related neural congruency components capturing neural activations distinguishing DYS and CAC across conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Neural congruency components capture the underlying neural mechanisms that drive the relationship between phonological deficits and dyslexia and provide insights into the phonological loop and visual-sketchpad dimensions in Baddeley's model at the neural level. They also confirm the unitary structure of phonological awareness with EEG data.

SIGNIFICANCE

Our findings provide novel insights into the neural origins of the phonological processing differences in children with dyslexia, the unitary structure of phonological awareness, and further verify Baddeley's model as a theoretical framework for phonological processing and dyslexia.

Struggling with L2 alphabet: The role of proficiency in orthographic learning

The present study examined the process of L2 orthographic learning in bilinguals with distant L1-L2 orthographies. Chinese-English bilinguals with various English proficiency levels were trained with novel L2 words during a reading task. In contrast to higher proficient learners, those with lower L2 proficiency exhibited increased effects of length, frequency, and lexicality across exposures and at-chance recognition of trained words. Importantly, an additional post-training task assessing the lexical integration of trained words evidenced the engagement in different L1-L2 reading strategies across different levels of L2 proficiency, hence suggesting the L1 holistic processing at the base of the effortful establishment of L2 orthographic representations shown by lower-proficient learners. Overall, these findings indicate the role of L2 proficiency in the influence that cross-linguistic variation exerts on L2 orthographic learning and highlight the need for English education programmes to tackle specific grapheme-to-phoneme skills in non-alphabetic target communities.

Orthographic learning in adults through overt and covert reading

Fluent reading and writing rely on well-developed orthographic representations stored in memory. According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, D. L. (1995). Phonological recoding and self-teaching: Sine qua non of reading acquisition. Cognition, 55(2), 151-218), children acquire orthographic representations through phonological decoding. However, it is not clear to what extent phonological decoding facilitates orthographic learning in adult readers. Across two experiments, we manipulated access to phonology during overt (aloud) and covert (silent) reading of monosyllabic and multisyllabic pseudowords by English-speaking undergraduate students. Additionally, Experiment 2 tested whether concurrent articulation during covert reading leads to poorer learning due to the suppression of subvocalization. The amount of incidental orthographic learning through reading exposure was measured a week later with a choice task, a spelling task, and a naming task. Overt reading, which leveraged phonological decoding, led to better recognition and recall of pseudowords compared to when readers read silently. Unlike in previous reports of child orthographic learning, concurrent articulation during covert reading did not reduce learning outcomes in adults, suggesting that adult readers may rely upon other processing strategies during covert reading, e.g., direct orthographic processing or lexicalized phonological decoding. This is consistent with claims that with increasing orthographic knowledge reading mechanisms shift from being more phonologically-based to more visually-based.

Modeling Item-Level Spelling Variance in Adults: Providing Further Insights into Lexical Quality

Purpose

The lexical quality (LQ) hypothesis predicts that a skilled reader's lexicon will be inhabited by a range of low- to high-quality items, and the probability of representing a word with high quality varies as a function of person-level, word-level, and item-specific variables. These predictions were tested with spelling accuracy as a gauge of LQ.

Method

Item-response based crossed random effects models explored simultaneous contributions of person-level (e.g., participant's decoding skill), word-level (e.g., word's transparency rating), item-specific (e.g., participant's familiarity with specific word), and person-by-word interaction predictors (e.g., decoding by transparency rating interaction) to the spelling of 25 commonly misspelled irregular English words in 61 undergraduate university students (M = 19.4 years, 70.49% female, 39.34% Hispanic, 81.97% White).

Results

Substantial variance among individuals in item-level spelling accuracy was accounted for by person-level decoding skill; item-specific familiarity, proportion of schwas correctly represented, and correctly identifying the word from its mispronunciation; and an interaction of transparency rating by general decoding skill.

Conclusions

Consistent with the LQ hypothesis, results suggest that one's ability to form a high-quality lexical representation of a given word depends on a complex combination of person-level abilities, word-level characteristics, item-specific experiences, and an interaction between person- and word-level influences.

Set for Variability as a Critical Predictor of Word Reading: Potential Implications for Early Identification and Treatment of Dyslexia

Quasiregular orthographies such as English contain substantial ambiguities between orthography and phonology that force developing readers to acquire flexibility during decoding of unfamiliar words, a skill referred to as a "set for variability" (SfV). The ease with which a child can disambiguate the mismatch between the decoded form of a word and its actual lexical phonological form has been operationalized using the SfV mispronunciation task (e.g., the word wasp is pronounced to rhyme with clasp [i.e., /wæsp/] and the child must recognize the actual pronunciation of the word to be /wɒsp/). SfV has been shown to be a significant predictor of word reading variance. However, little is known about the relative strength of SfV as a predictor of word reading compared to other well-established predictors or the strength of this relationship in children with dyslexia. To address these questions, we administered the SfV task to a sample of grade 2-5 children (N=489) along with other reading related measures. SfV accounted for 15% unique variance in word reading above and beyond other predictors, whereas phonological awareness (PA) accounted for only 1%. Dominance analysis indicated SfV is the most powerful predictor, demonstrating complete statistical dominance over other variables including PA. Quantile regression revealed SfV is a stronger predictor at lower levels of reading skill, indicating it may be an important predictor in students with dyslexia. Results suggest that SfV is a powerful and potentially highly sensitive predictor of early reading difficulties and, therefore, may be important for early identification and treatment of dyslexia.

