Word skipping: effects of word length, predictability, spelling and reading skill.

PubMed

Slattery, Timothy J; Yates, Mark

2017-08-31

Readers eyes often skip over words as they read. Skipping rates are largely determined by word length; short words are skipped more than long words. However, the predictability of a word in context also impacts skipping rates. Rayner, Slattery, Drieghe and Liversedge (2011) reported an effect of predictability on word skipping for even long words (10-13 characters) that extend beyond the word identification span. Recent research suggests that better readers and spellers have an enhanced perceptual span (Veldre & Andrews, 2014). We explored whether reading and spelling skill interact with word length and predictability to impact word skipping rates in a large sample (N=92) of average and poor adult readers. Participants read the items from Rayner et al. (2011) while their eye movements were recorded. Spelling skill (zSpell) was assessed using the dictation and recognition tasks developed by Sally Andrews and colleagues. Reading skill (zRead) was assessed from reading speed (words per minute) and accuracy of three 120 word passages each with 10 comprehension questions. We fit linear mixed models to the target gaze duration data and generalized linear mixed models to the target word skipping data. Target word gaze durations were significantly predicted by zRead while, the skipping likelihoods were significantly predicted by zSpell. Additionally, for gaze durations, zRead significantly interacted with word predictability as better readers relied less on context to support word processing. These effects are discussed in relation to the lexical quality hypothesis and eye movement models of reading.

Assessing spelling in kindergarten: further comparison of scoring metrics and their relation to reading skills.

PubMed

Clemens, Nathan H; Oslund, Eric L; Simmons, Leslie E; Simmons, Deborah

2014-02-01

Early reading and spelling development share foundational skills, yet spelling assessment is underutilized in evaluating early reading. This study extended research comparing the degree to which methods for scoring spelling skills at the end of kindergarten were associated with reading skills measured at the same time as well as at the end of first grade. Five strategies for scoring spelling responses were compared: totaling the number of words spelled correctly, totaling the number of correct letter sounds, totaling the number of correct letter sequences, using a rubric for scoring invented spellings, and calculating the Spelling Sensitivity Score (Masterson & Apel, 2010b). Students (N=287) who were identified at kindergarten entry as at risk for reading difficulty and who had received supplemental reading intervention were administered a standardized spelling assessment in the spring of kindergarten, and measures of phonological awareness, decoding, word recognition, and reading fluency were administered concurrently and at the end of first grade. The five spelling scoring metrics were similar in their strong relations with factors summarizing reading subskills (phonological awareness, decoding, and word reading) on a concurrent basis. Furthermore, when predicting first-grade reading skills based on spring-of-kindergarten performance, spelling scores from all five metrics explained unique variance over the autoregressive effects of kindergarten word identification. The practical advantages of using a brief spelling assessment for early reading evaluation and the relative tradeoffs of each scoring metric are discussed. Copyright © 2013 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Onset and Rime Awareness and Analogies in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha; Mead, Felicity

1992-01-01

Examines the effects of onset and rime awareness on children's recognition of spelling patterns in written words. Reports that onset-rime awareness was associated with word ending similarities, whereas word beginning analogies appeared to involve higher-level phonological skills. Suggests longitudinal research regarding the issue. (SG)

Speech recognition-based and automaticity programs to help students with severe reading and spelling problems.

PubMed

Higgins, Eleanor L; Raskind, Marshall H

2004-12-01

This study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two programs developed by the Frostig Center Research Department to improve the reading and spelling of students with learning disabilities (LD): a computer Speech Recognition-based Program (SRBP) and a computer and text-based Automaticity Program (AP). Twenty-eight LD students with reading and spelling difficulties (aged 8 to 18) received each program for 17 weeks and were compared with 16 students in a contrast group who did not receive either program. After adjusting for age and IQ, both the SRBP and AP groups showed significant differences over the contrast group in improving word recognition and reading comprehension. Neither program showed significant differences over contrasts in spelling. The SRBP also improved the performance of the target group when compared with the contrast group on phonological elision and nonword reading efficiency tasks. The AP showed significant differences in all process and reading efficiency measures.

Lexical precision in skilled readers: Individual differences in masked neighbor priming.

PubMed

Andrews, Sally; Hersch, Jolyn

2010-05-01

Two experiments investigated the relationship between masked form priming and individual differences in reading and spelling proficiency among university students. Experiment 1 assessed neighbor priming for 4-letter word targets from high- and low-density neighborhoods in 97 university students. The overall results replicated previous evidence of facilitatory neighborhood priming only for low-neighborhood words. However, analyses including measures of reading and spelling proficiency as covariates revealed that better spellers showed inhibitory priming for high-neighborhood words, while poorer spellers showed facilitatory priming. Experiment 2, with 123 participants, replicated the finding of stronger inhibitory neighbor priming in better spellers using 5-letter words and distinguished facilitatory and inhibitory components of priming by comparing neighbor primes with ambiguous and unambiguous partial-word primes (e.g., crow#, cr#wd, crown CROWD). The results indicate that spelling ability is selectively associated with inhibitory effects of lexical competition. The implications for theories of visual word recognition and the lexical quality hypothesis of reading skill are discussed.

Assistive Technology and Adults with Learning Disabilities: A Blueprint for Exploration and Advancement.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Raskind, Marshall

1993-01-01

This article describes assistive technologies for persons with learning disabilities, including word processing, spell checking, proofreading programs, outlining/"brainstorming" programs, abbreviation expanders, speech recognition, speech synthesis/screen review, optical character recognition systems, personal data managers, free-form databases,…

Beyond Word Processing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Haight, Larry

1989-01-01

Types of specialty software that can help in computer editing are discussed, including programs for file transformation, optical character recognition, facsimile transmission, spell-checking, style assistance, editing, indexing, and headline-writing. (MSE)

Morphological Awareness Intervention: Improving Spelling, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension for Adult Learners.

PubMed

Bangs, Kathryn E; Binder, Katherine S

2016-01-01

Adult Basic Education programs are under pressure to develop and deliver instruction that promotes rapid and sustained literacy development. We describe a novel approach to a literacy intervention that focuses on morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units contained in words. We argue that if you teach learners that big words are comprised of smaller components (i.e., morphemes), you will provide those students with the skills to figure out the meanings of new words. Research with children has demonstrated that teaching them about morphemes improves word recognition, spelling, vocabulary, and comprehension (Bowers & Kirby, 2009; Kirk & Gillon, 2009; Nunes, Bryant, & Olsson, 2003). Our hope is that this type of intervention will be successful with adult learners, too.

Automobile Maintenance. Reading and Language Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessman, William A.

Designed primarily for special needs students in a vocational program in automobile maintenance, this book was written to refine the basic skills of following directions, reading comprehension, vocabulary building, spelling, word usage, and word recognition, while relating these skills to some of the tasks a beginning student in the program must…

Effective connectivity of visual word recognition and homophone orthographic errors

PubMed Central

Guàrdia-Olmos, Joan; Peró-Cebollero, Maribel; Zarabozo-Hurtado, Daniel; González-Garrido, Andrés A.; Gudayol-Ferré, Esteve

2015-01-01

The study of orthographic errors in a transparent language like Spanish is an important topic in relation to writing acquisition. The development of neuroimaging techniques, particularly functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), has enabled the study of such relationships between brain areas. The main objective of the present study was to explore the patterns of effective connectivity by processing pseudohomophone orthographic errors among subjects with high and low spelling skills. Two groups of 12 Mexican subjects each, matched by age, were formed based on their results in a series of ad hoc spelling-related out-scanner tests: a high spelling skills (HSSs) group and a low spelling skills (LSSs) group. During the f MRI session, two experimental tasks were applied (spelling recognition task and visuoperceptual recognition task). Regions of Interest and their signal values were obtained for both tasks. Based on these values, structural equation models (SEMs) were obtained for each group of spelling competence (HSS and LSS) and task through maximum likelihood estimation, and the model with the best fit was chosen in each case. Likewise, dynamic causal models (DCMs) were estimated for all the conditions across tasks and groups. The HSS group’s SEM results suggest that, in the spelling recognition task, the right middle temporal gyrus, and, to a lesser extent, the left parahippocampal gyrus receive most of the significant effects, whereas the DCM results in the visuoperceptual recognition task show less complex effects, but still congruent with the previous results, with an important role in several areas. In general, these results are consistent with the major findings in partial studies about linguistic activities but they are the first analyses of statistical effective brain connectivity in transparent languages. PMID:26042070

Analysis of Pseudohomophone Orthographic Errors through Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

PubMed

Guardia-Olmos, Joan; Zarabozo-Hurtado, Daniel; Peró-Cebollero, Maribe; Gudayol-Farré, Esteban; Gómez-Velázquez, Fabiola R; González-Garrido, Andrés

2017-12-04

The study of orthographic errors in a transparent language such as Spanish is an important topic in relation to writing acquisition because in Spanish it is common to write pseudohomophones as valid words. The main objective of the present study was to explore the possible differences in activation patterns in brain areas while processing pseudohomophone orthographic errors between participants with high (High Spelling Skills (HSS)) and low (Low Spelling Skills (LSS)) spelling orthographic abilities. We hypothesize that (a) the detection of orthographic errors will activate bilateral inferior frontal gyri, and that (b) this effect will be greater in the HSS group. Two groups of 12 Mexican participants, each matched by age, were formed based on their results in a group of spelling-related ad hoc tests: HSS and LSS groups. During the fMRI session, two experimental tasks were applied involving correct and pseudohomophone substitution of Spanish words. First, a spelling recognition task and second a letter searching task. The LSS group showed, as expected, a lower number of correct responses (F(1, 21) = 52.72, p <.001, η2 = .715) and higher reaction times compared to the HSS group for the spelling task (F(1, 21) = 60.03, p <.001, η2 = .741). However, this pattern was reversed when the participants were asked to decide on the presence of a vowel in the words, regardless of spelling. The fMRI data showed an engagement of the right inferior frontal gyrus in HSS group during the spelling task. However, temporal, frontal, and subcortical brain regions of the LSS group were activated during the same task.

The Training of Morphological Decomposition in Word Processing and Its Effects on Literacy Skills.

PubMed

Bar-Kochva, Irit; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2017-01-01

This study set out to examine the effects of a morpheme-based training on reading and spelling in fifth and sixth graders ( N = 47), who present poor literacy skills and speak German as a second language. A computerized training, consisting of a visual lexical decision task (comprising 2,880 items, presented in 12 sessions), was designed to encourage fast morphological analysis in word processing. The children were divided between two groups: the one underwent a morpheme-based training, in which word-stems of inflections and derivations were presented for a limited duration, while their pre- and suffixes remained on screen until response. Another group received a control training consisting of the same task, except that the duration of presentation of a non-morphological unit was restricted. In a Word Disruption Task, participants read words under three conditions: morphological separation (with symbols separating between the words' morphemes), non-morphological separation (with symbols separating between non-morphological units of words), and no-separation (with symbols presented at the beginning and end of each word). The group receiving the morpheme-based program improved more than the control group in terms of word reading fluency in the morphological condition. The former group also presented similar word reading fluency after training in the morphological condition and in the no-separation condition, thereby suggesting that the morpheme-based training contributed to the integration of morphological decomposition into the process of word recognition. At the same time, both groups similarly improved in other measures of word reading fluency. With regard to spelling, the morpheme-based training group showed a larger improvement than the control group in spelling of trained items, and a unique improvement in spelling of untrained items (untrained word-stems integrated into trained pre- and suffixes). The results further suggest some contribution of the morpheme-based training to performance in a standardized spelling task. The morpheme-based training did not, however, show any unique effect on comprehension. These results suggest that the morpheme-based training is effective in enhancing some basic literacy skill in the population examined, i.e., morphological analysis in word processing and the access to orthographic representations in spelling, with no specific effects on reading fluency and comprehension.

Teaching Word Recognition, Spelling, and Vocabulary: Strategies from "The Reading Teacher."

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rasinski, Timothy V., Ed.; Padak, Nancy D., Ed.; Church, Brenda Weible, Ed.; Fawcett, Gay, Ed.; Hendershot, Judith, Ed.; Henry, Justina M., Ed.; Moss, Barbara G., Ed.; Peck, Jacqueline K., Ed.; Pryor, Elizabeth, Ed.; Roskos, Kathleen A., Ed.

This book, one of four in the Teaching Reading Collection, presents the "best of the best" classroom-tested ideas, approaches, and practical applications for helping students learn about words. The articles have been drawn from the journal "The Reading Teacher" from 1993-1999. The ideas and strategies are intended to provide possible building…

The Training of Morphological Decomposition in Word Processing and Its Effects on Literacy Skills

PubMed Central

Bar-Kochva, Irit; Hasselhorn, Marcus

2017-01-01

This study set out to examine the effects of a morpheme-based training on reading and spelling in fifth and sixth graders (N = 47), who present poor literacy skills and speak German as a second language. A computerized training, consisting of a visual lexical decision task (comprising 2,880 items, presented in 12 sessions), was designed to encourage fast morphological analysis in word processing. The children were divided between two groups: the one underwent a morpheme-based training, in which word-stems of inflections and derivations were presented for a limited duration, while their pre- and suffixes remained on screen until response. Another group received a control training consisting of the same task, except that the duration of presentation of a non-morphological unit was restricted. In a Word Disruption Task, participants read words under three conditions: morphological separation (with symbols separating between the words’ morphemes), non-morphological separation (with symbols separating between non-morphological units of words), and no-separation (with symbols presented at the beginning and end of each word). The group receiving the morpheme-based program improved more than the control group in terms of word reading fluency in the morphological condition. The former group also presented similar word reading fluency after training in the morphological condition and in the no-separation condition, thereby suggesting that the morpheme-based training contributed to the integration of morphological decomposition into the process of word recognition. At the same time, both groups similarly improved in other measures of word reading fluency. With regard to spelling, the morpheme-based training group showed a larger improvement than the control group in spelling of trained items, and a unique improvement in spelling of untrained items (untrained word-stems integrated into trained pre- and suffixes). The results further suggest some contribution of the morpheme-based training to performance in a standardized spelling task. The morpheme-based training did not, however, show any unique effect on comprehension. These results suggest that the morpheme-based training is effective in enhancing some basic literacy skill in the population examined, i.e., morphological analysis in word processing and the access to orthographic representations in spelling, with no specific effects on reading fluency and comprehension. PMID:29163245

Orthographic effects in spoken word recognition: Evidence from Chinese.

PubMed

Qu, Qingqing; Damian, Markus F

2017-06-01

Extensive evidence from alphabetic languages demonstrates a role of orthography in the processing of spoken words. Because alphabetic systems explicitly code speech sounds, such effects are perhaps not surprising. However, it is less clear whether orthographic codes are involuntarily accessed from spoken words in languages with non-alphabetic systems, in which the sound-spelling correspondence is largely arbitrary. We investigated the role of orthography via a semantic relatedness judgment task: native Mandarin speakers judged whether or not spoken word pairs were related in meaning. Word pairs were either semantically related, orthographically related, or unrelated. Results showed that relatedness judgments were made faster for word pairs that were semantically related than for unrelated word pairs. Critically, orthographic overlap on semantically unrelated word pairs induced a significant increase in response latencies. These findings indicate that orthographic information is involuntarily accessed in spoken-word recognition, even in a non-alphabetic language such as Chinese.

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Syllable Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children.

PubMed

Mehta, Sheena; Ding, Yi; Ness, Molly; Chen, Eric C

2018-06-01

The study assessed the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determined whether invented spelling with linguistic manipulation at segmental and supra-segmental levels can be used to better identify reading difficulties. We conducted linguistic manipulation by using real and nonreal words, incorporating word stress, alternating the order of consonants and vowels, and alternating the number of syllables. We recruited 60 third-grade students, of which half were typical readers and half were poor readers. The invented spelling task consistently differentiated those with reading difficulties from typical readers. It explained unique variance in conventional spelling, but not in word reading. Word stress explained unique variance in both word reading and conventional spelling, highlighting the importance of addressing phonological awareness at the supra-segmental level. Poor readers had poorer performance when spelling both real and nonreal words and demonstrated substantial difficulty in detecting word stress. Poor readers struggled with spelling words with double consonants at the beginning and ending of words, and performed worse on spelling two- and three-syllable words than typical readers. Practical implications for early identification and instruction are discussed.

Accessing orthographic representations from speech: the role of left ventral occipitotemporal cortex in spelling.

PubMed

Ludersdorfer, Philipp; Kronbichler, Martin; Wimmer, Heinz

2015-04-01

The present fMRI study used a spelling task to investigate the hypothesis that the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) hosts neuronal representations of whole written words. Such an orthographic word lexicon is posited by cognitive dual-route theories of reading and spelling. In the scanner, participants performed a spelling task in which they had to indicate if a visually presented letter is present in the written form of an auditorily presented word. The main experimental manipulation distinguished between an orthographic word spelling condition in which correct spelling decisions had to be based on orthographic whole-word representations, a word spelling condition in which reliance on orthographic whole-word representations was optional and a phonological pseudoword spelling condition in which no reliance on such representations was possible. To evaluate spelling-specific activations the spelling conditions were contrasted with control conditions that also presented auditory words and pseudowords, but participants had to indicate if a visually presented letter corresponded to the gender of the speaker. We identified a left vOT cluster activated for the critical orthographic word spelling condition relative to both the control condition and the phonological pseudoword spelling condition. Our results suggest that activation of left vOT during spelling can be attributed to the retrieval of orthographic whole-word representations and, thus, support the position that the left vOT potentially represents the neuronal equivalent of the cognitive orthographic word lexicon. © 2014 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Speech recognition: Acoustic phonetic and lexical knowledge representation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zue, V. W.

1983-02-01

The purpose of this program is to develop a speech data base facility under which the acoustic characteristics of speech sounds in various contexts can be studied conveniently; investigate the phonological properties of a large lexicon of, say 10,000 words, and determine to what extent the phontactic constraints can be utilized in speech recognition; study the acoustic cues that are used to mark work boundaries; develop a test bed in the form of a large-vocabulary, IWR system to study the interactions of acoustic, phonetic and lexical knowledge; and develop a limited continuous speech recognition system with the goal of recognizing any English word from its spelling in order to assess the interactions of higher-level knowledge sources.

Variations among Adults in Their Use of Morphemic Spelling Rules and Word-Specific Knowledge when Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Paul; Kemp, Nenagh; Bryant, Peter

2011-01-01

The purpose of this research was to examine whether adults rely on morphemic spelling rules or word-specific knowledge when spelling simple words. We examined adults' knowledge of two of the simplest and most reliable rules in English spelling concerning the morphological word ending -s. This spelling is required for regular plural nouns (e.g.,…

Accessing orthographic representations from speech: The role of left ventral occipitotemporal cortex in spelling

PubMed Central

Ludersdorfer, Philipp; Kronbichler, Martin; Wimmer, Heinz

2015-01-01

The present fMRI study used a spelling task to investigate the hypothesis that the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOT) hosts neuronal representations of whole written words. Such an orthographic word lexicon is posited by cognitive dual-route theories of reading and spelling. In the scanner, participants performed a spelling task in which they had to indicate if a visually presented letter is present in the written form of an auditorily presented word. The main experimental manipulation distinguished between an orthographic word spelling condition in which correct spelling decisions had to be based on orthographic whole-word representations, a word spelling condition in which reliance on orthographic whole-word representations was optional and a phonological pseudoword spelling condition in which no reliance on such representations was possible. To evaluate spelling-specific activations the spelling conditions were contrasted with control conditions that also presented auditory words and pseudowords, but participants had to indicate if a visually presented letter corresponded to the gender of the speaker. We identified a left vOT cluster activated for the critical orthographic word spelling condition relative to both the control condition and the phonological pseudoword spelling condition. Our results suggest that activation of left vOT during spelling can be attributed to the retrieval of orthographic whole-word representations and, thus, support the position that the left vOT potentially represents the neuronal equivalent of the cognitive orthographic word lexicon. Hum Brain Mapp, 36:1393–1406, 2015. © 2014 The Authors Human Brain Mapping Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. PMID:25504890

Incidental orthographic learning during a color detection task.

PubMed

Protopapas, Athanassios; Mitsi, Anna; Koustoumbardis, Miltiadis; Tsitsopoulou, Sofia M; Leventi, Marianna; Seitz, Aaron R

2017-09-01

Orthographic learning refers to the acquisition of knowledge about specific spelling patterns forming words and about general biases and constraints on letter sequences. It is thought to occur by strengthening simultaneously activated visual and phonological representations during reading. Here we demonstrate that a visual perceptual learning procedure that leaves no time for articulation can result in orthographic learning evidenced in improved reading and spelling performance. We employed task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL), in which the stimuli to be learned are paired with an easy task target. Assorted line drawings and difficult-to-spell words were presented in red color among sequences of other black-colored words and images presented in rapid succession, constituting a fast-TIPL procedure with color detection being the explicit task. In five experiments, Greek children in Grades 4-5 showed increased recognition of words and images that had appeared in red, both during and after the training procedure, regardless of within-training testing, and also when targets appeared in blue instead of red. Significant transfer to reading and spelling emerged only after increased training intensity. In a sixth experiment, children in Grades 2-3 showed generalization to words not presented during training that carried the same derivational affixes as in the training set. We suggest that reinforcement signals related to detection of the target stimuli contribute to the strengthening of orthography-phonology connections beyond earlier levels of visually-based orthographic representation learning. These results highlight the potential of perceptual learning procedures for the reinforcement of higher-level orthographic representations. Copyright © 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

California State Spelling Championship Word Lists [and Spelling Bee Planning Information].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools, Santa Rosa, CA.

This two-part document contains a spelling word list compiled by the Sonoma County Superintendent of Schools (California) for use in the California State Elementary Spelling Championship competition, along with information for planning and conducting spelling bees. The spelling word list (also intended for use in the regional competitions) is a…

Literacy and Emotions: Data Analysis from the Dudelange Project.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berg, Charles; Lick, Paulette

A study focused on the relationship between emotions and literacy achievements. It begins with a mention of the theoretical contributions which backed up the study. In the Dudelange project survey (4th graders), the following literacy variables are available: word recognition, two different measures for reading comprehension, spelling, vocabulary…

Poetry Workshop. Weave Poetry Through Your Day.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cullinan, Bee

1998-01-01

Presents a poetry across-the-curriculum activity designed to help primary school students build word-recognition skills and an appreciation for the natural world. Students read a poem about polliwogs aloud, discuss the sounds, examine spelling patterns, and investigate scientific details about polliwogs. The poem, "Polliwogs" is included. (SM)

Comparable Common Factors in English Homophone Recognition. Report from the Project on Situational Variables and Efficiency of Concept Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Houston, Thomas Rappe, Jr.

A homophone is a word having the same pronunciation as another English word, but a different spelling. A list of 7,300 English homophones was compiled and used to construct two tests. Scores were obtained in these and on reference tests for J. P. Guilford's factors CMU, CSU, DMU, and DSU for 70 native speakers of midwestern American English from a…

Anatomic, clinical, and neuropsychological correlates of spelling errors in primary progressive aphasia.

PubMed

Shim, Hyungsub; Hurley, Robert S; Rogalski, Emily; Mesulam, M-Marsel

2012-07-01

This study evaluates spelling errors in the three subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA): agrammatic (PPA-G), logopenic (PPA-L), and semantic (PPA-S). Forty-one PPA patients and 36 age-matched healthy controls were administered a test of spelling. The total number of errors and types of errors in spelling to dictation of regular words, exception words and nonwords, were recorded. Error types were classified based on phonetic plausibility. In the first analysis, scores were evaluated by clinical diagnosis. Errors in spelling exception words and phonetically plausible errors were seen in PPA-S. Conversely, PPA-G was associated with errors in nonword spelling and phonetically implausible errors. In the next analysis, spelling scores were correlated to other neuropsychological language test scores. Significant correlations were found between exception word spelling and measures of naming and single word comprehension. Nonword spelling correlated with tests of grammar and repetition. Global language measures did not correlate significantly with spelling scores, however. Cortical thickness analysis based on MRI showed that atrophy in several language regions of interest were correlated with spelling errors. Atrophy in the left supramarginal gyrus and inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars orbitalis correlated with errors in nonword spelling, while thinning in the left temporal pole and fusiform gyrus correlated with errors in exception word spelling. Additionally, phonetically implausible errors in regular word spelling correlated with thinning in the left IFG pars triangularis and pars opercularis. Together, these findings suggest two independent systems for spelling to dictation, one phonetic (phoneme to grapheme conversion), and one lexical (whole word retrieval). Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spelling across Tasks and Levels of Language in a Transparent Orthography

PubMed Central

2016-01-01

The paper reports the results of two studies on the spelling performance of 1st graders in a transparent writing system. The spelling performance of Italian children was assessed to determine the cross-task relationship between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling at the single word level (Study 1) and at the text level (Study 2), respectively. In study 1, 132 Italian children’s spelling performance was assessed in 1st grade through two standardized tasks, i.e., word dictation, and spontaneous word spelling. In study 2, spelling performance of 81 Italian children was assessed in 1st grade through two tasks, i.e., text dictation, and spontaneous text spelling. In Study 1, spelling words and pseudo-words to dictation was found to be more difficult than spontaneous spelling of words. This effect was verified for all children (including low achievers and spelling impaired). The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school. In Study 2, children's spelling performances were not dependent across the two tasks (i.e., spelling a text under dictation or spontaneously). The two tasks shared the level of difficulty but performance in one task was not predictive of performance in the second task. Strong individual differences between children were found at the text level as a function of task. Similar to Study 1, the moderate correlation between spelling text to dictation and spontaneous spelling confirmed the usefulness of adopting both spelling assessments at school. PMID:27658189

Spelling across Tasks and Levels of Language in a Transparent Orthography.

PubMed

Bigozzi, Lucia; Tarchi, Christian; Pinto, Giuliana

The paper reports the results of two studies on the spelling performance of 1st graders in a transparent writing system. The spelling performance of Italian children was assessed to determine the cross-task relationship between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling at the single word level (Study 1) and at the text level (Study 2), respectively. In study 1, 132 Italian children's spelling performance was assessed in 1st grade through two standardized tasks, i.e., word dictation, and spontaneous word spelling. In study 2, spelling performance of 81 Italian children was assessed in 1st grade through two tasks, i.e., text dictation, and spontaneous text spelling. In Study 1, spelling words and pseudo-words to dictation was found to be more difficult than spontaneous spelling of words. This effect was verified for all children (including low achievers and spelling impaired). The moderate correlation found between spelling to dictation and spontaneous spelling indicated that the two tasks are supported by partially different spelling processes and confirmed suggestions for including both types of spelling assessments in the school. In Study 2, children's spelling performances were not dependent across the two tasks (i.e., spelling a text under dictation or spontaneously). The two tasks shared the level of difficulty but performance in one task was not predictive of performance in the second task. Strong individual differences between children were found at the text level as a function of task. Similar to Study 1, the moderate correlation between spelling text to dictation and spontaneous spelling confirmed the usefulness of adopting both spelling assessments at school.

Spotlight on Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardin County Board of Education, Elizabethtown, KY.

Word lists and class activities are suggested for improving the spelling of elementary school students. The word lists contain rhyming words, antonyms, synonyms, homonyms, 100 spelling demons, look-alike words that are easily confused, and content area words (for geography, mathematics, science, sports, music, social studies). The suggested…

Spelling Pronunciations Help College Students Remember How to Spell Difficult Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ocal, Turkan; Ehri, Linnea C.

2017-01-01

Studies have shown that children benefit from a spelling pronunciation strategy in remembering the spellings of words. The current study determined whether this strategy also helps adults learn to spell commonly misspelled words. Participants were native English speaking college students (N = 42), mean age 22.5 years (SD = 7.87). An experimental…

Word Study: A Look at Improving Learning and Retention of Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dew, Tracy

2012-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to share the effectiveness of the word study program "Words Their Way" (Bear et. al., 2008) to improve spelling retention of first graders in a regular education classroom in the Spring of 2012. After implementing a traditional spelling program and seeing students continuously spell previous spelling words…

Lexical neighborhood effects in pseudoword spelling.

PubMed

Tainturier, Marie-Josèphe; Bosse, Marie-Line; Roberts, Daniel J; Valdois, Sylviane; Rapp, Brenda

2013-01-01

The general aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive processes that underpin skilled adult spelling. More specifically, it investigates the influence of lexical neighbors on pseudo-word spelling with the goal of providing a more detailed account of the interaction between lexical and sublexical sources of knowledge in spelling. In prior research examining this topic, adult participants typically heard lists composed of both words and pseudo-words and had to make a lexical decision to each stimulus before writing the pseudo-words. However, these priming paradigms are susceptible to strategic influence and may therefore not give a clear picture of the processes normally engaged in spelling unfamiliar words. In our two Experiments involving 71 French-speaking literate adults, only pseudo-words were presented which participants were simply requested to write to dictation using the first spelling that came to mind. Unbeknownst to participants, pseudo-words varied according to whether they did or did not have a phonological word neighbor. Results revealed that low-probability phoneme/grapheme mappings (e.g., /o/ -> aud in French) were used significantly more often in spelling pseudo-words with a close phonological lexical neighbor with that spelling (e.g., /krepo/ derived from "crapaud," /krapo/) than in spelling pseudo-words with no close neighbors (e.g., /frøpo/). In addition, the strength of this lexical influence increased with the lexical frequency of the word neighbors as well as with their degree of phonetic overlap with the pseudo-word targets. These results indicate that information from lexical and sublexical processes is integrated in the course of spelling, and a specific theoretical account as to how such integration may occur is introduced.

Lexical neighborhood effects in pseudoword spelling

PubMed Central

Tainturier, Marie-Josèphe; Bosse, Marie-Line; Roberts, Daniel J.; Valdois, Sylviane; Rapp, Brenda

2013-01-01

The general aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the cognitive processes that underpin skilled adult spelling. More specifically, it investigates the influence of lexical neighbors on pseudo-word spelling with the goal of providing a more detailed account of the interaction between lexical and sublexical sources of knowledge in spelling. In prior research examining this topic, adult participants typically heard lists composed of both words and pseudo-words and had to make a lexical decision to each stimulus before writing the pseudo-words. However, these priming paradigms are susceptible to strategic influence and may therefore not give a clear picture of the processes normally engaged in spelling unfamiliar words. In our two Experiments involving 71 French-speaking literate adults, only pseudo-words were presented which participants were simply requested to write to dictation using the first spelling that came to mind. Unbeknownst to participants, pseudo-words varied according to whether they did or did not have a phonological word neighbor. Results revealed that low-probability phoneme/grapheme mappings (e.g., /o/ -> aud in French) were used significantly more often in spelling pseudo-words with a close phonological lexical neighbor with that spelling (e.g., /krepo/ derived from “crapaud,” /krapo/) than in spelling pseudo-words with no close neighbors (e.g., /frøpo/). In addition, the strength of this lexical influence increased with the lexical frequency of the word neighbors as well as with their degree of phonetic overlap with the pseudo-word targets. These results indicate that information from lexical and sublexical processes is integrated in the course of spelling, and a specific theoretical account as to how such integration may occur is introduced. PMID:24348436

Inflectional spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

Egan, Joanne; Tainturier, Marie-Josèphe

2011-01-01

The goal of this study was to examine past-tense spelling deficits in developmental dyslexia and their relationship to phonological abilities, spoken morphological awareness and word specific orthographic memory. Three groups of children (28 9-year-old dyslexic, 28 chronological age-matched and 28 reading/spelling age-matched children) completed a battery of tests including spelling regularly inflected words (e.g., kissed) and matched one-morpheme words (e.g., wrist). They were also assessed on a range of tests of reading and spelling abilities and associated linguistic measures. Dyslexic children were impaired in relation to chronological age-matched controls on all measures. Furthermore, they were significantly poorer than younger reading and spelling age-matched controls at spelling inflected verbs, supporting the existence of a specific deficit in past-tense spelling in dyslexia. In addition to under-using the -ed spelling on inflected verbs, the dyslexic children were less likely to erroneously apply this spelling to one-morpheme words than younger controls. Dyslexics were also poorer than younger controls at using a consistent spelling for stems presented in isolation versus as part of an inflected word, indicating that they make less use of the morphological relations between words to support their spelling. In line with this interpretation, regression analyses revealed another qualitative difference between the spelling and reading age-matched group and the dyslexic group: while both spoken morphological awareness and orthographic word specific memory were significant predictors of the accuracy of past-tense spelling in the former group, only orthographic memory (irregular word reading and spelling) was a significant factor in the dyslexic group. Finally, we identified a subgroup of seven dyslexic children who were severely deficient in past-tense spelling. This subgroup was also significantly worse than other dyslexics and than younger controls on scores of orthographic memory. The implications of our findings for teaching and remediation strategies are discussed. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.

Combined Spelling--It Works.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zylstra, Barbara Jean

1989-01-01

A spelling program was devised for learning-disabled students, using elements from "Signs for Sounds," the Cloze method, and "Auditory Discrimination In-Depth." Day-by-day use of the program involves drawing word pictures, spelling the words with tiles and blocks, writing on the board, using the words in written sentences, spelling bees, etc. (JDD)

The Effect of Modifying Spelling Rules on the Orthography Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koc, Rasit

2014-01-01

The current study examined four different orthography guides prepared by Turkish Language Society between 1996 and 2012. These orthography guides included different spellings in words with capital letters, compound words, abbreviations, and some other words. The spelling differences defined were analyzed in groups. Different spelling preferences…

Multilayered Word Structure Model for Assessing Spelling of Finnish Children in Shallow Orthography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kulju, Pirjo; Mäkinen, Marita

2017-01-01

This study explores Finnish children's word-level spelling by applying a linguistically based multilayered word structure model for assessing spelling performance. The model contributes to the analytical qualitative assessment approach in order to identify children's spelling performance for enhancing writing skills. The children (N = 105)…

Characteristics of early spelling of children with Specific Language Impairment.

PubMed

Cordewener, Kim A H; Bosman, Anna M T; Verhoeven, Ludo

2012-01-01

The present study investigated active grapheme knowledge and early spelling of 59 first grade children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Speed, nature, and knowledge transfer of spelling acquisition were taken into account. Four orthographic characteristics that influence early spelling, namely, 'Type of Grapheme', 'Grapheme Position', 'Number of Graphemes', and 'Word Structure' were examined at the middle and at the end of first grade. At the beginning of first grade when children were between 71 and 97 months, they performed well below national norms on assessment of active grapheme knowledge. The delay in word spelling persisted, but decreased between the middle and the end of first grade. Despite this delay, the findings suggest that characteristics of early spelling for children with SLI are rather similar to those of children with typical language development. For example, children with SLI represented more graphemes at the end of first grade than at the middle of first grade, found it easier to represent the initial grapheme in words than the final or medial grapheme (Grapheme Position), were more successful spelling shorter than longer words (Number of Graphemes), and spelled words with simple structures (CVC) more accurately than those with complex structures (CVCC and CCVC; Word Structure). Finally, participants demonstrated that they can use known graphemes to spell words, but the transfer between active grapheme knowledge and word spelling was not always stable. As a result of this activity, readers will be able to explain the speed and the nature of spelling acquisition of children with SLI. As a result of this activity, readers will be able to explain what skills are most important for teachers to practice with children with SLI to improve the spelling skills of these children. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children

PubMed Central

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Burani, Cristina

2014-01-01

In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs. non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs. low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling. PMID:25477855

The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children.

PubMed

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Burani, Cristina

2014-01-01

In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs. non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs. low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling.

Learning to spell in a language with transparent orthography: Distributional properties of orthography and whole-word lexical processing.

PubMed

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Putzolu, Anna; Notarnicola, Alessandra; Iaia, Marika; Burani, Cristina

2018-03-01

We examined how whole-word lexical information and knowledge of distributional properties of orthography interact in children's spelling. High- versus low-frequency words, which included inconsistently spelled segments occurring more or less frequently in the orthography, were used in two experiments: (a) word spelling; (b) lexical priming of pseudoword spelling. Participants were 1st-, 2nd-, and 4th-grade Italian children. Word spelling showed sensitivity to the distributional properties of orthography in all children: accuracy in spelling uncommon transcription segments emerged progressively as a function of word frequency and schooling. Lexical priming effects emerged as a function of age. When related primes contained an uncommon segment, 2nd- and 4th-graders preferred uncommon segments than common ones in spelling target pseudowords, thus inverting the response trend found in the control condition. A smaller but significant effect was present in 1st- graders, who, unlike 2nd- and 4th-graders, still preferred common segments, only slightly increasing the use of uncommon ones. A larger priming effect emerged for high-frequency primes than low-frequency ones. Results indicate that children learning to spell in a transparent orthography are sensitive to the distributional properties of the orthography. However, whole-word lexical representations are also used, with larger effects in more skilled pupils.

Word Savvy: Integrating Vocabulary, Spelling, and Word Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brand, Max

2004-01-01

Tired of assigning weekly spelling lists that students memorize for the test only to have them misspell the words in their daily writing? Then join Max Brand in his fifth-grade classroom where word learning is integrated fully into literacy workshops. Using spelling investigations, word study notebooks, reading logs, and writers' notebooks,…

Intervention for a lexical reading and spelling difficulty in two Greek-speaking primary age children.

PubMed

Terzopoulos, Aris R; Niolaki, Georgia Z; Masterson, Jackie

2018-05-14

An intervention study was carried out with two nine-year-old Greek-speaking dyslexic children. Both children were slow in reading single words and text and had difficulty in spelling irregularly spelled words. One child was also poor in non-word reading. Intervention focused on spelling in a whole-word training using a flashcard technique that had previously been found to be effective with English-speaking children. Post-intervention assessments conducted immediately at the end of the intervention, one month later and then five months later showed a significant improvement in spelling of treated words that was sustained over time. In addition, both children showed generalisation of improvement to untrained words and an increase in scores in a standardised spelling assessment. The findings support the effectiveness of theoretically based targeted intervention for literacy difficulties.

A Classroom Teacher's Guide to Reading Improvement in Middle School Language Arts. Revised Edition. Resource Monograph No. 18.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guttinger, Hellen I., Ed.

The reading improvement activities in this handbook are intended for use by middle school language arts teachers. Focusing on study skills, vocabulary development, and comprehension development, the activities include (1) surveying literary materials, (2) outlining, (3) spelling, (4) syllabication, (5) word recognition, (6) using synonyms, (7)…

Subgroups of Adult Basic Education Learners with Different Profiles of Reading Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

MacArthur, Charles A.; Konold, Timothy R.; Glutting, Joseph J.; Alamprese, Judith A.

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of adult basic education (ABE) learners with different profiles of skills in the core reading components of decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. The analysis uses factor scores of those 5 reading components from on a prior investigation of the reliability and…

Perceptual and academic patterns of learning-disabled/gifted students.

PubMed

Waldron, K A; Saphire, D G

1992-04-01

This research explored ways gifted children with learning disabilities perceive and recall auditory and visual input and apply this information to reading, mathematics, and spelling. 24 learning-disabled/gifted children and a matched control group of normally achieving gifted students were tested for oral reading, word recognition and analysis, listening comprehension, and spelling. In mathematics, they were tested for numeration, mental and written computation, word problems, and numerical reasoning. To explore perception and memory skills, students were administered formal tests of visual and auditory memory as well as auditory discrimination of sounds. Their responses to reading and to mathematical computations were further considered for evidence of problems in visual discrimination, visual sequencing, and visual spatial areas. Analyses indicated that these learning-disabled/gifted students were significantly weaker than controls in their decoding skills, in spelling, and in most areas of mathematics. They were also significantly weaker in auditory discrimination and memory, and in visual discrimination, sequencing, and spatial abilities. Conclusions are that these underlying perceptual and memory deficits may be related to students' academic problems.

Are There Separate Neural Systems for Spelling? New Insights into the Role of Rules and Memory in Spelling from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

PubMed

Norton, Elizabeth S; Kovelman, Ioulia; Petitto, Laura-Ann

2007-03-01

How do people spell the thousands of words at the tips of their tongues? Are words with regular sound-to-letter correspondences (e.g., "blink") spelled using the same neural systems as those with irregular correspondences (e.g., "yacht")? By offering novel neuroimaging evidence, we aim to advance contemporary debate about whether people use a single lexical memory process or whether dual mechanisms of lexical memory and sublexical phonological rules work in concert. We further aim to advance understanding of how people read by taking a fresh look at the related yet distinct capacity to spell. During functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning, 12 participants heard low-frequency regular words, irregular words, and nonwords (e.g., "shelm") and responded whether a visual presentation of the word was spelled correctly or incorrectly. While behavioral measures suggested some differences in accuracy and reaction time for the different word types, the neuroimaging results alone demonstrated robust differential processing and support a dual-route model of spelling, with implications for how spelling is taught and remediated in clinical and educational contexts.

The relation of linguistic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first grade students participating in Response to Intervention

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Apel, Kenn; Otaiba, Stephanie Al

2013-01-01

Purpose We examined the relations of phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first grade children who were receiving differentiated instruction in a Response to Intervention (RTI) model of instruction (N = 304). Method First grade children were assessed on their phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness, expressive vocabulary, word reading, and spelling. Year-end word reading and spelling were outcome variables while phonological, morphological, and orthographic awareness, expressive vocabulary, and RTI status (Tiers 1, 2, & 3) were predictor variables assessed in the middle of the school year. Results The three linguistic awareness skills were unique predictors of word reading and phonological and orthographic awareness were unique predictors of spelling. The contributions these linguistic awareness skills and vocabulary made to word reading and spelling did not differ by children's RTI tier status. Conclusion These results, in conjunction with previous studies, suggest that even beginning readers and spellers draw on multiple linguistic awareness skills for their word reading and spelling regardless of their level of literacy skills. Educational implications are discussed. PMID:23833281

The relation of linguistic awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling for first-grade students participating in response to intervention.

PubMed

Kim, Young-Suk; Apel, Kenn; Al Otaiba, Stephanie

2013-10-01

The relations of phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness and vocabulary to word reading and spelling were examined for 304 first-grade children who were receiving differentiated instruction in a Response to Intervention (RtI) model of instruction. First-grade children were assessed on their phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness; expressive vocabulary; word reading; and spelling. Year-end word reading and spelling were outcome variables, and phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness; expressive vocabulary; and RtI status (Tiers 1, 2, & 3) were predictor variables. The 3 linguistic awareness skills were unique predictors of word reading, and phonological and orthographic awareness were unique predictors of spelling. The contributions that these linguistic awareness skills and vocabulary made to word reading and spelling did not differ by children's RtI tier status. These results, in conjunction with previous studies, suggest that even beginning readers and spellers draw on multiple linguistic awareness skills for their word reading and spelling regardless of their level of literacy abilities. Educational implications are discussed.

