Learning to Spell in Arabic: The Impact of Script-Specific Visual-Orthographic Features

Neural Specialization for English and Arabic Print in Early Readers

Learning to read requires the specialization of a region in the left fusiform gyrus known as the visual word form area (VWFA). This region, which initially responds to faces and objects, develops specificity for print over a long trajectory of instruction and practice. VWFA neurons may be primed for print because of their pre-literate tuning properties, becoming specialized through top-down feedback mechanisms during learning. However, much of what is known about the VWFA comes from studies of Western orthographies, whose alphabets share common visual characteristics. Far less is known about the development of the VWFA for Arabic, which is a complex orthography and is significantly more difficult to achieve fluency in in reading. In the current study, electroencephalography responses were collected from first grade children in the United Arab Emirates learning to read in both English and Arabic. Children viewed words and false font strings in English and Arabic while performing a vigilance task. The P1 and N1 responses to all stimulus categories were quantified in two occipital and two parietal electrodes as well as the alpha band signal across all four electrodes of interest. Analysis revealed a significantly stronger N1 response to English compared to Arabic and decreased alpha power to Arabic compared to English. These findings suggest a fundamental difference in neural plasticity for these two distinct orthographies, even when instruction is concurrent. Future work is needed to determine whether VWFA specialization for Arabic takes longer than more well-studied orthographies and if differences in reading instruction approaches help accelerate this process.

On the role of morphology in early spelling in Hebrew and Arabic

It is well known that learning to spell is a complex and challenging process, especially for young learners, in part because it relies on multiple aspects of linguistic knowledge, such as phonology and morphology. The present longitudinal study investigated the role of morphology in early spelling in two Semitic languages, Hebrew and Arabic, that are structurally similar but differ in the phonological consistency of phoneme to letter mappings ("backward consistency"). Whereas Arabic mappings are mostly one-to-one - allowing children to rely mainly on phonology to spell words correctly, Hebrew has numerous one-to-many phoneme-to-letter mappings that are governed by morphological considerations, thereby precluding a purely phonological spelling strategy. We, therefore, predicted that morphology would make a more substantial contribution to early Hebrew spelling than to Arabic spelling. We tested this prediction in a longitudinal study of two large parallel samples (Arabic, N = 960; Hebrew, N = 680). We assessed general non-verbal ability, morphological awareness (MA), and phonological awareness (PA) in late Kindergarten and spelling in the middle of the first grade with a spelling-to-dictation task. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for age, general intelligence, and phonological awareness, morphological awareness contributed a significant additional 6% variance to Hebrew spelling but only 1% to Arabic word spelling. The results are discussed within the framework of the Functional Opacity Hypothesis (Share, 2008), which we extend to spelling.

Utility of Psychometric and Dynamic Assessments for Identifying Cognitive Characteristics of Twice-Exceptional Students

The purpose of this research was to examine the utility of psychometric and dynamic assessment for the identification of a twice-exceptional (2E) group of students who showed both mathematical high abilities and specific learning disabilities. Of a population of 800 students, 30 (14 boys and 16 girls) ages 10 to 12 years were selected and identified as twice-exceptional at three public elementary schools in Amman, the capital of Jordan. A combination of three psychometric tests and one dynamic math assessment tool was used to recognize the cognitive and perceptual characteristics strengths and difficulties among students. Both psychometric and dynamic assessment models were found important and complementary to one another for the identification of cognitive and perceptual characteristics of twice-exceptional children. The findings were reported and discussed.