What predicts word reading in Arabic?

Efficient and accurate word reading ability is critical for later reading success. As such, it is important to understand the component skills that underlie strong word reading ability. Although a growing research base points to the importance of phonological processing, morphological processing and orthographic processing for accurate and fluent word reading in Arabic, there are few studies that examine all three areas at one time to better understand their role in word reading. Additionally, it remains unclear whether the contribution of the various processes might differ across the early years when children are learning to read. 1,098 pupils in grades 1-3 participated in this study and took tests for phonological processing, morphological processing, orthographic processing, and word reading accuracy and fluency. According to the findings of regression analyses, the relative contribution of these underlying processes differed according to the method used to test word reading and the student's grade level. Regarding accuracy, several subscales of phonological processing and two measures of orthographic processing accounted for significant differences in word reading accuracy for first graders. For second grade students, nonword repetition, elision, and all three measures of orthographic processing accounted for variance. In third grade, elision and memory for digits, word creation and morpheme identification, and letter/sound identification and orthographic fluency were significant predictors of word reading accuracy. In terms of fluency, two subscales of phonological processing, two measures of orthographic processing, and two measures of morphological processing explained significant differences in word reading fluency for first graders. For second grade students, nonword repetition, elision, RAN-digits, isolation, segmenting and all the measures of orthographic processing and word creation explained unique variance in word reading fluency. In third grade, elision, RAN-letters, RAN-digits and phoneme isolation, all measures of orthographic processing and morphological processing, explained variance in word reading fluency. Implications and future directions in research are discussed.

Early child maltreatment and reading processes, abilities, and achievement: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Children with maltreatment histories demonstrate weaker reading abilities compared to their peers. However, the differential processes driving this effect remain unclear. Prior studies focused on social and behavioral factors explaining this effect, yet reading research has shown that one's ability to comprehend written text is driven by a set of underlying dynamic and interactive cognitive abilities.

OBJECTIVE

This systematic review sought to understand what theoretical or conceptual frameworks researchers cited as guiding their studies, what reading processes and abilities were studied as outcomes, how reading processes or abilities were measured, and what constructs were included to help understand the relationship between maltreatment and reading.

METHOD

Three databases were searched for empirical peer-reviewed journal articles. Articles retained using inclusion and exclusion criteria were coded based on their sample characteristics, reference to theoretical or conceptual frameworks, reading processes and abilities measured, and included predictors of reading. Procedures were documented using the reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) statement (Moher et al., 2009).

RESULTS

Twenty-seven studies were included in the final systematic review. Those that discussed theoretical or conceptual frameworks focused on the social and behavioral predictors of reading. Many studies (51.9 %) examined effects of maltreatment on reading achievement, rather than specific reading processes or abilities. Most studies (92.6 %) used at least one standardized reading measure. However, only four studies included cognitive abilities as potential predictor variables.

CONCLUSIONS

Future research could benefit from investigating specific cognitive and reading-related processes, using measures to examine specific reading processes leading to breakdowns in reading achievement, and incorporation of reading theories to drive research questions and methods.

Improving English reading fluency and comprehension for children with reading fluency disabilities

In the English language, students who read words accurately but have impairments in reading fluency are under-studied. The associated difficulties they have with comprehending text make it particularly important to delineate effective interventions for these students. Counter to suggestions that these readers need interventions focused on text reading, we examined the effects of a decoding-focused intervention. The intervention targeted decoding-related skills, including speeded training on sublexical spelling patterns. We examined the efficacy of this program for students with fluency-defined disabilities, and compared gains to those for students with accuracy-defined disabilities. In the initial phase of the program, readers with fluency-defined disabilities made greater gains in fluency, while readers with accuracy-defined disabilities made larger gains in word reading accuracy. The mean fluency score for readers with fluency-defined disabilities came within the average range across the intervention, as did reading comprehension for both groups. Readers' mastery on speeded learning of sublexical spelling patterns predicted unique variance in fluency outcomes, beyond variance accounted for by pre-test fluency and word reading accuracy. The results support intervention approaches focused on decoding-related skills for students who have fluency-defined disabilities and are consistent with theories of reading fluency that identify a role for automaticity with sublexical spelling patterns.