Word List for a Spelling Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Carl B.

What logic should educators use in choosing words for students to learn to spell? Common sense provides the answer: students should learn to spell the words they use in writing. What these words are has been a subject of concern since the beginning of this century. Dozens of word frequency lists have been developed over the years, based primarily…

African American English and Spelling: How Do Second Graders Spell Dialect-Sensitive Features of Words?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Patton-Terry, Nicole; Connor, Carol

2010-01-01

This study explored the spelling skills of African American second graders who produced African American English (AAE) features in speech. The children (N = 92), who varied in spoken AAE use and word reading skills, were asked to spell words that contained phonological and morphological dialect-sensitive (DS) features that can vary between AAE and…

Measures of Kindergarten Spelling and Their Relations to Later Spelling Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treiman, Rebecca; Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Byrne, Brian; Olson, Richard K.

2016-01-01

Learning the orthographic forms of words is important for both spelling and reading. To determine whether some methods of scoring children's early spellings predict later spelling performance better than do other methods, we analyzed data from 374 U.S. and Australian children who took a 10-word spelling test at the end of kindergarten (M age =…

Variation and Repetition in the Spelling of Young Children

PubMed Central

Treiman, Rebecca; Decker, Kristina; Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana

2015-01-01

A number of investigators have suggested that young children, even those do not yet represent the phonological forms of words in their spellings, tend to use different strings of letters for different words. However, empirical evidence that children possess a concept of between-word variation has been weak. In a study by Pollo, Kessler, and Treiman (2009), in fact, prephonological spellers were more likely to write different words in the same way than would be expected on the basis of chance, not less likely. In the present study, preschool-age prephonological and phonological spellers showed a tendency to repeat spellings and parts of spellings that they had recently used. However, even prephonological spellers (mean age 4 years, 8 months) showed more repetition when spelling the same word twice in succession than when spelling different words. The results suggest that children who have not yet learned to use writing to represent the sounds of speech show some knowledge that writing represents words and should thus vary to show differences between them. The results further suggest that in spelling, as in other domains, children have a tendency to repeat recent behaviors. PMID:25637713

Orthographic Consistency and Word-Frequency Effects in Auditory Word Recognition: New Evidence from Lexical Decision and Rime Detection

PubMed Central

Petrova, Ana; Gaskell, M. Gareth; Ferrand, Ludovic

2011-01-01

Many studies have repeatedly shown an orthographic consistency effect in the auditory lexical decision task. Words with phonological rimes that could be spelled in multiple ways (i.e., inconsistent words) typically produce longer auditory lexical decision latencies and more errors than do words with rimes that could be spelled in only one way (i.e., consistent words). These results have been extended to different languages and tasks, suggesting that the effect is quite general and robust. Despite this growing body of evidence, some psycholinguists believe that orthographic effects on spoken language are exclusively strategic, post-lexical, or restricted to peculiar (low-frequency) words. In the present study, we manipulated consistency and word-frequency orthogonally in order to explore whether the orthographic consistency effect extends to high-frequency words. Two different tasks were used: lexical decision and rime detection. Both tasks produced reliable consistency effects for both low- and high-frequency words. Furthermore, in Experiment 1 (lexical decision), an interaction revealed a stronger consistency effect for low-frequency words than for high-frequency words, as initially predicted by Ziegler and Ferrand (1998), whereas no interaction was found in Experiment 2 (rime detection). Our results extend previous findings by showing that the orthographic consistency effect is obtained not only for low-frequency words but also for high-frequency words. Furthermore, these effects were also obtained in a rime detection task, which does not require the explicit processing of orthographic structure. Globally, our results suggest that literacy changes the way people process spoken words, even for frequent words. PMID:22025916

Spelling Lessons for Gifted Language Arts Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Richards, Janet C.; Gipe, Joan P.

1993-01-01

These strategies for teaching spelling to gifted students focus on student choice of words, personal dictionaries, cloze passages, categorizing or word sorting, words borrowed from other languages, word etymology, multiple meaning words, and onomatopoetic words. (JDD)

Comparing Bilingual to Monolingual Learners on English Spelling: A Meta-analytic Review.

PubMed

Zhao, Jing; Quiroz, Blanca; Dixon, L Quentin; Joshi, R Malatesha

2016-08-01

This study reports on a meta-analysis to examine how bilingual learners compare with English monolingual learners on two English spelling outcomes: real-word spelling and pseudo-word spelling. Eighteen studies published in peer-reviewed journals between 1990 and 2014 were retrieved. The study-level variables and characteristics (e.g. sample size, study design and research instruments) were coded, and 29 independent effect sizes across the 18 retrieved studies were analysed. We found that bilinguals outperformed monolinguals on real-word spelling overall and more so in early grades, but monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on pseudo-word spelling. Further, bilinguals at risk for reading difficulties did better on real-word spelling than monolinguals at risk for reading difficulties. Having investigated systematic sources of variability in effect sizes, we conclude that in comparison with their monolingual peers, bilingual learners, especially those from alphabetic L1 backgrounds, are able to master constrained skills, such as English spelling, in the current instructional context. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Word Spelling Assessment Using ICT: The Effect of Presentation Modality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sarris, Menelaos; Panagiotakopoulos, Chris

2010-01-01

Up-to-date spelling process was assessed using typical spelling-to-dictation tasks, where children's performance was evaluated mainly in terms of spelling error scores. In the present work a simple graphical computer interface is reported, aiming to investigate the effects of input modality (e.g. visual and verbal) in word spelling. The software…

The write way to spell: printing vs. typing effects on orthographic learning

PubMed Central

Ouellette, Gene; Tims, Talisa

2014-01-01

Prior research has shown superior orthographic learning resulting from spelling practice relative to repeated reading. One mechanism proposed to underlie this advantage of spelling in establishing detailed orthographic representations in memory is the motoric component of the manual movements evoked in printing or writing. This study investigated this contention directly by testing the effects of typing vs. printing on the orthographic learning achieved through spelling practice, and further evaluated whether practice modality interacts with pre-existing individual characteristics. Forty students in grade 2 (mean age 7 years 5 months) were introduced to 10 novel non-words. Some of the students practiced spelling the items by printing, while the others practiced spelling them on a keyboard. Participants were tested for recognition and spelling of these items 1 and 7 days later. Results revealed high rates of orthographic learning with no main effects of practice modality, testing time, or post-test modality. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed an interaction between typing proficiency and practice modality, such that pre-existing keyboarding skills constrained or facilitated learning within the typing-practice group. A similar interaction was not found between printing skills and learning within the printing group. Results are discussed with reference to both prominent reading theory and educational applications. PMID:24592247

The Integrated Spelling Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ediger, Marlow

The traditional spelling curriculum emphasized that pupils learn to spell a specific set of words through memorization. However, major problems existed pertaining to using that method of teaching. Pupils soon forgot the correct spelling of memorized words. Educational psychologists have long advocated that pupils perceive knowledge as being…

Multimodal Alexia: Neuropsychological Mechanisms and Implications for Treatment

PubMed Central

Kim, Esther S.; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Andersen, Sarah; Beeson, Pélagie M.

2011-01-01

Letter-by-letter (LBL) reading is the phenomenon whereby individuals with acquired alexia decode words by sequential identification of component letters. In cases where letter recognition or letter naming is impaired, however, a LBL reading approach is obviated, resulting in a nearly complete inability to read, or global alexia. In some such cases, a treatment strategy wherein letter tracing is used to provide tactile and/or kinesthetic input has resulted in improved letter identification. In this study, a kinesthetic treatment approach was implemented with an individual who presented with severe alexia in the context of relatively preserved recognition of orally spelled words, and mildly impaired oral/written spelling. Eight weeks of kinesthetic treatment resulted in improved letter identification accuracy and oral reading of trained words; however, the participant remained unable to successfully decode untrained words. Further testing revealed that, in addition to the visual-verbal disconnection that resulted in impaired word reading and letter naming, her limited ability to derive benefit from the kinesthetic strategy was attributable to a disconnection that prevented access to letter names from kinesthetic input. We propose that this kinesthetic-verbal disconnection resulted from damage to the left parietal lobe and underlying white matter, a neuroanatomical feature that is not typically observed in patients with global alexia or classic LBL reading. This unfortunate combination of visual-verbal and kinesthetic-verbal disconnections demonstrated in this individual resulted in a persistent multimodal alexia syndrome that was resistant to behavioral treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the nature of this form of multimodal alexia has been fully characterized, and our findings provide guidance regarding the requisite cognitive skills and lesion profiles that are likely to be associated with a positive response to tactile/kinesthetic treatment. PMID:21952194

Multimodal alexia: neuropsychological mechanisms and implications for treatment.

PubMed

Kim, Esther S; Rapcsak, Steven Z; Andersen, Sarah; Beeson, Pélagie M

2011-11-01

Letter-by-letter (LBL) reading is the phenomenon whereby individuals with acquired alexia decode words by sequential identification of component letters. In cases where letter recognition or letter naming is impaired, however, a LBL reading approach is obviated, resulting in a nearly complete inability to read, or global alexia. In some such cases, a treatment strategy wherein letter tracing is used to provide tactile and/or kinesthetic input has resulted in improved letter identification. In this study, a kinesthetic treatment approach was implemented with an individual who presented with severe alexia in the context of relatively preserved recognition of orally spelled words, and mildly impaired oral/written spelling. Eight weeks of kinesthetic treatment resulted in improved letter identification accuracy and oral reading of trained words; however, the participant remained unable to successfully decode untrained words. Further testing revealed that, in addition to the visual-verbal disconnection that resulted in impaired word reading and letter naming, her limited ability to derive benefit from the kinesthetic strategy was attributable to a disconnection that prevented access to letter names from kinesthetic input. We propose that this kinesthetic-verbal disconnection resulted from damage to the left parietal lobe and underlying white matter, a neuroanatomical feature that is not typically observed in patients with global alexia or classic LBL reading. This unfortunate combination of visual-verbal and kinesthetic-verbal disconnections demonstrated in this individual resulted in a persistent multimodal alexia syndrome that was resistant to behavioral treatment. To our knowledge, this is the first case in which the nature of this form of multimodal alexia has been fully characterized, and our findings provide guidance regarding the requisite cognitive skills and lesion profiles that are likely to be associated with a positive response to tactile/kinesthetic treatment. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effects of Spell Checkers on English as a Second Language Students' Incidental Spelling Learning: A Cognitive Load Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Po-Han; Liu, Tzu-Chien; Paas, Fred

2017-01-01

Computer-based spell checkers help to correct misspells instantly. Almost all the word processing devices are now equipped with a spell-check function that either automatically corrects errors or provides a list of intended words. However, it is not clear on how the reliance on this convenient technological solution affects spelling learning.…

The Relationship of the Component Skills of Reading to IALS Performance: Tipping Points and Five Classes of Adult Literacy Learners. NCSALL Reports #29

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Strucker, John; Yamamoto, Kentaro; Kirsch, Irwin

2007-01-01

This study's aim was to understand the relationship of the component skills of reading, such as word recognition, vocabulary, and spelling, to large-scale measures of literacy, such as the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) (Kirsch, Jungleblut, Jenkins, & Kolstad, 1993) and the closely related International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)…

Improving Automated Lexical and Discourse Analysis of Online Chat Dialog

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-09-01

include spelling- and grammar-checking on our word processing software; voice-recognition in our automobiles; and telephone-based conversational agents ...conversational agents can help customers make purchases on-line [3]. In addition, discourse analyzers can automatically separate multiple, interleaved...telephone-based conversational agent needs to know if it was asked a question or tasked to do something. Indeed, Stolcke et al demonstrated that

How does the interaction between spelling and motor processes build up during writing acquisition?

PubMed

Kandel, Sonia; Perret, Cyril

2015-03-01

How do we recall a word's spelling? How do we produce the movements to form the letters of a word? Writing involves several processing levels. Surprisingly, researchers have focused either on spelling or motor production. However, these processes interact and cannot be studied separately. Spelling processes cascade into movement production. For example, in French, producing letters PAR in the orthographically irregular word PARFUM (perfume) delays motor production with respect to the same letters in the regular word PARDON (pardon). Orthographic regularity refers to the possibility of spelling a word correctly by applying the most frequent sound-letter conversion rules. The present study examined how the interaction between spelling and motor processing builds up during writing acquisition. French 8-10 year old children participated in the experiment. This is the age handwriting skills start to become automatic. The children wrote regular and irregular words that could be frequent or infrequent. They wrote on a digitizer so we could collect data on latency, movement duration and fluency. The results revealed that the interaction between spelling and motor processing was present already at age 8. It became more adult-like at ages 9 and 10. Before starting to write, processing irregular words took longer than regular words. This processing load spread into movement production. It increased writing duration and rendered the movements more dysfluent. Word frequency affected latencies and cascaded into production. It modulated writing duration but not movement fluency. Writing infrequent words took longer than frequent words. The data suggests that orthographic regularity has a stronger impact on writing than word frequency. They do not cascade in the same extent. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rapid Serial Naming Is a Unique Predictor of Spelling in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savage, Robert; Pillay, Vanitha; Melidona, Santo

2008-01-01

Some previous research has shown strong associations between spelling ability and rapid automatic naming (RAN) after controls for phonological processing and nonsense-word reading ability, consistent with the double-deficit hypothesis in reading and spelling. Previous studies did not, however, control for nonsense-word spelling ability before…

The use of morphological knowledge in spelling derived forms by learning-disabled and normal students.

PubMed

Carlisle, J F

1987-01-01

Currently popular systems for classification of spelling words or errors emphasize the learning of phoneme-grapheme correspondences and memorization of irregular words, but do not take into account the morphophonemic nature of the English language. This study is based on the premise that knowledge of the morphological rules of derivational morphology is acquired developmentally and is related to the spelling abilities of both normal and learning-disabled (LD) students. It addresses three issues: 1) how the learning of derivational morphology and the spelling of derived words by LD students compares to that of normal students; 2) whether LD students learn derived forms rulefully; and 3) the extent to which LD and normal students use knowledge of relationships between base and derived forms to spell derived words (e.g. "magic" and "magician"). The results showed that LD ninth graders' knowledge of derivational morphology was equivalent to that of normal sixth graders, following similar patterns of mastery of orthographic and phonological rules, but that their spelling of derived forms was equivalent to that of the fourth graders. Thus, they know more about derivational morphology than they use in spelling. In addition, they were significantly more apt to spell derived words as whole words, without regard for morphemic structure, than even the fourth graders. Nonetheless, most of the LD spelling errors were phonetically acceptable, suggesting that their misspellings cannot be attributed primarily to poor knowledge of phoneme-grapheme correspondences.

Examining Word Factors and Child Factors for Acquisition of Conditional Sound-Spelling Consistencies: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Petscher, Yaacov; Park, Younghee

2016-01-01

It has been suggested that children acquire spelling by picking up conditional sound-spelling consistencies. To examine this hypothesis, we investigated how variation in word characteristics (words that vary systematically in terms of phoneme-grapheme correspondences) and child factors (individual differences in the ability to extract…

Learning from Our Mistakes: Improvements in Spelling Lead to Gains in Reading Speed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ouellette, Gene; Martin-Chang, Sandra; Rossi, Maya

2017-01-01

The present study tested the hypothesis that underlying orthographic representations vary in completeness within the individual, which is manifested in both spelling accuracy and reading speed. Undergraduate students were trained to improve their spelling of difficult words. Word reading speed was then measured for these same words, allowing for a…

Knowledge of Conditional Spelling Patterns Supports Word Spelling among Danish Fifth Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nielsen, Anne-Mette Veber

2017-01-01

Graphotactic knowledge and word-specific orthographic knowledge have been shown to account for unique variance in concurrent spelling skills beyond phonological skills in the early school years.The present study examined whether knowledge of spelling patterns conditioned by phonological context would add to the concurrent prediction of spelling…

Linguistic Skills Involved in Learning to Spell: An Australian Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daffern, Tessa

2017-01-01

Being able to accurately spell in Standard English requires efficient coordination of multiple knowledge sources. Therefore, spelling is a word-formation problem-solving process that can be difficult to learn. The present study uses Triple Word Form Theory as a conceptual framework to analyse Standard English spelling performance levels of…

Children benefit from morphological relatedness when they learn to spell new words.

PubMed

Pacton, Sébastien; Foulin, Jean Noël; Casalis, Séverine; Treiman, Rebecca

2013-01-01

Use of morphologically related words often helps in selecting among spellings of sounds in French. For instance, final /wa/ may be spelled oi (e.g., envoi "sendoff"), oit (e.g., exploit "exploit"), ois (e.g., siamois, "siamese"), or oie (e.g., joie "joy"). The morphologically complex word exploiter "to exploit", with a pronounced t, can be used to indicate that the stem exploit is spelled with a silent t. We asked whether 8-year-old children benefited from such cues to learn new spellings. Children read silently stories which included two target nonwords, one presented in an opaque condition and the other in a morphological condition. In the opaque condition, the sentence provided semantic information (e.g., a vensois is a musical instrument) but no morphological information that could justify the spelling of the target word's final sound. Such justification was available in the morphological condition (e.g., the vensoisist plays the vensois instrument, which justifies that vensois includes a final silent s). 30 min after having read the stories, children's orthographic learning was assessed by asking them to choose the correct spelling of each nonword from among three phonologically plausible alternatives (e.g., vensois, vensoit, vensoie). Children chose correct spellings more often in the morphological condition than the opaque condition, even though the root (vensois) had been presented equally often in both conditions. That is, children benefited from information about the spelling of the morphologically complex word to learn the spelling of the stem.

My eSorts and Digital Extensions of Word Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zucker, Tricia A.; Invernizzi, Marcia

2008-01-01

"My eSorts" is a strategy for helping children learn to read and spell in a socially motivated context. It is based on developmental spelling research and the word study approach to teaching phonics and spelling. "eSorting" employs digital desktop publishing tools that allow children to author their own electronic word sorts and then share these…

Development of Spelling Skills in a Shallow Orthography: The Case of Italian Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Notarnicola, Alessandra; Angelelli, Paola; Judica, Anna; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi

2012-01-01

This study analyzed the spelling skills of Italian children as a function of school experience. We examined the writing performances of 465 first- to eighth-grade normal readers on a spelling test that included regular words, context-sensitive regular words, words with ambiguous transcription, and regular pseudowords. Based on the dual-route model…

Measures of Kindergarten Spelling and Their Relations to Later Spelling Performance.

PubMed

Treiman, Rebecca; Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Byrne, Brian; Olson, Richard K

2016-01-01

Learning the orthographic forms of words is important for both spelling and reading. To determine whether some methods of scoring children's early spellings predict later spelling performance better than do other methods, we analyzed data from 374 U.S. and Australian children who took a 10-word spelling test at the end of kindergarten (mean age 6 years, 2 months) and a standardized spelling test approximately two years later. Surprisingly, scoring methods that took account of phonological plausibility did not outperform methods that were based only on orthographic correctness. The scoring method that is most widely used in research with young children, which allots a certain number of points to each word and which considers both orthographic and phonological plausibility, did not rise to the top as a predictor. Prediction of Grade 2 spelling performance was improved to a small extent by considering children's tendency to reverse letters in kindergarten.

Do reading and spelling share orthographic representations? Evidence from developmental dysgraphia.

PubMed

Hepner, Christopher; McCloskey, Michael; Rapp, Brenda

Both spelling and reading depend on knowledge of the spellings of words. Despite this commonality, observed dissociations between spelling and reading in cases of acquired and developmental deficits suggest some degree of independence between the cognitive mechanisms involved in these skills. In this paper, we examine the relationship between spelling and reading in two children with developmental dysgraphia. For both children, we identified significant deficits in spelling that affected the processing of orthographic long-term memory representations of words. We then examined their reading skills for similar difficulties. Even with extensive testing, we found no evidence of a reading deficit for one of the children. We propose that there may be an underlying difficulty that specifically affects the learning of orthographic word representations for spelling. These results lead us to conclude that at least some components of lexical orthographic representation and processing develop with considerable independence in spelling and reading.

Measures of Kindergarten Spelling and Their Relations to Later Spelling Performance

PubMed Central

Treiman, Rebecca; Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Byrne, Brian; Olson, Richard K.

2016-01-01

Learning the orthographic forms of words is important for both spelling and reading. To determine whether some methods of scoring children’s early spellings predict later spelling performance better than do other methods, we analyzed data from 374 U.S. and Australian children who took a 10-word spelling test at the end of kindergarten (mean age 6 years, 2 months) and a standardized spelling test approximately two years later. Surprisingly, scoring methods that took account of phonological plausibility did not outperform methods that were based only on orthographic correctness. The scoring method that is most widely used in research with young children, which allots a certain number of points to each word and which considers both orthographic and phonological plausibility, did not rise to the top as a predictor. Prediction of Grade 2 spelling performance was improved to a small extent by considering children’s tendency to reverse letters in kindergarten. PMID:27761101

Test Review: Larsen, S. C., Hammill, D. D., & Moats, L. C. (1999). "Test of Written Spelling" (4th ed.; TWS-4). Austin, TX: PRO-ED

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jenik, Cynthia A.; Hicks, Danny G.

2005-01-01

Because spelling skills are most often assessed in the classroom through the traditional dictation task, it makes sense for a standardized measure to assess spelling in a similar manner. This involves an examiner saying a word, using the target word in a sentence, and repeating the word. The student then writes the target word. Most teachers would…

Convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX, a word and pseudoword spelling test for adults.

PubMed

Östberg, Per; Backlund, Charlotte; Lindström, Emma

2016-10-01

Few comprehensive spelling tests are available in Swedish, and none have been validated in adults with reading and writing disorders. The recently developed STAVUX test includes word and pseudoword spelling subtests with high internal consistency and adult norms stratified by education. This study evaluated the convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX in adults with dyslexia. Forty-six adults, 23 with dyslexia and 23 controls, took STAVUX together with a standard word-decoding test and a self-rated measure of spelling skills. STAVUX subtest scores showed moderate to strong correlations with word-decoding scores and predicted self-rated spelling skills. Word and pseudoword subtest scores both predicted dyslexia status. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) analysis showed excellent diagnostic discriminability. Sensitivity was 91% and specificity 96%. In conclusion, the results of this study support the convergent and diagnostic validity of STAVUX.

Context-Sensitive Spelling Correction of Consumer-Generated Content on Health Care

PubMed Central

Chen, Rudan; Zhao, Xianyang; Xu, Wei; Cheng, Wenqing; Lin, Simon

2015-01-01

Background Consumer-generated content, such as postings on social media websites, can serve as an ideal source of information for studying health care from a consumer’s perspective. However, consumer-generated content on health care topics often contains spelling errors, which, if not corrected, will be obstacles for downstream computer-based text analysis. Objective In this study, we proposed a framework with a spelling correction system designed for consumer-generated content and a novel ontology-based evaluation system which was used to efficiently assess the correction quality. Additionally, we emphasized the importance of context sensitivity in the correction process, and demonstrated why correction methods designed for electronic medical records (EMRs) failed to perform well with consumer-generated content. Methods First, we developed our spelling correction system based on Google Spell Checker. The system processed postings acquired from MedHelp, a biomedical bulletin board system (BBS), and saved misspelled words (eg, sertaline) and corresponding corrected words (eg, sertraline) into two separate sets. Second, to reduce the number of words needing manual examination in the evaluation process, we respectively matched the words in the two sets with terms in two biomedical ontologies: RxNorm and Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT). The ratio of words which could be matched and appropriately corrected was used to evaluate the correction system’s overall performance. Third, we categorized the misspelled words according to the types of spelling errors. Finally, we calculated the ratio of abbreviations in the postings, which remarkably differed between EMRs and consumer-generated content and could largely influence the overall performance of spelling checkers. Results An uncorrected word and the corresponding corrected word was called a spelling pair, and the two words in the spelling pair were its members. In our study, there were 271 spelling pairs detected, among which 58 (21.4%) pairs had one or two members matched in the selected ontologies. The ratio of appropriate correction in the 271 overall spelling errors was 85.2% (231/271). The ratio of that in the 58 spelling pairs was 86% (50/58), close to the overall ratio. We also found that linguistic errors took up 31.4% (85/271) of all errors detected, and only 0.98% (210/21,358) of words in the postings were abbreviations, which was much lower than the ratio in the EMRs (33.6%). Conclusions We conclude that our system can accurately correct spelling errors in consumer-generated content. Context sensitivity is indispensable in the correction process. Additionally, it can be confirmed that consumer-generated content differs from EMRs in that consumers seldom use abbreviations. Also, the evaluation method, taking advantage of biomedical ontology, can effectively estimate the accuracy of the correction system and reduce manual examination time. PMID:26232246

Context-Sensitive Spelling Correction of Consumer-Generated Content on Health Care.

PubMed

Zhou, Xiaofang; Zheng, An; Yin, Jiaheng; Chen, Rudan; Zhao, Xianyang; Xu, Wei; Cheng, Wenqing; Xia, Tian; Lin, Simon

2015-07-31

Consumer-generated content, such as postings on social media websites, can serve as an ideal source of information for studying health care from a consumer's perspective. However, consumer-generated content on health care topics often contains spelling errors, which, if not corrected, will be obstacles for downstream computer-based text analysis. In this study, we proposed a framework with a spelling correction system designed for consumer-generated content and a novel ontology-based evaluation system which was used to efficiently assess the correction quality. Additionally, we emphasized the importance of context sensitivity in the correction process, and demonstrated why correction methods designed for electronic medical records (EMRs) failed to perform well with consumer-generated content. First, we developed our spelling correction system based on Google Spell Checker. The system processed postings acquired from MedHelp, a biomedical bulletin board system (BBS), and saved misspelled words (eg, sertaline) and corresponding corrected words (eg, sertraline) into two separate sets. Second, to reduce the number of words needing manual examination in the evaluation process, we respectively matched the words in the two sets with terms in two biomedical ontologies: RxNorm and Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT). The ratio of words which could be matched and appropriately corrected was used to evaluate the correction system's overall performance. Third, we categorized the misspelled words according to the types of spelling errors. Finally, we calculated the ratio of abbreviations in the postings, which remarkably differed between EMRs and consumer-generated content and could largely influence the overall performance of spelling checkers. An uncorrected word and the corresponding corrected word was called a spelling pair, and the two words in the spelling pair were its members. In our study, there were 271 spelling pairs detected, among which 58 (21.4%) pairs had one or two members matched in the selected ontologies. The ratio of appropriate correction in the 271 overall spelling errors was 85.2% (231/271). The ratio of that in the 58 spelling pairs was 86% (50/58), close to the overall ratio. We also found that linguistic errors took up 31.4% (85/271) of all errors detected, and only 0.98% (210/21,358) of words in the postings were abbreviations, which was much lower than the ratio in the EMRs (33.6%). We conclude that our system can accurately correct spelling errors in consumer-generated content. Context sensitivity is indispensable in the correction process. Additionally, it can be confirmed that consumer-generated content differs from EMRs in that consumers seldom use abbreviations. Also, the evaluation method, taking advantage of biomedical ontology, can effectively estimate the accuracy of the correction system and reduce manual examination time.

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming Predicting Early Development in Reading and Spelling: Results from a Cross-Linguistic Longitudinal Study

PubMed Central

Furnes, Bjarte; Samuelsson, Stefan

2010-01-01

In this study, the relationship between latent constructs of phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) were investigated and related to later measures of reading and spelling in children learning to read in different alphabetic writing systems (i.e., Norwegian/Swedish vs. English). 750 U.S./Australian children and 230 Scandinavian children were followed longitudinally between kindergarten and 2nd grade. PA and RAN were measured in kindergarten and Grade 1, while word recognition, phonological decoding, and spelling were measured in kindergarten, Grade 1, and Grade 2. In general, high stability was observed for the various reading and spelling measures, such that little additional variance was left open for PA and RAN. However, results demonstrated that RAN was more related to reading than spelling across orthographies, with the opposite pattern shown for PA. In addition, tests of measurement invariance show that the factor loadings of each observed indicator on the latent PA factor was the same across U.S./Australia and Scandinavia. Similar findings were obtained for RAN. In general, tests of structural invariance show that models of early literacy development are highly transferable across languages. PMID:21359098

English Sounds and Their Spellings; a Handbook for Teachers and Students. Crowell Contemporary English Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Robert L.; And Others

This handbook introduces the important correspondences existing between English sounds and English spelling patterns. The lessons present the vowel sounds, one by one, along with systematically selected consonant sounds, and show how each sound or combination of sounds is usually spelled in English words. Irregularly spelled words are introduced…

Invented Spelling, Word Stress, and Phonological Awareness in Relation to Reading Difficulties in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mehta, Sheena

2016-01-01

The purpose of the current research is to assess the clinical utility of an invented spelling tool and determine whether invented spelling and word stress (supra-segmental level measures) can also be used to better identify reading difficulties. The proposed invented spelling tool incorporated linguistic manipulations to alter the difficulty…

L2 Spelling Errors in Italian Children with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Palladino, Paola; Cismondo, Dhebora; Ferrari, Marcella; Ballagamba, Isabella; Cornoldi, Cesare

2016-05-01

The present study aimed to investigate L2 spelling skills in Italian children by administering an English word dictation task to 13 children with dyslexia (CD), 13 control children (comparable in age, gender, schooling and IQ) and a group of 10 children with an English learning difficulty, but no L1 learning disorder. Patterns of difficulties were examined for accuracy and type of errors, in spelling dictated short and long words (i.e. disyllables and three syllables). Notably, CD were poor in spelling English words. Furthermore, their errors were mainly related with phonological representation of words, as they made more 'phonologically' implausible errors than controls. In addition, CD errors were more frequent for short than long words. Conversely, the three groups did not differ in the number of plausible ('non-phonological') errors, that is, words that were incorrectly written, but whose reading could correspond to the dictated word via either Italian or English rules. Error analysis also showed syllable position differences in the spelling patterns of CD, children with and English learning difficulty and control children. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

On the Acquisition of Some Basic Word Spelling Mechanisms in a Deep (French) and a Shallow (Spanish) System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrillo, Maria Soledad; Alegria, Jesus; Marin, Javier

2013-01-01

An experiment was carried out to compare the time course of the acquisition of two basic spelling mechanisms in Spanish, a shallow system, and French, a deep system. The first was lexical. It relies on the orthographic lexicon, a hypothetical structure containing the orthographic representations of words accessible for word spelling. To evaluate…

I Love to Rite! Spelling Checkers in the Writing Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eiser, Leslie

1986-01-01

Highlights the advantages of word processors and spelling checkers in improving student writing skills. Explains how spelling checkers work and describes the types of available checkers. Also provides lists of Apple, IBM, and Commodore word processors and checkers. (ML)

Children benefit from morphological relatedness when they learn to spell new words

PubMed Central

Pacton, Sébastien; Foulin, Jean Noël; Casalis, Séverine; Treiman, Rebecca

2013-01-01

Use of morphologically related words often helps in selecting among spellings of sounds in French. For instance, final /wa/ may be spelled oi (e.g., envoi “sendoff”), oit (e.g., exploit “exploit”), ois (e.g., siamois, “siamese”), or oie (e.g., joie “joy”). The morphologically complex word exploiter “to exploit”, with a pronounced t, can be used to indicate that the stem exploit is spelled with a silent t. We asked whether 8-year-old children benefited from such cues to learn new spellings. Children read silently stories which included two target nonwords, one presented in an opaque condition and the other in a morphological condition. In the opaque condition, the sentence provided semantic information (e.g., a vensois is a musical instrument) but no morphological information that could justify the spelling of the target word's final sound. Such justification was available in the morphological condition (e.g., the vensoisist plays the vensois instrument, which justifies that vensois includes a final silent s). 30 min after having read the stories, children's orthographic learning was assessed by asking them to choose the correct spelling of each nonword from among three phonologically plausible alternatives (e.g., vensois, vensoit, vensoie). Children chose correct spellings more often in the morphological condition than the opaque condition, even though the root (vensois) had been presented equally often in both conditions. That is, children benefited from information about the spelling of the morphologically complex word to learn the spelling of the stem. PMID:24109464

Written Spelling to Dictation: Sound-To-Spelling Regularity Affects Both Writing Latencies and Durations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delattre, Marie; Bonin, Patrick; Barry, Christopher

2006-01-01

The authors examined the effect of sound-to-spelling regularity on written spelling latencies and writing durations in a dictation task in which participants had to write each target word 3 times in succession. The authors found that irregular words (i.e., those containing low-probability phoneme-to-grapheme mappings) were slower both to…

Getting the Bugs out with PESTS: A Mnemonic Approach to Spelling Sight Words for Students with Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Howard, Sue; DaDeppo, Lisa M. W.; De La Paz, Susan

2008-01-01

Difficulties with spelling can impact students' reading acquisition and writing, having a critical impact on overall literacy development. Students with learning disabilities (LD) often struggle with spelling. We describe a case study with three elementary-aged students with LD using a mnemonic approach to spelling sight words. Our approach,…

Developmental surface and phonological dyslexia in both Greek and English.

PubMed

Sotiropoulos, Andreas; Hanley, J Richard

2017-11-01

The hallmark of developmental surface dyslexia in English and French is inaccurate reading of words with atypical spelling-sound correspondences. According to Douklias, Masterson and Hanley (2009), surface dyslexia can also be observed in Greek (a transparent orthography for reading that does not contain words of this kind). Their findings suggested that surface dyslexia in Greek can be characterized by slow reading of familiar words, and by inaccurate spelling of words with atypical sound-spelling correspondences (Greek is less transparent for spelling than for reading). In this study, we report seven adult cases whose slow reading and impaired spelling accuracy satisfied these criteria for Greek surface dyslexia. When asked to read words with atypical grapheme-phoneme correspondences in English (their second language), their accuracy was severely impaired. A co-occurrence was also observed between impaired spelling of words with atypical phoneme-grapheme correspondences in English and Greek. These co-occurrences provide strong evidence that surface dyslexia genuinely exists in Greek and that slow reading of real words in Greek reflects the same underlying impairment as that which produces inaccurate reading of atypical words in English. Two further individuals were observed with impaired reading and spelling of nonwords in both languages, consistent with developmental phonological dyslexia. Neither of the phonological dyslexics read words slowly. In terms of computational models of reading aloud, these findings suggest that slow reading by dyslexics in transparent orthographies is the consequence of a developmental impairment of the lexical (Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Zeigler, 2001; Perry, Ziegler, & Zorzi, 2010) or semantic reading route (Plaut, McClelland, Seidenberg, & Patterson, 1996). This outcome provides evidence that the neurophysiological substrate(s) that support the lexical/semantic and the phonological pathways that are involved in reading and spelling are the same in both Greek and English. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Demons, Dictionaries, and Spelling Strategies.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dodd, Anne Wescott

1988-01-01

Suggests that personal spelling dictionaries and spelling error analysis are strategies which will help students improve their spelling more than memorizing lists of unrelated words from spelling books. (MS)

To What Extent Does Children's Spelling Improve as a Result of Learning Words with the Look, Say, Cover, Write, Check, Fix Strategy Compared with Phonological Spelling Strategies?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dymock, Susan; Nicholson, Tom

2017-01-01

The ubiquitous weekly spelling test assumes that words are best learned by memorisation and testing but is this the best way? This study compared two well-known approaches to spelling instruction, the rule based and visual memory approaches. A group of 55 seven-year-olds in two Year 3 classrooms was taught spelling in small groups for three…

Variant terminology. [for aerospace information systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buchan, Ronald L.

1991-01-01

A system called Variant Terminology Switching (VTS) is set forth that is intended to provide computer-assisted spellings for terms that have American and British versions. VTS is based on the use of brackets, parentheses, and other symbols in conjunction with letters that distinguish American and British spellings. The symbols are used in the systems as indicators of actions such as deleting, adding, and replacing letters as well as replacing entire words and concepts. The system is shown to be useful for the intended purpose and also for the recognition of misspellings and for the standardization of computerized input/output. The VTS system is of interest to the development of international retrieval systems for aerospace and other technical databases that enhance the use by the global scientific community.

Teaching Spelling without Spelling Books.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ley, Terry C.

1982-01-01

Describes a spelling program evolved out of reading in research and personal experimentation that focuses on teaching spelling generalizations, spelling demons, and words students misspell in their own written work. (JL)

A Three-Year Longitudinal Study of Reading and Spelling Difficulty in Chinese Developmental Dyslexia: The Matter of Morphological Awareness.

PubMed

Tong, Xiuhong; McBride, Catherine; Lo, Jason Chor Ming; Shu, Hua

2017-11-01

In the present study, we used a three-time point longitudinal design to investigate the associations of morphological awareness to word reading and spelling in a small group of those with and without dyslexia taken from a larger sample of 164 Hong Kong Chinese children who remained in a longitudinal study across ages 6, 7 and 8. Among those 164 children, 15 had been diagnosed as having dyslexia by professional psychologists, and 15 other children manifested average reading ability and had been randomly selected from the sample for comparison. All children were administered a battery of tasks including Chinese character recognition, word dictation, morphological awareness, phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming. Multivariate analysis of variance and predictive discriminate analysis were performed to examine whether the dyslexic children showed differences in the cognitive-linguistic tasks in comparison with controls. Results suggested that the dyslexic groups had poorer performance in morphological awareness and RAN across all 3 years. However, phonological awareness was not stable in distinguishing the groups. Findings suggest that morphological awareness is a relatively strong correlate of spelling difficulties in Chinese, but phonological awareness is not. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Pinyin and English Invented Spelling in Chinese-Speaking Students Who Speak English as a Second Language.

PubMed

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine A; Fan, Chung-Hau; Xu, Le; Wang, Jia

2018-05-07

This study examined pinyin (the official phonetic system that transcribes the lexical tones and pronunciation of Chinese characters) invented spelling and English invented spelling in 72 Mandarin-speaking 6th graders who learned English as their second language. The pinyin invented spelling task measured segmental-level awareness including syllable and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including lexical tones and tone sandhi in Chinese Mandarin. The English invented spelling task manipulated segmental-level awareness including syllable awareness and phoneme awareness, and suprasegmental-level awareness including word stress. This pinyin task outperformed a traditional phonological awareness task that only measured segmental-level awareness and may have optimal utility to measure unique phonological and linguistic features in Chinese reading. The pinyin invented spelling uniquely explained variance in Chinese conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. The English invented spelling uniquely explained variance in conventional spelling and word reading in both languages. Our findings appear to support the role of phonological activation in Chinese reading. Our experimental linguistic manipulations altered the phonological awareness item difficulties.

The representation of roots in the spelling of children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Deacon, S Hélène; Cleave, Patricia L; Baylis, Julia; Fraser, Jillian; Ingram, Elizabeth; Perlmutter, Signy

2014-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) have demonstrated general spelling and writing difficulties. We investigated the sensitivity of children with SLI to the consistent spelling of root morphemes, a feature to which young typically developing children demonstrate sensitivity. We asked children with SLI and two groups of typically developing children (n = 17 in each group) to spell the same letter-sound sequence (e.g., win) as a root, and as a component of inflected, derived, and control words (e.g., win, wins, winner, wink). Children with SLI and spelling-age-matched children (mean age of 9 and 7 years, respectively) were more accurate and more consistent in spelling the initial sections of the inflected and derived words than of the control words, a pattern that suggests sensitivity to the representation of roots in spelling. The absence of a group-level interaction suggests comparable sensitivity in the two groups. Our results suggest that elementary-school-aged children with SLI are sensitive to the consistent spelling of roots, at least to the extent predicted by their general spelling abilities.

Intensive Reading Remediation in Grade 2 or 3: Are There Effects a Decade Later?

PubMed Central

Blachman, Benita A.; Schatschneider, Christopher; Fletcher, Jack M.; Murray, Maria S.; Munger, Kristen A.; Vaughn, Michael G.

2014-01-01

Despite data supporting the benefits of early reading interventions, there has been little evaluation of the long-term educational impact of these interventions, with most follow-up studies lasting less than two years (Suggate, 2010). This study evaluated reading outcomes more than a decade after the completion of an 8-month reading intervention using a randomized design with second and third graders selected on the basis of poor word-level skills (Blachman et al., 2004). Fifty-eight (84%) of the original 69 participants took part in the study. The treatment group demonstrated a moderate to small effect size advantage on reading and spelling measures over the comparison group. There were statistically significant differences with moderate effect sizes between treatment and comparison groups on standardized measures of word recognition (i.e., Woodcock Basic Skills Cluster, d = 0.53; Woodcock Word Identification, d = 0.62), the primary, but not exclusive, focus of the intervention. Statistical tests on other reading and spelling measures did not reach thresholds for statistical significance. Patterns in the data related to other educational outcomes, such as high school completion, favored the treatment participants, although differences were not significant. PMID:24578581

Cultural constraints on brain development: evidence from a developmental study of visual word processing in mandarin chinese.

PubMed

Cao, Fan; Lee, Rebecca; Shu, Hua; Yang, Yanhui; Xu, Guoqing; Li, Kuncheng; Booth, James R

2010-05-01

Developmental differences in phonological and orthographic processing in Chinese were examined in 9 year olds, 11 year olds, and adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Rhyming and spelling judgments were made to 2-character words presented sequentially in the visual modality. The spelling task showed greater activation than the rhyming task in right superior parietal lobule and right inferior temporal gyrus, and there were developmental increases across tasks bilaterally in these regions in addition to bilateral occipital cortex, suggesting increased involvement over age on visuo-orthographic analysis. The rhyming task showed greater activation than the spelling task in left superior temporal gyrus and there were developmental decreases across tasks in this region, suggesting reduced involvement over age on phonological representations. The rhyming and spelling tasks included words with conflicting orthographic and phonological information (i.e., rhyming words spelled differently or nonrhyming words spelled similarly) or nonconflicting information. There was a developmental increase in the difference between conflicting and nonconflicting words in left inferior parietal lobule, suggesting greater engagement of systems for mapping between orthographic and phonological representations. Finally, there were developmental increases across tasks in an anterior (Broadman area [BA] 45, 46) and posterior (BA 9) left inferior frontal gyrus, suggesting greater reliance on controlled retrieval and selection of posterior lexical representations.

Spelling across the Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fowler, Elaine D.

There are many reasons for teachers' reluctance to address the issue of spelling content area vocabulary words; however, content vocabulary word spelling need not be ignored because of time constraints, boredom, or lack of knowledge on the teacher's part any longer. A method which can be utilized is an adaption of "Scratch, Scribble and…

Are There Separate Neural Systems for Spelling? New Insights into the Role of Rules and Memory in Spelling from Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norton, Elizabeth S.; Kovelman, Ioulia; Petitto, Laura-Ann

2007-01-01

How do people spell the thousands of words at the tips of their tongues? Are words with "regular" sound-to-letter correspondences (e.g., "blink") spelled using the same neural systems as those with "irregular" correspondences (e.g., "yacht")? By offering novel neuroimaging evidence, we aim to advance contemporary debate about whether people use a…

Brain activation in teenagers with isolated spelling disorder during tasks involving spelling assessment and comparison of pseudowords. fMRI study.

PubMed

Borkowska, Aneta Rita; Francuz, Piotr; Soluch, Paweł; Wolak, Tomasz

2014-10-01

The present study aimed at defining the specific traits of brain activation in teenagers with isolated spelling disorder in comparison with good spellers. fMRI examination was performed where the subject's task involved taking a decision 1/whether the visually presented words were spelled correctly or not (the orthographic decision task), and 2/whether the two presented letters strings (pseudowords) were identical or not (the visual decision task). Half of the displays showing meaningful words with an orthographic difficulty contained pairs with both words spelled correctly, and half of them contained one misspelled word. Half of the pseudowords were identical, half of them were not. The participants of the study included 15 individuals with isolated spelling disorder and 14 good spellers, aged 13-15. The results demonstrated that the essential differences in brain activation between teenagers with isolated spelling disorder and good spellers were found in the left inferior frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus and right cerebellum posterior lobe, i.e. structures important for language processes, working memory and automaticity of behaviour. Spelling disorder is not only an effect of language dysfunction, it could be a symptom of difficulties in learning and automaticity of motor and visual shapes of written words, rapid information processing as well as automating use of orthographic lexicon. Copyright © 2013 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Q:] When would you prefer a SOSSAGE to a SAUSAGE? [A:] At about 100 msec. ERP correlates of orthographic typicality and lexicality in written word recognition.

PubMed

Hauk, O; Patterson, K; Woollams, A; Watling, L; Pulvermüller, F; Rogers, T T

2006-05-01

Using a speeded lexical decision task, event-related potentials (ERPs), and minimum norm current source estimates, we investigated early spatiotemporal aspects of cortical activation elicited by words and pseudo-words that varied in their orthographic typicality, that is, in the frequency of their component letter pairs (bi-grams) and triplets (tri-grams). At around 100 msec after stimulus onset, the ERP pattern revealed a significant typicality effect, where words and pseudo-words with atypical orthography (e.g., yacht, cacht) elicited stronger brain activation than items characterized by typical spelling patterns (cart, yart). At approximately 200 msec, the ERP pattern revealed a significant lexicality effect, with pseudo-words eliciting stronger brain activity than words. The two main factors interacted significantly at around 160 msec, where words showed a typicality effect but pseudo-words did not. The principal cortical sources of the effects of both typicality and lexicality were localized in the inferior temporal cortex. Around 160 msec, atypical words elicited the stronger source currents in the left anterior inferior temporal cortex, whereas the left perisylvian cortex was the site of greater activation to typical words. Our data support distinct but interactive processing stages in word recognition, with surface features of the stimulus being processed before the word as a meaningful lexical entry. The interaction of typicality and lexicality can be explained by integration of information from the early form-based system and lexicosemantic processes.

Neurophysiological correlates of word processing deficits in isolated reading and isolated spelling disorders.

PubMed

Bakos, Sarolta; Landerl, Karin; Bartling, Jürgen; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina

2018-03-01

In consistent orthographies, isolated reading disorders (iRD) and isolated spelling disorders (iSD) are nearly as common as combined reading-spelling disorders (cRSD). However, the exact nature of the underlying word processing deficits in isolated versus combined literacy deficits are not well understood yet. We applied a phonological lexical decision task (including words, pseudohomophones, legal and illegal pseudowords) during ERP recording to investigate the neurophysiological correlates of lexical and sublexical word-processing in children with iRD, iSD and cRSD compared to typically developing (TD) 9-year-olds. TD children showed enhanced early sensitivity (N170) for word material and for the violation of orthographic rules compared to the other groups. Lexical orthographic effects (higher LPC amplitude for words than for pseudohomophones) were the same in the TD and iRD groups, although processing took longer in children with iRD. In the iSD and cRSD groups, lexical orthographic effects were evident and stable over time only for correctly spelled words. Orthographic representations were intact in iRD children, but word processing took longer compared to TD. Children with spelling disorders had partly missing orthographic representations. Our study is the first to specify the underlying neurophysiology of word processing deficits associated with isolated literacy deficits. Copyright © 2017 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Pinyin Invented Spelling in Mandarin Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Reading Difficulties.

PubMed

Ding, Yi; Liu, Ru-De; McBride, Catherine; Zhang, Dake

2015-01-01

This study examined analytical pinyin (a phonological coding system for teaching pronunciation and lexical tones of Chinese characters) skills in 54 Mandarin-speaking fourth graders by using an invented spelling instrument that tapped into syllable awareness, phoneme awareness, lexical tones, and tone sandhi in Chinese. Pinyin invented spelling was significantly correlated with Chinese character recognition and Chinese phonological awareness (i.e., syllable deletion and phoneme deletion). In comparison to good and average readers, poor readers performed significantly worse on the invented spelling task, and a difference was also found between average and good readers. To differentiate readers at different levels, the pinyin invented spelling task, which examined both segmental and suprasegmental elements, was superior to the typical phonological awareness task, which examined segments only. Within this new task, items involving tone sandhi (Chinese language changes in which the tones of words alter according to predetermined rules) were more difficult to manipulate than were those without tone sandhi. The findings suggest that this newly developed task may be optimal for tapping unique phonological and linguistic features in reading of Chinese and examining particular tonal difficulties in struggling Chinese readers. In addition, the results suggest that phonics manipulations within tasks of phonological and tonal awareness can alter their difficulty levels. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Treatment for Alexia With Agraphia Following Left Ventral Occipito-Temporal Damage: Strengthening Orthographic Representations Common to Reading and Spelling

PubMed Central

Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Beeson, Pélagie M.

2015-01-01

Purpose Damage to left ventral occipito-temporal cortex can give rise to written language impairment characterized by pure alexia/letter-by-letter (LBL) reading, as well as surface alexia and agraphia. The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic effects of a combined treatment approach to address concurrent LBL reading with surface alexia/agraphia. Method Simultaneous treatment to address slow reading and errorful spelling was administered to 3 individuals with reading and spelling impairments after left ventral occipito-temporal damage due to posterior cerebral artery stroke. Single-word reading/spelling accuracy, reading latencies, and text reading were monitored as outcome measures for the combined effects of multiple oral re-reading treatment and interactive spelling treatment. Results After treatment, participants demonstrated faster and more accurate single-word reading and improved text-reading rates. Spelling accuracy also improved, particularly for untrained irregular words, demonstrating generalization of the trained interactive spelling strategy. Conclusion This case series characterizes concomitant LBL with surface alexia/agraphia and demonstrates a successful treatment approach to address both the reading and spelling impairment. PMID:26110814

Treatment for Alexia With Agraphia Following Left Ventral Occipito-Temporal Damage: Strengthening Orthographic Representations Common to Reading and Spelling.

PubMed

Kim, Esther S; Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z; Beeson, Pélagie M

2015-10-01

Damage to left ventral occipito-temporal cortex can give rise to written language impairment characterized by pure alexia/letter-by-letter (LBL) reading, as well as surface alexia and agraphia. The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic effects of a combined treatment approach to address concurrent LBL reading with surface alexia/agraphia. Simultaneous treatment to address slow reading and errorful spelling was administered to 3 individuals with reading and spelling impairments after left ventral occipito-temporal damage due to posterior cerebral artery stroke. Single-word reading/spelling accuracy, reading latencies, and text reading were monitored as outcome measures for the combined effects of multiple oral re-reading treatment and interactive spelling treatment. After treatment, participants demonstrated faster and more accurate single-word reading and improved text-reading rates. Spelling accuracy also improved, particularly for untrained irregular words, demonstrating generalization of the trained interactive spelling strategy. This case series characterizes concomitant LBL with surface alexia/agraphia and demonstrates a successful treatment approach to address both the reading and spelling impairment.

Metacognitive Strategies: A Foundation for Early Word Spelling and Reading in Kindergartners with SLI

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiff, Rachel; Nuri Ben-Shushan, Yohi; Ben-Artzi, Elisheva

2017-01-01

This study assessed the effect of metacognitive instruction on the spelling and word reading of Hebrew-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 67 kindergarteners with SLI in a supported learning context. Children were classified into three spelling instruction groups: (a) metalinguistic instruction (ML), (b) ML…

Identifying Effective Spelling Interventions Using a Brief Experimental Analysis and Extended Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCurdy, Merilee; Clure, Lynne F.; Bleck, Amanda A.; Schmitz, Stephanie L.

2016-01-01

Spelling is an important skill that is crucial to effective written communication. In this study, brief experimental analysis procedures were used to examine spelling instruction strategies (e.g., whole word correction; word study strategy; positive practice; and cover, copy, and compare) for four students. In addition, an extended analysis was…

Aerospell Supplemental Spell Check File

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2000-01-01

Aerospell is a supplemental spell check file that can be used as a resource for researchers, writers, editors, students, and others who compose scientific and technical texts. The file extends the general spell check dictionaries of word processors by adding more than 13,000 words used in a broad range of aerospace and related disciplines.

Spelling: Easing the Student's Anxiety and Improving His/Her Skill.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rabianski, Nancyanne

Because spelling errors affect the writer's word choice and the writer's audience, college students who are otherwise good writers are often placed in remedial English classes. Despite its relationship to audience concerns, word choice, and the physical act of writing, spelling has not been of much concern to composition teachers. Research in the…

What Is in the Naming? A 5-Year Longitudinal Study of Early Rapid Naming and Phonological Sensitivity in Relation to Subsequent Reading Skills in Both Native Chinese and English as a Second Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pan, Jinger; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Liu, Hongyun; Zhang, Yuping; Li, Hong

2011-01-01

Among 262 Chinese children, syllable awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) at age 5 years and invented spelling of Pinyin at age 6 years independently predicted subsequent Chinese character recognition and English word reading at ages 8 years and 10 years, even with initial Chinese character reading ability statistically controlled. In…

Teaching children with dyslexia to spell in a reading-writers' workshop.

PubMed

Berninger, Virginia W; Lee, Yen-Ling; Abbott, Robert D; Breznitz, Zvia

2013-04-01

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n=12) or B (n=12) in an after-school reading-writers' workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1 treatment of grapheme-phoneme correspondences (gpc) for oral reading. At step 2, treatment A received gpc training for both oral reading and spelling, and treatment B received gpc training for oral reading and phonological awareness. At step 3, treatment A received orthographic spelling strategy and rapid accelerated reading program (RAP) training, and treatment B continued step 2 training. At step 4, treatment A received morphological strategies and RAP training, and treatment B received orthographic spelling strategy training. Each treatment also had the same integrated reading-writing activities, which many school assignments require. Both groups improved significantly in automatic letter writing, spelling real words, compositional fluency, and oral reading (decoding) rate. Treatment A significantly outperformed treatment B in decoding rate after step 3 orthographic training, which in turn uniquely predicted spelling real words. Letter processing rate increased during step 3 RAP training and correlated significantly with two silent reading fluency measures. Adding orthographic strategies with "working memory in mind" to phonics helps students with dyslexia spell and read English words.

Effects of Rhyme and Spelling Patterns on Auditory Word ERPs Depend on Selective Attention to Phonology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yoncheva, Yuliya N.; Maurer, Urs; Zevin, Jason D.; McCandliss, Bruce D.

2013-01-01

ERP responses to spoken words are sensitive to both rhyming effects and effects of associated spelling patterns. Are such effects automatically elicited by spoken words or dependent on selectively attending to phonology? To address this question, ERP responses to spoken word pairs were investigated under two equally demanding listening tasks that…

The Effects of Word Box Instruction on Acquisition, Generalization, and Maintenance of Decoding and Spelling Skills for First Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alber-Morgan, Sheila R.; Joseph, Laurice M.; Kanotz, Brittany; Rouse, Christina A.; Sawyer, Mary R.

2016-01-01

This study examined the effects of implementing word boxes as a supplemental instruction method on the acquisition, maintenance, and generalization of word identification and spelling. Word box intervention consists of using manipulatives to learn phonological decoding skills. The participants were three African-American urban first graders…

What Spelling Tells Us about the Orthographic Development and Word Study Instruction with Emergent Bilingual Secondary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kiernan, Darl; Bear, Donald R.

2018-01-01

Educators need ways to assess orthographic knowledge and differentiate word study instruction for secondary, emergent bilingual learners. In this study, the spelling of 199 students in grades 7-12 across eight features and four spelling stages was examined to understand students' orthographic development; all but two were learning Spanish and…

The Effect of Instruction Method and Relearning on Dutch Spelling Performance of Third- through Fifth-Graders

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bouwmeester, Samantha; Verkoeijen, Peter P. J. L.

2011-01-01

In this study, we compared two instruction methods on spelling performance: a rewriting instruction in which children repeatedly rewrote words and an ambiguous property instruction in which children deliberately practiced on a difficult word aspect. Moreover, we examined whether the testing effect applies to spelling performance. One hundred…

Promoting Early Literacy via Practicing Invented Spelling: A Comparison of Different Mediation Routines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levin, Iris; Aram, Dorit

2013-01-01

The present study compared the effects of different mediation routines provided to kindergartners from families of low socioeconomic status on the students' invented spelling attempts and on their gains obtained on spelling and other early literacy skills (letter naming, sounds of letters, word segmentation, and word decoding). The effects of the…

The Impact of Visual-Spatial Attention on Reading and Spelling in Chinese Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Duo; Chen, Xi; Wang, Ying

2016-01-01

The present study investigated the associations of visual-spatial attention with word reading fluency and spelling in 92 third grade Hong Kong Chinese children. Word reading fluency was measured with a timed reading task whereas spelling was measured with a dictation task. Results showed that visual-spatial attention was a unique predictor of…

Cognitive, Linguistic and Print-Related Predictors of Preschool Children's Word Spelling and Name Writing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milburn, Trelani F.; Hipfner-Boucher, Kathleen; Weitzman, Elaine; Greenberg, Janice; Pelletier, Janette; Girolametto, Luigi

2017-01-01

Preschool children begin to represent spoken language in print long before receiving formal instruction in spelling and writing. The current study sought to identify the component skills that contribute to preschool children's ability to begin to spell words and write their name. Ninety-five preschool children (mean age = 57 months) completed a…

Success Teaching Spelling with Music.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Mariellen

1983-01-01

A spelling approach which incorporates music on a cassette with spelling, pronunciation, and definition of specific words was successful in improving junior high learning disabled students' spelling performance, self-esteem, and sequential memories. (CL)

Lexical processing and distributional knowledge in sound-spelling mapping in a consistent orthography: A longitudinal study of reading and spelling in dyslexic and typically developing children.

PubMed

Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; Cellini, Pamela; Zoccolotti, Pierluigi; Angelelli, Paola

This study examined the ability to master lexical processing and use knowledge of the relative frequency of sound-spelling mappings in both reading and spelling. Twenty-four dyslexic and dysgraphic children and 86 typically developing readers were followed longitudinally in 3rd and 5th grades. Effects of word regularity, word frequency, and probability of sound-spelling mappings were examined in two experimental tasks: (a) spelling to dictation; and (b) orthographic judgment. Dyslexic children showed larger regularity and frequency effects than controls in both tasks. Sensitivity to distributional information of sound-spelling mappings was already detected by third grade, indicating early acquisition even in children with dyslexia. Although with notable differences, knowledge of the relative frequencies of sound-spelling mapping influenced both reading and spelling. Results are discussed in terms of their theoretical and empirical implications.

CDP++.Italian: Modelling Sublexical and Supralexical Inconsistency in a Shallow Orthography

PubMed Central

Perry, Conrad; Ziegler, Johannes C.; Zorzi, Marco

2014-01-01

Most models of reading aloud have been constructed to explain data in relatively complex orthographies like English and French. Here, we created an Italian version of the Connectionist Dual Process Model of Reading Aloud (CDP++) to examine the extent to which the model could predict data in a language which has relatively simple orthography-phonology relationships but is relatively complex at a suprasegmental (word stress) level. We show that the model exhibits good quantitative performance and accounts for key phenomena observed in naming studies, including some apparently contradictory findings. These effects include stress regularity and stress consistency, both of which have been especially important in studies of word recognition and reading aloud in Italian. Overall, the results of the model compare favourably to an alternative connectionist model that can learn non-linear spelling-to-sound mappings. This suggests that CDP++ is currently the leading computational model of reading aloud in Italian, and that its simple linear learning mechanism adequately captures the statistical regularities of the spelling-to-sound mapping both at the segmental and supra-segmental levels. PMID:24740261

Wilson Reading System[R]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2007

2007-01-01

Wilson Reading System[R] is a supplemental reading and writing curriculum designed to promote reading accuracy (decoding) and spelling (encoding) skills for students with word-level deficits. The program is designed to teach phonemic awareness, alphabetic principles (sound-symbol relationship), word study, spelling, sight word instruction,…

Spelling and Meaning of Compounds in the Early School Years through Classroom Games: An Intervention Study.

PubMed

Tsesmeli, Styliani N

2017-01-01

The study aimed to evaluate the intervention effects on spelling and meaning of compounds by Greek students via group board games in classroom settings. The sample consisted of 60 pupils, who were attending the first and second grade of two primary schools in Greece. Each grade-class was divided into an intervention ( N = 29 children) and a control group ( N = 31 children). Before intervention, groups were evaluated by standardized tests of reading words/pseudowords, spelling words, and vocabulary. Students were also assessed on compound knowledge by a word analogy task, a meaning task and a spelling task. The experimental design of the intervention included a pre-test, a training program, and a post-test. The pre- and post-assessments consisted of the spelling and the meaning tasks entailing equally morphologically transparent and opaque compounds. The training program was based on word families ( N = 10 word families, 56 trained items, 5 sessions) and aimed to offer instruction of morphological decomposition and meaning of words. The findings showed that training was effective in enhancing the spelling and most notably the meaning of compounds. A closer inspection of intervention data in terms of morphological transparency, revealed that training group of first graders improved significantly both on transparent and opaque compounds, while the degree of gains was larger on opaque items for the second graders. These findings are consistent with the experimental literature and particularly optimistic for the literacy enhancement of typically developing children in regular classrooms.

Spelling and Meaning of Compounds in the Early School Years through Classroom Games: An Intervention Study

PubMed Central

Tsesmeli, Styliani N.

2017-01-01

The study aimed to evaluate the intervention effects on spelling and meaning of compounds by Greek students via group board games in classroom settings. The sample consisted of 60 pupils, who were attending the first and second grade of two primary schools in Greece. Each grade-class was divided into an intervention (N = 29 children) and a control group (N = 31 children). Before intervention, groups were evaluated by standardized tests of reading words/pseudowords, spelling words, and vocabulary. Students were also assessed on compound knowledge by a word analogy task, a meaning task and a spelling task. The experimental design of the intervention included a pre-test, a training program, and a post-test. The pre- and post-assessments consisted of the spelling and the meaning tasks entailing equally morphologically transparent and opaque compounds. The training program was based on word families (N = 10 word families, 56 trained items, 5 sessions) and aimed to offer instruction of morphological decomposition and meaning of words. The findings showed that training was effective in enhancing the spelling and most notably the meaning of compounds. A closer inspection of intervention data in terms of morphological transparency, revealed that training group of first graders improved significantly both on transparent and opaque compounds, while the degree of gains was larger on opaque items for the second graders. These findings are consistent with the experimental literature and particularly optimistic for the literacy enhancement of typically developing children in regular classrooms. PMID:29238316

Word Prediction Programs with Phonetic Spelling Support: Performance Comparisons and Impact on Journal Writing for Students with Writing Difficulties

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evmenova, Anna S.; Graff, Heidi J.; Jerome, Marci Kinas; Behrmann, Michael M.

2010-01-01

This investigation examined the effects of currently available word prediction software programs that support phonetic/inventive spelling on the quality of journal writing by six students with severe writing and/or spelling difficulties in grades three through six during a month-long summer writing program. A changing conditions single-subject…

Phonics, Spelling, and Word Study: A Sensible Approach. The Bill Harp Professional Teachers Library Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glazer, Susan Mandel

This concise book shares several sensible, logical, and meaningful approaches that guide young children to use the written coding system to read, spell, and make meaning of the English language coding system. The book demonstrates that phonics, spelling, and word study are essential parts of literacy learning. After an introduction, chapters are:…

Responsiveness to Intervention in Children with Dyslexia.

PubMed

Tilanus, Elisabeth A T; Segers, Eliane; Verhoeven, Ludo

2016-08-01

We examined the responsiveness to a 12-week phonics intervention in 54 s-grade Dutch children with dyslexia, and compared their reading and spelling gains to a control group of 61 typical readers. The intervention aimed to train grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs), and word reading and spelling by using phonics instruction. We examined the accuracy and efficiency of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, decoding words and pseudowords, as well as the accuracy of spelling words before and after the intervention. Moreover, responsiveness to intervention was examined by studying to what extent scores at posttest could directly or indirectly be predicted from precursor measures. Results showed that the children with dyslexia were significantly behind in all reading and spelling measures at pretest. During the intervention, the children with dyslexia made more progress on GPC, (pseudo)word decoding accuracy and efficiency, and spelling accuracy than the typical reading group. Furthermore, we found a direct effect of the precursor measures rapid automatized naming, verbal working memory and phoneme deletion on the dyslexic children's progress in GPC speed, and indirect effects of rapid automatized naming and phoneme deletion on word and pseudoword efficiency and word decoding accuracy via the scores at pretest. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Is Weak Oral Language Associated with Poor Spelling in School-Age Children with Specific Language Impairment, Dyslexia, or Both?

PubMed Central

McCarthy, Jillian H.; Hogan, Tiffany P.; Catts, Hugh W.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in school-age children. We compared fourth grade spelling accuracy in children with specific language impairment (SLI), dyslexia, or both (SLI/dyslexia) to their typically developing grade-matched peers. Results of the study revealed that children with SLI performed similarly to their typically developing peers on a single word spelling task. Alternatively, those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia evidenced poor spelling accuracy. Errors made by both those with dyslexia and SLI/dyslexia were characterized by numerous phonologic, orthographic, and semantic errors. Cumulative results support the hypothesis that word reading accuracy, not oral language, is associated with spelling performance in typically developing school-age children and their peers with SLI and dyslexia. Findings are provided as further support for the notion that SLI and dyslexia are distinct, yet co-morbid, developmental disorders. PMID:22876769

Teaching Spelling at the Elementary Level: A Realistic Perspective.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DiStefano, Philip P.; Hagerty, Patricia J.

1985-01-01

Argues that rather than using a spelling series and treating spelling as a subject separate from the other language arts, teachers should use a program that begins with encouraging invented spelling and moves to the use of high frequency word lists and spelling by meaning. (FL)

Computer-Based Learning of Spelling Skills in Children with and without Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kast, Monika; Baschera, Gian-Marco; Gross, Markus; Jancke, Lutz; Meyer, Martin

2011-01-01

Our spelling training software recodes words into multisensory representations comprising visual and auditory codes. These codes represent information about letters and syllables of a word. An enhanced version, developed for this study, contains an additional phonological code and an improved word selection controller relying on a phoneme-based…

Teacher Experiences in Elementary Word Study Instruction: A Phenomenological Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mihalik, Gregory Stephen

2017-01-01

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the experience of integrating word study spelling programs for second grade teachers across six elementary schools in Northern Virginia. Word study is a developmental spelling approach that can be used by teachers to differentiate instruction and meet student needs. Despite the growing…

Teaching Compound Words to a Spelling-Disabled Child via Smart Notebook Technology: ? Case Study Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tsesmeli, Styliani N.; Tsirozi, Theologia

2015-01-01

The case-study aims to examine the effectiveness of training of morphological structure on the spelling of compounds by a spelling-disabled primary school student. The experimental design of the intervention was based on the word-pair paradigm and included a pre-test, a training program and a post-test (n = 50 pairs). The Training Program aimed to…

Spelling It Out: How Words Work and How to Teach Them

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adoniou, Misty

2016-01-01

Spelling can be a source of anxiety for school children and working professionals alike. Yet the spelling of words in English is not as random or chaotic as it is often perceived to be; rather, it is a system based on both meaning and a fascinating linguistic history. Misty Adoniou's public articles on the processes of teaching and learning…

The Development of Children's Sensitivity to Bigram Frequencies When Spelling in Spanish, a Transparent Writing System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carrillo, María Soledad; Alegría, Jesús

2014-01-01

The aim of this study was to collect data concerning the sensitivity of 2nd-6th grade Spanish-speaking children towards orthographic regularities. In a first experiment, children were asked to spell words that begin with /b/, a sound that is inconsistently spelled "b" or "v", depending on the lexeme. Low frequency words were…

A UMLS-based spell checker for natural language processing in vaccine safety.

PubMed

Tolentino, Herman D; Matters, Michael D; Walop, Wikke; Law, Barbara; Tong, Wesley; Liu, Fang; Fontelo, Paul; Kohl, Katrin; Payne, Daniel C

2007-02-12

The Institute of Medicine has identified patient safety as a key goal for health care in the United States. Detecting vaccine adverse events is an important public health activity that contributes to patient safety. Reports about adverse events following immunization (AEFI) from surveillance systems contain free-text components that can be analyzed using natural language processing. To extract Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts from free text and classify AEFI reports based on concepts they contain, we first needed to clean the text by expanding abbreviations and shortcuts and correcting spelling errors. Our objective in this paper was to create a UMLS-based spelling error correction tool as a first step in the natural language processing (NLP) pipeline for AEFI reports. We developed spell checking algorithms using open source tools. We used de-identified AEFI surveillance reports to create free-text data sets for analysis. After expansion of abbreviated clinical terms and shortcuts, we performed spelling correction in four steps: (1) error detection, (2) word list generation, (3) word list disambiguation and (4) error correction. We then measured the performance of the resulting spell checker by comparing it to manual correction. We used 12,056 words to train the spell checker and tested its performance on 8,131 words. During testing, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) for the spell checker were 74% (95% CI: 74-75), 100% (95% CI: 100-100), and 47% (95% CI: 46%-48%), respectively. We created a prototype spell checker that can be used to process AEFI reports. We used the UMLS Specialist Lexicon as the primary source of dictionary terms and the WordNet lexicon as a secondary source. We used the UMLS as a domain-specific source of dictionary terms to compare potentially misspelled words in the corpus. The prototype sensitivity was comparable to currently available tools, but the specificity was much superior. The slow processing speed may be improved by trimming it down to the most useful component algorithms. Other investigators may find the methods we developed useful for cleaning text using lexicons specific to their area of interest.

A UMLS-based spell checker for natural language processing in vaccine safety

PubMed Central

Tolentino, Herman D; Matters, Michael D; Walop, Wikke; Law, Barbara; Tong, Wesley; Liu, Fang; Fontelo, Paul; Kohl, Katrin; Payne, Daniel C

2007-01-01

Background The Institute of Medicine has identified patient safety as a key goal for health care in the United States. Detecting vaccine adverse events is an important public health activity that contributes to patient safety. Reports about adverse events following immunization (AEFI) from surveillance systems contain free-text components that can be analyzed using natural language processing. To extract Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concepts from free text and classify AEFI reports based on concepts they contain, we first needed to clean the text by expanding abbreviations and shortcuts and correcting spelling errors. Our objective in this paper was to create a UMLS-based spelling error correction tool as a first step in the natural language processing (NLP) pipeline for AEFI reports. Methods We developed spell checking algorithms using open source tools. We used de-identified AEFI surveillance reports to create free-text data sets for analysis. After expansion of abbreviated clinical terms and shortcuts, we performed spelling correction in four steps: (1) error detection, (2) word list generation, (3) word list disambiguation and (4) error correction. We then measured the performance of the resulting spell checker by comparing it to manual correction. Results We used 12,056 words to train the spell checker and tested its performance on 8,131 words. During testing, sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value (PPV) for the spell checker were 74% (95% CI: 74–75), 100% (95% CI: 100–100), and 47% (95% CI: 46%–48%), respectively. Conclusion We created a prototype spell checker that can be used to process AEFI reports. We used the UMLS Specialist Lexicon as the primary source of dictionary terms and the WordNet lexicon as a secondary source. We used the UMLS as a domain-specific source of dictionary terms to compare potentially misspelled words in the corpus. The prototype sensitivity was comparable to currently available tools, but the specificity was much superior. The slow processing speed may be improved by trimming it down to the most useful component algorithms. Other investigators may find the methods we developed useful for cleaning text using lexicons specific to their area of interest. PMID:17295907

Spelling in Written Stories by School-Age Children with Cochlear Implants

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Straley, Sara G.; Werfel, Krystal L.; Hendricks, Alison Eisel

2016-01-01

This study evaluated the spelling of 3rd to 6th grade children with cochlear implants in written stories. Spelling was analysed using traditional correct/incorrect scoring as well as the Spelling Sensitivity Score, which provides linguistic information about spelling attempts. Children with cochlear implants spelled 86 per cent of words in stories…

Influence of Computerized Sounding Out on Spelling Performance for Children who do and not rely on AAC

PubMed Central

McCarthy, Jillian H.; Hogan, Tiffany P.; Beukelman, David R.; Schwarz, Ilsa E.

2015-01-01

Purpose Spelling is an important skill for individuals who rely on augmentative alternative communication (AAC). The purpose of this study was to investigate how computerized sounding out influenced spelling accuracy of pseudo-words. Computerized sounding out was defined as a word elongated, thus providing an opportunity for a child to hear all the sounds in the word at a slower rate. Methods Seven children with cerebral palsy, four who use AAC and three who do not, participated in a single subject AB design. Results The results of the study indicated that the use of computerized sounding out increased the phonologic accuracy of the pseudo-words produced by participants. Conclusion The study provides preliminary evidence for the use of computerized sounding out during spelling tasks for children with cerebral palsy who do and do not use AAC. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed. PMID:24512195

Do dual-route models accurately predict reading and spelling performance in individuals with acquired alexia and agraphia?

PubMed

Rapcsak, Steven Z; Henry, Maya L; Teague, Sommer L; Carnahan, Susan D; Beeson, Pélagie M

2007-06-18

Coltheart and co-workers [Castles, A., Bates, T. C., & Coltheart, M. (2006). John Marshall and the developmental dyslexias. Aphasiology, 20, 871-892; Coltheart, M., Rastle, K., Perry, C., Langdon, R., & Ziegler, J. (2001). DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. Psychological Review, 108, 204-256] have demonstrated that an equation derived from dual-route theory accurately predicts reading performance in young normal readers and in children with reading impairment due to developmental dyslexia or stroke. In this paper, we present evidence that the dual-route equation and a related multiple regression model also accurately predict both reading and spelling performance in adult neurological patients with acquired alexia and agraphia. These findings provide empirical support for dual-route theories of written language processing.

Improving Spelling Performance and Spelling Consciousness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cordewener, Kim A. H.; Verhoeven, Ludo; Bosman, Anna M. T.

2016-01-01

This study examined the immediate and sustained effects of three training conditions on both spelling performance and spelling consciousness of 72 third-grade low- and high-skilled spellers. Spellers were assigned to a strategy-instruction, self-correction, or no-correction condition. The role of spelling ability and word characteristic were also…

Using Word Prediction Software to Increase Typing Fluency with Students with Physical Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tumlin, Jennifer; Heller, Kathryn Wolff

2004-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the use of word prediction software to increase typing speed and decrease spelling errors for students who have physical disabilities that affect hand use. Student perceptions regarding the effectiveness of word prediction was examined as well as their typing rates and spelling accuracy. Four students with…

The Contribution of Morphological Awareness to the Spelling of Morphemes and Morphologically Complex Words in French

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fejzo, Anila

2016-01-01

The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between morphological awareness and the spelling of morphemes and morphologically complex words among 75 third- and fourth-grade Francophone students of low socio-economic status. To reach this objective, we administered a dictation comprised of morphologically complex words with prefixes,…

Morphology and spelling in French students with dyslexia: the case of silent final letters.

PubMed

Quémart, Pauline; Casalis, Séverine

2017-04-01

Spelling is a challenge for individuals with dyslexia. Phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence rules are highly inconsistent in French, which make them very difficult to master, in particular for dyslexics. One recurrent manifestation of this inconsistency is the presence of silent letters at the end of words. Many of these silent letters perform a morphological function. The current study examined whether students with dyslexia (aged between 10 and 15 years) benefit from the morphological status of silent final letters when spelling. We compared, their ability to spell words with silent final letters that are either morphologically justified (e.g., tricot, "knit," where the final "t" is pronounced in morphologically related words such as tricoter, "to knit" and tricoteur "knitter") or not morphologically justified (e.g., effort, "effort") to that of a group of younger children matched for reading and spelling level. Results indicated that the dyslexic students' spelling of silent final letters was impaired in comparison to the control group. Interestingly, morphological status helped the dyslexics improve the accuracy of their choice of final letters, contrary to the control group. This finding provides new evidence of morphological processing in dyslexia during spelling.

Do morphemes matter when reading compound words with transposed letters? Evidence from eye-tracking and event-related potentials

DOE PAGES

Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Christianson, Kiel

2016-08-06

We investigate the online processing consequences of encountering compound words with transposed letters (TLs), in order to determine if cross-morpheme TLs are more disruptive to reading than those within a single morpheme, as would be predicted by accounts of obligatory morpho-orthopgrahic decomposition. Two measures of online processing, eye movements and event-related potentials (ERPs), were collected in separate experiments. Participants read sentences containing correctly spelled compound words (cupcake), or compounds with TLs occurring either across morphemes (cucpake) or within one morpheme (cupacke). Results showed that between- and within-morpheme transpositions produced equal processing costs in both measures, in the form of longermore » reading times (Experiment 1) and a late posterior positivity (Experiment 2) that did not differ between conditions. Our findings converge to suggest that within- and between-morpheme TLs are equally disruptive to recognition, providing evidence against obligatory morpho-orthographic processing and in favour of whole-word access of English compound words during sentence reading.« less

Do Morphemes Matter when Reading Compound Words with Transposed Letters? Evidence from Eye-Tracking and Event-Related Potentials

PubMed Central

Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Christianson, Kiel

2017-01-01

The current study investigates the online processing consequences of encountering compound words with transposed letters (TLs), to determine if TLs that cross morpheme boundaries are more disruptive to reading than those within a single morpheme, as would be predicted by accounts of obligatory morpho-orthopgrahic decomposition. Two measures of online processing, eye movements and event-related potentials (ERPs), were collected in separate experiments. Participants read sentences containing correctly spelled compound words (cupcake), or compounds with TLs occurring either across morpheme boundaries (cucpake) or within one morpheme (cupacke). Results showed that between- and within-morpheme transpositions produced equal processing costs in both measures, in the form of longer reading times (Experiment 1) and a late posterior positivity (Experiment 2) that did not differ between conditions. Findings converge to suggest that within- and between-morpheme TLs are equally disruptive to recognition, providing evidence against obligatory morpho-orthographic processing and in favor of whole-word access of English compound words during sentence reading. PMID:28791313

Do morphemes matter when reading compound words with transposed letters? Evidence from eye-tracking and event-related potentials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Stites, Mallory C.; Federmeier, Kara D.; Christianson, Kiel

We investigate the online processing consequences of encountering compound words with transposed letters (TLs), in order to determine if cross-morpheme TLs are more disruptive to reading than those within a single morpheme, as would be predicted by accounts of obligatory morpho-orthopgrahic decomposition. Two measures of online processing, eye movements and event-related potentials (ERPs), were collected in separate experiments. Participants read sentences containing correctly spelled compound words (cupcake), or compounds with TLs occurring either across morphemes (cucpake) or within one morpheme (cupacke). Results showed that between- and within-morpheme transpositions produced equal processing costs in both measures, in the form of longermore » reading times (Experiment 1) and a late posterior positivity (Experiment 2) that did not differ between conditions. Our findings converge to suggest that within- and between-morpheme TLs are equally disruptive to recognition, providing evidence against obligatory morpho-orthographic processing and in favour of whole-word access of English compound words during sentence reading.« less

Spelling Strategies: Take Stock of Students' Spelling Progress.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gentry, J. Richard

1998-01-01

Presents four informal assessments that elementary teachers can use to compare students' spelling progress to typical midyear benchmarks. The assessments, which target K-6 students, emphasize alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness, attitude and consciousness about spelling, and spelling growth through writing samples. The paper includes a…

Spelling Instruction in the Primary Grades: Teachers' Beliefs, Practices, and Concerns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Antoinette; Zhang, Jing; Mattatall, Chris

2015-01-01

This study examined Canadian teachers' beliefs, practices and concerns about spelling instruction in the primary grades. Data from surveys (n = 56) indicated that most teachers believe that spelling is important and plan for spelling instruction. For most teachers, the spelling words and activities used, and the instructional resources they chose,…

The role of phonology, morphology, and orthography in English and Russian spelling.

PubMed

Boulware-Gooden, Regina; Joshi, R Malatesha; Grigorenko, Elena

2015-05-01

The purpose of the present study was to explore the role of phonology, morphology and orthography in predicting the spelling performance in English-speaking and Russian-speaking children. Tests that tap phonology, morphology and orthography were administered to students in grades 4 and 6 in the USA and Russia. Multiple regression analyses showed that phonology and morphology contributed more for spelling of English words while orthography and morphology contributed more to the spelling of Russian words. The results are explained in terms of the orthographic nature of English and Russian languages as well as the instructional practices and the importance of morphology in spelling in both the languages. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Influence of computerized sounding out on spelling performance for children who do and do not rely on AAC.

PubMed

McCarthy, Jillian H; Hogan, Tiffany P; Beukelman, David R; Schwarz, Ilsa E

2015-05-01

Spelling is an important skill for individuals who rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). The purpose of this study was to investigate how computerized sounding out influenced spelling accuracy of pseudo-words. Computerized sounding out was defined as a word elongated, thus providing an opportunity for a child to hear all the sounds in the word at a slower rate. Seven children with cerebral palsy, four who use AAC and three who do not, participated in a single subject AB design. The results of the study indicated that the use of computerized sounding out increased the phonologic accuracy of the pseudo-words produced by participants. The study provides preliminary evidence for the use of computerized sounding out during spelling tasks for children with cerebral palsy who do and do not use AAC. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed. We investigated how computerized sounding out influenced spelling accuracy of pseudowords for children with complex communication needs who did and did not use augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Results indicated that the use of computerized sounding out increased the phonologic accuracy of the pseudo-words by participants, suggesting that computerized sounding out might assist in more accurate spelling for children who use AAC. Future research is needed to determine how language and reading abilities influence the use of computerized sounding out with children who have a range of speech intelligibility abilities and do and do not use AAC.

The Role of Morphological and Phonological Awareness in the Early Development of Word Spelling and Reading in Typically Developing and Disabled Arabic Readers.

PubMed

Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor; Taha, Haitham

2017-11-01

The study is a cross-sectional developmental investigation of morphological and phonological awareness in word spelling and reading in Arabic in reading-accuracy disabled (RD) children and in age-matched typically developing (TR) controls in grades 1-4 (N = 160). Morphological awareness tasks targeted the root and word pattern derivational system of Arabic, in both the oral and the written modalities. Phonological awareness employed a variety of orally administered segmentation and deletion tasks. The results demonstrated early deficits in morphological awareness, besides deficits in phonological awareness, in RD children as compared with typically developing controls, as well as in word and pseudoword spelling and reading (voweled and unvoweled). While phonological awareness emerged as the strongest predictor of reading, morphological awareness was also found to predict unique variance in reading, and even more so in spelling, beyond phonological awareness and cognitive skills. The results demonstrate the early emergence of morphological awareness deficits, alongside phonological deficits in Arabic RD, as well as the role of morphological processing in early reading and spelling. These findings reflect the centrality of derivational morphology in the structure of the spoken and the written Arabic word. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score to Analyze Spellings of Children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Werfel, Krystal L.; Krimm, Hannah

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score (SSS) beyond percentage correct scoring in analysing the spellings of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 31 children with SLI and 28 children with typical language in grades 2 through 4. Spellings of individual words were scored using two methods: (a) percentage correct and (b) SSS. Children with SLI scored lower than children with typical language when spelling was analysed with percentage correct scoring and with SSS scoring. Additionally, SSS scoring highlighted group differences in the nature of spelling errors. Children with SLI were more likely than children with typical language to omit elements and to represent elements with an illegal grapheme in words, whereas children with typical language were more likely than children with SLI to represent all elements with correct letters. PMID:26413194

Frequency Analyses of Prephonological Spellings as Predictors of Success in Conventional Spelling

PubMed Central

Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Treiman, Rebecca; Cardoso-Martins, Cláudia

2014-01-01

The present study explored how children’s prephonological writing foretells differential learning outcomes in primary school. We asked Portuguese-speaking preschool children in Brazil (mean age 4 1/4 years) to spell 12 words. Monte Carlo tests were used to identify the 31 children whose writing was not based on spellings or sounds of the target words. 2 1/2 years later, the children took a standardized spelling test. The more closely the digram (2-letter sequence) frequencies in the preschool task correlated with those in children’s books, the better scores the children had in primary school; and the more preschoolers used letters from their own name, the lower their subsequent scores. Thus, preschoolers whose prephonological writing revealed attentiveness to the statistical properties of text subsequently performed better in conventional spelling. These analytic techniques may help in the early identification of children at risk for spelling difficulties. PMID:22798104

The role of learning in improving functional writing in stroke aphasia.