Are Different Types of Learning Disorder Associated With Distinct Cognitive Functioning Profiles?

Introduction: DSM-5 presented a revised conceptualization of specific learning disorders (LD). Contrary to former versions, the various types of LD-i.e., mathematics disorder, reading disorder, and writing disorder-are not treated as distinct diagnostic entities but are integrated into one single LD category. In support of this new classification, it has been argued that the various types of LD overlap to a great extent in their cognitive functioning profiles and therefore do not exhibit a distinct set of cognitive causes. In contrast, ICD-11 still adheres to the idea of discrete categories and thus follows the specificity hypothesis of LD. Using latent profile analysis (LPA), we therefore tested the specificity of cognitive strengths and weaknesses in children with different types of LD. Secondly, we aimed at examining the extent to which observed LD characteristics (type and severity of LD as well as IQ-achievement discrepancy) were consistent with the membership of a given latent profile. Method: 302 German third-graders (134 girls; IQ ≥ 85; M age = 111.05 months; SD = 5.76) with single or comorbid types of LD in the domains of mathematics, reading, and spelling completed a wide range of domain-specific and domain-general cognitive functioning measures. Results: Five qualitative distinct profiles of cognitive strengths and weaknesses were identified. Profile 1 (23% of the sample) showed Comprehensive Cognitive Deficits, performing low in all measures except for naming speed, language, and inhibition. Profile 2 (21%) included children with a Double Deficit in Phonological Awareness and Phonological Short-term Memory. Profile 3 (20%) was characterized by a Double Deficit of Phonological Awareness and Naming Speed. Profile 4 (19%) included children with a Single Deficit in Attention, and profile 5 (17%) consisted of children without any cognitive deficits. Moreover, type and severity of LD as well as IQ-achievement discrepancy discriminated between the profiles, which is in line with the specificity hypothesis of LD. Discussion: Overall, the finding of specific associations between the LD types and the identified cognitive profiles supports the ICD-11 classification of LD. Yet, those inferences may not be valid for an individual child but need to be examined through comprehensive diagnostic.

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.

Measuring Explicit Instruction Using Classroom Observations of Student-Teacher Interactions (COSTI)

This article describes the development and technical adequacy of the Classroom Observations of Student Teacher Interactions (COSTI) instrument, a tool for measuring the frequency and rate of explicit instructional interactions, such as those used in Direct Instruction curricula, for teaching children basic reading and math skills. COSTI was originally developed to provide teachers with coaching feedback to improve their explicit reading instructional practices, and has been shown in multiple studies to be a reliable and valid predictor of student gains in beginning reading and math skills. This article discusses potential uses of the instrument for training and coaching across curricula with varying instructional design features, and lays out a future research agenda to further improve COSTI and related observation tools for studying explicit instructional practices and their contribution to student learning.

Order among chaos: Cross-linguistic differences and developmental trajectories in pseudoword reading aloud using pronunciation Entropy

In this work we propose the use of Entropy to measure variability in pronunciations in pseudowords reading aloud: pseudowords where participants give many different pronunciations receive higher Entropy values. Monolingual adults, monolingual children, and bilingual children proficient in different European languages varying in orthographic depth were tested. We predicted that Entropy values will increase with increasing orthographic depth. Moreover, higher Entropy was expected for younger than older children, as reading experience improves the knowledge of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs). We also tested if interference from a second language would lead to higher Entropy. Results show that orthographic depth affects Entropy, but only when the items are not strictly matched across languages. We also found that Entropy decreases across age, suggesting that GPC knowledge becomes refined throughout grades 2-4. We found no differences between bilingual and monolingual children. Our results indicate that item characteristics play a fundamental role in pseudoword pronunciation variability, that reading experience is associated with reduced variability in responses, and that in bilinguals' knowledge of a second orthography does not seem to interfere with pseudoword reading aloud.

Biliteracy and acquisition of novel written words: the impact of phonological conflict between L1 and L2 scripts

The acquisition of new orthographic representations is a rapid and accurate process in proficient monolingual readers. The present study used biliterate and bialphabetic population to address the impact of phonological inconsistencies across the native (L1) and second (L2) alphabets. Naming latencies were collected from 50 Russian-English biliterates through a reading-aloud task with familiar and novel word forms repeated across 10 blocks. There were three Script conditions: (1) native Cyrillic, (2) non-native Roman, and (3) Ambiguous (with graphically identical, but phonologically inconsistent graphemes shared by both alphabets). Our analysis revealed the main effect of Script on both reading and orthographic learning: naming latencies during training were longer for the ambiguous stimuli, particularly for the novel ones. Nonetheless, novel word forms in the ambiguous condition approached the latencies for the familiar words along the exposures, although this effect was faster in the phonologically consistent trials. Post-training tests revealed similarly successful performance patterns for previously familiar and newly trained forms, indicating successful rapid acquisition of the latter. Furthermore, we found the highest free recall rates for the ambiguous stimuli. Overall, our results indicate that phonological inconsistency initially interferes with the efficiency of novel word encoding. Nevertheless, it does not prevent efficient attribution of orthographic representations; instead, the knowledge of two distinct alphabets supports a more efficient learning and a better memory for ambiguous stimuli via enhancing their encoding and retrieval.