PubMed

Thiel, Lindsey; Sage, Karen; Conroy, Paul

2016-10-01

Improving writing in people with aphasia could improve ability to communicate, reduce isolation and increase access to information. One area that has not been sufficiently explored is the effect of impairment based spelling therapies on functional writing. A multiple case study was conducted with eight participants with aphasia subsequent to stroke. This aimed to measure the effects of spelling therapy on functional writing and perception of disability. Participants engaged in 10 sessions of copy and recall spelling therapy. Outcome measures included spelling to dictation of trained and untrained words, written picture description, spelling accuracy within emails, a disability questionnaire and a writing frequency diary. All participants made significant gains on treated words and six demonstrated improvements to untreated words. Group analyses showed significant improvements to written picture description, but not email writing, writing frequency or perceptions of disability. These results show that small doses of writing therapy can lead to large gains in specific types of writing. These gains did not extend to improvements in frequency of writing in daily living, nor ecological measures of email writing. There is a need to develop bridging interventions between experimental tasks towards more multi-faceted and ecological everyday writing tasks. Implications for Rehabilitation Acquired dysgraphia can restrict people from participating in social, educational and professional life. This study has shown that copy and recall spelling therapies can improve the spelling of treated words, untreated words and written picture description in people with a range of types and severities of dysgraphia following stroke. The results of this study suggest that more specific additional training is required for other writing activities such as email writing.

Relating print and speech: the effects of letter names and word position on reading and spelling performance.

PubMed

Bowman, Margo; Treiman, Rebecca

2002-08-01

From an early age, children can go beyond rote memorization to form links between print and speech that are based on letter names in the initial positions of words (Treiman & Rodriguez, 1999; Treiman, Sotak, & Bowman, 2001). For example, children's knowledge of the name of the letter t helps them learn that the novel word TM is pronounced as team. Four experiments were carried out to determine whether letter names at the ends of words are equally useful. Four- and five-year-olds derived little benefit from such information in reading (Experiments 1 and 3) or spelling (Experiment 2), although adults did (Experiment 4). For young children, word-final information appears to have less influence on reading and spelling performance than does word-initial information. The results help delineate the circumstances under which children can go beyond a logographic approach in learning about print.

The Impact of Multisensory Instruction on Learning Letter Names and Sounds, Word Reading, and Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schlesinger, Nora W.; Gray, Shelley

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the use of simultaneous multisensory structured language instruction promoted better letter name and sound production, word reading, and word spelling for second grade children with typical development (N = 6) or with dyslexia (N = 5) than structured language instruction alone. The use of…

Effect of an Adapted "Cover Write" Method to Word-Naming and Spelling to Students with Developmental Disabilities in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erbas, Dilek; Turan, Yasemin; Ozen, Arzu; Halle, James W.

2006-01-01

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the "cover write" method of teaching word-naming and spelling to two Turkish students with developmental disabilities. A multiple-probe design across three, 5-word sets was employed to assess the effectiveness of the intervention. The "cover write" method was…

Towards an Understanding of How Children Read and Spell Irregular Words: The Role of Nonword and Orthographic Processing Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Rhona; McGeown, Sarah; Moxon, Gerri Elizabeth

2014-01-01

This study examined, in 180 children aged from 6 to 9?years, to what extent irregular word reading and spelling were predicted by vocabulary knowledge, reading frequency, orthographic processing and nonword reading skill. Consistent with models of reading highlighting the quasi-regular nature of irregular words, it was found that nonword reading…

When Cues Collide: Children's Sensitivity to Letter-and Meaning-Patterns in Spelling Words in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, S. H.; LeBlanc, D.; Sabourin, C.

2011-01-01

In many learning situations, we need to determine to which cues to attend, particularly in cases when these cues conflict. These conflicts appear often in English orthography. In two experiments, we asked children to spell two-syllable words that varied on two dimensions: morphological and orthographic structure. In one set of these words, the two…

Orthographic learning in children with isolated and combined reading and spelling deficits.

PubMed

Mehlhase, Heike; Bakos, Sarolta; Landerl, Karin; Schulte-Körne, Gerd; Moll, Kristina

2018-05-07

Dissociations between reading and spelling problems are likely to be associated with different underlying cognitive deficits, and with different deficits in orthographic learning. In order to understand these differences, the current study examined orthographic learning using a printed-word learning paradigm. Children (4th grade) with isolated reading, isolated spelling and combined reading and spelling problems were compared to children with age appropriate reading and spelling skills on their performance during learning novel words and symbols (non-verbal control condition), and during immediate and delayed reading and spelling recall tasks. No group differences occurred in the non-verbal control condition. In the verbal condition, initial learning was intact in all groups, but differences occurred during recall tasks. Children with reading fluency deficits showed slower reading times, while children with spelling deficits were less accurate, both in reading and spelling recall. Children with isolated spelling problems showed no difficulties in immediate spelling recall, but had problems in remembering the spellings 2 hours later. The results suggest that different orthographic learning deficits underlie reading fluency and spelling problems: Children with isolated reading fluency deficits have no difficulties in building-up orthographic representations, but access to these representations is slowed down while children with isolated spelling deficits have problems in storing precise orthographic representations in long-term memory.

Complete abolition of reading and writing ability with a third ventricle colloid cyst: implications for surgical intervention and proposed neural substrates of visual recognition and visual imaging ability.

PubMed

Barker, Lynne Ann; Morton, Nicholas; Romanowski, Charles A J; Gosden, Kevin

2013-10-24

We report a rare case of a patient unable to read (alexic) and write (agraphic) after a mild head injury. He had preserved speech and comprehension, could spell aloud, identify words spelt aloud and copy letter features. He was unable to visualise letters but showed no problems with digits. Neuropsychological testing revealed general visual memory, processing speed and imaging deficits. Imaging data revealed an 8 mm colloid cyst of the third ventricle that splayed the fornix. Little is known about functions mediated by fornical connectivity, but this region is thought to contribute to memory recall. Other regions thought to mediate letter recognition and letter imagery, visual word form area and visual pathways were intact. We remediated reading and writing by multimodal letter retraining. The study raises issues about the neural substrates of reading, role of fornical tracts to selective memory in the absence of other pathology, and effective remediation strategies for selective functional deficits.

Skilled adult readers activate the meanings of high-frequency words using phonology: Evidence from eye tracking.

PubMed

Jared, Debra; O'Donnell, Katrina

2017-02-01

We examined whether highly skilled adult readers activate the meanings of high-frequency words using phonology when reading sentences for meaning. A homophone-error paradigm was used. Sentences were written to fit 1 member of a homophone pair, and then 2 other versions were created in which the homophone was replaced by its mate or a spelling-control word. The error words were all high-frequency words, and the correct homophones were either higher-frequency words or low-frequency words-that is, the homophone errors were either the subordinate or dominant member of the pair. Participants read sentences as their eye movements were tracked. When the high-frequency homophone error words were the subordinate member of the homophone pair, participants had shorter immediate eye-fixation latencies on these words than on matched spelling-control words. In contrast, when the high-frequency homophone error words were the dominant member of the homophone pair, a difference between these words and spelling controls was delayed. These findings provide clear evidence that the meanings of high-frequency words are activated by phonological representations when skilled readers read sentences for meaning. Explanations of the differing patterns of results depending on homophone dominance are discussed.

Spelling in the Kindergarten: A Constructivist Analysis of Year-Long Spelling Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manning, Maryann; And Others

This study examined the spelling growth of kindergarten children on a monthly basis to determine if new information about the spelling growth of children could be found and if there was a relationship between spelling level and the point at which children begin to put spaces between words in written sentences. Twenty-seven kindergartners were…

Neural substrates of sublexical processing for spelling.

PubMed

DeMarco, Andrew T; Wilson, Stephen M; Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z; Beeson, Pélagie M

2017-01-01

We used fMRI to examine the neural substrates of sublexical phoneme-grapheme conversion during spelling in a group of healthy young adults. Participants performed a writing-to-dictation task involving irregular words (e.g., choir), plausible nonwords (e.g., kroid), and a control task of drawing familiar geometric shapes (e.g., squares). Written production of both irregular words and nonwords engaged a left-hemisphere perisylvian network associated with reading/spelling and phonological processing skills. Effects of lexicality, manifested by increased activation during nonword relative to irregular word spelling, were noted in anterior perisylvian regions (posterior inferior frontal gyrus/operculum/precentral gyrus/insula), and in left ventral occipito-temporal cortex. In addition to enhanced neural responses within domain-specific components of the language network, the increased cognitive demands associated with spelling nonwords engaged domain-general frontoparietal cortical networks involved in selective attention and executive control. These results elucidate the neural substrates of sublexical processing during written language production and complement lesion-deficit correlation studies of phonological agraphia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural Substrates of Sublexical Processing for Spelling

PubMed Central

Wilson, Stephen M.; Rising, Kindle; Rapcsak, Steven Z.; Beeson, Pélagie M.

2016-01-01

We used fMRI to examine the neural substrates of sublexical phoneme-grapheme conversion during spelling in a group of healthy young adults. Participants performed a writing-to-dictation task involving irregular words (e.g., choir), plausible nonwords (e.g., kroid), and a control task of drawing familiar geometric shapes (e.g., squares). Written production of both irregular words and nonwords engaged a left-hemisphere perisylvian network associated with reading/spelling and phonological processing skills. Effects of lexicality, manifested by increased activation during nonword relative to irregular word spelling, were noted in anterior perisylvian regions (posterior inferior frontal gyrus/operculum/precentral gyrus/insula), and in left ventral occipito-temporal cortex. In addition to enhanced neural responses within domain-specific components of the language network, the increased cognitive demands associated with spelling nonwords engaged domain-general frontoparietal cortical networks involved in selective attention and executive control. These results elucidate the neural substrates of sublexical processing during written language production and complement lesion-deficit correlation studies of phonological agraphia. PMID:27838547

Spelling Mastery. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2014

2014-01-01

"Spelling Mastery" is designed to explicitly teach spelling skills to students in grades 1 through 6. One of several Direct Instruction curricula from McGraw-Hill that precisely specify how to teach incremental content, "Spelling Mastery" includes phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word strategies. The What Works Clearinghouse…

A Study of Children's Interests in Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frymier, Jack

1987-01-01

Examines the Macmillan "Spelling" books in terms of the concept of "hyperrationalization": the imposing of unproven techniques and/or the setting of unrealistic expectations. Explicates the assumptions and beliefs implicit in the "Spelling" books and studies children's interests in the words and concepts in the…

The Impact of Transcription Writing Interventions for First-Grade Students

PubMed Central

Wanzek, Jeanne; Gatlin, Brandy; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Kim, Young-Suk Grace

2016-01-01

We examined the effects of transcription instruction for students in first grade. Students in the lowest 70% of the participating schools were selected for the study. These 81 students were randomly assigned to: (a) spelling instruction, (b) handwriting instruction, (c) combination spelling and handwriting instruction, or (d) no intervention. Intervention was provided in small groups of 4 students, 25 min a day, 4 days a week for 8 weeks. Students in the spelling condition outperformed the control group on spelling measures with moderate effect sizes noted on curriculum-based writing measures (e.g., correct word sequence; g range = 0.34 to 0.68). Students in the handwriting condition outperformed the control group on correct word sequences with small to moderate effects on other handwriting and writing measures (g range = 0.31 to 0.71). Students in the combined condition outperformed the control group on correct word sequences with a small effect on total words written (g range = 0.39 to 0.84). PMID:28989267

The role of the phonological loop in English word learning: a comparison of Chinese ESL learners and native speakers.

PubMed

Hamada, Megumi; Koda, Keiko

2011-04-01

Although the role of the phonological loop in word-retention is well documented, research in Chinese character retention suggests the involvement of non-phonological encoding. This study investigated whether the extent to which the phonological loop contributes to learning and remembering visually introduced words varies between college-level Chinese ESL learners (N = 20) and native speakers of English (N = 20). The groups performed a paired associative learning task under two conditions (control versus articulatory suppression) with two word types (regularly spelled versus irregularly spelled words) differing in degree of phonological accessibility. The results demonstrated that both groups' recall declined when the phonological loop was made less available (with irregularly spelled words and in the articulatory suppression condition), but the decline was greater for the native group. These results suggest that word learning entails phonological encoding uniformly across learners, but the contribution of phonology varies among learners with diverse linguistic backgrounds.

Effects of speech and print feedback on spelling performance of a child with cerebral palsy using a speech generating device.

PubMed

Raghavendra, Parimala; Oaten, Rebecca

2007-09-01

The aim of the study was to investigate the effectiveness of three feedback conditions, using a speech-generating device, on spelling performance of Tom, an 11-year-old boy with cerebral palsy and complex communication needs. Tom was taught to spell 12 words under three feedback conditions. In the SPEECH condition, he received only speech feedback from the device and in the PRINT condition he received only the orthographic feedback on the display of the device. In the SPEECH-PRINT condition, Tom received both speech output and orthographic feedback. An adapted alternating treatment design was used to investigate the effects of the three-feedback conditions. To strengthen the reliability and increase the internal validity of the findings, an intrasubject direct replication was carried out using the same procedure, but teaching 12 different spelling words to Tom. Tom reached criterion with the PRINT feedback condition first, followed by SPEECH and SPEECH-PRINT conditions simultaneously for the first 12 words, and the same order for the second set of 12 words. Overall, the PRINT condition was most efficient for Tom. The results are discussed in terms of evidence for learning style preferences within spelling instruction for a child with complex communication needs. Furthermore, the implications for targeting intervention to optimise spelling achievement amongst this group are considered.

The Neurotopography of Written Word Production: An fMRI Investigation of the Distribution of Sensitivity to Length and Frequency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rapp, Brenda; Dufor, Olivier

2011-01-01

This research is directed at charting the neurotopography of the component processes of the spelling system by using fMRI to identify the neural substrates that are sensitive to the factors of lexical frequency and word length. In spelling, word frequency effects index orthographic long-term memory whereas length effects, as measured by the number…

Word Reading and Word Spelling in French Adult Literacy Students: The Relationship with Oral Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eme, Elsa; Lambert, Eric; Alamargot, Denis

2014-01-01

We analysed word reading and spelling in French adults with low levels of literacy (A-IL). As well as examining phonological and lexical processes, we explored the relationship between literacy and oral language skills. Fifty-two adult literacy students were compared with reading level-matched pupils in Years 1-3 of primary school on reading tasks…

The Effects of the Davis Symbol Mastery System to Assist a Fourth Grader with Dyslexia in Spelling: A Case Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amsberry, Gianna; McLaughlin, T. F.; Derby, K. Mark; Waco, Teresa

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of using the Davis Symbol Mastery Procedure for Words (Davis, 1994) for improving spelling skills. The participant was a fourth-grade male diagnosed with a significant learning disability. The intervention consisted of having the participant write each word, its definition, the word in a…

Supra-normal age-linked retrograde amnesia: lessons from an older amnesic (H.M.).

PubMed

MacKay, Donald G; Hadley, Christopher

2009-05-01

MacKay and James (2001) demonstrated greater-than-normal retrograde amnesia (RA) for lexical-semantic information in amnesic H.M., a deficit that worsened with aging or represented supranormal age-linked RA (SARA). The present experiments extend these earlier observations to new types of information. Experiment 1 participants (H.M. and carefully matched memory-normal controls) named pictures on the Boston Naming Test and H.M. correctly named reliably fewer pictures with low frequency names, he produced unusual naming errors, and he benefited reliably less than the controls from phonological cues to the target word. Experiment 2 participants recalled irregularly-spelled aspects of familiar words in a two-choice recognition memory task and H.M. chose the correct spelling reliably less often than the controls. Experiment 3 participants read low frequency words aloud at age 73 and H.M. produced reliably more reading errors than the controls. Results of all three experiments indicate supranormal RA (SRA) for information once familiar to H.M. and comparisons with earlier studies using similar or identical stimuli indicated that H.M.'s SRA has worsened with aging from 1980 to 1999. In short, H.M. exhibits SARA for phonological and orthographic information, consistent with the MacKay and James results and with interactions between aging and amnesia predicted under binding theory. Copyright 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

A Teacher's Spelling Manual for Seventh Grade.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Datres, Kristine, Comp.; Heggenstaller, Barbara, Comp.

The spelling program described in this manual was designed with the idea that spelling study initiated in the elementary grades should continue through the middle school years. The manual first describes the program's objectives: to help students learn basic spelling rules, develop an interest in word lore and vocabulary improvement, and develop…

Learning to Spell Words: Findings, Theories, and Issues

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treiman, Rebecca

2017-01-01

There has been less research on how children learn to spell than on how they learn to read, but a good deal is now known about spelling development. This article reviews studies of normative development, beginning with children's early scribbles and proceeding to prephonological spelling involving letters, phonologically influenced invented…

Utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score to Analyze Spellings of Children with Specific Language Impairment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Werfel, Krystal L.; Krimm, Hannah

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the Spelling Sensitivity Score (SSS) beyond percentage correct scoring in analyzing the spellings of children with specific language impairment (SLI). Participants were 31 children with SLI and 28 children with typical language in grades 2-4. Spellings of individual words were scored using…

Assessment of Lexical and Non-Lexical Spelling in Students in Grades 1-7

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kohnen, Saskia; Colenbrander, Danielle; Krajenbrink, Trudy; Nickels, Lyndsey

2015-01-01

The main aim of this study was to develop standardised tests that assess some of the most important spelling skills for children in primary school: sound-letter mappings (non-lexical spelling) and word spelling accuracy (lexical spelling). We present normative comparison data for children in Grades 1-7 as well as measures of validity and…

Distinct patterns of brain function in children with isolated spelling impairment: new insights.

PubMed

Gebauer, Daniela; Enzinger, Christian; Kronbichler, Martin; Schurz, Matthias; Reishofer, Gernot; Koschutnig, Karl; Kargl, Reinhard; Purgstaller, Christian; Fazekas, Franz; Fink, Andreas

2012-06-01

Studies investigating reading and spelling difficulties heavily focused on the neural correlates of reading impairments, whereas spelling impairments have been largely neglected so far. Hence, the aim of the present study was to investigate brain structure and function of children with isolated spelling difficulties. Therefore, 31 children, aged ten to 15 years, were investigated by means of functional MRI and DTI. This study revealed that children with isolated spelling impairment exhibit a stronger right hemispheric activation compared to children with reading and spelling difficulties and controls, when engaged in an orthographic decision task, presumably reflecting a highly efficient serial grapheme-phoneme decoding compensation strategy. In addition, children with spelling impairment activated bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri during processing correctly spelled words and misspelled words, whereas the other two groups showed bilateral activation only in the misspelled condition, suggesting that additional right frontal engagement could be related to generally higher task demand and effort. DTI analyses revealed stronger frontal white matter integrity (fractional anisotropy) in controls (compared to spelling and reading impaired children), whereas no structural differences between controls and spelling impaired children were observed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Comparing the Verbal Self-Reports of Spelling Strategies Used by Children with and without Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Donovan, Jennifer L.; Marshall, Chlo? R.

2016-01-01

This study explores the ability of children with and without dyslexia to provide meaningful verbal self-reports of the strategies they used in a spelling recognition task. Sixty-six children aged 6 years 3 months-9 years 9 months were tested on a range of standardised measures and on an experimental spelling recognition task based on the work of…

Spelling Endings Added to e: Level III, Unit 5, Lesson 1; Capitalization: Lesson 2; Question Marks and Exclamation Points: Lesson 3; Quotation Marks: Lesson 4; Spelling Double Letter Demons: Lesson 5; Colons and Dashes: Lesson 6; Punctuating Series with Commas and Semicolons: Lesson 7; More Confusing Word Pairs: Lesson 8; Separating Sentence Parts with Punctuation: Lesson 9; Other Uses for Commas and Semicolons.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Manpower Administration (DOL), Washington, DC. Job Corps.

This self-study program for the high-school level contains lessons in the following subjects: Spelling Endings Added to e; Capitalization; Question Marks and Exclamation Points; Quotation Marks; Spelling Double Letter Demons; Colons and Dashes; Punctuating Series with Commas and Semicolons; More Confusing Word Pairs; Separating Sentence Parts with…

Constructed-Response Matching to Sample and Spelling Instruction.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dube, William V.; And Others

1991-01-01

This paper describes a computer-based spelling program grounded in programed instructional techniques and using constructed-response matching-to-sample procedures. Following use of the program, two mentally retarded men successfully spelled previously misspelled words. (JDD)

Tile Test: A Hands-On Approach for Assessing Phonics in the Early Grades

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Norman, Kimberly A.; Calfee, Robert C.

2004-01-01

An instrument for assessing young students' understanding of the English orthographic system is presented. The Tile Test measures understanding of phoneme awareness, letter-sound correspondences, decoding and spelling of words, sight-word reading, and the application of decoding and spelling in sentences. Metalinguistic questions embedded within…

Automatic activation of word phonology from print in deep dyslexia.

PubMed

Katz, R B; Lanzoni, S M

1992-11-01

The performance of deep dyslexics in oral reading and other tasks suggests that they are poor at activating the phonology of words and non-words from printed stimuli. As the tasks ordinarily used to test deep dyslexics require controlled processing, it is possible that the phonology of printed words can be better activated on an automatic basis. This study investigated this possibility by testing a deep dyslexic patient on a lexical decision task with pairs of stimuli presented simultaneously. In Experiment 1, which used content words as stimuli, the deep dyslexic, like normal subjects, showed faster reaction times on trials with rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. bribe-tribe) than on control trials (consisting of non-rhyming, dissimilarly spelled words), but slower reaction times on trials with non-rhyming, similarly spelled stimuli (e.g. couch-touch). When the experiment was repeated using function words as stimuli, the patient no longer showed a phonological effect. Therefore, the phonological activation of printed content words by deep dyslexics may be better than would be expected on the basis of their oral reading performance.

Does testing with feedback improve adult spelling skills relative to copying and reading?

PubMed

Pan, Steven C; Rubin, Benjamin R; Rickard, Timothy C

2015-12-01

We examined testing's ability to enhance adult spelling acquisition, relative to copying and reading. Across 3 experiments in which testing with feedback was compared with copying, the spelling improvement after testing matched that following the same amount of time spent copying. A potent testing advantage, however, was observed for spelling words free-recalled. In the fourth experiment, a large testing advantage for both word free recall and spelling was observed, versus reading. Subjects also generally preferred testing and rated it as more effective than copying or reading. The equivalent performance of testing and copying for spelling contrasts with prior work involving children and suggests that retrieval practice may not be the only effective mechanism for spelling skill acquisition. Rather, we suggest that the critical learning event for spelling is focused study on phoneme-to-grapheme mappings for previously unlearned letter sequences. For adults with extensive spelling expertise, focused study is more automatic during both copying and testing with feedback than for individuals with beginning spelling skills. Reading, however, would not be expected to produce efficient focused study of phoneme-to-grapheme mappings, regardless of expertise level. Overall, adult spelling skill acquisition benefits both from testing and copying, and substantially less from reading. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Relation between brain activation and lexical performance.

PubMed

Booth, James R; Burman, Douglas D; Meyer, Joel R; Gitelman, Darren R; Parrish, Todd B; Mesulam, M Marsel

2003-07-01

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to determine whether performance on lexical tasks was correlated with cerebral activation patterns. We found that such relationships did exist and that their anatomical distribution reflected the neurocognitive processing routes required by the task. Better performance on intramodal tasks (determining if visual words were spelled the same or if auditory words rhymed) was correlated with more activation in unimodal regions corresponding to the modality of sensory input, namely the fusiform gyrus (BA 37) for written words and the superior temporal gyrus (BA 22) for spoken words. Better performance in tasks requiring cross-modal conversions (determining if auditory words were spelled the same or if visual words rhymed), on the other hand, was correlated with more activation in posterior heteromodal regions, including the supramarginal gyrus (BA 40) and the angular gyrus (BA 39). Better performance in these cross-modal tasks was also correlated with greater activation in unimodal regions corresponding to the target modality of the conversion process (i.e., fusiform gyrus for auditory spelling and superior temporal gyrus for visual rhyming). In contrast, performance on the auditory spelling task was inversely correlated with activation in the superior temporal gyrus possibly reflecting a greater emphasis on the properties of the perceptual input rather than on the relevant transmodal conversions. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Spelling: Computerised Feedback for Self-Correction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawley, Jim

2016-01-01

Research has shown that any assumption that L2 learners of English do well to rely on the feedback provided by generic spell checkers (for example, the MS Word spell checker) is misplaced. Efforts to develop spell checkers specifically for L2 learners have focused on training software to offer more appropriate suggestion lists for replacing…

Validating an Online Assessment of Developmental Spelling in Grades Five through Eight

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gehsmann, Kristin; Spichtig, Alexandra; Tousley, Elias

2017-01-01

Assessments of developmental spelling, also called spelling inventories, are commonly used to understand students' orthographic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of how written words work) and to determine their stages of spelling and reading development. The information generated by these assessments is used to inform teachers' grouping practices and…

Inflectional and derivational morphological spelling abilities of children with Specific Language Impairment

PubMed Central

Critten, Sarah; Connelly, Vincent; Dockrell, Julie E.; Walter, Kirsty

2014-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are known to have difficulties with spelling but the factors that underpin these difficulties, are a matter of debate. The present study investigated the impact of oral language and literacy on the bound morpheme spelling abilities of children with SLI. Thirty-three children with SLI (9–10 years) and two control groups, one matched for chronological age (CA) and one for language and spelling age (LA) (aged 6–8 years) were given dictated spelling tasks of 24 words containing inflectional morphemes and 18 words containing derivational morphemes. There were no significant differences between the SLI group and their LA matches in accuracy or error patterns for inflectional morphemes. By contrast when spelling derivational morphemes the SLI group was less accurate and made proportionately more omissions and phonologically implausible errors than both control groups. Spelling accuracy was associated with phonological awareness and reading; reading performance significantly predicted the ability to spell both inflectional and derivational morphemes. The particular difficulties experienced by the children with SLI for derivational morphemes are considered in relation to reading and oral language. PMID:25221533

Inflectional and derivational morphological spelling abilities of children with Specific Language Impairment.

PubMed

Critten, Sarah; Connelly, Vincent; Dockrell, Julie E; Walter, Kirsty

2014-01-01

Children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) are known to have difficulties with spelling but the factors that underpin these difficulties, are a matter of debate. The present study investigated the impact of oral language and literacy on the bound morpheme spelling abilities of children with SLI. Thirty-three children with SLI (9-10 years) and two control groups, one matched for chronological age (CA) and one for language and spelling age (LA) (aged 6-8 years) were given dictated spelling tasks of 24 words containing inflectional morphemes and 18 words containing derivational morphemes. There were no significant differences between the SLI group and their LA matches in accuracy or error patterns for inflectional morphemes. By contrast when spelling derivational morphemes the SLI group was less accurate and made proportionately more omissions and phonologically implausible errors than both control groups. Spelling accuracy was associated with phonological awareness and reading; reading performance significantly predicted the ability to spell both inflectional and derivational morphemes. The particular difficulties experienced by the children with SLI for derivational morphemes are considered in relation to reading and oral language.

Didn't You Run the Spell Checker? Effects of Type of Spelling Error and Use of a Spell Checker on Perceptions of the Author

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Figueredo, Lauren; Varnhagen, Connie K.

2005-01-01

We investigated expectations regarding a writer's responsibility to proofread text for spelling errors when using a word processor. Undergraduate students read an essay and completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the author and the quality of the essay. They then manipulated type of spelling error (no error, homophone error,…

Morphology and Spelling in French: A Comparison of At-Risk Readers and Typically Developing Children.

PubMed

Koh, Poh Wee; Shakory, Sharry; Chen, Xi; Deacon, S Hélène

2017-11-01

We present two studies that examine the role of morphology in French spelling. In Study 1, we examined the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between inflectional awareness and derivational awareness and spelling within a sample of 77 children in a French immersion programme in Canada. Children completed a non-verbal reasoning measure and French measures of phonological awareness, word reading, vocabulary, morphological awareness, and spelling. Results showed that inflectional morphological awareness in Grade 3 was a predictor of spelling in the same grade. Inflectional awareness in Grade 2 predicted Grade 3 spelling, controlling for reading-related skills and spelling at Grade 2. These analyses support the role of inflectional morphological awareness in the development of spelling of children of a range of reading and spelling abilities. In contrast, derivational awareness in Grades 2 and 3 did not predict spelling concurrently in both grades respectively. Study 2 contrasted the morphological errors in the spellings of six children at risk for reading difficulties with those of six chronological age-matched and six reading level-matched children. Analyses showed that at-risk children exhibited more difficulties with spelling roots and suffixes in words as compared with their age-matched peers, although they performed similarly to children matched on reading level. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Constructed-response matching to sample and spelling instruction.

PubMed Central

Dube, W V; McDonald, S J; McIlvane, W J; Mackay, H A

1991-01-01

The development of interactive programmed instruction using a microcomputer as a teaching machine is described. The program applied a constructed-response matching-to-sample procedure to computer-assisted spelling instruction and review. On each trial, subjects were presented with a sample stimulus and a choice pool consisting of 10 individual letters. In initial training, sample stimuli were arrays of letters, and subjects were taught to construct identical arrays by touching the matching letters in the choice pool. After generalized constructed-response identity matching was established, pictures (line drawings) of common objects were presented as samples. At first, correct spelling was prompted by also presenting the printed name to be "copied" via identity matching; then the prompts were faded out. The program was implemented with 2 mentally retarded individuals. Assessment trials determined appropriate words for training. Correct spelling was established via the prompt-fading procedure; training trials were interspersed among baseline trials that reviewed and maintained spelling of previously learned words. As new words were learned, they were added to a cumulative baseline to generate an individualized review and practice battery for each subject. PMID:1890049

Longitudinal Predictors of Chinese Word Reading and Spelling among Elementary Grade Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeung, Pui-Sze; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Wong, Yau-Kai; Chung, Kevin Kien-Hoa; Lo, Lap-Yan

2013-01-01

The longitudinal predictive power of four important reading-related skills (phonological skills, rapid naming, orthographic skills, and morphological awareness) to Chinese word reading and writing to dictation (i.e., spelling) was examined in a 3-year longitudinal study among 251 Chinese elementary students. Rapid naming, orthographic skills, and…

Improving Spelling of High Frequency Words for Transfer in Written Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuBois, Kathleen; Erickson, Kristie; Jacobs, Monica

2007-01-01

This project describes a 12-week program developed to improve student spelling of high frequency words for transfer in written work across the curriculum. The targeted population consists of kindergarten, first, and third graders in two public elementary schools in a community located in central Illinois. Following an extensive literature review,…

Development of Word Reading Fluency and Spelling in a Consistent Orthography: An 8-Year Follow-Up

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Landerl, Karin; Wimmer, Heinz

2008-01-01

In a longitudinal study, development of word reading fluency and spelling were followed for almost 8 years. In a group of 115 students (65 girls, 50 boys) acquiring the phonologically transparent German orthography, prediction measures (letter knowledge, phonological short-term memory, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and…

Reading Aloud: Spelling-Sound Translation Uses Central Attention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Malley, Shannon; Reynolds, Michael G.; Stolz, Jennifer A.; Besner, Derek

2008-01-01

Contrary to the received view that reading aloud reflects processes that are "automatic," recent evidence suggests that some of these processes require a form of attention. This issue was investigated further by examining the effect of a prior presentation of exception words (words whose spelling-sound translation are atypical, such as pint as…

Improving Elementary Students' Spelling Achievement Using High-Frequency Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durnil, Christina; And Others

An action research study detailed a program for improving spelling achievement across the curriculum. The targeted population is composed of second and third grade students from a growing, middle class community located in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. The problem of misspelled words in the students' writing was documented through students'…

The Role of Stroke Knowledge in Reading and Spelling in Chinese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lo, Lap-yan; Yeung, Pui-sze; Ho, Connie Suk-Han; Chan, David Wai-ock; Chung, Kevin

2016-01-01

The present study examined the types of orthographic knowledge that are important in learning to read and spell Chinese words in a 2-year longitudinal study following 289 Hong Kong Chinese children from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Multiple regression results showed that radical knowledge significantly predicted children's word reading and spelling…

Logic and Mnemonics for Demons and Curiosities: Spelling Awareness for Middle- and Secondary-level Students.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Templeton, Shane

1980-01-01

Examines the structural and historical reasons underlying the spelling of certain "demon" words and suggests that the study of these underlying reasons may be one way to improve student spelling competency. (Author/FL)

Predictors of Spelling and Writing Skills in First- and Second-Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrison, Gina L.; Goegan, Lauren D.; Jalbert, Rachel; McManus, Kelly; Sinclair, Kristin; Spurling, Jessica

2016-01-01

Cognitive and linguistic components related to spelling and writing in English as a second language (ESL) and native-English speaking (EL1) third graders were examined. ESL and EL1 children performed similarly on rapid naming, phonological awareness (PA), verbal short-term and working memory, reading fluency, single-word spelling, text spelling,…

Examining One Class of Third-Grade Spellers: The Diagnostic Potential of Students' Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ness, Molly K.

2010-01-01

The purpose of this article is to examine the developmental spelling levels of one class of 17 third-grade students. In analyzing over 600 student spelling samples, results indicate that these students spanned four spelling stages: (1) letter name, (2) within word pattern, (3) syllables and affixes, and (4) derivational relations (Bear,…

Spelling Improvement through Letter-Sound and Whole-Word Training in Two Multilingual Greek- and English-Speaking Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Niolaki, Georgia Z.; Masterson, Jackie; Terzopoulos, Aris R.

2014-01-01

Case studies of two children with spelling difficulty are reported. LK was multilingual and ED bilingual. A training programme that targeted phonic decoding (or sublexical) spelling processes was conducted with both children. Immediate and delayed post-training assessments showed improvement in spelling nonwords for LK but not for ED. Training…

Does Poor Spelling Equate to Slow Reading? The Relationship between Reading, Spelling, and Orthographic Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin-Chang, Sandra; Ouellette, Gene; Madden, Melanie

2014-01-01

High quality lexical representations in memory, characterized by accuracy and stability, are said to underpin fluent reading. Here, the relationship between orthographic quality and reading speed was examined by asking undergraduates (N = 74) to repeatedly read and spell words. Spelling performance over five trials indicated orthographic quality.…

Developmental Stability and Changes in the Impact of Root Consistency on Children's Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deacon, S. Helene; Dhooge, Sarah

2010-01-01

The study reported here examined grade 2-4 children's sensitivity to the consistency in the spelling of roots in related words. We build on earlier research by attempting to quantify the extent that children's spellings of both inflected and derived forms accord with this principle. We contrasted children's accuracy and consistency in spelling the…

Frequency Analyses of Prephonological Spellings as Predictors of Success in Conventional Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kessler, Brett; Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Treiman, Rebecca; Cardoso-Martins, Claudia

2013-01-01

The present study explored how children's prephonological writing foretells differential learning outcomes in primary school. The authors asked Portuguese-speaking preschool children in Brazil (mean age 4 year 3 months) to spell 12 words. Monte Carlo tests were used to identify the 31 children whose writing was not based on spellings or sounds of…

Phonological Errors Predominate in Arabic Spelling across Grades 1-9

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abu-Rabia, Salim; Taha, Haitham

2006-01-01

Most of the spelling error analysis has been conducted in Latin orthographies and rarely conducted in other orthographies like Arabic. Two hundred and eighty-eight students in grades 1-9 participated in the study. They were presented nine lists of words to test their spelling skills. Their spelling errors were analyzed by error categories. The…

Growing Up Literate: Spelling and Spatial Relationships.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staples, Betsy

1984-01-01

Reviews two spelling packages ("Spelldiver" and "Attack of the Spelling Bees") and a reading program ("The Word Bird"), which teaches spatial relationships while encouraging the young reader to read carefully. Includes suggested age(s), hardware needed, current price, manufacturer, distributor, and in-depth evaluation…

Comparing the spelling and reading abilities of students with cochlear implants and students with typical hearing.

PubMed

Apel, Kenn; Masterson, Julie J

2015-04-01

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students with and without hearing loss (HL) differed in their spelling abilities and, specifically, in the underlying linguistic awareness skills that support spelling ability. Furthermore, we examined whether there were differences between the two groups in the relationship between reading and spelling. We assessed the spelling, word-level reading, and reading comprehension skills of nine students with cochlear implants and nine students with typical hearing who were matched for reading age. The students' spellings were analyzed to determine whether the misspellings were due to errors with phonemic awareness, orthographic pattern or morphological awareness, or poor mental graphemic representations. The students with HL demonstrated markedly less advanced spelling abilities than the students with typical hearing. For the students with HL, the misspellings were primarily due to deficiencies in orthographic pattern and morphological awareness. Correlations between measures of spelling and both real word reading and reading comprehension were lower for the students with HL. With additional investigations using a similar approach to spelling analysis that captures the underlying causes for spelling errors, researchers will better understand the linguistic awareness abilities that students with HL bring to the task of reading and spelling. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Spelling impairments in Spanish dyslexic adults.

PubMed

Afonso, Olivia; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

2015-01-01

Spelling deficits have repeatedly been observed in children with dyslexia. However, the few studies addressing this issue in dyslexic adults have reported contradictory results. We investigated whether Spanish dyslexics show spelling deficits in adulthood and which components of the writing production process might be impaired in developmental dyslexia. In order to evaluate the involvement of the lexical and the sublexical routes of spelling as well as the graphemic buffer, lexical frequency, phonology-to-orthography consistency and word length were manipulated in two writing tasks: a direct copy transcoding task and a spelling-to-dictation task. Results revealed that adults with dyslexia produced longer written latencies, inter-letter intervals, writing durations and more errors than their peers without dyslexia. Moreover, the dyslexics were more affected by lexical frequency and word length than the controls, but both groups showed a similar effect of P-O consistency. Written latencies also revealed that while the dyslexics initiated the response later in the direct copy transcoding task than in the spelling-to-dictation task, the controls showed the opposite pattern. However, the dyslexics were slower than the controls in both tasks. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that spelling difficulties are present in adults with dyslexia, at least in a language with a transparent orthography such as Spanish. These difficulties seem to be associated with a deficit affecting both lexical processing and the ability to maintain information about the serial order of the letters in a word. However, the dyslexic group did not differ from the control group in the application of the P-O conversion procedures. The spelling impairment would be in addition to the reading deficit, leading to poorer performance in direct copy transcoding compared to spelling-to-dictation.

Spelling impairments in Spanish dyslexic adults

PubMed Central

Afonso, Olivia; Suárez-Coalla, Paz; Cuetos, Fernando

2015-01-01

Spelling deficits have repeatedly been observed in children with dyslexia. However, the few studies addressing this issue in dyslexic adults have reported contradictory results. We investigated whether Spanish dyslexics show spelling deficits in adulthood and which components of the writing production process might be impaired in developmental dyslexia. In order to evaluate the involvement of the lexical and the sublexical routes of spelling as well as the graphemic buffer, lexical frequency, phonology-to-orthography consistency and word length were manipulated in two writing tasks: a direct copy transcoding task and a spelling-to-dictation task. Results revealed that adults with dyslexia produced longer written latencies, inter-letter intervals, writing durations and more errors than their peers without dyslexia. Moreover, the dyslexics were more affected by lexical frequency and word length than the controls, but both groups showed a similar effect of P-O consistency. Written latencies also revealed that while the dyslexics initiated the response later in the direct copy transcoding task than in the spelling-to-dictation task, the controls showed the opposite pattern. However, the dyslexics were slower than the controls in both tasks. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that spelling difficulties are present in adults with dyslexia, at least in a language with a transparent orthography such as Spanish. These difficulties seem to be associated with a deficit affecting both lexical processing and the ability to maintain information about the serial order of the letters in a word. However, the dyslexic group did not differ from the control group in the application of the P-O conversion procedures. The spelling impairment would be in addition to the reading deficit, leading to poorer performance in direct copy transcoding compared to spelling-to-dictation. PMID:25941507

Investigating the Improvement of Decoding Abilities and Working Memory in Children with Incremental or Entity Personal Conceptions of Intelligence: Two Case Reports

PubMed Central

Alesi, Marianna; Rappo, Gaetano; Pepi, Annamaria

2016-01-01

One of the most significant current discussions has led to the hypothesis that domain-specific training programs alone are not enough to improve reading achievement or working memory abilities. Incremental or Entity personal conceptions of intelligence may be assumed to be an important prognostic factor to overcome domain-specific deficits. Specifically, incremental students tend to be more oriented toward change and autonomy and are able to adopt more efficacious strategies. This study aims at examining the effect of personal conceptions of intelligence to strengthen the efficacy of a multidimensional intervention program in order to improve decoding abilities and working memory. Participants included two children (M age = 10 years) with developmental dyslexia and different conceptions of intelligence. The children were tested on a whole battery of reading and spelling tests commonly used in the assessment of reading disabilities in Italy. Afterwards, they were given a multimedia test to measure motivational factors such as conceptions of intelligence and achievement goals. The children took part in the T.I.R.D. Multimedia Training for the Rehabilitation of Dyslexia (Rappo and Pepi, 2010) reinforced by specific units to improve verbal working memory for 3 months. This training consisted of specific tasks to rehabilitate both visual and phonological strategies (sound blending, word segmentation, alliteration test and rhyme test, letter recognition, digraph recognition, trigraph recognition, and word recognition as samples of visual tasks) and verbal working memory (rapid words and non-words recognition). Posttest evaluations showed that the child holding the incremental theory of intelligence improved more than the child holding a static representation. On the whole this study highlights the importance of treatment programs in which both specificity of deficits and motivational factors are both taken into account. There is a need to plan multifaceted intervention programs based on a transverse approach, considering both cognitive and motivational factors. PMID:26779069

Relationships of French and English Morphophonemic Orthographies to Word Reading, Spelling, and Reading Comprehension during Early and Middle Childhood

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abbott, Robert D.; Fayol, Michel; Zorman, Michel; Casalis, Séverine; Nagy, William; Berninger, Virginia W.