Automaticity as an independent trait in predicting reading outcomes in middle-school

Many middle-school students struggle with basic reading skills. One reason for this might be a lack of automaticity in word-level lexical processes. To investigate this, we used a novel backward masking paradigm, in which a written word is either covered with a mask or not. Participants (N = 444 [after exclusions]; nfemale = 264, nmale = 180) were average to struggling middle-school students from an urban area in Eastern Iowa that were all native speakers of English and were roughly equally from grades 6, 7, and 8 (average age: 13 years). Two-hundred-fifty-five students qualified for free or reduced-price lunch, a proxy for economic disadvantage. Participants completed different masked and unmasked task versions where they read a word and selected a response (e.g., a pictured referent). This was related to standardized measures of decoding, fluency, and reading comprehension. Decoding was uniquely predicted by knowledge (unmasked performance), whereas fluency was uniquely predicted by automaticity (masked performance). Automaticity was stable across two testing points. Thus, automaticity should be considered an individually reliable marker/reading trait that uniquely predicts some skills in average to struggling middle-school students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Rapid acquisition of novel written word-forms: ERP evidence

Background

Novel word acquisition is generally believed to be a rapid process, essential for ensuring a flexible and efficient communication system; at least in spoken language, learners are able to construct memory traces for new linguistic stimuli after just a few exposures. However, such rapid word learning has not been systematically found in visual domain, with different confounding factors obscuring the orthographic learning of novel words. This study explored the changes in human brain activity occurring online, during a brief training with novel written word-forms using a silent reading task

Results

Single-trial, cluster-based random permutation analysis revealed that training caused an extremely fast (after just one repetition) and stable facilitation in novel word processing, reflected in the modulation of P200 and N400 components, possibly indicating rapid dynamics at early and late stages of the lexical processing. Furthermore, neural source estimation of these effects revealed the recruitment of brain areas involved in orthographic and lexico-semantic processing, respectively.

Conclusions

These results suggest the formation of neural memory traces for novel written word-forms after a minimal exposure to them even in the absence of a semantic reference, resembling the rapid learning processes known to occur in spoken language.

Using Context as an Assist in Word Solving: The Contributions of 25 Years of Research on the Interactive Strategies Approach

Recently, there has been growing concern about how to most effectively support the literacy development of beginning and struggling readers with regard to helping them learn to effortlessly identify the huge number of words that proficient readers ultimately learn to read with automaticity. Some, noting the critical importance of phonics instruction in learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, take the position that students should attend only to alphabetic information in word-solving attempts. However, long-standing theories of the development of word-reading skills support the value of teaching students to use both alphabetic and contextual information in word solving in interactive and confirmatory ways. The authors summarize 25 years of research in which beginning and struggling readers were taught to use both code- and meaning/context-based strategies for word solving and were provided with explicit, responsive instruction focused on the alphabetic code. The authors present brief summaries of theoretical explanations of the word-learning process. Then, the authors summarize six experimental studies that, together, included students in kindergarten through fourth grade and involved the implementation of the Interactive Strategies Approach in the primary grades and an extension of the approach with middle elementary students with reading difficulties. The studies resulted in substantially improved reading outcomes among treatment versus business-as-usual groups. The authors contend that using both phonics- and context-based information facilitates the ability to build sight vocabulary, which in turn enables readers to turn their attention to the most important goal of literacy learning: meaning construction.

The role of phonology during visual word learning in adults: An integrative review

Throughout their lifetime, adults learn new words in their native lannguage, and potentially also in a second language. However, they do so with variable levels of success. In the auditory word learning literature, some of this variability has been attributed to phonological skills, including decoding and phonological short-term memory. Here I examine how the relationship between phonological skills and word learning applies to the visual modality. I define the availability of phonology in terms of (1) the extent to which it is biased by the learning environment, (2) the characteristics of the words to be learned, and (3) individual differences in phonological skills. Across these three areas of research, visual word learning improves when phonology is made more available to adult learners, suggesting that phonology can facilitate learning across modalities. However, the facilitation is largely specific to alphabetic languages, which have predictable sublexical correspondences between orthography and phonology. Therefore, I propose that phonology bootstraps visual word learning by providing a secondary code that constrains and refines developing orthographic representations.