2016-01-01

Two longitudinal studies of word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension identified commonalities and differences in morphophonemic orthographies--French (Study 1, n = 1,313) or English (Study 2, n = 114) in early childhood (Grade 2)and middle childhood (Grade 5). For French and English, statistically significant concurrent relationships…

Phonological Processing Skills as Predictors of Literacy amongst Arabic Speaking Bahraini Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

al Mannai, Haya; Everatt, John

2005-01-01

This paper reports a study of the reading and spelling skills of grades 1-3 Arabic-speaking children in Bahrain. Children were tested on their literacy skills (single word reading and spelling), their ability to decode letter strings (non-word reading) and measures of phonological awareness, short-term memory, speed of processing and non-verbal…

The Contributions of Vocabulary and Letter Writing Automaticity to Word Reading and Spelling for Kindergartners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Puranik, Cynthia; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Gruelich, Luana

2014-01-01

In the present study we examined the relation between alphabet knowledge fluency (letter names and sounds) and letter writing automaticity, and unique relations of letter writing automaticity and semantic knowledge (i.e., vocabulary) to word reading and spelling over and above code-related skills such as phonological awareness and alphabet…

Spelling Instruction in Spanish: A Comparison of Self-Correction, Visual Imagery and Copying

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gaintza, Zuriñe; Goikoetxea, Edurne

2016-01-01

Two randomised control experiments examined spelling outcomes in a repeated measures design (pre-test, post-tests; 1-day, 1-month follow-up, 5-month follow-up), where students learned Spanish irregular words through (1) immediate feedback using self-correction, (2) visual imagery where children imagine and represent words using movement, and (3)…

Vowels, Syllables, and Letter Names: Differences between Young Children's Spelling in English and Portuguese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Kessler, Brett; Treiman, Rebecca

2005-01-01

Young Portuguese-speaking children have been reported to produce more vowel- and syllable-oriented spellings than have English speakers. To investigate the extent and source of such differences, we analyzed children's vocabulary and found that Portuguese words have more vowel letter names and a higher vowel-consonant ratio than do English words.…

Differential Effects of Two Spelling Procedures on Acquisition, Maintenance and Adaption to Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cates, Gary L.; Dunne, Megan; Erkfritz, Karyn N.; Kivisto, Aaron; Lee, Nicole; Wierzbicki, Jennifer

2007-01-01

An alternating treatments design was used to assess the effects of a constant time delay (CTD) procedure and a cover-copy-compare (CCC) procedure on three students' acquisition, subsequent maintenance, and adaptation (i.e., application) of acquired spelling words to reading passages. Students were randomly presented two trials of word lists from…

Investigation of basic cognitive predictors of reading and spelling abilities in Tunisian third-grade primary school children.

PubMed

Batnini, Soulef; Uno, Akira

2015-06-01

This study investigated first the main cognitive abilities; phonological processing, visual cognition, automatization and receptive vocabulary in predicting reading and spelling abilities in Arabic. Second, we compared good/poor readers and spellers to detect the characteristics of cognitive predictors which contribute to identifying reading and spelling difficulties in Arabic speaking children. A sample of 116 Tunisian third-grade children was tested on their abilities to read and spell, phonological processing, visual cognition, automatization and receptive vocabulary. For reading, phonological processing and automatization uniquely predicted Arabic word reading and paragraph reading abilities. Automatization uniquely predicted Arabic non-word reading ability. For spelling, phonological processing was a unique predictor for Arabic word spelling ability. Furthermore, poor readers had significantly lower scores on the phonological processing test and slower reading times on the automatization test as compared with good readers. Additionally, poor spellers showed lower scores on the phonological processing test as compared with good spellers. Visual cognitive processing and receptive vocabulary were not significant cognitive predictors of Arabic reading and spelling abilities for Tunisian third grade children in this study. Our results are consistent with previous studies in alphabetic orthographies and demonstrate that phonological processing and automatization are the best cognitive predictors in detecting early literacy problems. We suggest including phonological processing and automatization tasks in screening tests and in intervention programs may help Tunisian children with poor literacy skills overcome reading and spelling difficulties in Arabic. Copyright © 2014 The Japanese Society of Child Neurology. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

First-Grade Spelling Scores within the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Screening: An Exploratory Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munger, Kristen A.; Murray, Maria S.

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the validity evidence of first-grade spelling scores from a standardized test of nonsense word spellings and their potential value within universal literacy screening. Spelling scores from the Test of Phonological Awareness: Second Edition PLUS for 47 first-grade children were scored using a standardized…

English as a Foreign Language Spelling Development: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina; Sparks, Richard L.; Goldstein, Zahava

2012-01-01

English as a foreign language (EFL) spelling was examined longitudinally three times (4th, 9th, 12th grades) during 9 years of EFL study among Hebrew first language (L1) students. The study examined the impact of L1 literacy variables including phonemic awareness, word attack, and spelling on EFL spelling and the relationship between EFL literacy…

The Spelling of Vowels Is Influenced by Australian and British English Dialect Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemp, Nenagh

2009-01-01

Two experiments examined the influence of dialect on the spelling of vowel sounds. British and Australian children (6 to 8 years) and university students wrote words whose unstressed vowel sound is spelled i or e and pronounced /I/ or /schwa/. Participants often (mis)spelled these vowel sounds as they pronounced them. When vowels were pronounced…

Anatomic, Clinical, and Neuropsychological Correlates of Spelling Errors in Primary Progressive Aphasia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shim, HyungSub; Hurley, Robert S.; Rogalski, Emily; Mesulam, M.-Marsel

2012-01-01

This study evaluates spelling errors in the three subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA): agrammatic (PPA-G), logopenic (PPA-L), and semantic (PPA-S). Forty-one PPA patients and 36 age-matched healthy controls were administered a test of spelling. The total number of errors and types of errors in spelling to dictation of regular words,…

The Adolescent Dyslexic: Strategies for Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stirling, Eileen

1989-01-01

The spelling difficulties of the adolescent dyslexic student are described, and techniques are presented to provide the student with the tools needed to cope with spelling requirements, including the study of vowel sounds, doubling the consonant following a short vowel, root words, and laws of probabilities. (JDD)

Representation of Letter Position in Spelling: Evidence from Acquired Dysgraphia

PubMed Central

Fischer-Baum, Simon; McCloskey, Michael; Rapp, Brenda

2010-01-01

The graphemic representations that underlie spelling performance must encode not only the identities of the letters in a word, but also the positions of the letters. This study investigates how letter position information is represented. We present evidence from two dysgraphic individuals, CM and LSS, who perseverate letters when spelling: that is, letters from previous spelling responses intrude into subsequent responses. The perseverated letters appear more often than expected by chance in the same position in the previous and subsequent responses. We used these errors to address the question of how letter position is represented in spelling. In a series of analyses we determined how often the perseveration errors produced maintain position as defined by a number of alternative theories of letter position encoding proposed in the literature. The analyses provide strong evidence that the grapheme representations used in spelling encode letter position such that position is represented in a graded manner based on distance from both edges of the word. PMID:20378104

Effective Beginning Handwriting Instruction: Multi-modal, Consistent Format for 2 Years, and Linked to Spelling and Composing.

PubMed

Wolf, Beverly; Abbott, Robert D; Berninger, Virginia W

2017-02-01

In Study 1, the treatment group ( N = 33 first graders, M = 6 years 10 months, 16 girls) received Slingerland multi-modal (auditory, visual, tactile, motor through hand, and motor through mouth) manuscript (unjoined) handwriting instruction embedded in systematic spelling, reading, and composing lessons; and the control group ( N =16 first graders, M = 7 years 1 month, 7 girls) received manuscript handwriting instruction not systematically related to the other literacy activities. ANOVA showed both groups improved on automatic alphabet writing from memory; but ANCOVA with the automatic alphabet writing task as covariate showed that the treatment group improved significantly more than control group from the second to ninth month of first grade on dictated spelling and recognition of word-specific spellings among phonological foils. In Study 2 new groups received either a second year of manuscript ( N = 29, M = 7 years 8 months, 16 girls) or introduction to cursive (joined) instruction in second grade ( N = 24, M = 8 years 0 months, 11 girls) embedded in the Slingerland literacy program. ANCOVA with automatic alphabet writing as covariate showed that those who received a second year of manuscript handwriting instruction improved more on sustained handwriting over 30, 60, and 90 seconds than those who had had only one year of manuscript instruction; both groups improved in spelling and composing from the second to ninth month of second grade. Results are discussed in reference to mastering one handwriting format before introducing another format at a higher grade level and always embedding handwriting instruction in writing and reading instruction aimed at all levels of language.

Effective Beginning Handwriting Instruction: Multi-modal, Consistent Format for 2 Years, and Linked to Spelling and Composing

PubMed Central

Wolf, Beverly; Abbott, Robert D.; Berninger, Virginia W.

2016-01-01

In Study 1, the treatment group (N = 33 first graders, M = 6 years 10 months, 16 girls) received Slingerland multi-modal (auditory, visual, tactile, motor through hand, and motor through mouth) manuscript (unjoined) handwriting instruction embedded in systematic spelling, reading, and composing lessons; and the control group (N =16 first graders, M = 7 years 1 month, 7 girls) received manuscript handwriting instruction not systematically related to the other literacy activities. ANOVA showed both groups improved on automatic alphabet writing from memory; but ANCOVA with the automatic alphabet writing task as covariate showed that the treatment group improved significantly more than control group from the second to ninth month of first grade on dictated spelling and recognition of word-specific spellings among phonological foils. In Study 2 new groups received either a second year of manuscript (N = 29, M = 7 years 8 months, 16 girls) or introduction to cursive (joined) instruction in second grade (N = 24, M = 8 years 0 months, 11 girls) embedded in the Slingerland literacy program. ANCOVA with automatic alphabet writing as covariate showed that those who received a second year of manuscript handwriting instruction improved more on sustained handwriting over 30, 60, and 90 seconds than those who had had only one year of manuscript instruction; both groups improved in spelling and composing from the second to ninth month of second grade. Results are discussed in reference to mastering one handwriting format before introducing another format at a higher grade level and always embedding handwriting instruction in writing and reading instruction aimed at all levels of language. PMID:28190930

Lexical decision performance in developmental surface dysgraphia: Evidence for a unitary orthographic system that is used in both reading and spelling.

PubMed

Sotiropoulos, Andreas; Hanley, J Richard

The relationship between spelling, written word recognition, and picture naming is investigated in a study of seven bilingual adults who have developmental surface dysgraphia in both Greek (their first language) and English (their second language). Four of the cases also performed poorly at orthographic lexical decision in both languages. This finding is consistent with similar results in Italian that have been taken as evidence of a developmental impairment to a single orthographic system that is used for both reading and spelling. The remaining three participants performed well at orthographic lexical decision. At first sight, preserved lexical decision in surface dysgraphia is less easy to explain in terms of a shared orthographic system. However, the results of subsequent experiments showed clear parallels between the nature of the reading and spelling difficulties that these three individuals experienced, consistent with the existence of a single orthographic system. The different patterns that were observed were consistent with the claims of Friedmann and Lukov (2008. Developmental surface dyslexias. Cortex, 44, 1146-1160) that several distinct sub-types of developmental surface dyslexia exist. We show that individual differences in spelling in surface dysgraphia are also consistent with these sub-types; there are different developmental deficits that can give rise, in an individual, to a combination of surface dyslexia and dysgraphia. Finally, we compare the theoretical framework used by Friedmann and her colleagues that is based upon the architecture of the DRC model with an account that relies instead upon the Triangle model of reading].

The Influence of Spelling Ability on Vocabulary Choices When Writing for Children With Dyslexia.

PubMed

Sumner, Emma; Connelly, Vincent; Barnett, Anna L

2016-01-01

Spelling is a prerequisite to expressing vocabulary in writing. Research has shown that children with dyslexia are hesitant spellers when composing. This study aimed to determine whether the hesitant spelling of children with dyslexia, evidenced by frequent pausing, affects vocabulary choices when writing. A total of 31 children with dyslexia, mean age 9 years, were compared to typically developing groups of children: the first matched by age, the second by spelling ability. Oral vocabulary was measured and children completed a written and verbal compositional task. Lexical diversity comparisons were made across written and verbal compositions to highlight the constraint of having to select and spell words. A digital writing tablet recorded the writing. Children with dyslexia and the spelling-ability group made a high proportion of spelling errors and within-word pauses, and had a lower lexical diversity within their written compositions compared to their verbal compositions. The age-matched peers demonstrated the opposite pattern. Spelling ability and pausing predicted 53% of the variance in written lexical diversity of children with dyslexia, demonstrating the link between spelling and vocabulary when writing. Oral language skills had no effect. Lexical diversity correlated with written and verbal text quality for all groups. Practical implications are discussed and related to writing models. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2014.

Relationships of French and English Morphophonemic Orthographies to Word Reading, Spelling, and Reading Comprehension during Early and Middle Childhood.

PubMed

Abbott, Robert D; Fayol, Michel; Zorman, Michel; Casalis, Séverine; Nagy, William; Berninger, Virginia W

2016-12-01

Two longitudinal studies of word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension identified commonalities and differences in morphophonemic orthographies-French (Study 1, n =1313) or English (Study 2, n =114) in early childhood (grade 2) and middle childhood (grade 5). For French and English, statistically significant concurrent relationships among these literacy skills occurred in grades 2 and 5, and longitudinal relationships for each skill with itself from grade 2 to 5; but concurrent relationships were more sizable and longitudinal relationships more variable for English than French especially for word reading to reading comprehension. Results show that, for both morphophonemic orthographies, assessment and instructional practices should be tailored to early or middle childhood, and early childhood reading comprehension may not be related to middle childhood spelling. Also discussed are findings applying only to English, for which word origin is primarily Anglo-Saxon in early childhood, but increasingly French in middle childhood.

Does Kaniso activate CASINO?: input coding schemes and phonology in visual-word recognition.

PubMed

Acha, Joana; Perea, Manuel

2010-01-01

Most recent input coding schemes in visual-word recognition assume that letter position coding is orthographic rather than phonological in nature (e.g., SOLAR, open-bigram, SERIOL, and overlap). This assumption has been drawn - in part - by the fact that the transposed-letter effect (e.g., caniso activates CASINO) seems to be (mostly) insensitive to phonological manipulations (e.g., Perea & Carreiras, 2006, 2008; Perea & Pérez, 2009). However, one could argue that the lack of a phonological effect in prior research was due to the fact that the manipulation always occurred in internal letter positions - note that phonological effects tend to be stronger for the initial syllable (Carreiras, Ferrand, Grainger, & Perea, 2005). To reexamine this issue, we conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment in which we compared the priming effect for transposed-letter pairs (e.g., caniso-CASINO vs. caviro-CASINO) and for pseudohomophone transposed-letter pairs (kaniso-CASINO vs. kaviro-CASINO). Results showed a transposed-letter priming effect for the correctly spelled pairs, but not for the pseudohomophone pairs. This is consistent with the view that letter position coding is (primarily) orthographic in nature.

The impact of developmental dyslexia and dysgraphia on movement production during word writing.

PubMed

Kandel, Sonia; Lassus-Sangosse, Delphine; Grosjacques, Géraldine; Perret, Cyril

This study investigated how deficits in orthographic processing affect movement production during word writing. Children with dyslexia and dysgraphia wrote words and pseudo-words on a digitizer. The words were orthographically regular and irregular of varying frequency. The group analysis revealed that writing irregular words and pseudo-words increased movement duration and dysfluency. This indicates that the spelling processes were active while the children were writing the words. The impact of these spelling processes was stronger for the children with dyslexia and dysgraphia. The analysis of individual performance revealed that most dyslexic/dysgraphic children presented similar writing patterns. However, selective lexical processing deficits affected irregular word writing but not pseudo-word writing. Selective poor sublexical processing affected pseudo-word writing more than irregular word writing. This study suggests that the interaction between orthographic and motor processing constitutes an important cognitive load that may disrupt the graphic outcome of the children with dyslexia/dysgraphia.

What Do Spelling Errors Tell Us? Classification and Analysis of Errors Made by Greek Schoolchildren with and without Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Protopapas, Athanassios; Fakou, Aikaterini; Drakopoulou, Styliani; Skaloumbakas, Christos; Mouzaki, Angeliki

2013-01-01

In this study we propose a classification system for spelling errors and determine the most common spelling difficulties of Greek children with and without dyslexia. Spelling skills of 542 children from the general population and 44 children with dyslexia, Grades 3-4 and 7, were assessed with a dictated common word list and age-appropriate…

The Effect of Morphological Instruction in Improving the Spelling, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension of High School English Language Learners (ELLs)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diaz, Ivan

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if Morphological Instruction (knowledge of the Germanic, Latin, and Greek words, roots, and affixes of English) was an effective instructional approach towards accelerating the acquisition of spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension and closing at least a 6,000 word gap between English language…

Contributions of Morphological Awareness Skills to Word-Level Reading and Spelling in First-Grade Children with and without Speech Sound Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Apel, Kenn; Lawrence, Jessika

2011-01-01

Purpose: In this study, the authors compared the morphological awareness abilities of children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and children with typical speech skills and examined how morphological awareness ability predicted word-level reading and spelling performance above other known contributors to literacy development. Method: Eighty-eight…

The Pathway to English Word Reading in Chinese ESL Children: The Role of Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Dan; Liu, Yingyi; Sun, Huilin; Wong, Richard Kwok; Yeung, Susanna Siu-sze

2017-01-01

The present longitudinal study investigated the role of spelling as a bridge between various reading-related predictors and English word reading in Chinese children learning English as a Second Language (ESL). One hundred and forty-one 5-year-old kindergarten children from Hong Kong, whose first language (L1) was Cantonese and second language (L2)…

Noun or Verb? Adult Readers' Sensitivity to Spelling Cues to Grammatical Category in Word Endings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemp, Nenagh; Nilsson, Jodi; Arciuli, Joanne

2009-01-01

The spelling of many disyllabic English word endings holds cues to their grammatical category, beyond obvious inflectional endings such as "-ing" for verbs. For example, some letter sequences are clearly associated with nouns (e.g., "-oon") and others with verbs (e.g., "-erge"). This study extended recent research by Arciuli and Cupples (2006),…

Spelling ability selectively predicts the magnitude of disruption in unspaced text reading.

PubMed

Veldre, Aaron; Drieghe, Denis; Andrews, Sally

2017-09-01

We examined the effect of individual differences in written language proficiency on unspaced text reading in a large sample of skilled adult readers who were assessed on reading comprehension and spelling ability. Participants' eye movements were recorded as they read sentences containing a low or high frequency target word, presented with standard interword spacing, or in one of three unsegmented text conditions that either preserved or eliminated word boundary information. The average data replicated previous studies: unspaced text reading was associated with increased fixation durations, a higher number of fixations, more regressions, reduced saccade length, and an inflation of the word frequency effect. The individual differences results provided insight into the mechanisms contributing to these effects. Higher reading ability was associated with greater overall reading speed and fluency in all conditions. In contrast, spelling ability selectively modulated the effect of interword spacing with poorer spelling ability predicting greater difficulty across the majority of sentence- and word-level measures. These results suggest that high quality lexical representations allowed better spellers to extract lexical units from unfamiliar text forms, inoculating them against the disruptive effects of being deprived of spacing information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Searching Linguistics for Cues for the Teaching of Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hodges, Richard E.; Rudorf, E. Hugh

1965-01-01

Although spelling instruction has traditionally treated almost every spelling word as requiring a separate learning act, recent research indicates that over 90% of American-English orthography actually is determined by a set of rules for unit phoneme-grapheme relationships, based with decreasing productivity upon three levels of…

Single or Dual Representations for Reading and Spelling?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Virginia M.; Babauta, Mariko L.

2005-01-01

Neuropsychological models postulate that the memory representation acquired for use in reading words is separate from the one acquired for use in spelling, while developmental models assume that the same representation is developed for access in both reading and spelling. The dual-representation model contends that there is often more precise…

Spelling in Adults: The Combined Influences of Language Skills and Reading Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burt, Jennifer S.

2006-01-01

One hundred and twelve university students completed 7 tests assessing word-reading accuracy, print exposure, phonological sensitivity, phonological coding and knowledge of English morphology as predictors of spelling accuracy. Together the tests accounted for 71% of the variance in spelling, with phonological skills and morphological knowledge…

Teaching Spelling: Which Strategies Work Best.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Angelisi, Mary Ann

In a third-grade classroom, a 3-week-long study was conducted on the pros, cons, and effects of three particular spelling strategies and activities. By focusing on two specific spelling strategies--phonemic awareness and word identification--the study hoped to indicate that conventional rote learning, drilling, and memorization do not help…

Computer Language Settings and Canadian Spellings

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shuttleworth, Roger

2011-01-01

The language settings used on personal computers interact with the spell-checker in Microsoft Word, which directly affects the flagging of spellings that are deemed incorrect. This study examined the language settings of personal computers owned by a group of Canadian university students. Of 21 computers examined, only eight had their Windows…

Spelling Impairments in Italian Dyslexic Children with and without a History of Early Language Delay. Are There Any Differences?

PubMed

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara V; Iaia, Marika; Putzolu, Anna; Gasperini, Filippo; Brizzolara, Daniela; Chilosi, Anna M

2016-01-01

Language delay is considered a frequent antecedent of literacy problems and both may be linked to phonological impairment. However, while several studies have examined the relationship between language delay and reading impairment, relatively few have focused on spelling. In this study, spelling performance of 28 children with developmental dyslexia (DD), 14 children with a history of language delay (LD), and 14 children without (NoLD) and 28 control participants were examined. Spelling was investigated by a writing to dictation task that included orthographically regular stimuli (word and non-words), as well as words with unpredictable transcription. Results indicated that all dyslexic participants underperformed compared to controls on both regular and unpredictable transcription stimuli, but LD performance was generally the worst. Moreover, spelling impairment assumed different characteristics in LD and NoLD children. LD children were more sensitive to acoustic-to-phonological variables, showing relevant failure especially on stimuli containing geminate consonants but also on polysyllabic stimuli and those containing non-continuant consonants. Error analysis confirmed these results, with LD children producing a higher rate of phonological errors respect to NoLD children and controls. Results were coherent with the hypothesis that among dyslexic children, those with previous language delay have more severe spelling deficit, suffering from defective orthographic lexical acquisition together with long-lasting phonological difficulties.

Spelling Impairments in Italian Dyslexic Children with and without a History of Early Language Delay. Are There Any Differences?

PubMed Central

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara V.; Iaia, Marika; Putzolu, Anna; Gasperini, Filippo; Brizzolara, Daniela; Chilosi, Anna M.

2016-01-01

Language delay is considered a frequent antecedent of literacy problems and both may be linked to phonological impairment. However, while several studies have examined the relationship between language delay and reading impairment, relatively few have focused on spelling. In this study, spelling performance of 28 children with developmental dyslexia (DD), 14 children with a history of language delay (LD), and 14 children without (NoLD) and 28 control participants were examined. Spelling was investigated by a writing to dictation task that included orthographically regular stimuli (word and non-words), as well as words with unpredictable transcription. Results indicated that all dyslexic participants underperformed compared to controls on both regular and unpredictable transcription stimuli, but LD performance was generally the worst. Moreover, spelling impairment assumed different characteristics in LD and NoLD children. LD children were more sensitive to acoustic-to-phonological variables, showing relevant failure especially on stimuli containing geminate consonants but also on polysyllabic stimuli and those containing non-continuant consonants. Error analysis confirmed these results, with LD children producing a higher rate of phonological errors respect to NoLD children and controls. Results were coherent with the hypothesis that among dyslexic children, those with previous language delay have more severe spelling deficit, suffering from defective orthographic lexical acquisition together with long-lasting phonological difficulties. PMID:27148135

Nurturing a lexical legacy: reading experience is critical for the development of word reading skill

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nation, Kate

2017-12-01

The scientific study of reading has taught us much about the beginnings of reading in childhood, with clear evidence that the gateway to reading opens when children are able to decode, or `sound out' written words. Similarly, there is a large evidence base charting the cognitive processes that characterise skilled word recognition in adults. Less understood is how children develop word reading expertise. Once basic reading skills are in place, what factors are critical for children to move from novice to expert? This paper outlines the role of reading experience in this transition. Encountering individual words in text provides opportunities for children to refine their knowledge about how spelling represents spoken language. Alongside this, however, reading experience provides much more than repeated exposure to individual words in isolation. According to the lexical legacy perspective, outlined in this paper, experiencing words in diverse and meaningful language environments is critical for the development of word reading skill. At its heart is the idea that reading provides exposure to words in many different contexts, episodes and experiences which, over time, sum to a rich and nuanced database about their lexical history within an individual's experience. These rich and diverse encounters bring about local variation at the word level: a lexical legacy that is measurable during word reading behaviour, even in skilled adults.

The Effects of a Modified Cover, Copy, Compare on Spelling Tests and in Written Compositions for Three Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Ashley; McLaughlin, T. F.; Derby, K. Mark; Everson, Mary

2015-01-01

Spelling skills are vital in teaching students to read and write effectively. One method to help students learn to spell words correctly is called cover, copy, and compare (CCC). This study was designed to evaluate the effects of using CCC on the spelling and writing skills of three students with learning disabilities. These skills were measured…

Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary Learning in Monolinguals and Language Minority English-Speaking College Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miles, Katharine Pace; Ehri, Linnea C.; Lauterbach, Mark D.

2016-01-01

The study examined whether exposure to spellings of new vocabulary words improved monolinguals' and language minority (LM) students' (n = 25) memory for pronunciations, meanings, and spellings of the words. College students who are native English-speaking monolinguals (n = 12) and LM students who learned English as their second language (n = 13)…

Examining the Independent Contribution of Prosodic Sensitivity to Word Reading and Spelling in Early Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holliman, A. J.; Gutiérrez Palma, N.; Critten, S.; Wood, C.; Cunnane, H.; Pillinger, C.

2017-01-01

This study was designed to examine the independent contribution of prosodic sensitivity--the rhythmic patterning of speech-to word reading and spelling in a sample of early readers. Ninety-three English-speaking children aged 5-6 years old (M = 69.28 months, SD = 3.67) were assessed for their prosodic sensitivity, vocabulary knowledge,…

An Analysis of the Spelling Patterns of Children in Grades Two through Eight: A Study of a National Sample of Children's Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farr, Roger; And Others

This report (a continuation of the Indiana University vocabulary study) identifies words children frequently misspell and analyzes the representative spelling patterns at different grade levels. The report is in three sections and addresses seven questions. Section 1 reports on the analysis of the high frequency words across grades, asking: (1)…

Beyond the visual word form area: the orthography-semantics interface in spelling and reading.

PubMed

Purcell, Jeremy J; Shea, Jennifer; Rapp, Brenda

2014-01-01

Lexical orthographic information provides the basis for recovering the meanings of words in reading and for generating correct word spellings in writing. Research has provided evidence that an area of the left ventral temporal cortex, a subregion of what is often referred to as the visual word form area (VWFA), plays a significant role specifically in lexical orthographic processing. The current investigation goes beyond this previous work by examining the neurotopography of the interface of lexical orthography with semantics. We apply a novel lesion mapping approach with three individuals with acquired dysgraphia and dyslexia who suffered lesions to left ventral temporal cortex. To map cognitive processes to their neural substrates, this lesion mapping approach applies similar logical constraints to those used in cognitive neuropsychological research. Using this approach, this investigation: (a) identifies a region anterior to the VWFA that is important in the interface of orthographic information with semantics for reading and spelling; (b) determines that, within this orthography-semantics interface region (OSIR), access to orthography from semantics (spelling) is topographically distinct from access to semantics from orthography (reading); (c) provides evidence that, within this region, there is modality-specific access to and from lexical semantics for both spoken and written modalities, in both word production and comprehension. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the neural architecture at the lexical orthography-semantic-phonological interface within left ventral temporal cortex.

Computer-based learning of spelling skills in children with and without dyslexia.

PubMed

Kast, Monika; Baschera, Gian-Marco; Gross, Markus; Jäncke, Lutz; Meyer, Martin

2011-12-01

Our spelling training software recodes words into multisensory representations comprising visual and auditory codes. These codes represent information about letters and syllables of a word. An enhanced version, developed for this study, contains an additional phonological code and an improved word selection controller relying on a phoneme-based student model. We investigated the spelling behavior of children by means of learning curves based on log-file data of the previous and the enhanced software version. First, we compared the learning progress of children with dyslexia working either with the previous software (n = 28) or the adapted version (n = 37). Second, we investigated the spelling behavior of children with dyslexia (n = 37) and matched children without dyslexia (n = 25). To gain deeper insight into which factors are relevant for acquiring spelling skills, we analyzed the influence of cognitive abilities, such as attention functions and verbal memory skills, on the learning behavior. All investigations of the learning process are based on learning curve analyses of the collected log-file data. The results evidenced that those children with dyslexia benefit significantly from the additional phonological cue and the corresponding phoneme-based student model. Actually, children with dyslexia improve their spelling skills to the same extent as children without dyslexia and were able to memorize phoneme to grapheme correspondence when given the correct support and adequate training. In addition, children with low attention functions benefit from the structured learning environment. Generally, our data showed that memory sources are supportive cognitive functions for acquiring spelling skills and for using the information cues of a multi-modal learning environment.

English Spelling Errors Made by Arabic-Speaking Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Busaidi, Saleh; Al-Saqqaf, Abdullah H.

2015-01-01

Spelling is a basic literacy skill in any language as it is crucial in communication. EFL students are often unable to spell or pronounce very simple monosyllabic words even after several years of English instruction. Similarly, teachers and researchers usually focus on the larger skills such as speaking and reading and ignore the smaller…

Variant Spellings in Modern American Dictionaries.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Emery, Donald W.

A record of how present-day desk dictionaries are recognizing the existence of variant or secondary spellings for many common English words, this reference list can be used by teachers of English and authors of spelling lists. Originally published in 1958, this revised edition uses two dictionaries not in existence then and the revised editions of…

Peers, Pressure, and Performance at the National Spelling Bee

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Jonathan

2013-01-01

This paper investigates how individuals' performances of a cognitive task in a high-pressure competition are affected by their peers' performances. To do so, I use novel data from the National Spelling Bee, in which students attempt to spell words correctly in a tournament setting. Across OLS and instrumental variables approaches, I…

Improving Student Transfer of Spelling Skills across the Curriculum.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dvorak, Lynda; Ingersol, Judith; Kastle, Marlene; Mullins, Belinda; Rafter, Therese

This project describes a program for increasing student retention and transfer of weekly spelling words across the curriculum. The targeted population consists of first, second, and third grade students in a middle class community located in the Northeast quadrant of Illinois. The problems of adequate transfer of previously taught spelling skills…

Reading and Spelling Acquisition in Thai Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winskel, Heather; Iemwanthong, Kanyarat

2010-01-01

Thai, a tonal language, has its own distinctive alphabetic orthography. The study investigates reading and spelling development in Thai children, with an aim of examining the grain size that is predominantly used when reading and spelling. Furthermore, word and nonword lists were developed to examine the acquisition of the complex system of vowels…

Use of Sounding Out to Improve Spelling in Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mann, Tracie B.; Bushell, Don, Jr.; Morris, Edward K.

2010-01-01

We examined the effects of teaching 5 typically developing elementary students to sound out their spelling words while writing them using the cover-copy-compare (CCC) method to practice spelling. Each student's posttest performance following practice with sounding out was compared to that student's posttest performance following practice with no…

Resolving the orthographic ambiguity during visual word recognition in Arabic: an event-related potential investigation

PubMed Central

Taha, Haitham; Khateb, Asaid

2013-01-01

The Arabic alphabetical orthographic system has various unique features that include the existence of emphatic phonemic letters. These represent several pairs of letters that share a phonological similarity and use the same parts of the articulation system. The phonological and articulatory similarities between these letters lead to spelling errors where the subject tends to produce a pseudohomophone (PHw) instead of the correct word. Here, we investigated whether or not the unique orthographic features of the written Arabic words modulate early orthographic processes. For this purpose, we analyzed event-related potentials (ERPs) collected from adult skilled readers during an orthographic decision task on real words and their corresponding PHw. The subjects' reaction times (RTs) were faster in words than in PHw. ERPs analysis revealed significant response differences between words and the PHw starting during the N170 and extending to the P2 component, with no difference during processing steps devoted to phonological and lexico-semantic processing. Amplitude and latency differences were found also during the P6 component which peaked earlier for words and where source localization indicated the involvement of the classical left language areas. Our findings replicate some of the previous findings on PHw processing and extend them to involve early orthographical processes. PMID:24348367

Testing a Nested Skills Model of the Relations among Invented Spelling, Accurate Spelling, and Word Reading, from Kindergarten to Grade 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sénéchal, Monique

2017-01-01

The goal was to assess the role of invented spelling to subsequent reading and spelling as proposed by the Nested Skills Model of Early Literacy Acquisition. 107 English-speaking children were tested at the beginning of kindergarten and grade 1, and at the end of grade 1. The findings provided support for the proposed model. First, the role played…

Relationships of French and English Morphophonemic Orthographies to Word Reading, Spelling, and Reading Comprehension during Early and Middle Childhood

PubMed Central

Abbott, Robert D.; Fayol, Michel; Casalis, Séverine; Nagy, William; Berninger, Virginia W.

2016-01-01

Two longitudinal studies of word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension identified commonalities and differences in morphophonemic orthographies—French (Study 1, n=1313) or English (Study 2, n=114) in early childhood (grade 2) and middle childhood (grade 5). For French and English, statistically significant concurrent relationships among these literacy skills occurred in grades 2 and 5, and longitudinal relationships for each skill with itself from grade 2 to 5; but concurrent relationships were more sizable and longitudinal relationships more variable for English than French especially for word reading to reading comprehension. Results show that, for both morphophonemic orthographies, assessment and instructional practices should be tailored to early or middle childhood, and early childhood reading comprehension may not be related to middle childhood spelling. Also discussed are findings applying only to English, for which word origin is primarily Anglo-Saxon in early childhood, but increasingly French in middle childhood. PMID:27818573

Evaluation of Manual Spelling, Observational and Incidental Learning Using Computer-Based Instruction with a Tablet PC, Large Screen Projection, and a Forward Chaining Procedure

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Purrazzella, Kimberly; Mechling, Linda C.

2013-01-01

The study employed a multiple probe design to investigate the effects of computer-based instruction (CBI) and a forward chaining procedure to teach manual spelling of words to three young adults with moderate intellectual disability in a small group arrangement. The computer-based program included a tablet PC whereby students wrote words directly…

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming Are Independent Phonological Competencies With Specific Impacts on Word Reading and Spelling: An Intervention Study.

PubMed

Vander Stappen, Caroline; Reybroeck, Marie Van

2018-01-01

Phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) have been shown to be powerful predictors of reading achievement across many languages. However, literature remains unclear: (a) whether RAN is independent of PA, (b) about the specific influences of PA and RAN on reading and spelling, and (c) about the efficacy of a RAN intervention. This study aims to address these issues by means of an intervention design. Precisely, the objectives are (a) to determine whether training one competence involves or not an effect on the other, (b) to examine whether each intervention based on oral abilities (PA vs. RAN) could improve word reading and word spelling performances, and (c) to assess the efficacy of a RAN-objects' intervention. Thirty-six French-speaking second graders, from two Belgian elementary schools, were divided into two groups, and received either a PA- or a RAN-objects' intervention. Twenty-five-minute lessons took place at school twice a week over a period of 2 months. Both groups were compared on multiple experimental measures (PA, RAN, word reading, and word spelling), before and immediately after the intervention, and 6 months later. Results showed specific efficacy of the two interventions, with participants trained in one ability outperforming those from the other group on this specific ability at post-test. Moreover, the PA intervention revealed transfer effects on the sub-lexical processes of spelling, while the RAN intervention enhanced word reading speed. Finally, the results demonstrated the efficacy of a RAN-objects' intervention for the first time. These findings provide a new piece of evidence showing the independence of PA and RAN, each process influencing the acquisition of literacy skills in a different way. The efficacy and the specific transfer effects of both interventions open up new perspectives for prevention and targeted remediation of reading disabilities.

Phonological Awareness and Rapid Automatized Naming Are Independent Phonological Competencies With Specific Impacts on Word Reading and Spelling: An Intervention Study

PubMed Central

Vander Stappen, Caroline; Reybroeck, Marie Van

2018-01-01

Phonological awareness (PA) and rapid automatized naming (RAN) have been shown to be powerful predictors of reading achievement across many languages. However, literature remains unclear: (a) whether RAN is independent of PA, (b) about the specific influences of PA and RAN on reading and spelling, and (c) about the efficacy of a RAN intervention. This study aims to address these issues by means of an intervention design. Precisely, the objectives are (a) to determine whether training one competence involves or not an effect on the other, (b) to examine whether each intervention based on oral abilities (PA vs. RAN) could improve word reading and word spelling performances, and (c) to assess the efficacy of a RAN-objects’ intervention. Thirty-six French-speaking second graders, from two Belgian elementary schools, were divided into two groups, and received either a PA- or a RAN-objects’ intervention. Twenty-five-minute lessons took place at school twice a week over a period of 2 months. Both groups were compared on multiple experimental measures (PA, RAN, word reading, and word spelling), before and immediately after the intervention, and 6 months later. Results showed specific efficacy of the two interventions, with participants trained in one ability outperforming those from the other group on this specific ability at post-test. Moreover, the PA intervention revealed transfer effects on the sub-lexical processes of spelling, while the RAN intervention enhanced word reading speed. Finally, the results demonstrated the efficacy of a RAN-objects’ intervention for the first time. These findings provide a new piece of evidence showing the independence of PA and RAN, each process influencing the acquisition of literacy skills in a different way. The efficacy and the specific transfer effects of both interventions open up new perspectives for prevention and targeted remediation of reading disabilities. PMID:29593618

Phonology, Decoding, and Lexical Compensation in Vowel Spelling Errors Made by Children with Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernstein, Stuart E.

2009-01-01

A descriptive study of vowel spelling errors made by children first diagnosed with dyslexia (n = 79) revealed that phonological errors, such as "bet" for "bat", outnumbered orthographic errors, such as "bate" for "bait". These errors were more frequent in nonwords than words, suggesting that lexical context helps with vowel spelling. In a second…

Arab ESL Secondary School Students' Spelling Errors

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Al-Sobhi, Bandar Mohammad Saeed; Rashid, Sabariah Md; Abdullah, Ain Nadzimah; Darmi, Ramiza

2017-01-01

English spelling has always been described by many language researchers and teachers as a daunting task especially for learners whose first language is not English. Accordingly, Arab ESL learners commit serious errors when they spell out English words. The primary objective of this paper is to determine the types as well as the causes of spelling…

Success in Spelling: A Course of Study in Spelling for Grades 1-6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rochester Public Schools, Minn.

The spelling program described in this guide, piloted and evaluated by 40 teachers of the Rochester, Minnesota elementary school district, is based upon current research, sound linguistic principles, and studies that determine which words are most frequently used by children and adults in their written communication. The guide provides an overview…

The Sources of Error in Spanish Writing.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Justicia, Fernando; Defior, Sylvia; Pelegrina, Santiago; Martos, Francisco J.

1999-01-01

Determines the pattern of errors in Spanish spelling. Analyzes and proposes a classification system for the errors made by children in the initial stages of the acquisition of spelling skills. Finds the diverse forms of only 20 Spanish words produces 36% of the spelling errors in Spanish; and substitution is the most frequent type of error. (RS)

Small Schools Language Arts Curriculum: Spelling, K-3. Objectives, Word Lists, Resources, Activities, Monitoring Procedures.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hartl, David, Ed.; And Others

Designed to assist teachers in small schools with the improvement of curriculum and instruction and to help smaller districts without curriculum personnel to comply with Washington's Student Learning Objectives (SLO) Law, this guide contains spelling curriculum materials for grades K-3. The spelling section is part of the total language arts…

The Effect of Orthographic Complexity on Spanish Spelling in Grades 1-3

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ford, Karen; Invernizzi, Marcia; Huang, Francis

2018-01-01

This study was designed to identify a continuum of orthographic features that characterize Spanish spelling development in Grades 1-3. Two research questions guided this work: (1) Is there a hierarchy of orthographic features that affect students' spelling accuracy in Spanish over and above other school-level, student-level, and word-level…

The Use of Standard Tasks to Measure Achievement in Reading, Spelling, and Written Expression: A Normative and Developmental Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Deno, Stanley; And Others

Simple measures of reading, spelling, and written expression were administered to 566 elementary students from the states of Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Washington. Each child was individually administered three reading word lists, three reading passages, two dictated spelling lists, and two story starters. Approximately 25 minutes was needed for…

Spelling in African American Children: The Case of Final Consonant Devoicing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Treiman, Rebecca; Bowman, Margo

2015-01-01

This study examined the effect of dialect variation on children's spelling by using devoicing of final /d/ in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as a test case. In line with the linguistic interference hypothesis, African American 6-year-olds were significantly poorer at spelling the final "d" of words such as "salad"…

Lexical Classification and Spelling: Do People Use Atypical Spellings for Atypical Pseudowords?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kemp, Nenagh; Treiman, Rebecca; Blackley, Hollie; Svoboda, Imogen; Kessler, Brett

2015-01-01

Many English phonemes have more than one possible spelling. People's choices among the options may be influenced by sublexical patterns, such as the identity of neighboring sounds within the word. However, little research has explored the possible role of lexical conditioning. Three experiments examined the potential effects of one such factor:…

Identifying and Predicting Classes of Response to Explicit Phonological Spelling Instruction during Independent Composing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Amtmann, Dagmar; Abbott, Robert D.; Berninger, Virginia W.

2008-01-01

After explicit spelling instruction, low achieving second grade spellers increased the number of correctly spelled words during composing but differed in response trajectories. Class 1 (low initial and slow growth) had the lowest initial performance and improved at a relatively slow rate. Class 2 (high initial and fast growth) started higher than…

Preschoolers Use Partial Letter Names to Select Spellings: Evidence from Portuguese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pollo, Tatiana Cury; Treiman, Rebecca; Kessler, Brett

2008-01-01

Two studies examined children's use of letter-name spelling strategies when target phoneme sequences match letter names with different degrees of precision. We examined Portuguese-speaking preschoolers' use of "h" (which is named /a'ga/ but which never represents those sounds) when spelling words beginning with /ga/ or variants of /ga/. We also…

Effective Instruction for Persisting Dyslexia in Upper Grades: Adding Hope Stories and Computer Coding to Explicit Literacy Instruction.

PubMed

Thompson, Robert; Tanimoto, Steve; Lyman, Ruby Dawn; Geselowitz, Kira; Begay, Kristin Kawena; Nielsen, Kathleen; Nagy, William; Abbott, Robert; Raskind, Marshall; Berninger, Virginia

2018-05-01

Children in grades 4 to 6 ( N =14) who despite early intervention had persisting dyslexia (impaired word reading and spelling) were assessed before and after computerized reading and writing instruction aimed at subword, word, and syntax skills shown in four prior studies to be effective for treating dyslexia. During the 12 two-hour sessions once a week after school they first completed HAWK Letters in Motion© for manuscript and cursive handwriting, HAWK Words in Motion© for phonological, orthographic, and morphological coding for word reading and spelling, and HAWK Minds in Motion© for sentence reading comprehension and written sentence composing. A reading comprehension activity in which sentences were presented one word at a time or one added word at a time was introduced. Next, to instill hope they could overcome their struggles with reading and spelling, they read and discussed stories about struggles of Buckminister Fuller who overcame early disabilities to make important contributions to society. Finally, they engaged in the new Kokopelli's World (KW)©, blocks-based online lessons, to learn computer coding in introductory programming by creating stories in sentence blocks (Tanimoto and Thompson 2016). Participants improved significantly in hallmark word decoding and spelling deficits of dyslexia, three syntax skills (oral construction, listening comprehension, and written composing), reading comprehension (with decoding as covariate), handwriting, orthographic and morphological coding, orthographic loop, and inhibition (focused attention). They answered more reading comprehension questions correctly when they had read sentences presented one word at a time (eliminating both regressions out and regressions in during saccades) than when presented one added word at a time (eliminating only regressions out during saccades). Indicators of improved self-efficacy that they could learn to read and write were observed. Reminders to pay attention and stay on task needed before adding computer coding were not needed after computer coding was added.

Predicting Handwriting Difficulties Through Spelling Processes.

PubMed

Rodríguez, Cristina; Villarroel, Rebeca

This study examined whether spelling tasks contribute to the prediction of the handwriting status of children with poor and good handwriting skills in a cross-sectional study with 276 Spanish children from Grades 1 and 3. The main hypothesis was that the spelling tasks would predict the handwriting status of the children, although this influence would decrease with age due to a gradual automatization of handwriting skills. The results confirmed this hypothesis. Another interesting result was that the pattern of pseudoword and irregular word spellings as predictors of handwriting status changed from Grade 1 to Grade 3. In Grade 1, the pseudoword spelling task made a significant contribution, whereas the irregular word spelling task did not. The opposite pattern was found in Grade 3. These results may be a consequence of progressive acquisition of orthographic representations. The orthographic role of the task of writing the alphabet in order from memory in the prediction model was also analyzed. The writing of the alphabet in order from memory task made a significant contribution to the prediction of handwriting status of the children beyond the orthographic influence of spelling tasks. The additional effect of this task on the prediction of handwriting status is presumably due to the fact that this measure is based on fluency.

Preparing novice teachers to develop basic reading and spelling skills in children.

PubMed

Spear-Swerling, Louise; Brucker, Pamela Owen

2004-12-01

This study examined the word-structure knowledge of novice teachers and the progress of children tutored by a subgroup of the teachers. Teachers' word-structure knowledge was assessed using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or irregular. Tutored children were assessed on several measures of basic reading and spelling skills. Novice teachers who received word-structure instruction outperformed a comparison group of teachers in word-structure knowledge at post-test. Tutored children improved significantly from pre-test to post-test on all assessments. Teachers' post-test knowledge on the graphophonemic segmentation and irregular words tasks correlated significantly with tutored children's progress in decoding phonetically regular words; error analyses indicated links between teachers' patterns of word-structure knowledge and children's patterns of decoding progress. The study suggests that word-structure knowledge is important to effective teaching of word decoding and underscores the need to include this information in teacher preparation.

Small wins big: analytic pinyin skills promote Chinese word reading.

PubMed

Lin, Dan; McBride-Chang, Catherine; Shu, Hua; Zhang, Yuping; Li, Hong; Zhang, Juan; Aram, Dorit; Levin, Iris

2010-08-01

The present study examined invented spelling of pinyin (a phonological coding system for teaching and learning Chinese words) in relation to subsequent Chinese reading development. Among 296 Chinese kindergartners in Beijing, independent invented pinyin spelling was found to be uniquely predictive of Chinese word reading 12 months later, even with Time 1 syllable deletion, phoneme deletion, and letter knowledge, in addition to the autoregressive effects of Time 1 Chinese word reading, statistically controlled. These results underscore the importance of children's early pinyin representations for Chinese reading acquisition, both theoretically and practically. The findings further support the idea of a universal phonological principle and indicate that pinyin is potentially an ideal measure of phonological awareness in Chinese.

An Insider's Perspective on the National Spelling Bee: An Interview with James Maguire

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henkin, Roxanne; Harmon, Janis; Pate, Elizabeth; Moorman, Honor

2008-01-01

In this article, the coeditors of "Voices from the Middle" present an interview with James Maguire, author of "The American Bee: The National Spelling Bee and the Culture of Word Nerds." During the interview, Maguire talked about his experiences with the National Spelling Bee to provide some insight to middle-level teachers and students. Maguire…

Spelling Instruction through Etymology--A Method of Developing Spelling Lists for Older Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hutcheon, Greg; Campbell, Marilyn; Stewart, Judith

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether an approach to developing word lists centred on etymological roots would improve the spelling performance of older primary school students. Participants were 46 students in the last year of primary school in south-east Queensland (31 girls and 15 boys) across three classes, with two classes…

Efficiency of Oral Incremental Rehearsal versus Written Incremental Rehearsal on Students' Rate, Retention, and Generalization of Spelling Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garcia, Dru; Joseph, Laurice M.; Alber-Morgan, Sheila; Konrad, Moira

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficiency of an incremental rehearsal oral versus an incremental rehearsal written procedure on a sample of primary grade children's weekly spelling performance. Participants included five second and one first grader who were in need of help with their spelling according to their teachers. An…

Native Language Effects on Spelling in English as a Foreign Language: A Time-Course Analysis

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dich, Nadya; Pedersen, Bo

2013-01-01

The study explores first language (L1) influences on the mechanisms of spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL). We hypothesized that the transparency of L1 orthography influences (a) the amount of hesitation associated with spelling irregular English words, and (b) the size of units EFL spellers operate. Participants were adult speakers of…

Effect of Assessment Task and Letter Writing Ability on Preschool Children's Spelling Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puranik, Cynthia; Apel, Kenn

2010-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine whether spelling performance in preschool children varied as a function of the method of assessment and letter writing ability. The authors manipulated the motoric element and memory demands of the task by having children spell single words using letter tiles, orally, and by writing. The authors also…

Spelling in adolescents with dyslexia: errors and modes of assessment.

PubMed

Tops, Wim; Callens, Maaike; Bijn, Evi; Brysbaert, Marc

2014-01-01

In this study we focused on the spelling of high-functioning students with dyslexia. We made a detailed classification of the errors in a word and sentence dictation task made by 100 students with dyslexia and 100 matched control students. All participants were in the first year of their bachelor's studies and had Dutch as mother tongue. Three main error categories were distinguished: phonological, orthographic, and grammatical errors (on the basis of morphology and language-specific spelling rules). The results indicated that higher-education students with dyslexia made on average twice as many spelling errors as the controls, with effect sizes of d ≥ 2. When the errors were classified as phonological, orthographic, or grammatical, we found a slight dominance of phonological errors in students with dyslexia. Sentence dictation did not provide more information than word dictation in the correct classification of students with and without dyslexia. © Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012.

Investigation of Summer Learning Loss in the UK-Implications for Holiday Club Provision.

PubMed

Shinwell, Jackie; Defeyter, Margaret Anne

2017-01-01

This study sought to examine whether summer learning loss occurs in spelling and word reading in a population of 77 primary school aged children aged between 5 and 10 years (37 boys, mean age 100 months, SD 18 months, and 40 girls mean age 103 months, SD 16 months) attending three schools in areas of low socioeconomic status in Scotland and the North East of England. Word reading and spelling was measured using the word reading and spelling subtests of the Wide Ranging Achievement Test. Participants were tested on three occassions: immediately before and immediately after a 7-week summer break, and again after 7-weeks of teaching. The results showed a significant main effect of time for spelling scores, F (2,136) = 21.60, p  < 0.001, [Formula: see text]. Post-hoc analysis [ t (73) = 4.84, p  ≤ 0.001] showed that spelling scores were significantly higher at the end of the summer term (M = 26.57) than at the start of the new academic year (M = 25.38). Likewise, spelling scores after 7 weeks post return to school (M = 27.61) were significantly higher than at the start of the Autumn term, t (73) = 7.79, p  ≤ 0.001. Performance in spelling declined when children returned to school immediately after the summer holiday (M = 25.38) but 7 weeks later, performance had improved beyond the baseline reported immediately before the summer break (M = 26.57) [ t (73) = 4.40, p  ≤ 0.001]. There was also a main effect of school in relation to spelling scores, [ F (2,68) = 6.49, p  < 0.05, [Formula: see text

Relative Ease in Creating Detailed Orthographic Representations Contrasted with Severe Difficulties to Maintain Them in Long-term Memory Among Dyslexic Children.

PubMed

Binamé, Florence; Danzio, Sophie; Poncelet, Martine

2015-11-01

Most research into orthographic learning abilities has been conducted in English with typically developing children using reading-based tasks. In the present study, we examined the abilities of French-speaking children with dyslexia to create novel orthographic representations for subsequent use in spelling and to maintain them in long-term memory. Their performance was compared with that of chronological age (CA)-matched and reading age (RA)-matched control children. We used an experimental task designed to provide optimal learning conditions (i.e. 10 spelling practice trials) ensuring the short-term acquisition of the spelling of the target orthographic word forms. After a 1-week delay, the long-term retention of the targets was assessed by a spelling post-test. Analysis of the results revealed that, in the short term, children with dyslexia learned the novel orthographic word forms well, only differing from both CA and RA controls on the initial decoding of the targets and from CA controls on the first two practice trials. In contrast, a dramatic drop was observed in their long-term retention relative to CA and RA controls. These results support the suggestion of the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995) that initial errors in the decoding and spelling of unfamiliar words may hinder the establishment of fully specified novel orthographic representations. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The development of word recognition, sentence comprehension, word spelling, and vocabulary in children with deafness: a longitudinal study.

PubMed

Colin, S; Leybaert, J; Ecalle, J; Magnan, A

2013-05-01

Only a small number of longitudinal studies have been conducted to assess the literacy skills of children with hearing impairment. The results of these studies are inconsistent with regard to the importance of phonology in reading acquisition as is the case in studies with hearing children. Colin, Magnan, Ecalle, and Leybaert (2007) revealed the important role of early phonological skills and the contribution of the factor of age of exposure to Cued Speech (CS: a manual system intended to resolve the ambiguities inherent to speechreading) to subsequent reading acquisition (from kindergarten to first grade) in children with deafness. The aim of the present paper is twofold: (1) to confirm the role of early exposure to CS in the development of the linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing in second grade; (2) to reveal the possible existence of common factors other than CS that may influence literacy performances and explain the inter-individual difference within groups of children with hearing impairment. Eighteen 6-year-old hearing-impaired and 18 hearing children of the same chronological age were tested from kindergarten to second grade. The children with deafness had either been exposed to CS at an early age, at home and before kindergarten (early-CS group), or had first been exposed to it when they entered kindergarten (late-CS group) or first grade (beginner-CS group). Children were given implicit and explicit phonological tasks, silent reading tasks (word recognition and sentence comprehension), word spelling, and vocabulary tasks. Children in the early-CS group outperformed those of the late-CS and beginner-CS groups in phonological tasks from first grade to second grade. They became better readers and better spellers than those from the late-CS group and the beginner-CS group. Their performances did not differ from those of hearing children in any of the tasks except for the receptive vocabulary test. Thus early exposure to CS seems to permit the development of linguistic skills necessary in order to learn reading and writing. The possible contribution of other factors to the acquisition of literacy skills by children with hearing impairment will be discussed. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Beyond the VWFA: The orthography-semantics interface in spelling and reading

PubMed Central

Purcell, Jeremy J.; Shea, Jennifer; Rapp, Brenda

2014-01-01

Lexical orthographic information provides the basis for recovering the meanings of words in reading and for generating correct word spellings in writing. Research has provided evidence that an area of the left ventral temporal cortex, a sub-region of what is often referred to as the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), plays a significant role specifically in lexical orthographic processing. The current investigation goes beyond this previous work by examining the neurotopography of the interface of lexical orthography with semantics. We apply a novel lesion mapping approach with three individuals with acquired dysgraphia and dyslexia who suffered lesions to left ventral temporal cortex. To map cognitive processes to their neural substrates, this lesion mapping approach applies similar logical constraints as used in cognitive neuropsychological research. Using this approach, this investigation: (1) Identifies a region anterior to the VWFA that is important in the interface of orthographic information with semantics for reading and spelling; (2) Determines that, within this Orthography-Semantics Interface Region (OSIR), access to orthography from semantics (spelling) is topographically distinct from access to semantics from orthography (reading); (3) Provides evidence that, within this region, there is modality-specific access to and from lexical semantics for both spoken and written modalities, in both word production and comprehension. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of the neural architecture at the lexical orthography-semantic-phonological interface within left ventral temporal cortex. PMID:24833190

From Scribbles to Stories: Supporting Writing Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Diffily, Deborah

2001-01-01

Describes how caregivers can support young children's writing development. Outlines stages of writing: scribbling, drawing, invented letters, random letters, copying words, developmental spelling, and conventional spelling. Provides tips on what to say to children in each stage of writing. (KB)

The influence of spelling ability on handwriting production: children with and without dyslexia.

PubMed

Sumner, Emma; Connelly, Vincent; Barnett, Anna L

2014-09-01

Current models of writing do not sufficiently address the complex relationship between the 2 transcription skills: spelling and handwriting. For children with dyslexia and beginning writers, it is conceivable that spelling ability will influence rate of handwriting production. Our aim in this study was to examine execution speed and temporal characteristics of handwriting when completing sentence-copying tasks that are free from composing demands and to determine the predictive value of spelling, pausing, and motor skill on handwriting production. Thirty-one children with dyslexia (Mage = 9 years 4 months) were compared with age-matched and spelling-ability matched children (Mage = 6 years 6 months). A digital writing tablet and Eye and Pen software were used to analyze handwriting. Children with dyslexia were able to execute handwriting at the same speed as the age-matched peers. However, they wrote less overall and paused more frequently while writing, especially within words. Combined spelling ability and within-word pausing accounted for over 76% of the variance in handwriting production of children with dyslexia, demonstrating that productivity relies on spelling capabilities. Motor skill did not significantly predict any additional variance in handwriting production. Reading ability predicted performance of the age-matched group, and pausing predicted performance for the spelling-ability group. The findings from the digital writing tablet highlight the interactive relationship between the transcription skills and how, if spelling is not fully automatized, it can constrain the rate of handwriting production. Practical implications are also addressed, emphasizing the need for more consideration to be given to what common handwriting tasks are assessing as a whole.

Activating the Meaning of a Word Facilitates the Integration of Orthography: Evidence from Spelling Exercises in Beginning Spellers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hilte, Maartje; Reitsma, Pieter

2011-01-01

The present study examines the effect of activating the connection between meaning and phonology in spelling exercises in second-grade spellers (n=41; 8 years and 3 months). In computer-based exercises in a within-subject design, semantic and neutral descriptions were contrasted and provided either before the process of spelling or in feedback.…

Weak and strong novice readers of English as a foreign language: effects of first language and socioeconomic status.

PubMed

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina; Shimron, Joseph; Sparks, Richard L

2006-06-01

This study examined individual differences among beginning readers of English as a foreign language (EFL). The study concentrated on the effects of underlying first language (L1) knowledge as well as EFL letter and vocabulary knowledge. Phonological and morphological awareness, spelling, vocabulary knowledge, and word reading in Hebrew L1, in addition to knowledge of EFL letters and EFL vocabulary, were measured. The study also investigated the effect of socioeconomic background (SES) on beginning EFL readers. Participants included 145 fourth graders from three schools representing two socioeconomic backgrounds in the north of Israel. The results indicate that knowledge of English letters played a more prominent role than knowledge of Hebrew L1 components in differentiating between strong and weak EFL readers. The Linguistic Coding Differences Hypothesis was supported by L1 phonological awareness, word reading, and vocabulary knowledge appearing as part of discriminating functions. The presence of English vocabulary knowledge as part of the discriminant functions provides support for English word reading being more than just a decoding task for EFL beginner readers. Socioeconomic status differentiated the groups for EFL word recognition but not for EFL reading comprehension.

Efficient Learning for the Poor: New Insights into Literacy Acquisition for Children

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abadzi, Helen

2008-11-01

Reading depends on the speed of visual recognition and capacity of short-term memory. To understand a sentence, the mind must read it fast enough to capture it within the limits of the short-term memory. This means that children must attain a minimum speed of fairly accurate reading to understand a passage. Learning to read involves "tricking" the brain into perceiving groups of letters as coherent words. This is achieved most efficiently by pairing small units consistently with sounds rather than learning entire words. To link the letters with sounds, explicit and extensive practice is needed; the more complex the spelling of a language, the more practice is necessary. However, schools of low-income students often waste instructional time and lack reading resources, so students cannot get sufficient practice to automatize reading and may remain illiterate for years. Lack of reading fluency in the early grades creates inefficiencies that affect the entire educational system. Neurocognitive research on reading points to benchmarks and monitoring indicators. All students should attain reading speeds of 45-60 words per minute by the end of grade 2 and 120-150 words per minute for grades 6-8.

The Implications of Orthographic Intraference for the Teaching and Description of ESL: The Educated Nigerian English Examples (Implicaciones de la Intraferencia Ortográfica para la Enseñanza y Descripción del Inglés como Segunda Lengua: Ejemplos Inglés Nigeriano Formal)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ekundayo, Omowumi Steve Bode

2015-01-01

This paper examines orthographic intraference and its implications for teaching and describing English as a second language (ESL). Orthographic intraference is used here to denote instances of single word spelling, acronyms, mix up of homophones, homonyms and compound word spelling arising not from interference but from orthographic rules and…

Peer tutoring among elementary students: educational benefits to the tutor1

PubMed Central

Dineen, John P.; Clark, Hewitt B.; Risley, Todd R.

1977-01-01

To determine whether tutoring might be academically beneficial to the tutor, this study investigated the acquisition of spelling words by three elementary students in a peer tutoring program. The experimental design allowed a simultaneous comparison of each child's gain in performance on comparable word lists on which the child tutored another child, was tutored by another child, or neither gave nor received tutoring. The children's spelling improved nearly an equivalent amount on those words on which they tutored another child as on the words on which they were tutored; no such change was noted on the words on which they neither gave nor received tutoring. These findings, that peer tutoring is profitable for the tutor as well as the tutee, provide a basis for recommending peer tutoring as one method of individualizing education. PMID:16795552

Error-Related Negativities During Spelling Judgments Expose Orthographic Knowledge

PubMed Central

Harris, Lindsay N.; Perfetti, Charles A.; Rickles, Benjamin

2014-01-01

In two experiments, we demonstrate that error-related negativities (ERNs) recorded during spelling decisions can expose individual differences in lexical knowledge. The first experiment found that the ERN was elicited during spelling decisions and that its magnitude was correlated with independent measures of subjects’ spelling knowledge. In the second experiment, we manipulated the phonology of misspelled stimuli and observed that ERN magnitudes were larger when misspelled words altered the phonology of their correctly spelled counterparts than when they preserved it. Thus, when an error is made in a decision about spelling, the brain processes indexed by the ERN reflect both phonological and orthographic input to the decision process. In both experiments, ERN effect sizes were correlated with assessments of lexical knowledge and reading, including offline spelling ability and spelling-mediated vocabulary knowledge. These results affirm the interdependent nature of orthographic, semantic, and phonological knowledge components while showing that spelling knowledge uniquely influences the ERN during spelling decisions. Finally, the study demonstrates the value of ERNs in exposing individual differences in lexical knowledge. PMID:24389506

Task by stimulus interactions in brain responses during Chinese character processing.

PubMed

Yang, Jianfeng; Wang, Xiaojuan; Shu, Hua; Zevin, Jason D

2012-04-02

In the visual word recognition literature, it is well understood that various stimulus effects interact with behavioral task. For example, effects of word frequency are exaggerated and effects of spelling-to-sound regularity are reduced in the lexical decision task, relative to reading aloud. Neuroimaging studies of reading often examine effects of task and stimulus properties on brain activity independently, but potential interactions between task demands and stimulus effects have not been extensively explored. To address this issue, we conducted lexical decision and symbol detection tasks using stimuli that varied parametrically in their word-likeness, and tested for task by stimulus class interactions. Interactions were found throughout the reading system, such that stimulus selectivity was observed during the lexical decision task, but not during the symbol detection task. Further, the pattern of stimulus selectivity was directly related to task difficulty, so that the strongest brain activity was observed to the most word-like stimuli that required "no" responses, whereas brain activity to words, which elicit rapid and accurate "yes" responses were relatively weak. This is in line with models that argue for task-dependent specialization of brain regions, and contrasts with the notion of task-independent stimulus selectivity in the reading system. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Multiple Uses of a Word Study Technique

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Laurice M.; Orlins, Andrew

2005-01-01

This paper presents two case studies that illustrate the multiple uses of word sorts, a word study phonics technique. Case study children were Sara, a second grader, who had difficulty with reading basic words and John, a third grader, who had difficulty with spelling basic words. Multiple baseline designs were employed to study the effects of…

"How Do You Spell 'Caught'?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Broderick, Conne

1995-01-01

Discusses a strategy that provides a structure for students to do what adults do naturally: determine the correct spelling of a word by rewriting it until it looks right. Notes that the technique can be incorporated into the classroom as a regular editing technique. (RS)

Delay or deficit? Spelling processes in children with specific language impairment.

PubMed

Larkin, Rebecca F; Williams, Gareth J; Blaggan, Samarita

2013-01-01

Few studies have explored the phonological, morphological and orthographic spellings skills of children with specific language impairment (SLI) simultaneously. Fifteen children with SLI (mean age=113.07 months, SD=8.61) completed language and spelling tasks alongside chronological-age controls and spelling-age controls. While the children with SLI showed a deficit in phonological spelling, they performed comparably to spelling-age controls on morphological spelling skills, and there were no differences between the three groups in producing orthographically legal spellings. The results also highlighted the potential importance of adequate non-word repetition skills in relation to effective spelling skills, and demonstrated that not all children with spoken language impairments show marked spelling difficulties. Findings are discussed in relation to theory, educational assessment and practice. As a result of this activity, readers will describe components of spoken language that predict children's morphological and phonological spelling performance. As a result of this activity, readers will describe how the spelling skills of children with SLI compare to age-matched and spelling age-matched control children. Readers will be able to interpret the variability in spelling performance seen in children with SLI. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Preschool Phonological and Morphological Awareness As Longitudinal Predictors of Early Reading and Spelling Development in Greek.

PubMed

Diamanti, Vassiliki; Mouzaki, Angeliki; Ralli, Asimina; Antoniou, Faye; Papaioannou, Sofia; Protopapas, Athanassios

2017-01-01

Different language skills are considered fundamental for successful reading and spelling acquisition. Extensive evidence has highlighted the central role of phonological awareness in early literacy experiences. However, many orthographic systems also require the contribution of morphological awareness. The goal of this study was to examine the morphological and phonological awareness skills of preschool children as longitudinal predictors of reading and spelling ability by the end of first grade, controlling for the effects of receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. At Time 1 preschool children from kindergartens in the Greek regions of Attika, Crete, Macedonia, and Thessaly were assessed on tasks tapping receptive and expressive vocabulary, phonological awareness (syllable and phoneme), and morphological awareness (inflectional and derivational). Tasks were administered through an Android application for mobile devices (tablets) featuring automatic application of ceiling rules. At Time 2 one year later the same children attending first grade were assessed on measures of word and pseudoword reading, text reading fluency, text reading comprehension, and spelling. Complete data from 104 children are available. Hierarchical linear regression and commonality analyses were conducted for each outcome variable. Reading accuracy for both words and pseudowords was predicted not only by phonological awareness, as expected, but also by morphological awareness, suggesting that understanding the functional role of word parts supports the developing phonology-orthography mappings. However, only phonological awareness predicted text reading fluency at this age. Longitudinal prediction of reading comprehension by both receptive vocabulary and morphological awareness was already evident at this age, as expected. Finally, spelling was predicted by preschool phonological awareness, as expected, as well as by morphological awareness, the contribution of which is expected to increase due to the spelling demands of Greek inflectional and derivational suffixes introduced at later grades.

Dysgraphia in Patients with Primary Lateral Sclerosis: A Speech-Based Rehearsal Deficit?

PubMed Central

Zago, S.; Poletti, B.; Corbo, M.; Adobbati, L.; Silani, V.

2008-01-01

The present study aims to demonstrate that errors when writing are more common than expected in patients affected by primary lateral sclerosis (PLS) with severe dysarthria or complete mutism, independent of spasticity. Sixteen patients meeting Pringle’s et al. [34] criteria for PLS underwent standard neuropsychological tasks and evaluation of writing. We assessed writing abilities in spelling through dictation in which a set of words, non-words and short phrases were presented orally and by composing words using a set of preformed letters. Finally, a written copying task was performed with the same words. Relative to controls, PLS patients made a greater number of spelling errors in all writing conditions, but not in copy task. The error types included: omissions, transpositions, insertions and letter substitutions. These were equally distributed on the writing task and the composition of words with a set of preformed letters. This pattern of performance is consistent with a spelling impairment. The results are consistent with the concept that written production is critically dependent on the subvocal articulatory mechanism of rehearsal, perhaps at the level of retaining the sequence of graphemes in a graphemic buffer. In PLS patients a disturbance in rehearsal opportunity may affect the correct sequencing/assembly of an orthographic representation in the written process. PMID:19096141

Morpheme-based Reading and Spelling in Italian Children with Developmental Dyslexia and Dysorthography.

PubMed

Angelelli, Paola; Marinelli, Chiara Valeria; De Salvatore, Marinella; Burani, Cristina

2017-11-01

Italian sixth graders, with and without dyslexia, read pseudowords and low-frequency words that include high-frequency morphemes better than stimuli not including any morpheme. The present study assessed whether morphemes affect (1) younger children, with and without dyslexia; (2) spelling as well as reading; and (3) words with low-frequency morphemes. Two groups of third graders (16 children with dyslexia and dysorthography and 16 age-matched typically developing children) read aloud and spelt to dictation pseudowords and words. Pseudowords included (1) root + suffix in not existing combinations (e.g. lampadista, formed by lampad-, 'lamp', and -ista, '-ist') and (2) orthographic sequences not corresponding to any Italian root or suffix (e.g. livonosto). Words had low frequency and included: (1) root + suffix, both of high frequency (e.g. bestiale, 'beastly'); (2) root + suffix, both of low frequency (e.g. asprigno, 'rather sour'); and (3) simple words (e.g. insulso, 'vapid'). Children with dyslexia and dysorthography were less accurate than typically developing children. Root + suffix pseudowords were read and spelt more accurately than non-morphological pseudowords by both groups. Morphologically complex (root + suffix) words were read and spelt better than simple words. However, task interacted with morphology: reading was not facilitated by low-frequency morphemes. We conclude that children acquiring a transparent orthography exploit morpheme-based reading and spelling to face difficulties in processing long unfamiliar stimuli. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Vocabulary Word Instruction for Students Who Read Braille

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savaiano, Mackenzie E.; Compton, Donald L.; Hatton, Deborah D.; Lloyd, Blair P.

2016-01-01

The association made between the meaning, spelling, and pronunciation of a word has been shown to help children remember the meanings of words. The present study addressed whether the presence of a target word in Braille during instruction facilitated vocabulary learning more efficiently than an auditory-only instructional condition. The authors…

Universal Screening for Writing Risk in Kindergarten

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coker, David L., Jr.; Ritchey, Kristen D.

2014-01-01

Early identification of students at risk for writing disabilities is an important step in improving writing performance. Kindergarten students (n = 84) were administered a set of researcher-developed writing tasks (letter writing, sound spelling, word spelling, and sentence writing) and school-administered reading tasks ("Dynamic Indicators…

Assessing Specific Grapho-Phonemic Skills in Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Robbins, Kelly P.; Hosp, John L.; Hosp, Michelle K.; Flynn, Lindsay J.

2010-01-01

This study examines the relation between decoding and spelling performance on tasks that represent identical specific grapho-phonemic patterns. Elementary students (N = 206) were administered a 597 pseudoword decoding inventory representing 12 specific grapho-phonemic patterns and a 104 real-word spelling inventory representing identical…

Context and the Spelling-to-Sound Regularity Effect in Pronunciation.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parkin, Alan J.; Ilett, Alison

1986-01-01

Examines how spelling-to-sound irregularity affects pronunciation latencies when words are presented in a sentence, and concludes that pronunciation latencies are strongly affected by the type of preceding sentence, with the specific sentences producing shorter latencies than the general sentences. (HOD)

Influence of handwriting skills during spelling in primary and lower secondary grades

PubMed Central

Pontart, Virginie; Bidet-Ildei, Christel; Lambert, Eric; Morisset, Pauline; Flouret, Lisa; Alamargot, Denis

2013-01-01

We sought to identify, the impact of handwriting skills on the efficiency and temporal course of word spelling across Grades 2–9. Eighty-four students, drawn from primary and lower secondary schools, were asked to perform a dictation task to assess their word spelling. They also had to write out the letters of the alphabet, as well as their firstnames and surnames, from memory to assess their handwriting skills. Handwriting kinematics were recorded using a digitizing tablet and a computer running Eye and Pen software. Results revealed that graphomotor skills (as assessed by the name writing task) influenced the success and temporal course of spelling, but only in primary grades, whereas the influence of orthographic knowledge (as assessed by the alphabet task) could still be observed in the lower secondary grades, even if it ceased to influence the temporal course and only affected errors. We discuss what these findings tell us about changes in transcription processes over the course of child development. PMID:24204357

"Fragment errors" in deep dysgraphia: further support for a lexical hypothesis.

PubMed

Bormann, Tobias; Wallesch, Claus-W; Blanken, Gerhard

2008-07-01

In addition to various lexical errors, the writing of patients with deep dysgraphia may include a large number of segmental spelling errors, which increase towards the end of the word. Frequently, these errors involve deletion of two or more letters resulting in so-called "fragment errors". Different positions have been brought forward regarding their origin, including rapid decay of activation in the graphemic buffer and an impairment of more central (i.e., lexical or semantic) processing. We present data from a patient (M.D.) with deep dysgraphia who showed an increase of segmental spelling errors towards the end of the word. Several tasks were carried out to explore M.D.'s underlying functional impairment. Errors affected word-final positions in tasks like backward spelling and fragment completion. In a delayed copying task, length of the delay had no influence. In addition, when asked to recall three serially presented letters, a task which had not been carried out before, M.D. exhibited a preference for the first and the third letter and poor performance for the second letter. M.D.'s performance on these tasks contradicts the rapid decay account and instead supports a lexical-semantic account of segmental errors in deep dysgraphia. In addition, the results fit well with an implemented computational model of deep dysgraphia and segmental spelling errors.

The Multisyllabic Word Dilemma: Helping Students Build Meaning, Spell, and Read "Big" Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Patricia M.

1998-01-01

Looks at what is known about multisyllabic words, which is a lot more than educators knew when the previous generation of multisyllabic word instruction was created. Reviews the few studies that have carried out instructional approaches to increase students' ability to decode big words. Outlines a program of instruction, based on what is currently…

Linguistic pattern analysis of misspellings of typically developing writers in grades 1-9.

PubMed

Bahr, Ruth Huntley; Sillian, Elaine R; Berninger, Virginia W; Dow, Michael

2012-12-01

A mixed-methods approach, evaluating triple word-form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in Grades 1-9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected. Grade-level effects were analyzed with trend analysis. Qualitative analyses determined frequent error types and how use of specific linguistic features varied across grades. Phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors were noted across all grades, but orthographic errors predominated. Linear trends revealed developmental shifts in error proportions for the orthographic and morphological categories between Grades 4 and 5. Similar error types were noted across age groups, but the nature of linguistic feature error changed with age. Triple word-form theory was supported. By Grade 1, orthographic errors predominated, and phonological and morphological error patterns were evident. Morphological errors increased in relative frequency in older students, probably due to a combination of word-formation issues and vocabulary growth. These patterns suggest that normal spelling development reflects nonlinear growth and that it takes a long time to develop a robust orthographic lexicon that coordinates phonology, orthography, and morphology and supports word-specific, conventional spelling.

Lexical spelling in children and adolescents with specific language impairment: variations with the writing situation.

PubMed

Broc, Lucie; Bernicot, Josie; Olive, Thierry; Favart, Monik; Reilly, Judy; Quémart, Pauline; Uzé, Joël

2013-10-01

The goal of this study was to compare the lexical spelling performance of children and adolescents with specific language impairment (SLI) in two contrasting writing situations: a dictation of isolated words (a classic evaluative situation) and a narrative of a personal event (a communicative situation). Twenty-four children with SLI and 48 typically developing children participated in the study, split into two age groups: 7-11 and 12-18 years of age. Although participants with SLI made more spelling errors per word than typically developing participants of the same chronological age, there was a smaller difference between the two groups in the narratives than in the dictations. Two of the findings are particularly noteworthy: (1) Between 12 and 18 years of age, in communicative narration, the number of spelling errors of the SLI group was not different from that of the typically developing group. (2) In communicative narration, the participants with SLI did not make specific spelling errors (phonologically unacceptable), contrary to what was shown in the dictation. From an educational perspective or that of a remediation program, it must be stressed that the communicative narration provides children-and especially adolescents-with SLI an opportunity to demonstrate their improved lexical spelling abilities. Furthermore, the results encourage long-term lexical spelling education, as adolescents with SLI continue to show improvement between 12 and 18 years of age. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive neuropsychological analysis of differential reading and spelling disorder mechanisms in a patient with aphasia.

PubMed

Hashimoto, Kosei; Uno, Akira

2016-06-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if differential reading and spelling mechanisms were involved in a Japanese patient with aphasia. In our case, the patient scored low on all of the administered reading tasks, suggesting that both the reading lexical and non-lexical routes were impaired. In contrast, his writing-to-dictation score for Kana nonwords was high, suggesting that the spelling non-lexical route was intact. However, the patient scored low on a writing-to-dictation task comprised of high-familiarity Kanji words. The spelling lexical route was thought to be impaired. Therefore, the mechanism(s) involved in reading and spelling may differ in this case.

Invented spelling in kindergarten as a predictor of reading and spelling in Grade 1: A new pathway to literacy, or just the same road, less known?

PubMed

Ouellette, Gene; Sénéchal, Monique

2017-01-01

In this study we evaluated whether the sophistication of children's invented spellings in kindergarten was predictive of subsequent reading and spelling in Grade 1, while also considering the influence of well-known precursors. Children in their first year of schooling (mean age = 66 months; N = 171) were assessed on measures of oral vocabulary, alphabetic knowledge, phonological awareness, word reading and invented spelling; approximately 1 year later they were assessed on multiple measures of reading and spelling. Path modeling was pursued to evaluate a hypothesized unique, causal role of invented spelling in subsequent literacy outcomes. Results supported a model in which invented spelling contributed directly to concurrent reading along with alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness. Longitudinally, invented spelling influenced subsequent reading, along with alphabetic knowledge while mediating the connection between phonological awareness and early reading. Invented spelling also influenced subsequent conventional spelling along with phonological awareness, while mediating the influence of alphabetic knowledge. Invented spelling thus adds explanatory variance to literacy outcomes not entirely captured by well-studied code and language-related skills. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Words Their Way[TM]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2013

2013-01-01

"Words Their Way"[TM] is an approach to phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction for students in kindergarten through high school. The program can be implemented as a core or supplemental curriculum and aims to provide a practical way to study words with students. The purpose of word study (which involves examining, manipulating,…

A Preliminary Investigation of Racial Bias in Early Writing Curriculum-Based Measures

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kondisko, Joseph E.

2017-01-01

Using de-identified data, this study investigated the relationship between racial categories with curriculum-based early writing measures (CBM-W), which included word dictation, picture word sentence writing, and story prompt tasks for over 300 participants in Grades 1, 2, and 3. Words written, words spelled correctly, correct letter sequences,…

Error-related negativities during spelling judgments expose orthographic knowledge.

PubMed

Harris, Lindsay N; Perfetti, Charles A; Rickles, Benjamin

2014-02-01

In two experiments, we demonstrate that error-related negativities (ERNs) recorded during spelling decisions can expose individual differences in lexical knowledge. The first experiment found that the ERN was elicited during spelling decisions and that its magnitude was correlated with independent measures of subjects' spelling knowledge. In the second experiment, we manipulated the phonology of misspelled stimuli and observed that ERN magnitudes were larger when misspelled words altered the phonology of their correctly spelled counterparts than when they preserved it. Thus, when an error is made in a decision about spelling, the brain processes indexed by the ERN reflect both phonological and orthographic input to the decision process. In both experiments, ERN effect sizes were correlated with assessments of lexical knowledge and reading, including offline spelling ability and spelling-mediated vocabulary knowledge. These results affirm the interdependent nature of orthographic, semantic, and phonological knowledge components while showing that spelling knowledge uniquely influences the ERN during spelling decisions. Finally, the study demonstrates the value of ERNs in exposing individual differences in lexical knowledge. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Predicting early spelling difficulties in children with specific language impairment: a clinical perspective.

PubMed

Cordewener, Kim A H; Bosman, Anna M T; Verhoeven, Ludo

2012-01-01

This study focused on the precursors of spelling difficulties in first grade for children with specific language impairment (SLI). A sample of 58 second-year kindergartners in The Netherlands was followed until the end of first grade. Linguistic, phonological, orthographic, letter knowledge, memory, and nonverbal-reasoning skills were considered as precursors, as was spelling level at an earlier point in time. Spelling difficulties at the end of first grade were most accurately identified by letter knowledge at the beginning of first grade and word spelling at the middle of first grade. It is concluded that spelling development in children with SLI can be seen as an autocatalytic process in which, without intervention, poor spellers generally remain poor spellers, and good spellers remain good spellers. A focus on early spelling intervention is thus emphasized. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficacy of Using Vocabulary Flashcards in Braille

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Savaiano, Mackenzie E.; Lloyd, Blair P.; Hatton, Deborah D.

2017-01-01

This article reports on a study that examined whether vocabulary flashcards facilitate spelling acquisition. The study was designed to evaluate whether students who are blind can learn to spell words accurately and incidentally when academic vocabulary instruction is used. Auditory information was provided prior to the introduction of a flashcard,…

Explaining Variance in Comprehension for Students in a High-Poverty Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conradi, Kristin; Amendum, Steven J.; Liebfreund, Meghan D.

2016-01-01

This study examined the contributions of decoding, language, spelling, and motivation to the reading comprehension of elementary school readers in a high-poverty setting. Specifically, the research questions addressed whether and how the influences of word reading efficiency, semantic knowledge, reading self-concept, and spelling on reading…

Rapid Naming and Phonological Processing as Predictors of Reading and Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christo, Catherine; Davis, Jack

2008-01-01

This study examined the relationships between the cognitive processes of rapid naming and phonological processing and various literacy skills. Variables measured and used in this analysis were phonological processing, rapid naming, reading comprehension, isolated and nonsense word reading, and spelling. Data were collected from 65 second-to-fifth…

An Evaluation of the Word Triad Method for Monitoring Spelling Progress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frisby, Craig; Wang, Ze

2018-01-01

Although spelling skill progress has typically been studied within the context of students' responses to written story starters (Deno, Marsten, & Mirkin, 1982; Fuchs & Fuchs, 2011; Hosp, Hosp, & Howell, 2007; Shinn & Shinn, 2002), there has been little research conducted within a curriculum-based measurement framework that has…

The Effects of Spelling Consistency on Phonological Awareness: A Comparison of English and German

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha; Ziegler, Johannes C.; Richardson, Ulla

2005-01-01

Within alphabetic languages, spelling-to-sound consistency can differ dramatically. For example, English and German are very similar in their phonological and orthographic structure but not in their consistency. In English the letter "a" is pronounced differently in the words "bank," "ball," and "park,"…

In Her Own Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davis, Michelle R.

2006-01-01

"Education Week" Staff Writer Michelle R. Davis sat down with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, on January 9, 2006, in the secretary's office at the U.S. Department of Education. This article contains excerpts from that interview. Secretary Spellings notes that being a parent of school-age children has given her an unusual…

Identifying Predictors of End-of-Year Kindergarten Invented Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murray, Maria S.

2009-01-01

Recent evidence suggests that invented spelling is valuable in predicting reading development, revealing which prereading skills children possess and still need to learn, and promoting development of early literacy skills. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ability of letter-sound knowledge, phoneme awareness, and word reading…

Using Background Music To Enhance Memory and Improve Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Anderson, Scheree; Henke, Jeanette; McLaughlin, Maureen; Ripp, Mary; Tuffs, Patricia

This report describes a program to enhance spelling word retention through the use of background music. The targeted population consisted of elementary students in three middle class communities located in the southwestern suburbs of Chicago. The problems for poor spelling retention were documented through data revealing the number of students…

Spelling and Learning Style in Children.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Riding, R. J.; Tempest, J.

1986-01-01

Seventy-two 11-year-old students were tested on 32 dictated words containing two levels of both visual and phonemic complexity. Students were grouped within sexes on their extraversion scores on the Junior Eysenck Personality Inventory and quotients on the Raven's Matrices. Spelling performance was found to interact significantly with level of…

Children reading spoken words: interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy.

PubMed

Wegener, Signy; Wang, Hua-Chen; de Lissa, Peter; Robidoux, Serje; Nation, Kate; Castles, Anne

2018-05-01

There is an established association between children's oral vocabulary and their word reading but its basis is not well understood. Here, we present evidence from eye movements for a novel mechanism underlying this association. Two groups of 18 Grade 4 children received oral vocabulary training on one set of 16 novel words (e.g., 'nesh', 'coib'), but no training on another set. The words were assigned spellings that were either predictable from phonology (e.g., nesh) or unpredictable (e.g., koyb). These were subsequently shown in print, embedded in sentences. Reading times were shorter for orally familiar than unfamiliar items, and for words with predictable than unpredictable spellings but, importantly, there was an interaction between the two: children demonstrated a larger benefit of oral familiarity for predictable than for unpredictable items. These findings indicate that children form initial orthographic expectations about spoken words before first seeing them in print. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/jvpJwpKMM3E. © 2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Shared orthographic neuronal representations for spelling and reading.