Le rôle du développement professionnel dans la mise en oeuvre du modèle de la réponse à l’intervention

L’idée à la base du modèle de la réponse à l’intervention (RàI) apparaît relativement simple. Toutefois, de nombreuses écoles réalisent que son implantation s’avère plus complexe qu’il n’y paraît. Comme pour toutes les améliorations en éducation, l’implantation réussie repose sur un processus de développement professionnel (DP) des enseignants qui doit être soigneusement planifié et mis en oeuvre rigoureusement. Les études comparatives internationales montrent que le DP des enseignants constitue l’un des meilleurs moyens pour améliorer la qualité de l’enseignement. La réalisation d’une synthèse de recherches sur le développement professionnel nous a permis de répertorier cinq principes favorisant son efficacité. Nous expliquerons d’abord ces principes, puis nous verrons comment la Commission scolaire de la Rivière-du-Nord de St-Jérôme (Québec) a procédé à une implantation réussie du modèle RàI en lecture en mettant en place un processus de DP qui les respecte.

What Do Spelling Errors Tell Us about Deaf Learners of French?

For deaf students, spelling acquisition is a considerable challenge, especially because the spelling code is based on an oral language to which most of them have limited access. Most studies conducted with deaf students have reported that they lag behind their hearing peers. However, few studies have used a fine-grained error classification grid. The use of such a grid makes it possible to draw a precise portrait of writers' orthographic knowledge. The purpose of this study was to describe the spelling skills of 19 deaf students (Mage = 10.9 years) and to compare their errors with those of 20 hearing students of the same age and 17 younger hearing students at the same reading level. The results indicate that deaf students are not quantitatively different from hearing students but that their errors are qualitatively different from those of hearing students.

The ability to learn new written words is modulated by language orthographic consistency

INTRODUCTION

It is well known that a difficulty in forming lexical representations is a strong predictor of reading and spelling difficulties even after controlling for the effects of other cognitive skills. Our study had two main interrelated aims. First, we wanted to examine whether the ability to learn new written words (lexical learning) varies as a function of the orthographic consistency of the language of the learner. Second, we wanted to evaluate the cognitive abilities involved in orthographic lexical learning and whether they differed as a function of language consistency.

METHOD

163 Italian children and 128 English children performed a lexical learning task as well as tasks assessing several cognitive skills potentially related to the ability to establish orthographic representations.

RESULTS

We found that children learning an orthographic inconsistent orthography (English) were better able to learn novel written words presented in association with pictures than children learning a consistent orthography (Italian). This was true for both younger and older primary school children and also when children were matched for school grade. Lexical learning may be better in English children because the many irregularities of this language promote storing in memory whole-word representations and processing larger orthographic units. In Italian, instead, reading can be accomplished successfully on the basis of grapheme-phoneme conversion rules and on processing smaller orthographic units. This interpretation was supported by the pattern of cognitive skills associated with lexical learning skills in the two languages. Variations in lexical learning were explained by spatial visual memory and phonological awareness tasks in both languages, but phonological STM explained further variance in Italian, while a task tapping visuo-attentional capacity explained further variance in English.

CONCLUSION

Learning a language with inconsistent orthography is associated with better lexical learning skills in children at different stages of primary school; the pattern of cognitive skills associated with lexical learning skills is also partially modulated by orthographic consistency.

Novel Word Learning: Event-Related Brain Potentials Reflect Pure Lexical and Task-Related Effects

Previous research has pointed out that the combination of orthographic and semantic-associative training is a more advantageous strategy for the lexicalization of novel written word-forms than their single orthographic training. However, paradigms used previously involve explicit stimuli categorization (lexical decision), which likely influence word learning. In the present study, we used a more automatic task (silent reading) to determine the advantage of the associative training, by comparing the brain electrical signals elicited in combined (orthographic and semantic) and single (only orthographic) training conditions. In addition, the learning effect (in terms of similar neurophysiological activity between novel and known words) was also tested under a categorization paradigm, enabling determination of the possible influence of the training task in the lexicalization process. Results indicated that novel words repeatedly associated with meaningful cues showed a higher attenuation of N400 responses than those trained in the single orthographic condition, confirming the higher facilitation in the lexico-semantic processing of these stimuli, as a consequence of semantic associations. Moreover, only when the combined training was carried out in the reading task did novel words show similar N400 responses to those elicited by known words, suggesting the achievement of a similar lexical processing to known words. Crucially, when the training is carried out under a demanding task context (lexical decision), known words exhibited positive enhancement within the N400 time window, contributing to maintaining N400 differences with novel trained words and confounding the outcome of the learning. Such deflection-compatible with the modulation of the categorization-related P300 component-suggests that novel word learning could be influenced by the activation of categorization-related processes. Thus, the use of low-demand tasks arises as a more appropriate approach to study novel word learning, enabling the build-up process of mental representations, which probably depends on pure lexical and semantic factors rather than being guided by categorization demands.

Phonological and orthographic reading routes in French-speaking children with severe developmental language disorder

PURPOSE

This study aims to assess written word recognition in French-speaking children with severe developmental language disorder (DLD), using a task of reading in silence. The objective is to determine if the balance between the phonological reading route and the orthographic route of these children is similar to that of typically developing children, on the basis of the so-called "dual route" model.

METHOD

A visual lexical decision task was used in 19 children with severe DLD (average age: 11.01 years), 19 control children of the same reading level (RC children, average age: 8.12 years), and 19 children of the same chronological age (AC children, average age: 10.84 years). This task included words and pseudowords associated with these words: pseudohomophones, pseudowords phonologically close but visually distant to the true words, visually close but phonologically distant pseudowords.

RESULTS

The groups did not process the pseudowords in the same way. Children with severe DLD were more successful than RC children for pseudohomophones. They tended to be less successful for phonologically close and visually distant pseudowords. They were similarly successful for visually close and phonologically distant pseudowords. Children with severe DLD were less successful than AC children with each type of pseudowords.

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that children with severe DLD do not simply present a homogeneous delay in their ability to recognize written words but rather a deviant development compared to RC children, with a stronger reliance on the orthographic reading route compared to the phonological one. It is likely that the phonological difficulties of children with severe DLD have hindered the development of their phonological reading route which, in turn, have hindered the development of their orthographic route.

Reading in Arabic: How Well Does the Standard Model Apply?

Purpose We investigated the cognitive and linguistic processes that underlie reading in Arabic in relation to a well-defined theoretical framework of reading and the factors that underlie reading. Method The sample was 201 (101 boys, 100 girls) 3rd-grade Arabic-speaking children. Children were administered measures of Vocabulary, Phonological Awareness (PA), Naming Speed, Orthographic Processing, Morphological Awareness (MA), Memory, Nonverbal Ability, and 5 reading outcomes. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted for each of the 5 reading outcomes to investigate the predictors of children's reading. Results Each of the constructs explained unique variance when added to the model. In the final models, PA was the strongest predictor of all outcomes, followed by MA. In a follow-up analysis, participants were divided into good and poor decoders, based on their Pseudoword Reading scores. Good decoders outscored poor decoders on every measure. Within-group regression analyses indicated that poor decoders relied on more component processes than good decoders, suggesting a lack of automaticity. Variance in reading outcomes was better predicted for poor decoders than for good decoders. Conclusion These results indicate that standard predictors apply well to Arabic, showing the particular importance of PA and MA. Longitudinal and instructional studies are required to determine developmental patterns and ways to improve reading performance.

Neural specialization of phonological and semantic processing in young children

This study aimed to examine early specialization of brain regions for phonological and semantic processing of spoken language in young children. Thirty-five typically developing children aged from 5 to 6 years performed auditory phonological (same sound judgment) and semantic (related meaning judgment) word-level tasks. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examined specialization within the language network, by conducting three levels of analysis. First, we directly compared activation between tasks and found a greater sound judgment as compared to meaning judgment activation in left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and supramarginal gyrus. In contrast, greater meaning judgment as compared to sound judgment task activation was found in left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Second, we examined the brain-behavior correlations and found that phonological skill was correlated with the task difference in activation in left superior temporal sulcus, whereas semantic skill was correlated with the task difference in activation in left MTG. Third, we compared between two experimental conditions within each task and found a parametric effect in left STG for the sound judgment task, and a parametric effect in left MTG for the meaning judgment task. The results of this study indicate that, by the age of 5-6 years, typically developing children already show some specialization of temporo-parietal brain regions for phonological and semantic processes. However, there were no task differences in the left inferior frontal gyrus suggesting that the frontal cortex may not yet be specialized in this age range, which is consistent with the delayed maturation of the frontal cortex.

Survival analyses reveal how early phonological processing affects eye movements during reading

Numerous studies have provided evidence that readers generate phonological codes while reading. However, a central question in much of this research has been how early these codes are generated. Answering this question has implications for the roles that phonological coding might play for skilled readers, especially whether phonological codes affect the identification of most words, which can only be the case if these codes are generated rapidly. To investigate the time course of phonological coding during silent reading, the present series of experiments examined survival analyses of first-fixation durations on phonologically related (homophones, pseudohomophones) and orthographic control (orthographically matched words and nonwords) stimuli that were either embedded in sentences in place of correct targets (Experiments 1 and 2) or presented as parafoveal previews for correct targets using the boundary paradigm (Experiments 3 and 4). Survival analyses revealed a discernible difference between processing the phonologically related versus the orthographic control items by as early as 160 ms from the start of fixation on average (160-173 ms across experiments). Because only approximately 18% of first fixation durations were shorter than these mean estimates and follow-up tests revealed that earlier divergence point estimates were associated with shorter gaze durations (e.g., more rapid word identification), results suggest that skilled readers rapidly generate phonological codes during normal, silent reading and that these codes may affect the identification of most words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