PubMed

Purcell, Jeremy J; Jiang, Xiong; Eden, Guinevere F

2017-02-15

A central question in the study of the neural basis of written language is whether reading and spelling utilize shared orthographic representations. While recent studies employing fMRI to test this question report that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC) are active during both spelling and reading in the same subjects (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), the spatial resolution of fMRI limits the interpretation of these findings. Specifically, it is unknown if the neurons which encode orthography for reading are also involved in spelling of the same words. Here we address this question by employing an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging-adaptation (fMRI-A) paradigm designed to examine shared orthographic representations across spelling and reading. First, we identified areas that independently showed adaptation to reading, and adaptation to spelling. Then we identified spatial convergence for these two separate maps via a conjunction analysis. Consistent with previous studies (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), this analysis revealed the left dorsal IFG, vOTC and supplementary motor area. To further validate these observations, we then interrogated these regions using an across-task adaptation technique, and found adaptation across reading and spelling in the left dorsal IFG (BA 44/9). Our final analysis focused specifically on the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in the vOTC, whose variability in location among subjects requires the use of subject-specific identification mechanisms (Glezer and Riesenhuber, 2013). Using a functional localizer for reading, we defined the VWFA in each subject, and found adaptation effects for both within the spelling and reading conditions, respectively, as well as across spelling and reading. Because none of these effects were observed during a phonological/semantic control condition, we conclude that the left dorsal IFG and VWFA are involved in accessing the same orthography-specific representations for spelling and reading. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Shared Orthographic Neuronal Representations for Spelling and Reading

PubMed Central

Purcell, Jeremy J.; Jiang, Xiong; Eden, Guinevere F.

2017-01-01

A central question in the study of the neural basis of written language is whether reading and spelling utilize shared orthographic representations. While recent studies employing fMRI to test this question report that the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and ventral occipitotemporal cortex (vOTC) are active during both spelling and reading in the same subjects (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), the spatial resolution of fMRI limits the interpretation of these findings. Specifically, it is unknown if the neurons which encode orthography for reading are also involved in spelling of the same words. Here we address this question by employing an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging-adaptation (fMRI-A) paradigm designed to examine shared orthographic representations across spelling and reading. First, we identified areas that independently showed adaptation to reading, and adaptation to spelling. Then we identified spatial convergence for these two separate maps via a conjunction analysis. Consistent with previous studies (Purcell et al., 2011a; Rapp and Lipka, 2011), this analysis revealed the left dorsal IFG, vOTC and supplementary motor area. To further validate these observations, we then interrogated these regions using an across-task adaptation technique, and found adaptation across reading and spelling in the left dorsal IFG (BA 44/9). Our final analysis focused specifically on the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in the vOTC, whose variability in location among subjects requires the use of subject-specific identification mechanisms (Glezer and Riesenhuber, 2013). Using a functional localizer for reading, we defined the VWFA in each subject, and found adaptation effects for both within the spelling and reading conditions, respectively, as well as across spelling and reading. Because none of these effects were observed during a phonological/semantic control condition, we conclude that the left dorsal IFG and VWFA are involved in accessing the same orthography-specific representations for spelling and reading. PMID:28011250

Manipulating Instructions Strategically Affects Reliance on the Ventral-Lexical Reading Stream: Converging Evidence from Neuroimaging and Reaction Time

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cummine, Jacqueline; Gould, Layla; Zhou, Crystal; Hrybouski, Stan; Siddiqi, Zohaib; Chouinard, Brea; Borowsky, Ron

2013-01-01

Neurobiology of reading research has yet to explore whether reliance on the ventral-lexical stream during word reading can be enhanced by the instructed reading strategy, or whether it is impervious to such strategies. We examined Instructions: "name all" vs. "name words" (based on spelling), Word Type: "regular words" vs. "exception words", and…

Evaluating Word Prediction Software for Students with Physical Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mezei, Peter; Heller, Kathryn Wolff

2005-01-01

Although word prediction software was originally developed for individuals with physical disabilities, little research has been conducted featuring participants with physical disabilities. Using the Co:Writer 4000 word prediction software, three participants with physical disabilities improved typing rate and spelling accuracy, and two of these…

Learning New Words Affects Nonword Pronunciation in Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Khanna, Maya M.; Cortese, Michael J.; Birchwood, Katharine S.

2010-01-01

In two experiments we examined how children's nonword pronunciations are influenced by learning words. In Experiment 1, children pronounced nonwords before and after learning words sharing orthographic rimes with the nonwords. These rimes varied in spelling-to-sound consistency and regularity. Children's nonword pronunciations were more sensitive…

Strategy Choice Mediates the Link between Auditory Processing and Spelling

PubMed Central

Kwong, Tru E.; Brachman, Kyle J.

2014-01-01

Relations among linguistic auditory processing, nonlinguistic auditory processing, spelling ability, and spelling strategy choice were examined. Sixty-three undergraduate students completed measures of auditory processing (one involving distinguishing similar tones, one involving distinguishing similar phonemes, and one involving selecting appropriate spellings for individual phonemes). Participants also completed a modified version of a standardized spelling test, and a secondary spelling test with retrospective strategy reports. Once testing was completed, participants were divided into phonological versus nonphonological spellers on the basis of the number of words they spelled using phonological strategies only. Results indicated a) moderate to strong positive correlations among the different auditory processing tasks in terms of reaction time, but not accuracy levels, and b) weak to moderate positive correlations between measures of linguistic auditory processing (phoneme distinction and phoneme spelling choice in the presence of foils) and spelling ability for phonological spellers, but not for nonphonological spellers. These results suggest a possible explanation for past contradictory research on auditory processing and spelling, which has been divided in terms of whether or not disabled spellers seemed to have poorer auditory processing than did typically developing spellers, and suggest implications for teaching spelling to children with good versus poor auditory processing abilities. PMID:25198787

Strategy choice mediates the link between auditory processing and spelling.

PubMed

Kwong, Tru E; Brachman, Kyle J

2014-01-01

Relations among linguistic auditory processing, nonlinguistic auditory processing, spelling ability, and spelling strategy choice were examined. Sixty-three undergraduate students completed measures of auditory processing (one involving distinguishing similar tones, one involving distinguishing similar phonemes, and one involving selecting appropriate spellings for individual phonemes). Participants also completed a modified version of a standardized spelling test, and a secondary spelling test with retrospective strategy reports. Once testing was completed, participants were divided into phonological versus nonphonological spellers on the basis of the number of words they spelled using phonological strategies only. Results indicated a) moderate to strong positive correlations among the different auditory processing tasks in terms of reaction time, but not accuracy levels, and b) weak to moderate positive correlations between measures of linguistic auditory processing (phoneme distinction and phoneme spelling choice in the presence of foils) and spelling ability for phonological spellers, but not for nonphonological spellers. These results suggest a possible explanation for past contradictory research on auditory processing and spelling, which has been divided in terms of whether or not disabled spellers seemed to have poorer auditory processing than did typically developing spellers, and suggest implications for teaching spelling to children with good versus poor auditory processing abilities.

Development of a Frequency-based Measure of Syntactic Difficulty for Estimating Readability.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Selden, Ramsay

Readability estimates are usually based on measures of word difficulty and measures of sentence difficulty. Word difficulty is measured in two ways: by the structural size and complexity of words or by reference to phonomena of language use, such as word-list frequency or the regularity of spelling patterns. Sentence difficulty is measured only in…

Brain and Behavioral Assessment of Executive Functions for Self-Regulating Levels of Language in Reading Brain.

PubMed

Berninger, Virginia W; Richards, Todd L; Abbott, Robert D

2017-11-01

This brief research report examines brain-behavioral relationships specific to levels of language in the complex reading brain. The first specific aim was to examine prior findings for significant fMRI connectivity from four seeds (left precuneus, left occipital temporal, left supramarginal, left inferior frontal) for each of four levels of language-subword, word (word-specific spelling or affixed words), syntax (with and without homonym foils or affix foils), and multi-sentence text to identify significant fMRI connectivity (a) unique to the lower level of language when compared to the immediately higher adjacent level of language across subword-word, word-syntax, and syntax-text comparisons; and (b) involving a brain region associated with executive functions. The second specific aim was to correlate the magnitude of that connectivity with standard scores on tests of Focused Attention (D-K EFS Color Word Form Inhibition) and Switching Attention (Wolf & Denckla Rapid Automatic Switching). Seven correlations were significant. Focused Attention was significantly correlated with the word level (word-specific spellings of real words) fMRI task in left cingulum from left inferior frontal seed. Switching Attention was significantly correlated with the (a) subword level (grapheme-phoneme correspondence) fMRI task in left and right Cerebellum V from left supramarginal seed; (b) the word level (word-specific spelling) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed; (c) the syntax level (with and without homonym foils) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed and from left supramarginal seed; and (d) syntax level (with and without affix foils) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed. Results are discussed in reference to neuropsychological assessment of supervisory attention (focused and switching) for specific levels of language related to reading acquisition in students with and without language-related specific learning disabilities and self-regulation of the complex reading brain.

Brain and Behavioral Assessment of Executive Functions for Self-Regulating Levels of Language in Reading Brain

PubMed Central

Berninger, Virginia W.; Richards, Todd L.; Abbott, Robert D.

2017-01-01

This brief research report examines brain-behavioral relationships specific to levels of language in the complex reading brain. The first specific aim was to examine prior findings for significant fMRI connectivity from four seeds (left precuneus, left occipital temporal, left supramarginal, left inferior frontal) for each of four levels of language—subword, word (word-specific spelling or affixed words), syntax (with and without homonym foils or affix foils), and multi-sentence text to identify significant fMRI connectivity (a) unique to the lower level of language when compared to the immediately higher adjacent level of language across subword-word, word-syntax, and syntax-text comparisons; and (b) involving a brain region associated with executive functions. The second specific aim was to correlate the magnitude of that connectivity with standard scores on tests of Focused Attention (D-K EFS Color Word Form Inhibition) and Switching Attention (Wolf & Denckla Rapid Automatic Switching). Seven correlations were significant. Focused Attention was significantly correlated with the word level (word-specific spellings of real words) fMRI task in left cingulum from left inferior frontal seed. Switching Attention was significantly correlated with the (a) subword level (grapheme-phoneme correspondence) fMRI task in left and right Cerebellum V from left supramarginal seed; (b) the word level (word-specific spelling) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed; (c) the syntax level (with and without homonym foils) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed and from left supramarginal seed; and (d) syntax level (with and without affix foils) fMRI task in right Cerebellum V from left precuneus seed. Results are discussed in reference to neuropsychological assessment of supervisory attention (focused and switching) for specific levels of language related to reading acquisition in students with and without language-related specific learning disabilities and self-regulation of the complex reading brain. PMID:29104930

What is Dyslexia? | NIH MedlinePlus the Magazine

MedlinePlus

... words Difficulty understanding text that is read (poor comprehension) Problems with spelling Delayed speech (learning to talk ... of technology. Children with dyslexia may benefit from listening to books on tape or using word-processing ...

A Synthesis of Reading and Spelling Interventions and Their Effects on Spelling Outcomes for Students With Learning Disabilities

PubMed Central

Williams, Kelly J.; Walker, Melodee A.; Vaughn, Sharon; Wanzek, Jeanne

2016-01-01

Spelling is one of the most challenging areas for students with learning disabilities (LD), and improving spelling outcomes for these students is of high importance. In this synthesis, we examined the effects of spelling and reading interventions on spelling outcomes for students with LD in Grades K through 12. A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature published between 2004 and 2014 was conducted using electronic databases and hand searches of relevant journals. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to meet the following criteria: (a) Participants were identified with LD and were in Grades K through 12, (b) designs were either treatment/comparison or single case, (c) a reading or spelling intervention was implemented, (d) at least one spelling outcome was measured, and (e) instruction was in English. Ten studies met criteria for inclusion in the synthesis, and effectiveness ranged from ineffective to highly effective. Findings demonstrated that spelling outcomes for taught words were improved for students with LD with the use of explicit instruction or self-correction strategies. PMID:26733209

A Synthesis of Reading and Spelling Interventions and Their Effects on Spelling Outcomes for Students With Learning Disabilities.

PubMed

Williams, Kelly J; Walker, Melodee A; Vaughn, Sharon; Wanzek, Jeanne

Spelling is one of the most challenging areas for students with learning disabilities (LD), and improving spelling outcomes for these students is of high importance. In this synthesis, we examined the effects of spelling and reading interventions on spelling outcomes for students with LD in Grades K through 12. A systematic search of peer-reviewed literature published between 2004 and 2014 was conducted using electronic databases and hand searches of relevant journals. To be eligible for inclusion, studies had to meet the following criteria: (a) Participants were identified with LD and were in Grades K through 12, (b) designs were either treatment/comparison or single case, (c) a reading or spelling intervention was implemented, (d) at least one spelling outcome was measured, and (e) instruction was in English. Ten studies met criteria for inclusion in the synthesis, and effectiveness ranged from ineffective to highly effective. Findings demonstrated that spelling outcomes for taught words were improved for students with LD with the use of explicit instruction or self-correction strategies.

Morphology and Spelling in Arabic: Development and Interface

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Taha, Haitham; Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor

2017-01-01

In the current study, two experiments were carried out: the first tested the development of derivational root and word-pattern morphological awareness in Arabic; the second tested morphological processing in Arabic spelling. 143 Arabic native speaking children with normal reading skills in 2nd, 4th and 6th grade participated in the study. The…

Reading and Spelling in Adults: Are There Lexical and Sub-Lexical Subtypes?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burt, Jennifer S.; Heffernan, Maree E.

2012-01-01

The dual-route model of reading proposes distinct lexical and sub-lexical procedures for word reading and spelling. Lexically reliant and sub-lexically reliant reader subgroups were selected from 78 university students on the basis of their performance on lexical (orthographic) and sub-lexical (phonological) choice tests, and on irregular and…

An Uneasy Partnership: Accreditation and the Federal Government

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brittingham, Barbara

2008-01-01

For the past two years, accreditation has been the focus of attention by the current Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, and others who believe that accreditors, in the words of Spellings' Commission on the Future of Higher Education, should "make performance outcomes, including completion rates and student learning, the core of their…

Computer-Based Exercises for Learning to Read and Spell by Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reitsma, Pieter

2009-01-01

There is a surprising lack of systematic research evaluating the effects of reading exercises for young deaf children. Therefore, for this article, two computer-based exercises were developed and learning effects were determined by posttests. One (spelling oriented) exercise was to select the correct word among three orthographically similar…

Enhancing Vowel Discrimination Using Constructed Spelling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stewart, Katherine; Hayashi, Yusuke; Saunders, Kathryn

2010-01-01

In a computerized task, an adult with intellectual disabilities learned to construct consonant-vowel-consonant words in the presence of corresponding spoken words. During the initial assessment, the participant demonstrated high accuracy on one word group (containing the vowel-consonant units "it" and "un") but low accuracy on the other group…

Jungle Quest: Adventures in Creating a HyperStudio Word Study Program.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ludwig, Jessica; Green, Lauren

This paper describes the development, design, and implementation of an educational multimedia program. The program, "Jungle Quest," combined HyperStudio and word study in a game for classroom use. Methods for word study provide a carefully sequenced teaching of phonics, vocabulary, and spelling following children's natural stages of…

Morphological Awareness and Children's Writing: Accuracy, Error, and Invention

PubMed Central

McCutchen, Deborah; Stull, Sara

2014-01-01

This study examined the relationship between children's morphological awareness and their ability to produce accurate morphological derivations in writing. Fifth-grade U.S. students (n = 175) completed two writing tasks that invited or required morphological manipulation of words. We examined both accuracy and error, specifically errors in spelling and errors of the sort we termed morphological inventions, which entailed inappropriate, novel pairings of stems and suffixes. Regressions were used to determine the relationship between morphological awareness, morphological accuracy, and spelling accuracy, as well as between morphological awareness and morphological inventions. Linear regressions revealed that morphological awareness uniquely predicted children's generation of accurate morphological derivations, regardless of whether or not accurate spelling was required. A logistic regression indicated that morphological awareness was also uniquely predictive of morphological invention, with higher morphological awareness increasing the probability of morphological invention. These findings suggest that morphological knowledge may not only assist children with spelling during writing, but may also assist with word production via generative experimentation with morphological rules during sentence generation. Implications are discussed for the development of children's morphological knowledge and relationships with writing. PMID:25663748

Dynamic versus Static Dictionary with and without Printed Focal Words in e-Book Reading as Facilitator for Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Korat, Ofra; Levin, Iris; Ben-Shabt, Anat; Shneor, Dafna; Bokovza, Limor

2014-01-01

We investigated the extent to which a dictionary embedded in an e-book with static or dynamic visuals with and without printed focal words affects word learning. A pretest-posttest design was used to measure gains of expressive words' meaning and their spelling. The participants included 250 Hebrew-speaking second graders from…

Homophone dominance at the whole-word and sub-word levels: spelling errors suggest full-form storage of regularly inflected verb forms.

PubMed

Sandra, Dominiek

2010-01-01

Two experiments and two corpus studies focus on homophone dominance in the spelling of regularly inflected verb forms, the phenomenon that the higher-frequency homophone causes more intrusion errors on the lower-frequency one than vice versa. Experiment 1 was a speeded dictation task focusing on the Dutch imperative, a verb form whose formation rule is poorly known. A clear-cut effect of homophone dominance was found. This effect was equally strong when the target imperative was preceded by another imperative in the same sentence whose pronunciation reflected the spelling rule. Experiment 2 indicated that the effect of homophone dominance cannot be reduced to an effect of recency. Language users cannot discriminate a recently seen verb form when shown the two homophones. Instead, they choose the most frequent spelling pattern. In Corpus Study 1 a Google search on the world wide web revealed a sublexical effect of homophone dominance in the spelling errors on regular past tense forms. Corpus Study 2 demonstrated the validity of the search method. The sublexical effect of homophone dominance, involving units that cut across the stem-suffix boundary, lends itself naturally to a representational model of the connectionist or analogical processing tradition but is hard to reconcile with a rule-based account.

Linguistic Pattern Analysis of Misspellings of Typically Developing Writers in Grades 1 to 9

PubMed Central

Bahr, Ruth Huntley; Silliman, Elaine R.; Berninger, Virginia W.; Dow, Michael

2012-01-01

Purpose A mixed methods approach, evaluating triple word form theory, was used to describe linguistic patterns of misspellings. Method Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 888 typically developing students in grades 1–9. Errors were coded by category (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic feature affected. Grade level effects were analyzed with trend analysis. Qualitative analyses determined frequent error types and how use of specific linguistic features varied across grades. Results Phonological, orthographic, and morphological errors were noted across all grades, but orthographic errors predominated. Linear trends revealed developmental shifts in error proportions for the orthographic and morphological categories between grades 4–5. Similar error types were noted across age groups but the nature of linguistic feature error changed with age. Conclusions Triple word-form theory was supported. By grade 1, orthographic errors predominated and phonological and morphological error patterns were evident. Morphological errors increased in relative frequency in older students, probably due to a combination of word-formation issues and vocabulary growth. These patterns suggest that normal spelling development reflects non-linear growth and that it takes a long time to develop a robust orthographic lexicon that coordinates phonology, orthography, and morphology and supports word-specific, conventional spelling. PMID:22473834

Preliteracy Speech Sound Production Skill and Linguistic Characteristics of Grade 3 Spellings: A Study Using the Templin Archive

PubMed Central

Masterson, Julie J.; Preston, Jonathan L.

2015-01-01

Purpose This archival investigation examined the relationship between preliteracy speech sound production skill (SSPS) and spelling in Grade 3 using a dataset in which children's receptive vocabulary was generally within normal limits, speech therapy was not provided until Grade 2, and phonological awareness instruction was discouraged at the time data were collected. Method Participants (N = 250), selected from the Templin Archive (Templin, 2004), varied on prekindergarten SSPS. Participants' real word spellings in Grade 3 were evaluated using a metric of linguistic knowledge, the Computerized Spelling Sensitivity System (Masterson & Apel, 2013). Relationships between kindergarten speech error types and later spellings also were explored. Results Prekindergarten children in the lowest SPSS (7th percentile) scored poorest among articulatory subgroups on both individual spelling elements (phonetic elements, junctures, and affixes) and acceptable spelling (using relatively more omissions and illegal spelling patterns). Within the 7th percentile subgroup, there were no statistical spelling differences between those with mostly atypical speech sound errors and those with mostly typical speech sound errors. Conclusions Findings were consistent with predictions from dual route models of spelling that SSPS is one of many variables associated with spelling skill and that children with impaired SSPS are at risk for spelling difficulty. PMID:26380965

The Structure of Esperanto.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moore, John

1980-01-01

Gives a brief description of the features of Esperanto: phonetic spelling, a regular grammar with no exceptions to rules, an international vocabulary with a rule for adding new words, and a word-building system making full use of affixes. (Author/MES)

A Comparison of Medical Terminology Exam Scores of Students Studying by Computer with Students Studying by Slide-Tape.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dunkle, Sondra

Learning medical terminology requires an ability to memorize word definitions, to spell the words, and to know the meaning of word parts so that new words can be analyzed. Students who enroll in the medical terminology course at California State University, Fresno, come from a variety of backgrounds, abilities, and directions. Past experience…

Cross-language Transfer of Metalinguistic Skills: Evidence from Spelling English Words by Korean Students in Grades 4, 5 and 6.

PubMed

Yeon, Sookkyung; Bae, Han Suk; Joshi, R Malatesha

2017-11-01

The present study examined unique and shared contributions of Korean (first language) phonological, orthographic and morphological awareness (PA, OA and MA, respectively) to English (second/foreign language) spelling among 287 fourth-grade, fifth-grade and sixth-grade Korean children. Korean measures of PA, OA and MA were administered, in addition to English vocabulary and spelling measures. Results from structural equation modelling showed that PA, OA and MA were caused by one common construct, metalinguistic awareness (META), and the contribution of Korean META to English spelling was statistically significant, controlling for English vocabulary. In particular, Korean MA and PA played unique roles in explaining English spelling; whereas Korean OA did not significantly contribute to English spelling. Findings from the present study provided empirical evidence of first language META transfer effect on second/foreign language spelling development. Educational implications and future research ideas are discussed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Orthography-Induced Length Contrasts in the Second Language Phonological Systems of L2 Speakers of English: Evidence from Minimal Pairs.

PubMed

Bassetti, Bene; Sokolović-Perović, Mirjana; Mairano, Paolo; Cerni, Tania

2018-06-01

Research shows that the orthographic forms ("spellings") of second language (L2) words affect speech production in L2 speakers. This study investigated whether English orthographic forms lead L2 speakers to produce English homophonic word pairs as phonological minimal pairs. Targets were 33 orthographic minimal pairs, that is to say homophonic words that would be pronounced as phonological minimal pairs if orthography affects pronunciation. Word pairs contained the same target sound spelled with one letter or two, such as the /n/ in finish and Finnish (both /'fɪnɪʃ/ in Standard British English). To test for effects of length and type of L2 exposure, we compared Italian instructed learners of English, Italian-English late bilinguals with lengthy naturalistic exposure, and English natives. A reading-aloud task revealed that Italian speakers of English L2 produce two English homophonic words as a minimal pair distinguished by different consonant or vowel length, for instance producing the target /'fɪnɪʃ/ with a short [n] or a long [nː] to reflect the number of consonant letters in the spelling of the words finish and Finnish. Similar effects were found on the pronunciation of vowels, for instance in the orthographic pair scene-seen (both /siːn/). Naturalistic exposure did not reduce orthographic effects, as effects were found both in learners and in late bilinguals living in an English-speaking environment. It appears that the orthographic form of L2 words can result in the establishment of a phonological contrast that does not exist in the target language. Results have implications for models of L2 phonological development.

Can Adult Low-Skilled Literacy Learners Assess and Discuss Their Own Spelling Knowledge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Viise, Neva M.; Austin, Ottilie F.

2005-01-01

This qualitative study investigates the ability of adult low-skilled readers to talk about the thought processes and phonetic strategies they use to make decisions about their spelling. Four adult learners, all exhibiting word knowledge at a second-grade level or below, participated in individual 45-minute audiotaped interviews. Selected portions…

Length Effects in Pseudo-Word Spelling: Stronger in Dyslexic than in Non-Dyslexic Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Juul, Holger; Petersen, Dorthe Klint

2017-01-01

It is often discussed whether dyslexics show a deviant pattern of reading and spelling development when compared to typically developing students, or whether they follow the same pattern as other students, only at markedly slower rate. The present cross-sectional study investigated phonological encoding skills in dyslexic Danish students. We…

The Relationship between Rapid Naming and Word Spelling in English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stainthorp, Rhona; Powell, Daisy; Stuart, Morag

2013-01-01

A study of the concurrent relationships between naming speed, phonological awareness and spelling ability in 146 children in Years 3 and 4 of state-funded schools in South-East England (equivalent to US Grades 2 and 3) is reported. Seventy-two children identified as having normal phonological awareness but reduced rapid automatised naming (RAN)…

Effects of the Copy-Cover-Compare Strategy on Acquisition, Maintenance, and Generalization of Spelling Sight Words for Elementary Students with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moser, Lauren A.; Fishley, Katelyn M.; Konrad, Moira; Hessler, Terri

2012-01-01

Students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often struggle with spelling. Research shows this population benefits from self-management interventions, structured practice opportunities, and immediate feedback--all components of the copy-cover-compare strategy. This empirical investigation used a multiple-baseline experimental…

Morphology and Spelling in French Students with Dyslexia: The Case of Silent Final Letters

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quémart, Pauline; Casalis, Séverine

2017-01-01

Spelling is a challenge for individuals with dyslexia. Phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence rules are highly inconsistent in French, which make them very difficult to master, in particular for dyslexics. One recurrent manifestation of this inconsistency is the presence of silent letters at the end of words. Many of these silent letters perform a…

The Influence of Phonological Mechanisms in Written Spelling of Profoundly Deaf Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colombo, Lucia; Arfe, Barbara; Bronte, Tiziana

2012-01-01

In the present study, the effect of phonological and working memory mechanisms involved in spelling Italian single words was explored in two groups of children matched for grade level: a group of normally hearing children and a group of pre-verbally deaf children, with severe-to-profound hearing loss. Three-syllable and four-syllable familiar…

French and Spanish-Speaking Children Use Different Visual and Motor Units during Spelling Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kandel, Sonia; Valdois, Sylviane

2006-01-01

This study used a copying task to examine spelling acquisition in French and Spanish from a perception and action perspective. Experiment 1 compared French and Spanish-speaking monolingual children's performance. Experiment 2 analysed the behaviour of bilingual children when copying words in French and Spanish. Gaze lift analysis showed that in…

Cover-Copy-Compare and Spelling: One versus Three Repetitions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erion, Joel; Davenport, Cindy; Rodax, Nicole; Scholl, Bethany; Hardy, Jennifer

2009-01-01

Cover, copy, compare (CCC) has been used with success to improve spelling skills. This study adds to existing research by completing an analysis of the rewriting component of the intervention. The impact of varying the number of times a subject copied a word following an error was examined with four elementary age students. An adaptive alternating…

The Association between Semantic Dementia and Surface Dyslexia in Japanese

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fushimi, Takao; Komori, Kenjiro; Ikeda, Manabu; Lambon, Matthew A.; Patterson, Ralph; Patterson, Karalyn

2009-01-01

One theory about reading suggests that producing the correct pronunciations of written words, particularly less familiar words with an atypical spelling-sound relationship, relies in part on knowledge of the word's meaning. This hypothesis has been supported by reports of surface dyslexia in large case-series studies of English-speaking/reading…

The Meaning of Meaning, Etc.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nilsen, Don L. F.

This paper attempts to dispel a number of misconceptions about the nature of meaning, namely that: (1) synonyms are words that have the same meanings, (2) antonyms are words that have opposite meanings, (3) homonyms are words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings, (4) converses are antonyms rather than synonyms, (5)…

Adults with reading disabilities: converting a meta-analysis to practice.

PubMed

Swanson, H Lee

2012-01-01

This article reviews the results of a meta-analysis of the experimental published literature that compares the academic, cognitive, and behavioral performance of adults with reading disabilities (RD) with average achieving adult readers. The meta-analysis shows that deficits independent of the classification measures emerged for adults with RD on measures of vocabulary, math, spelling, and specific cognitive process related to naming speed, phonological processing, and verbal memory. The results also showed that adults with high verbal IQs (scores > 100) but low word recognition standard scores (< 90) yielded greater deficits related to their average reading counterparts when compared to studies that included adults with RD with verbal IQ and reading scores in the same low range. Implications of the findings related to assessment and intervention are discussed.

Helping Remedial Readers Master the Reading Vocabulary through a Seven Step Method.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aaron, Robert L.

1981-01-01

An outline of seven important steps for teaching vocabulary development includes components of language development, visual memory, visual-auditory perception, speeded recall, spelling, reading the word in a sentence, and word comprehension in written context. (JN)

Individual differences in automatic semantic priming.

PubMed

Andrews, Sally; Lo, Steson; Xia, Violet

2017-05-01

This research investigated whether masked semantic priming in a semantic categorization task that required classification of words as animals or nonanimals was modulated by individual differences in lexical proficiency. A sample of 89 skilled readers, assessed on reading comprehension, vocabulary and spelling ability, classified target words preceded by brief (50 ms) masked primes that were either congruent or incongruent with the category of the target. Congruent primes were also selected to be either high (e.g., hawk EAGLE, pistol RIFLE) or low (e.g., mole EAGLE, boots RIFLE) in semantic feature overlap with the target. "Overall proficiency," indexed by high performance on both a "semantic composite" measure of reading comprehension and vocabulary and a "spelling composite," was associated with stronger congruence priming from both high and low feature overlap primes for animal exemplars, but only predicted priming from low overlap primes for nonexemplars. Classification of high frequency nonexemplars was also significantly modulated by an independent "spelling-meaning" factor, indexed by the discrepancy between the semantic and spelling composites, because relatively higher scores on the semantic than the spelling composite were associated with stronger semantic priming. These findings show that higher lexical proficiency is associated with stronger evidence of automatic semantic priming and suggest that individual differences in lexical quality modulate the division of labor between orthographic and semantic processing in early lexical retrieval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling. 10th Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hiskes, Dolores G.

2011-01-01

This tenth edition of the best-selling book teaches reading using sounds and spelling patterns. These sounds and patterns are introduced one at a time, and slowly built into words, syllables, phrases, and sentences. Simple step-by-step directions begin every lesson. Although originally designed for K-2 emergent readers, this award-winning book is…

English Spelling: The Simple, The Fancy, The Insane, The Tricky, and The Scrunched Up. "Great Idea" Reprint Series #612.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCabe, Don

The author explains the five-pronged approach to reading and spelling through classifying words into "simple,""fancy,""insane,""tricky," and "scrunched up" categories, and reports average gains of two grade levels in one semester by junior high school students with severe behavioral problems who learned the approach. Examples of the five word…

A Study of Text-to-Speech (TTS) in Children's English Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Yi-Ching; Liao, Lung-Chuan

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of the digital material incorporated into Text-to- Speech system for students' English spelling. The digital material was made on the basis of the Spelling Bee vocabulary list (approximately 300 words) issued by the selected school. 21 third graders from a private bilingual school in Taiwan were…

Spelling in Adolescents with Dyslexia: Errors and Modes of Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tops, Wim; Callens, Maaike; Bijn, Evi; Brysbaert, Marc

2014-01-01

In this study we focused on the spelling of high-functioning students with dyslexia. We made a detailed classification of the errors in a word and sentence dictation task made by 100 students with dyslexia and 100 matched control students. All participants were in the first year of their bachelor's studies and had Dutch as mother tongue. Three…

Effects of an App Incorporating Systematic Instruction to Teach Spelling to Students with Developmental Delays

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ault, Melinda Jones; Baggerman, Melanie A.; Horn, Channon K.

2017-01-01

This study used a multiple probe (conditions) design across behaviors to investigate the effects of an app for the tablet computer to teach spelling of academic content words to four students with developmental disabilities. The app delivered instruction using a model-lead-test format and students typed on the on-screen keyboard. The study also…

What's in a Word? Some Ideas to Help with Spelling Awareness. P.E.N. (Primary English Notes) 50.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kelly, Barbara

1985-01-01

The teaching activities presented in this pamphlet present some ways of helping children acquire a few "mechanisms" to support exploration, growth, and search in language learning and, more specifically, in spelling awareness. The pamphlet begins with a discussion of the context for learning strategies to use in exploring language. Then…

From Thought to Words to Print: Early Literacy Development in Grade 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roessingh, Hetty; Elgie, Susan

2014-01-01

This study examines the relationship of the underlying skills of printing, spelling and vocabulary choices as they influence the quality of writing at the end of Grade 2. Four classes of Grade 2 (N = 85) writing in response to an expository prompt were scored holistically on a trait based rubric, then scored for spelling accuracy and…

Voices on Word Matters: Learning about Phonics and Spelling in the Literacy Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fountas, Irene C., Ed.; Pinnell, Gay Su, Ed.

Extending the editors' system for word study, this book presents essays by scholars and practitioners who explore letter and word learning in a variety of reading, writing, and language contexts in the primary classroom, with articles that range from detailed observations of individual readers and writers to full-scale analyses of classroom…

Phonological Codes Are Assembled before Word Fixation: Evidence from Boundary Paradigm in Sentence Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miellet, Sebastien; Sparrow, Laurent

2004-01-01

This experiment employed the boundary paradigm during sentence reading to explore the nature of early phonological coding in reading. Fixation durations were shorter when the parafoveal preview was the correct word than when it was a spelling control pseudoword. In contrast, there was no significant difference between correct word and…

Phonetic Symbols through Audiolingual Method to Improve the Students' Listening Skill

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samawiyah, Zuhrotun; Saifuddin, Muhammad

2016-01-01

Phonetic symbols present linguistics feature to how the words are pronounced or spelled and they offer a way to easily identify and recognize the words. Phonetic symbols were applied in this research to give the students clear input and a comprehension toward English words. Moreover, these phonetic symbols were applied within audio-lingual method…

Learning about Spelling Sequences: The Role of Onsets and Rimes in Analogies in Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goswami, Usha

1991-01-01

In one experiment, children learned more about consonant blends at the onset than at the end of words. In a second experiment, children learned more about rhyming vowel-consonant blend sequences at the end of words than those at the beginning of words, where the vowel extended the onset. (BC)

Never Trust Your Word Processor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linke, Dirk

2009-01-01

In this article, the author talks about the auto correction mode of word processors that leads to a number of problems and describes an example in biochemistry exams that shows how word processors can lead to mistakes in databases and in papers. The author contends that, where this system is applied, spell checking should not be left to a word…

When experience meets language statistics: Individual variability in processing English compound words.

PubMed

Falkauskas, Kaitlin; Kuperman, Victor

2015-11-01

Statistical patterns of language use demonstrably affect language comprehension and language production. This study set out to determine whether the variable amount of exposure to such patterns leads to individual differences in reading behavior as measured via eye-movements. Previous studies have demonstrated that more proficient readers are less influenced by distributional biases in language (e.g., frequency, predictability, transitional probability) than poor readers. We hypothesized that a probabilistic bias that is characteristic of written but not spoken language would preferentially affect readers with greater exposure to printed materials in general and to the specific pattern engendering the bias. Readers of varying reading experience were presented with sentences including English compound words that can occur in 2 spelling formats with differing probabilities: concatenated (windowsill, used 40% of the time) or spaced (window sill, 60%). Linear mixed effects multiple regression models fitted to the eye-movement measures showed that the probabilistic bias toward the presented spelling had a stronger facilitatory effect on compounds that occurred more frequently (in any spelling) or belonged to larger morphological families, and on readers with higher scores on a test of exposure-to-print. Thus, the amount of support toward the compound's spelling is effectively exploited when reading, but only when the spelling patterns are entrenched in an individual's mental lexicon via overall exposure to print and to compounds with alternating spelling. We argue that research on the interplay of language use and structure is incomplete without proper characterization of how particular individuals, with varying levels of experience and skill, learn these language structures. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

When experience meets language statistics: Individual variability in processing English compound words

PubMed Central

Falkauskas, Kaitlin; Kuperman, Victor

2015-01-01

Statistical patterns of language use demonstrably affect language comprehension and language production. This study set out to determine whether the variable amount of exposure to such patterns leads to individual differences in reading behaviour as measured via eye-movements. Previous studies have demonstrated that more proficient readers are less influenced by distributional biases in language (e.g. frequency, predictability, transitional probability) than poor readers. We hypothesized that a probabilistic bias that is characteristic of written but not spoken language would preferentially affect readers with greater exposure to printed materials in general and to the specific pattern engendering the bias. Readers of varying reading experience were presented with sentences including English compound words that can occur in two spelling formats with differing probabilities: concatenated (windowsill, used 40% of the time) or spaced (window sill, 60%). Linear mixed effects multiple regression models fitted to the eye-movement measures showed that the probabilistic bias towards the presented spelling had a stronger facilitatory effect on compounds that occurred more frequently (in any spelling) or belonged to larger morphological families, and on readers with higher scores on a test of exposure-to-print. Thus, the amount of support towards the compound’s spelling is effectively exploited when reading, but only when the spelling patterns are entrenched in an individual’s mental lexicon via overall exposure to print and to compounds with alternating spelling. We argue that research on the interplay of language use and structure is incomplete without proper characterization of how particular individuals, with varying levels of experience and skill, learn these language structures. PMID:26076328

Academic abilities and glycaemic control in children and young people with Type 1 diabetes mellitus.

PubMed

Semenkovich, K; Patel, P P; Pollock, A B; Beach, K A; Nelson, S; Masterson, J J; Hershey, T; Arbeláez, A M

2016-05-01

To determine if children and young people aged < 23 years with Type 1 diabetes differ in academic ability from age-matched control subjects without Type 1 diabetes and whether academic scores are related to glycaemic control. Using a cross-sectional study design, we administered cognitive and academic tests (Woodcock-Johnson III Spatial Relations, General Information, Letter-Word Recognition, Calculation and Spelling tests) to young people with Type 1 diabetes (n=61) and control subjects (n=26) aged 9-22 years. The groups did not differ in age or gender. Participants with Type 1 diabetes had a disease duration of 5-17.7 years. History of glycaemic control (HbA1c , diabetic ketoacidosis and severe hypoglycaemic episodes) was obtained via medical records and interviews. The participants with Type 1 diabetes had a lower mean estimated verbal intelligence (IQ) level compared with those in the control group (P=0.04). Greater exposure to hyperglycaemia over time was associated with lower spelling abilities within the group with Type 1 diabetes (P=0.048), even after controlling for age, gender, socio-economic status, blood glucose level at time of testing and verbal IQ (P=0.01). History of severe hypoglycaemia or ketoacidosis was not associated with differences in academic abilities. In children and young people, Type 1 diabetes was associated with a lower verbal IQ. Moreover, increased exposure to hyperglycaemia was associated with lower spelling performance. These results imply that hyperglycaemia can affect cognitive function and/or learning processes that may affect academic achievement. © 2015 Diabetes UK.

EEG-based time and spatial interpretation of activation areas for relaxation and words writing between poor and capable dyslexic children.

PubMed

Mohamad, N B; Lee, Khuan Y; Mansor, W; Mahmoodin, Z; Fadzal, C W N F C W; Amirin, S

2015-01-01

Symptoms of dyslexia such as difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition, and/or poor spelling as well as decoding abilities, are easily misinterpreted as laziness and defiance amongst school children. Indeed, 37.9% of 699 school dropouts and failures are diagnosed as dyslexic. Currently, Screening for dyslexia relies heavily on therapists, whom are few and subjective, yet objective methods are still unavailable. EEG has long been a popular method to study the cognitive processes in human such as language processing and motor activity. However, its interpretation is limited to time and frequency domain, without visual information, which is still useful. Here, our research intends to illustrate an EEG-based time and spatial interpretation of activated brain areas for the poor and capable dyslexic during the state of relaxation and words writing, being the first attempt ever reported. From the 2D distribution of EEG spectral at the activation areas and its progress with time, it is observed that capable dyslexics are able to relax compared to poor dyslexics. During the state of words writing, neural activities are found higher on the right hemisphere than the left hemisphere of the capable dyslexics, which suggests a neurobiological compensation pathway in the right hemisphere, during reading and writing, which is not observed in the poor dyslexics.

The Role of Phonological versus Morphological Skills in the Development of Arabic Spelling: An Intervention Study.

PubMed

Taha, Haitham; Saiegh-Haddad, Elinor

2016-06-01

The current study investigated the contribution of two linguistic intervention programs, phonological and morphological to the development of word spelling among skilled and poor native Arabic readers, in three grades: second, fourth and sixth. The participants were assigned to three experimental groups: morphological intervention, phonological intervention and a non-intervention control group. Phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and spelling abilities were tested before and after the intervention. Participants from both linguistic intervention programs and in all grades made significant progress in linguistic awareness and spelling after the intervention. The results showed that both intervention programs were successful in promoting children's spelling skills in both groups. Also, older poor readers showed a stronger response to the morphological intervention than the older skilled readers. A transfer effect was found with the phonological training contributing to the morphological skills and vice versa. The results of the current study were discussed in the light of developmental and psycholinguistic views of spelling acquisition as well as the characteristics of Arabic language and orthography.

A test of the role of the medial temporal lobe in single-word decoding.