A Computational Model of the Self-Teaching Hypothesis Based on the Dual-Route Cascaded Model of Reading

The self-teaching hypothesis describes how children progress toward skilled sight-word reading. It proposes that children do this via phonological recoding with assistance from contextual cues, to identify the target pronunciation for a novel letter string, and in so doing create an opportunity to self-teach new orthographic knowledge. We present a new computational implementation of self-teaching within the dual-route cascaded (DRC) model of reading aloud, and we explore how decoding and contextual cues can work together to enable accurate self-teaching under a variety of circumstances. The new model (ST-DRC) uses DRC's sublexical route and the interactivity between the lexical and sublexical routes to simulate phonological recoding. Known spoken words are activated in response to novel printed words, triggering an opportunity for orthographic learning, which is the basis for skilled sight-word reading. ST-DRC also includes new computational mechanisms for simulating how contextual information aids word identification, and it demonstrates how partial decoding and ambiguous context interact to achieve irregular-word learning. Beyond modeling orthographic learning and self-teaching, ST-DRC's performance suggests new avenues for empirical research on how difficult word classes such as homographs and potentiophones are learned.

Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese. We examined two possible types of phonological decoding: the use of phonetic radicals, an internal phonological aid, andthe use of Zhuyin, an external phonological coding system. Seventy-three Grade 2 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of twelve novel compound characters over four days. They were then exposed to the written characters in short stories, and were assessed on their reading accuracy and on their subsequent orthographic learning via orthographic choice and spelling tasks. The novel characters were assigned three different types of pronunciation in relation to its phonetic radical - (1) a pronunciation that is identical to the phonetic radical in isolation; (2) a common alternative pronunciation associated with the phonetic radical when it appears in other characters; and (3) a pronunciation that is unrelated to the phonetic radical. The presence of Zhuyin was also manipulated. The children read the novel characters more accurately when phonological cues from the phonetic radicals were available and in the presence of Zhuyin. However, only the phonetic radicals facilitated orthographic learning. The findings provide the first empirical evidence of orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese, and reveal how phonological decoding functions to support learning in non-alphabetic writing systems.

Performance of children with developmental dyslexia on high and low topological entropy artificial grammar learning task

Graph complexity as measured by topological entropy has been previously shown to affect performance on artificial grammar learning tasks among typically developing children. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of graph complexity on implicit sequential learning among children with developmental dyslexia. Our goal was to determine whether children's performance depends on the complexity level of the grammar system learned. We conducted two artificial grammar learning experiments that compared performance of children with developmental dyslexia with that of age- and reading level-matched controls. Experiment 1 was a high topological entropy artificial grammar learning task that aimed to establish implicit learning phenomena in children with developmental dyslexia using previously published experimental conditions. Experiment 2 is a lower topological entropy variant of that task. Results indicated that given a high topological entropy grammar system, children with developmental dyslexia who were similar to the reading age-matched control group had substantial difficulty in performing the task as compared to typically developing children, who exhibited intact implicit learning of the grammar. On the other hand, when tested on a lower topological entropy grammar system, all groups performed above chance level, indicating that children with developmental dyslexia were able to identify rules from a given grammar system. The results reinforced the significance of graph complexity when experimenting with artificial grammar learning tasks, particularly with dyslexic participants.

The Contribution of Phonological Awareness to Reading Fluency and Its Individual Sub-skills in Readers Aged 9- to 12-years

Research examining phonological awareness (PA) contributions to reading in established readers of different skill levels is limited. The current study examined the contribution of PA to phonological decoding, visual word recognition, reading rate, and reading comprehension in 124 fourth to sixth grade children (aged 9-12 years). On the basis of scores on the FastaReada measure of reading fluency participants were allocated to one of three reading ability categories: dysfluent (n = 47), moderate (n = 38) and fluent (n = 39). For the dysfluent group, PA contributed significantly to all reading measures except rate, but in the moderate group only to phonological decoding. PA did not influence performances on any of the reading measures examined for the fluent reader group. The results support the notion that fluency is characterized by a shift from conscious decoding to rapid and accurate visual recognition of words. Although PA may be influential in reading development, the results of the current study show that it is not sufficient for fluent reading.

Orthographic learning, fast and slow: Lexical competition effects reveal the time course of word learning in developing readers

Children learn new words via their everyday reading experience but little is known about how this learning happens. We addressed this by focusing on the conditions needed for new words to become familiar to children, drawing a distinction between lexical configuration (the acquisition of word knowledge) and lexical engagement (the emergence of interactive processes between newly learned words and existing words). In Experiment 1, 9-11-year-olds saw unfamiliar words in one of two storybook conditions, differing in degree of focus on the new words but matched for frequency of exposure. Children showed good learning of the novel words in terms of both configuration (form and meaning) and engagement (lexical competition). A frequency manipulation under incidental learning conditions in Experiment 2 revealed different time-courses of learning: a fast lexical configuration process, indexed by explicit knowledge, and a slower lexicalization process, indexed by lexical competition.

Advancing Stage 2 Research on Measures for Monitoring Kindergarten Reading Progress

Although several measures exist for frequently monitoring early reading progress, little research has specifically investigated their technical properties when administered on a frequent basis with kindergarten students. In this study, kindergarten students ( N = 137) of whom the majority was receiving supplemental intervention for reading skills were monitored using Letter Sound Fluency, Phoneme Segmentation Fluency, Word Reading Fluency, Nonsense Word Fluency, Highly Decodable Passages, and Spelling on a biweekly basis between February and May. Acceptable reliability was observed for all measures. Analyses of slope validity using latent growth models, latent change score models, and slope differences according to level of year-end achievement indicated that the relation of slope to overall reading skills varied across the measures. A suggested approach to kindergarten students' reading progress is offered that includes Letter Sound Fluency and a measure of word-reading skills to provide a comprehensive picture of student growth toward important year-end reading outcomes.

A sublexical training study for spelling in a biliterate Greek- and English-speaking child

RI is an emergent trilingual boy, literate in Greek and English, with difficulties in reading and spelling in both languages. Assessment with non-literacy tests revealed a deficit in phonological ability and in visual memory for sequentially presented characters. RI took part in a training programme that targeted sublexical spelling processes. Post-intervention assessment revealed improvement in reading and spelling in Greek but not in English. Assessments of lexical and sublexical skills showed improvement in nonword spelling and nonword reading for Greek. For English, there was some indication of improvement in nonword reading at delayed post-intervention testing, but no evidence of improvement in nonword spelling. Possible reasons for the difference in outcome for the two languages are considered, including the level of transparency of written Greek and English.

The effects of orthographic transparency and familiarity on reading Hebrew words in adults with and without dyslexia

The current study examined the effects of transparency and familiarity on word recognition in adult Hebrew dyslexic readers with a phonological processing deficit as compared to typical readers. We measured oral reading response time and accuracy of single nouns in several conditions: diacritics that provide transparent but less familiar information and vowel letters that increase orthographic transparency without compromise familiarity. In line with former studies with adult dyslexics, Hebrew-speaking adults with dyslexia were significantly slower than controls. However, both dyslexic and typical readers read unpointed words faster when vowel letters were present, indicating that they may benefit from increase in orthographic transparency, when the graphemic representations are familiar. Only dyslexics read pointed words slower than unpointed words and were more sensitive to word frequency. In unpointed words, only typical readers benefitted from the reduced competition of orthographic neighbors of longer words. Results indicate that both orthographic transparency and familiarity play an important role in word recognition. Dyslexics are impaired in decoding of smaller units and are more sensitive to reduction in the familiarity of words.

Phonemic awareness is a more important predictor of orthographic processing than rapid serial naming: Evidence from Russian

We studied the relationship between rapid serial naming (RSN) and orthographic processing in Russian, an asymmetrically transparent orthography. Ninety-six students (mean age = 13.73) completed tests of word and pseudoword reading fluency, spelling, orthographic choice, phonological choice, PA and RSN. PA was a better predictor of orthographic skills and pseudoword reading accuracy than RSN, which accounted for more variance in word and pseudoword reading fluency. Controlling for pseudoword reading fluency washed out RSN's contribution to word reading fluency. These results extend previous findings questioning the role of RSN as an index of orthographic processing skills and support the idea that RSN taps into automaticity/efficiency of processing print-sound mappings.

Phonological coding during reading

The exact role that phonological coding (the recoding of written, orthographic information into a sound based code) plays during silent reading has been extensively studied for more than a century. Despite the large body of research surrounding the topic, varying theories as to the time course and function of this recoding still exist. The present review synthesizes this body of research, addressing the topics of time course and function in tandem. The varying theories surrounding the function of phonological coding (e.g., that phonological codes aid lexical access, that phonological codes aid comprehension and bolster short-term memory, or that phonological codes are largely epiphenomenal in skilled readers) are first outlined, and the time courses that each maps onto (e.g., that phonological codes come online early [prelexical] or that phonological codes come online late [postlexical]) are discussed. Next the research relevant to each of these proposed functions is reviewed, discussing the varying methodologies that have been used to investigate phonological coding (e.g., response time methods, reading while eye-tracking or recording EEG and MEG, concurrent articulation) and highlighting the advantages and limitations of each with respect to the study of phonological coding. In response to the view that phonological coding is largely epiphenomenal in skilled readers, research on the use of phonological codes in prelingually, profoundly deaf readers is reviewed. Finally, implications for current models of word identification (activation-verification model, Van Orden, 1987; dual-route model, e.g., M. Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001; parallel distributed processing model, Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989) are discussed.