PubMed

Osipowicz, Karol; Rickards, Tyler; Shah, Atif; Sharan, Ashwini; Sperling, Michael; Kahn, Waseem; Tracy, Joseph

2011-01-15

The degree to which the MTL system contributes to effective language skills is not well delineated. We sought to determine if the MTL plays a role in single-word decoding in healthy, normal skilled readers. The experiment follows from the implications of the dual-process model of single-word decoding, which provides distinct predictions about the nature of MTL involvement. The paradigm utilized word (regular and irregularly spelled words) and pseudoword (phonetically regular) stimuli that differed in their demand for non-lexical as opposed lexical decoding. The data clearly showed that the MTL system was not involved in single word decoding in skilled, native English readers. Neither the hippocampus nor the MTL system as a whole showed significant activation during lexical or non-lexical based decoding. The results provide evidence that lexical and non-lexical decoding are implemented by distinct but overlapping neuroanatomical networks. Non-lexical decoding appeared most uniquely associated with cuneus and fusiform gyrus activation biased toward the left hemisphere. In contrast, lexical decoding appeared associated with right middle frontal and supramarginal, and bilateral cerebellar activation. Both these decoding operations appeared in the context of a shared widespread network of activations including bilateral occipital cortex and superior frontal regions. These activations suggest that the absence of MTL involvement in either lexical or non-lexical decoding appears likely a function of the skilled reading ability of our sample such that whole-word recognition and retrieval processes do not utilize the declarative memory system, in the case of lexical decoding, and require only minimal analysis and recombination of the phonetic elements of a word, in the case of non-lexical decoding. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Test of the Role of the Medial Temporal Lobe in Single-Word Decoding

PubMed Central

Osipowicz, Karol; Rickards, Tyler; Shah, Atif; Sharan, Ashwini; Sperling, Michael; Kahn, Waseem; Tracy, Joseph

2012-01-01

The degree to which the MTL system contributes to effective language skills is not well delineated. We sought to determine if the MTL plays a role in single-word decoding in healthy, normal skilled readers. The experiment follows from the implications of the dual-process model of single-word decoding, which provides distinct predictions about the nature of MTL involvement. The paradigm utilized word (regular and irregularly spelled words) and pseudoword (phonetically regular) stimuli that differed in their demand for non-lexical as opposed lexical decoding. The data clearly showed that the MTL system was not involved in single word decoding in skilled, native English readers. Neither the hippocampus, nor the MTL system as a whole showed significant activation during lexical or non-lexical based decoding. The results provide evidence that lexical and non-lexical decoding are implemented by distinct but overlapping neuroanatomical networks. Non-lexical decoding appeared most uniquely associated with cuneus and fusiform gyrus activation biased toward the left hemisphere. In contrast, lexical decoding appeared associated with right middle frontal and supramarginal, and bilateral cerebellar activation. Both these decoding operations appeared in the context of a shared widespread network of activations including bilateral occipital cortex and superior frontal regions. These activations suggest that the absence of MTL involvement in either lexical or non-lexical decoding appears likely a function of the skilled reading ability of our sample such that whole-word recognition and retrieval processes do not utilize the declarative memory system, in the case of lexical decoding, and require only minimal analysis and recombination of the phonetic elements of a word, in the case of non-lexical decoding. PMID:20884357

Computer aided lexicography

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sklenář, Ivan; Kříž, Václav

1990-11-01

Programs with a natural-language user interface and text-processing programs require a vocabulary providing the mapping of the individual word form onto a lexeme, e.g. "says", "said", "saying"→"see". Examples of such programs are indexing programs for information retrieval, and spelling correctors for text-processing systems. The lexicographical task of such a computer vocabulary is especially difficult for Slavic languages, because their morphological structure is complex. An average Czech verb, for example, has 25 forms, and we have identified more than 100 paradigms for verbs. In order to support the creation of a Czech vocabulary, we have designed a system of programs for paradigm identification and derivation of words. The result of our effort is a vocabulary comprising 110 000 words and 1250 000 word forms. This vocabulary was used for the PASSAT system in the Czechoslovak Press Agency. This vocabulary may also be used in a spelling corrector. However, for such an application the vocabulary must be compressed into a compact form in order to shorten the access times. Compression is based on the paradigmatic structure of morphology which defines suffix sets for each word.

Relationships between Eye Movements during Sentence Reading Comprehension, Word Spelling and Reading, and DTI and fmri Connectivity In Students with and without Dysgraphia or Dyslexia

PubMed Central

Yagle, Kevin; Richards, Todd; Askren, Katie; Mestre, Zoe; Beers, Scott; Abbott, Robert; Nagy, William; Boord, Peter; Berninger, Virginia

2017-01-01

While eye movements were recorded and brains scanned, 29 children with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) decided if sentences they read (half with only correctly spelled words and half with homonym foils) were meaningful. Significant main effects were found for diagnostic groups (non-SLD control, dysgraphia control, and dyslexia) in total fixation (dwell) time, total number of fixations, and total regressions in during saccades; the dyslexia group had longer and more fixations and made more regressions in during saccades than either control group. The dyslexia group also differed from both control groups in (a) fractional anisotropy in left optic radiation and (b) silent word reading fluency on a task in which surrounding letters can be distracting, consistent with Rayner's selective attention dyslexia model. Different profiles for non-SLD control, dysgraphia, and dyslexia groups were identified in correlations between total fixation time, total number of fixations, regressions in during saccades, magnitude of gray matter connectivity during the fMRI sentence reading comprehension from left occipital temporal cortex seed with right BA44 and from left inferior frontal gyrus with right inferior frontoccipital fasciculus, and normed word-specific spelling and silent word reading fluency measures. The dysgraphia group was more likely than the non-SLD control or dyslexia groups to show negative correlations between eye movement outcomes and sentences containing incorrect homonym foils. Findings are discussed in reference to a systems approach in future sentence reading comprehension research that integrates eye movement, brain, and literacy measures. PMID:28936361

Relationships between Eye Movements during Sentence Reading Comprehension, Word Spelling and Reading, and DTI and fmri Connectivity In Students with and without Dysgraphia or Dyslexia.

PubMed

Yagle, Kevin; Richards, Todd; Askren, Katie; Mestre, Zoe; Beers, Scott; Abbott, Robert; Nagy, William; Boord, Peter; Berninger, Virginia

2017-01-01

While eye movements were recorded and brains scanned, 29 children with and without specific learning disabilities (SLDs) decided if sentences they read (half with only correctly spelled words and half with homonym foils) were meaningful. Significant main effects were found for diagnostic groups (non-SLD control, dysgraphia control, and dyslexia) in total fixation (dwell) time, total number of fixations, and total regressions in during saccades; the dyslexia group had longer and more fixations and made more regressions in during saccades than either control group. The dyslexia group also differed from both control groups in (a) fractional anisotropy in left optic radiation and (b) silent word reading fluency on a task in which surrounding letters can be distracting, consistent with Rayner's selective attention dyslexia model. Different profiles for non-SLD control, dysgraphia, and dyslexia groups were identified in correlations between total fixation time, total number of fixations, regressions in during saccades, magnitude of gray matter connectivity during the fMRI sentence reading comprehension from left occipital temporal cortex seed with right BA44 and from left inferior frontal gyrus with right inferior frontoccipital fasciculus, and normed word-specific spelling and silent word reading fluency measures. The dysgraphia group was more likely than the non-SLD control or dyslexia groups to show negative correlations between eye movement outcomes and sentences containing incorrect homonym foils. Findings are discussed in reference to a systems approach in future sentence reading comprehension research that integrates eye movement, brain, and literacy measures.

Componential skills of beginning writing: An exploratory study

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Puranik, Cynthia; Folsom, Jessica Sidler; Greulich, Luana; Wagner, Richard K.

2011-01-01

The present study examined the components of end of kindergarten writing, using data from 242 kindergartners. Specifically of interest was the importance of spelling, letter writing fluency, reading, and word- and syntax-level oral language skills in writing. The results from structural equation modeling revealed that oral language, spelling, and letter writing fluency were positively and uniquely related to writing skill after accounting for reading skills. Reading skill was not uniquely related to writing once oral language, spelling, and letter writing fluency were taken into account. These findings are discussed from a developmental perspective. PMID:22267897

Lexical quality and eye movements: individual differences in the perceptual span of skilled adult readers.

PubMed

Veldre, Aaron; Andrews, Sally

2014-01-01

Two experiments used the gaze-contingent moving-window paradigm to investigate whether reading comprehension and spelling ability modulate the perceptual span of skilled adult readers during sentence reading. Highly proficient reading and spelling were both associated with increased use information to the right of fixation, but did not systematically modulate the extraction of information to the left of fixation. Individuals who were high in both reading and spelling ability showed the greatest benefit from window sizes larger than 11 characters, primarily because of increases in forward saccade length. They were also significantly more disrupted by being denied close parafoveal information than those poor in reading and/or spelling. These results suggest that, in addition to supporting rapid lexical retrieval of fixated words, the high quality lexical representations indexed by the combination of high reading and spelling ability support efficient processing of parafoveal information and effective saccadic targeting.

Teaching Children with Dyslexia to Spell in a Reading-Writers' Workshop

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berninger, Virginia W.; Lee, Yen-Ling; Abbott, Robert D.; Breznitz, Zvia

2013-01-01

To identify effective treatment for both the spelling and word decoding problems in dyslexia, 24 students with dyslexia in grades 4 to 9 were randomly assigned to treatments A (n = 12) or B (n = 12) in an after-school reading-writers' workshop at the university (thirty 1-h sessions twice a week over 5 months). First, both groups received step 1…

Importance of Phonological and Orthographic Skills for English Reading and Spelling: A Comparison of English Monolingual and Mandarin-English Bilingual Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeong, Stephanie H. M.; Fletcher, Janet; Bayliss, Donna M.

2014-01-01

This cross-sectional study examines the importance of English phonological and orthographic processing skills to English word reading and spelling in 3 groups of younger (8-9 years) and older (11-12 years) children from different language backgrounds: English monolingual, English first language (L1)-Mandarin second language (L2), and Mandarin…

Reading Clinic. A New Use for Dr. Seuss: Rhymes Help Children Learn About Words.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cunningham, Patricia

1998-01-01

This activity for K-3 students helps them learn to decode and spell words using rhyme, noting that hearing and creating rhyme helps children hear similarities among words. Books with the Dr. Seuss imprint are recommended because they appeal to children. A sample poem entitled March, by Solveig Paulson Russell, is included on a reproducible sheet.…

Curriculum-Based Measurement in Writing: Predicting the Success of High-School Students on State Standards Tests

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espin, Christine; Wallace, Teri; Campbell, Heather; Lembke, Erica S.; Long, Jeffrey D.; Ticha, Renata

2008-01-01

We examined the technical adequacy of writing progress measures as indicators of success on state standards tests. Tenth-grade students wrote for 10 min, marking their samples at 3, 5, and 7 min. Samples were scored for words written, words spelled correctly, and correct and correct minus incorrect word sequences. The number of correct minus…

The Role of Self-Teaching in Learning Orthographic and Semantic Aspects of New Words

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ricketts, Jessie; Bishop, Dorothy V. M.; Pimperton, Hannah; Nation, Kate

2011-01-01

This study explores how children learn the meaning (semantics) and spelling patterns (orthography) of novel words encountered in story context. English-speaking children (N = 88) aged 7 to 8 years read 8 stories and each story contained 1 novel word repeated 4 times. Semantic cues were provided by the story context such that children could infer…

Comparing the Effects of Unknown-Known Ratios on Word Reading Learning versus Learning Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Joseph, Laurice M.; Nist, Lindsay M.

2006-01-01

An extension of G. L. Cates et al. (2003) investigation was conducted to determine if students' cumulative learning rates would be superior for words read under a traditional drill and practice condition (as they were for spelling in the previous study) than under interspersal conditions of varying ratios of unknown to known words. Participants…

Peripheral dysgraphia: dissociations of lowercase from uppercase letters and of print from cursive writing.

PubMed

Ingles, Janet L; Fisk, John D; Fleetwood, Ian; Burrell, Steven; Darvesh, Sultan

2014-03-01

Clinical analyses of patients with acquired dysgraphia provide unique opportunities to understand the cognitive and neural organization of written language production. We report J.B., a 50-year-old woman with peripheral dysgraphia who had prominent dissociations in her ability to write in lowercase versus uppercase and print versus cursive. We gave J.B. a series of tasks that evaluated her skills at writing uppercase and lowercase print and cursive, spelling aloud and in writing, writing numbers and symbols, and visual letter recognition and imagery. She was impaired in printing letters, with lowercase more affected than uppercase, but her cursive writing was relatively intact. This pattern was consistent across letter, word, and nonword writing tasks. She was unimpaired on tasks assessing her visual recognition and imagery of lowercase and uppercase letters. Her writing of numbers was preserved. J.B.'s handwriting disorder was accompanied by a central phonological dysgraphia. Our findings indicate functional independence of graphomotor programs for print and cursive letter styles and for letters and numbers. We discuss the relationship between peripheral and central writing disorders.

What Is Most Important to Know about Vocabulary?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kucan, Linda

2012-01-01

This article makes use of Perfetti's Lexical Quality Hypothesis as a perspective for thinking about vocabulary instruction in terms of semantics (meaning), phonology (pronunciation), orthography (spelling), morphology (meaningful word parts), and syntax (how words function in sentences). Examples are presented of how these aspects of vocabulary…

Activities U.S.A.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bolger, Charlene

A compilation of over 50 elementary school activities focuses on developing students' familiarity with the 50 states. Exercises such as word searches, scrambled word puzzles, shape puzzles, spelling bees, match games, and atlas games introduce students to the capitals, major cities, main characteristics, and location of each state. The document is…

Kindergarten Predictors of Third Grade Writing

PubMed Central

Kim, Young-Suk; Al Otaiba, Stephanie; Wanzek, Jeanne

2015-01-01

The primary goal of the present study was to examine the relations of kindergarten transcription, oral language, word reading, and attention skills to writing skills in third grade. Children (N = 157) were assessed on their letter writing automaticity, spelling, oral language, word reading, and attention in kindergarten. Then, they were assessed on writing in third grade using three writing tasks – one narrative and two expository prompts. Children’s written compositions were evaluated in terms of writing quality (the extent to which ideas were developed and presented in an organized manner). Structural equation modeling showed that kindergarten oral language and lexical literacy skills (i.e., word reading and spelling) were independently predicted third grade narrative writing quality, and kindergarten literacy skill uniquely predicted third grade expository writing quality. In contrast, attention and letter writing automaticity were not directly related to writing quality in either narrative or expository genre. These results are discussed in light of theoretical and practical implications. PMID:25642118

A Critical Disability Pedagogy: Legitimizing Dyslexia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cosenza, Julie

2017-01-01

A common understanding is that dyslexia is the inability to spell words, the inability to recall symbols, the inability to recognize sight words, or the inability to decode. Dyslexia is often described in deficiency language--the inability to do something. Deficiency language is a product of special education and continues to dominate common…

Word Identification in Reading and the Promise of Subsymbolic Psycholinguistics.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Orden, Guy C.; And Others

1990-01-01

It is argued that dual-process theory has misconstrued the correspondence between words' spelling and their phonology. A subsymbolic alternative to dual-processing theory is presented that includes a clear role for the process of phonologic coding. The subsymbolic approach is developed around a covariant learning hypothesis. (SLD)

Pronouns: The "Who" Words of English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Keller, Rosanne

The English "who,""whom," and "whose" words are presented in this illustrated booklet on pronouns for speakers with limited English proficiency. A supplemental section, Tutor Notes, explains that the use of pronouns is imperative in adult literacy training. Since pronouns abound in long vowels and irregular spellings, they are not introduced in…

Stress Priming and Statistical Learning in Italian Nonword Reading: Evidence from Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colombo, Lucia; Deguchi, Chizuru; Boureux, Magali

2014-01-01

Italian has regular spelling-sound correspondences; however, assignment of lexical stress is unpredictable. Sensitivity to stress neighborhood information was investigated by constructing three types of three-syllabic nonwords: nonwords with word-endings characterized by a strong neighborhood of dominant stress words (dominant), nonwords with…

Lexical restructuring in the absence of literacy.

PubMed

Venturaa, Paulo; Kolinsky, Régine; Fernandesa, Sandra; Queridoa, Luís; Morais, José

2007-11-01

Vocabulary growth was suggested to prompt the implementation of increasingly finer-grained lexical representations of spoken words in children (e.g., [Metsala, J. L., & Walley, A. C. (1998). Spoken vocabulary growth and the segmental restructuring of lexical representations: precursors to phonemic awareness and early reading ability. In J. L. Metsala & L. C. Ehri (Eds.), Word recognition in beginning literacy (pp. 89-120). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.]). Although literacy was not explicitly mentioned in this lexical restructuring hypothesis, the process of learning to read and spell might also have a significant impact on the specification of lexical representations (e.g., [Carroll, J. M., & Snowling, M. J. (2001). The effects of global similarity between stimuli on children's judgments of rime and alliteration. Applied Psycholinguistics, 22, 327-342.]; [Goswami, U. (2000). Phonological representations, reading development and dyslexia: Towards a cross-linguistic theoretical framework. Dyslexia, 6, 133-151.]). This is what we checked in the present study. We manipulated word frequency and neighborhood density in a gating task (Experiment 1) and a word-identification-in-noise task (Experiment 2) presented to Portuguese literate and illiterate adults. Ex-illiterates were also tested in Experiment 2 in order to disentangle the effects of vocabulary size and literacy. There was an interaction between word frequency and neighborhood density, which was similar in the three groups. These did not differ even for the words that are supposed to undergo lexical restructuring the latest (low frequency words from sparse neighborhoods). Thus, segmental lexical representations seem to develop independently of literacy. While segmental restructuring is not affected by literacy, it constrains the development of phoneme awareness as shown by the fact that, in Experiment 3, neighborhood density modulated the phoneme deletion performance of both illiterates and ex-illiterates.

Developing a Comprehensive Model of Risk and Protective Factors That Can Predict Spelling at Age Seven: Findings from a Community Sample of Victorian Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Serry, Tanya Anne; Castles, Anne; Mensah, Fiona K.; Bavin, Edith L.; Eadie, Patricia; Pezic, Angela; Prior, Margot; Bretherton, Lesley; Reilly, Sheena

2015-01-01

The paper reports on a study designed to develop a risk model that can best predict single-word spelling in seven-year-old children when they were aged 4 and 5. Test measures, personal characteristics and environmental influences were all considered as variables from a community sample of 971 children. Strong concurrent correlations were found…

Aspects of fluency in writing.

PubMed

Uppstad, Per Henning; Solheim, Oddny Judith

2007-03-01

The notion of 'fluency' is most often associated with spoken-language phenomena such as stuttering. The present article investigates the relevance of considering fluency in writing. The basic argument for raising this question is empirical-it follows from a focus on difficulties in written and spoken language as manifestations of different problems which should be investigated separately on the basis of their symptoms. Key-logging instruments provide new possibilities for the study of writing. The obvious use of this new technology is to study writing as it unfolds in real time, instead of focusing only on aspects of the end product. A more sophisticated application is to exploit the key-logging instrument in order to test basic assumptions of contemporary theories of spelling. The present study is a dictation task involving words and non-words, intended to investigate spelling in nine-year-old pupils with regard to their mastery of the doubling of consonants in Norwegian. In this study, we report on differences with regard to temporal measures between a group of strong writers and a group of poor ones. On the basis of these pupils' writing behavior, the relevance of the concept of 'fluency' in writing is highlighted. The interpretation of the results questions basic assumptions of the cognitive hypothesis about spelling; the article concludes by hypothesizing a different conception of spelling.

Is a "Phoenician" reading style superior to a "Chinese" reading style? Evidence from fourth graders.

PubMed

Bowey, Judith A

2008-07-01

This study compared normally achieving fourth-grade "Phoenician" readers, who identify nonwords significantly more accurately than they do exception words, with "Chinese" readers, who show the reverse pattern. Phoenician readers scored lower than Chinese readers on word identification, exception word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, and verbal ability. When compared with normally achieving children who read nonwords and exception words equally well, Chinese readers scored as well as these children on word identification, regular word reading, orthographic choice, spelling, reading comprehension, phonological sensitivity, and verbal ability and scored better on exception word reading. Chinese readers also used rhyme-based analogies to read nonwords derived from high-frequency exception words just as often as did these children. As predicted, Phoenician and Chinese readers adopted somewhat different strategies in reading ambiguous nonwords constructed by analogy to high-frequency exception words. Phoenician readers were more likely than Chinese readers to read ambiguous monosyllabic nonwords via context-free grapheme-phoneme correspondences and were less likely to read disyllabic nonwords by analogy to high-frequency analogues. Although the Chinese reading style was more common than the Phoenician style in normally achieving fourth graders, there were similar numbers of poor readers with phonological dyslexia (identifying nonwords significantly more accurately than exception words) and surface dyslexia (showing the reverse pattern), although surface dyslexia was more common in the severely disabled readers. However, few of the poor readers showed pure patterns of phonological or surface dyslexia.

Reading component skills of learners in adult basic education.

PubMed

MacArthur, Charles A; Konold, Timothy R; Glutting, Joseph J; Alamprese, Judith A

2010-01-01

The purposes of this study were to investigate the reliability and construct validity of measures of reading component skills with a sample of adult basic education (ABE) learners, including both native and nonnative English speakers, and to describe the performance of those learners on the measures. Investigation of measures of reading components is needed because available measures were neither developed for nor normed on ABE populations or with nonnative speakers of English. The study included 486 students, 334 born or educated in the United States (native) and 152 not born or educated in the United States (nonnative) but who spoke English well enough to participate in English reading classes. All students had scores on 11 measures covering five constructs: decoding, word recognition, spelling, fluency, and comprehension. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to test three models: a two-factor model with print and meaning factors; a three-factor model that separated out a fluency factor; and a five-factor model based on the hypothesized constructs. The five-factor model fit best. In addition, the CFA model fit both native and nonnative populations equally well without modification, showing that the tests measure the same constructs with the same accuracy for both groups. Group comparisons found no difference between the native and nonnative samples on word recognition, but the native sample scored higher on fluency and comprehension and lower on decoding than did the nonnative sample. Students with self-reported learning disabilities scored lower on all reading components. Differences by age and gender were also analyzed.

Long-Term Effects of Synthetic versus Analytic Phonics Teaching on the Reading and Spelling Ability of 10 Year Old Boys and Girls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnston, Rhona S.; McGeown, Sarah; Watson, Joyce E.

2012-01-01

A comparison was made of 10-year-old boys and girls who had learnt to read by analytic or synthetic phonics methods as part of their early literacy programmes. The boys taught by the synthetic phonics method had better word reading than the girls in their classes, and their spelling and reading comprehension was as good. In contrast, with analytic…

Context as the Building Blocks of Meaning: A Retrieval Model for the Semantic Representation of Words

DTIC Science & Technology

2003-04-01

8 Deconstructing the model’s output................................................................................ 9 Implications of the ideas...identified characters of a word are used as a probe to retrieve a word’s identity (its spelling and phonology ) from memory. In addition to the...document matrix has been reduced by the SVD. Deconstructing the model’s output Why do semantic relationships between words emerge from the model? Is the

English-Spanish Cognates and the Pura Belpré Children's Award Books: Reading the Word and the World

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montelongo, José A.; Hernández, Anita C.; Herter, Roberta J.

2014-01-01

English-Spanish cognates are an important subset of words in both the English and Spanish languages. Cognates are words that possess identical or nearly identical spellings and meanings in both languages as a result of being derived from Latin and Greek. Of major importance is the fact that many of the more than 20,000 cognates in English are…

The Impact of Orthographic Consistency on German Spoken Word Identification

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beyermann, Sandra; Penke, Martina

2014-01-01

An auditory lexical decision experiment was conducted to find out whether sound-to-spelling consistency has an impact on German spoken word processing, and whether such an impact is different at different stages of reading development. Four groups of readers (school children in the second, third and fifth grades, and university students)…

Glamour and Spelling: Reclaiming Magical Thinking in the Composition Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wagner, Julia

It is a good thing to demolish "magical thinking" if it refers to the view of language for which words have fixed, inevitable meanings. Words are often deprived of their meanings and reduced to verbal noises, producing involuntary responses like knee-reflexes. Various critics have discussed and written about the magical aspects of…

Writing Dear Abby: An Interim Report to Teachers of Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Virginia French

New spellers, adults just beginning to learn to read and write, face daunting problems with English vocabulary. Teachers use varying approaches to help these students, including published lists of Words Most Frequently Used. This paper provides an inventory of words used in letters to syndicated columnist "Dear Abby" as published in a…

Development of a hybrid mental speller combining EEG-based brain-computer interface and webcam-based eye-tracking.

PubMed

Lee, Jun-Hak; Lim, Jeong-Hwan; Hwang, Han-Jeong; Im, Chang-Hwan

2013-01-01

The main goal of this study was to develop a hybrid mental spelling system combining a steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) technology and a webcam-based eye-tracker, which utilizes information from the brain electrical activity and eye gaze direction at the same time. In the hybrid mental spelling system, a character decoded using SSVEP was not typed if the position of the selected character was not matched with the eye direction information ('left' or 'right') obtained from the eye-tracker. Thus, the users did not need to correct a misspelled character using a 'BACKSPACE' key. To verify the feasibility of the developed hybrid mental spelling system, we conducted online experiments with ten healthy participants. Each participant was asked to type 15 English words consisting of 68 characters. As a result, 16.6 typing errors could be prevented on average, demonstrating that the implemented hybrid mental spelling system could enhance the practicality of our mental spelling system.

Proofreading using an assistive software homophone tool: compensatory and remedial effects on the literacy skills of students with reading difficulties.

PubMed

Lange, Alissa A; Mulhern, Gerry; Wylie, Judith

2009-01-01

The present study investigated the effects of using an assistive software homophone tool on the assisted proofreading performance and unassisted basic skills of secondary-level students with reading difficulties. Students aged 13 to 15 years proofread passages for homophonic errors under three conditions: with the homophone tool, with homophones highlighted only, or with no help. The group using the homophone tool significantly outperformed the other two groups on assisted proofreading and outperformed the others on unassisted spelling, although not significantly. Remedial (unassisted) improvements in automaticity of word recognition, homophone proofreading, and basic reading were found over all groups. Results elucidate the differential contributions of each function of the homophone tool and suggest that with the proper training, assistive software can help not only students with diagnosed disabilities but also those with generally weak reading skills.

Accuracy and speed of orthographic processing in persons with developmental dyslexia.

PubMed

King, Wayne M; Lombardino, Linda L; Ahmed, Sarah

2005-08-01

A group of 39 persons (20 male and 19 female, 11.0 to 32.5 yr.) with developmental dyslexia and 42 controls (21 male and 21 female, 11.2 to 32.3 years) were compared on computerized tests of sight word reading, nonword decoding, and spelling recognition. The subjects with developmental dyslexia performed significantly slower and less accurately than controls on all tasks. Further, the effect size of the group differences was larger for the older group. Within-group analyses showed a significant difference by age group on accuracy. Only the control group showed a significant age difference between groups on response time. Mean accuracy and response times for the reading-disabled subjects resembled shifted versions of the control group means. These results agree with previous reports that phonological deficits persist for reading-disabled adults and suggest a test of whether the discrepancy between reading-disabled and typically achieving readers may actually increase across age groups.

Early home-based intervention in the Netherlands for children at familial risk of dyslexia.

PubMed

van Otterloo, Sandra G; van der Leij, Aryan; Henrichs, Lotte F

2009-08-01

Dutch children at higher familial risk of reading disability received a home-based intervention programme before formal reading instruction started to investigate whether this would reduce the risk of dyslexia. The experimental group (n=23) received a specific training in phoneme awareness and letter knowledge. A control group (n=25) received a non-specific training in morphology, syntax, and vocabulary. Both interventions were designed to take 10 min a day, 5 days a week for 10 weeks. Most parents were sufficiently able to work with the programme properly. At post-test the experimental group had gained more on phoneme awareness than the control group. The control group gained more on one of the morphology measures. On average, these specific training results did not lead to significant group differences in first-grade reading and spelling measures. However, fewer experimental children scored below 10th percentile on word recognition. (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

A Method for Correcting Broken Hyphenations in Noisy English Text

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-04-01

words, such as a frequency list . An algorithm that would make use of word validation, taking into account the various usages of hyphens in English, is...commas, and question marks from the surrounding words. The British National Corpus (2) (BNC) frequency list was used to perform the validation...rather than a separate spell checking program. This was primarily because implementation of the algorithm using a frequency list was quite trivial

Do reading and spelling share a lexicon?

PubMed

Jones, Angela C; Rawson, Katherine A

2016-05-01

In the reading and spelling literature, an ongoing debate concerns whether reading and spelling share a single orthographic lexicon or rely upon independent lexica. Available evidence tends to support a single lexicon account over an independent lexica account, but evidence is mixed and open to alternative explanation. In the current work, we propose another, largely ignored account--separate-but-shared lexica--according to which reading and spelling have separate orthographic lexica, but information can be shared between them. We report three experiments designed to competitively evaluate these three theoretical accounts. In each experiment, participants learned new words via reading training and/or spelling training. The key manipulation concerned the amount of reading versus spelling practice a given item received. Following training, we assessed both response time and accuracy on final outcome measures of reading and spelling. According to the independent lexica account, final performance in one modality will not be influenced by the level of practice in the other modality. According to the single lexicon account, final performance will depend on the overall amount of practice regardless of modality. According to the separate-but-shared account, final performance will be influenced by the level of practice in both modalities but will benefit more from same-modality practice. Results support the separate-but-shared account, indicating that reading and spelling rely upon separate lexica, but information can be shared between them. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Continuous Speech Recognition for Clinicians

PubMed Central

Zafar, Atif; Overhage, J. Marc; McDonald, Clement J.

1999-01-01

The current generation of continuous speech recognition systems claims to offer high accuracy (greater than 95 percent) speech recognition at natural speech rates (150 words per minute) on low-cost (under $2000) platforms. This paper presents a state-of-the-technology summary, along with insights the authors have gained through testing one such product extensively and other products superficially. The authors have identified a number of issues that are important in managing accuracy and usability. First, for efficient recognition users must start with a dictionary containing the phonetic spellings of all words they anticipate using. The authors dictated 50 discharge summaries using one inexpensive internal medicine dictionary ($30) and found that they needed to add an additional 400 terms to get recognition rates of 98 percent. However, if they used either of two more expensive and extensive commercial medical vocabularies ($349 and $695), they did not need to add terms to get a 98 percent recognition rate. Second, users must speak clearly and continuously, distinctly pronouncing all syllables. Users must also correct errors as they occur, because accuracy improves with error correction by at least 5 percent over two weeks. Users may find it difficult to train the system to recognize certain terms, regardless of the amount of training, and appropriate substitutions must be created. For example, the authors had to substitute “twice a day” for “bid” when using the less expensive dictionary, but not when using the other two dictionaries. From trials they conducted in settings ranging from an emergency room to hospital wards and clinicians' offices, they learned that ambient noise has minimal effect. Finally, they found that a minimal “usable” hardware configuration (which keeps up with dictation) comprises a 300-MHz Pentium processor with 128 MB of RAM and a “speech quality” sound card (e.g., SoundBlaster, $99). Anything less powerful will result in the system lagging behind the speaking rate. The authors obtained 97 percent accuracy with just 30 minutes of training when using the latest edition of one of the speech recognition systems supplemented by a commercial medical dictionary. This technology has advanced considerably in recent years and is now a serious contender to replace some or all of the increasingly expensive alternative methods of dictation with human transcription. PMID:10332653

Phonological Activation of Word Meanings in Grade 5 Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jared, Debra; Ashby, Jane; Agauas, Stephen J.; Levy, Betty Ann

2016-01-01

Three experiments examined the role of phonology in the activation of word meanings in Grade 5 students. In Experiment 1, homophone and spelling control errors were embedded in a story context and participants performed a proofreading task as they read for meaning. For both good and poor readers, more homophone errors went undetected than spelling…

Russian: A Guide to the Spoken Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Department of Defense, Washington, DC.

This Russian language guide is of assistance in carrying on simple conversations in Russian and is used in conjunction with records. Russian ranks after Chinese and English as the third most widespread language in the world. All the words and phrases are written in a simplified spelling which is read like English. Useful words and phrases include…

Modelling the Implicit Learning of Phonological Decoding from Training on Whole-Word Spellings and Pronunciations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pritchard, Stephen C.; Coltheart, Max; Marinus, Eva; Castles, Anne

2016-01-01

Phonological decoding is central to learning to read, and deficits in its acquisition have been linked to reading disorders such as dyslexia. Understanding how this skill is acquired is therefore important for characterising reading difficulties. Decoding can be taught explicitly, or implicitly learned during instruction on whole word spellings…

Generating Enthusiasm with Generative Phonology.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dickerson, Wayne B.

This paper attempts a systematic approach to the teaching of word stress in the ESL classroom. Stress assignment rules from Chomsky and Halle and from Ross are used to establish the SISL Principle (Stress Initial Strong Left), for final weak-syllable words. On the basis of spelling, this rule can be applied correctly to 95 out of 100 cases. (AM)

Neural Correlates of Priming Effects in Children during Spoken Word Processing with Orthographic Demands

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cao, Fan; Khalid, Kainat; Zaveri, Rishi; Bolger, Donald J.; Bitan, Tali; Booth, James R.

2010-01-01

Priming effects were examined in 40 children (9-15 years old) using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). An orthographic judgment task required participants to determine if two sequentially presented spoken words had the same spelling for the rime. Four lexical conditions were designed: similar orthography and phonology (O[superscript…

Probabilistic Orthographic Cues to Grammatical Category in the Brain

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arciuli, Joanne; McMahon, Katie; de Zubicaray, Greig

2012-01-01

What helps us determine whether a word is a noun or a verb, without conscious awareness? We report on cues in the way individual English words are spelled, and, for the first time, identify their neural correlates via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We used a lexical decision task with trisyllabic nouns and verbs containing…

Integrating Morphological Knowledge in Literacy Instruction: Framework and Principles to Guide Special Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Claravall, Eric Blancaflor

2016-01-01

Morphology is the study of word structure and its meaning. Knowledge and awareness of morphological structure provides a new light to help students with reading disabilities build skills in their word reading and spelling. When teaching morphology, teachers can focus on four literacy components (Claravall, 2013): morphemic analysis, vocabulary and…

Acquisition of Three Word Knowledge Aspects through Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Daskalovska, Nina

2016-01-01

A number of studies have shown that second or foreign language learners can acquire vocabulary through reading. The aim of the study was to investigate (a) the effects of reading an authentic novel on the acquisition of 3 aspects of word knowledge: spelling, meaning, and collocation; (b) the influence of reading on the acquisition of partial and…

Orthographic Skills Important to Chinese Literacy Development: The Role of Radical Representation and Orthographic Memory of Radicals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yeung, Pui-sze; Ho, Connie Suk-han; Chan, David Wai-ock; Chung, Kevin Kien-hoa

2016-01-01

A 3-year longitudinal study among 239 Chinese students in Grades 2-4 was conducted to investigate the relationships between orthographic skills (including positional and functional knowledge of semantic radicals and phonetic radicals, and orthographic memory of radicals) and Chinese literacy skills (word reading, word spelling, reading…

CALL Vocabulary Learning in Japanese: Does Romaji Help Beginners Learn More Words?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Okuyama, Yoshiko

2007-01-01

This study investigated the effects of using Romanized spellings on beginner-level Japanese vocabulary learning. Sixty-one first-semester students at two universities in Arizona were both taught and tested on 40 Japanese content words in a computer-assisted language learning (CALL) program. The primary goal of the study was to examine whether the…

Morphological Awareness Intervention: Improving Spelling, Vocabulary, and Reading Comprehension for Adult Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bangs, Kathryn E.; Binder, Katherine S.

2016-01-01

Adult Basic Education programs are under pressure to develop and deliver instruction that promotes rapid and sustained literacy development. We describe a novel approach to a literacy intervention that focuses on morphemes, which are the smallest meaningful units contained in words. We argue that if you teach learners that big words are comprised…

Spelling Test Generator--Volume 1: English. [CD-ROM].

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aud, Joel; DeWolfe, Rosemary; Gintz, Christopher; Griswold, Scott; Hefter, Richard; Lowery, Adam; Richards, Maureen; Yi, Song Choi

This software product makes the manipulation of the more than 3000 most commonly used words in the English language easy to select and manipulate into various activities for elementary and middle school students. Users of the program have a variety of options: the program can automatically select words based on their age/grade level, frequency of…

L2 Word Recognition: Influence of L1 Orthography on Multi-Syllabic Word Recognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamada, Megumi

2017-01-01

L2 reading research suggests that L1 orthographic experience influences L2 word recognition. Nevertheless, the findings on multi-syllabic words in English are still limited despite the fact that a vast majority of words are multi-syllabic. The study investigated whether L1 orthography influences the recognition of multi-syllabic words, focusing on…

An Ensemble Method for Spelling Correction in Consumer Health Questions

PubMed Central

Kilicoglu, Halil; Fiszman, Marcelo; Roberts, Kirk; Demner-Fushman, Dina

2015-01-01

Orthographic and grammatical errors are a common feature of informal texts written by lay people. Health-related questions asked by consumers are a case in point. Automatic interpretation of consumer health questions is hampered by such errors. In this paper, we propose a method that combines techniques based on edit distance and frequency counts with a contextual similarity-based method for detecting and correcting orthographic errors, including misspellings, word breaks, and punctuation errors. We evaluate our method on a set of spell-corrected questions extracted from the NLM collection of consumer health questions. Our method achieves a F1 score of 0.61, compared to an informed baseline of 0.29, achieved using ESpell, a spelling correction system developed for biomedical queries. Our results show that orthographic similarity is most relevant in spelling error correction in consumer health questions and that frequency and contextual information are complementary to orthographic features. PMID:26958208

Beyond decoding: phonological processing during silent reading in beginning readers.

PubMed

Blythe, Hazel I; Pagán, Ascensión; Dodd, Megan

2015-07-01

In this experiment, the extent to which beginning readers process phonology during lexical identification in silent sentence reading was investigated. The eye movements of children aged seven to nine years and adults were recorded as they read sentences containing either a correctly spelled target word (e.g., girl), a pseudohomophone (e.g., gerl), or a spelling control (e.g., garl). Both children and adults showed a benefit from the valid phonology of the pseudohomophone, compared to the spelling control during reading. This indicates that children as young as seven years old exhibit relatively skilled phonological processing during reading, despite having moved past the use of overt phonological decoding strategies. In addition, in comparison to adults, children's lexical processing was more disrupted by the presence of spelling errors, suggesting a developmental change in the relative dependence upon phonological and orthographic processing in lexical identification during silent sentence reading. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

Prosody and Spoken Word Recognition in Early and Late Spanish-English Bilingual Individuals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boutsen, Frank R.; Dvorak, Justin D.; Deweber, Derick D.

2017-01-01

Purpose: This study was conducted to compare the influence of word properties on gated single-word recognition in monolingual and bilingual individuals under conditions of native and nonnative accent and to determine whether word-form prosody facilitates recognition in bilingual individuals. Method: Word recognition was assessed in monolingual and…

Status report on speech research. A report on the status and progress of studies of the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation and practical applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Studdert-Kennedy, M.; Obrien, N.

1983-05-01

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. Manuscripts cover the following topics: The influence of subcategorical mismatches on lexical access; The Serbo-Croatian orthography constraints the reader to a phonologically analytic strategy; Grammatical priming effects between pronouns and inflected verb forms; Misreadings by beginning readers of Serrbo-Croatian; Bi-alphabetism and work recognition; Orthographic and phonemic coding for word identification: Evidence for Hebrew; Stress and vowel duration effects on syllable recognition; Phonetic and auditory trading relations between acoustic cues in speech perception: Further results; Linguistic coding by deaf children in relation beginning reading success; Determinants of spelling ability in deaf and hearing adults: Access to linguistic structures; A dynamical basis for action systems; On the space-time structure of human interlimb coordination; Some acoustic and physiological observations on diphthongs; Relationship between pitch control and vowel articulation; Laryngeal vibrations: A comparison between high-speed filming and glottographic techniques; Compensatory articulation in hearing impaired speakers: A cinefluorographic study; and Review (Pierre Delattre: Studies in comparative phonetics.)

Predictors of word-level literacy amongst Grade 3 children in five diverse languages.

PubMed

Smythe, Ian; Everatt, John; Al-Menaye, Nasser; He, Xianyou; Capellini, Simone; Gyarmathy, Eva; Siegel, Linda S

2008-08-01

Groups of Grade 3 children were tested on measures of word-level literacy and undertook tasks that required the ability to associate sounds with letter sequences and that involved visual, auditory and phonological-processing skills. These groups came from different language backgrounds in which the language of instruction was Arabic, Chinese, English, Hungarian or Portuguese. Similar measures were used across the groups, with tests being adapted to be appropriate for the language of the children. Findings indicated that measures of decoding and phonological-processing skills were good predictors of word reading and spelling among Arabic- and English-speaking children, but were less able to predict variability in these same early literacy skills among Chinese- and Hungarian-speaking children, and were better at predicting variability in Portuguese word reading than spelling. Results were discussed with reference to the relative transparency of the script and issues of dyslexia assessment across languages. Overall, the findings argue for the need to take account of features of the orthography used to represent a language when developing assessment procedures for a particular language and that assessment of word-level literacy skills and a phonological perspective of dyslexia may not be universally applicable across all language contexts. Copyright 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Orthography affects second language speech: Double letters and geminate production in English.

PubMed

Bassetti, Bene

2017-11-01

Second languages (L2s) are often learned through spoken and written input, and L2 orthographic forms (spellings) can lead to non-native-like pronunciation. The present study investigated whether orthography can lead experienced learners of English L2 to make a phonological contrast in their speech production that does not exist in English. Double consonants represent geminate (long) consonants in Italian but not in English. In Experiment 1, native English speakers and English L2 speakers (Italians) were asked to read aloud English words spelled with a single or double target consonant letter, and consonant duration was compared. The English L2 speakers produced the same consonant as shorter when it was spelled with a single letter, and longer when spelled with a double letter. Spelling did not affect consonant duration in native English speakers. In Experiment 2, effects of orthographic input were investigated by comparing 2 groups of English L2 speakers (Italians) performing a delayed word repetition task with or without orthographic input; the same orthographic effects were found in both groups. These results provide arguably the first evidence that L2 orthographic forms can lead experienced L2 speakers to make a contrast in their L2 production that does not exist in the language. The effect arises because L2 speakers are affected by the interaction between the L2 orthographic form (number of letters), and their native orthography-phonology mappings, whereby double consonant letters represent geminate consonants. These results have important implications for future studies investigating the effects of orthography on native phonology and for L2 phonological development models. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Contrasting brain patterns of writing-related DTI parameters, fMRI connectivity, and DTI-fMRI connectivity correlations in children with and without dysgraphia or dyslexia.

PubMed

Richards, T L; Grabowski, T J; Boord, P; Yagle, K; Askren, M; Mestre, Z; Robinson, P; Welker, O; Gulliford, D; Nagy, W; Berninger, V

2015-01-01

Based on comprehensive testing and educational history, children in grades 4-9 (on average 12 years) were diagnosed with dysgraphia (persisting handwriting impairment) or dyslexia (persisting word spelling/reading impairment) or as typical writers and readers (controls). The dysgraphia group (n = 14) and dyslexia group (n = 17) were each compared to the control group (n = 9) and to each other in separate analyses. Four brain region seed points (left occipital temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus, and inferior frontal gyrus) were used in these analyses which were shown in a metaanalysis to be related to written word production on four indicators of white matter integrity and fMRI functional connectivity for four tasks (self-guided mind wandering during resting state, writing letter that follows a visually displayed letter in alphabet, writing missing letter to create a correctly spelled real word, and planning for composing after scanning on topic specified by researcher). For those DTI indicators on which the dysgraphic group or dyslexic group differed from the control group (fractional anisotropy, relative anisotropy, axial diffusivity but not radial diffusivity), correlations were computed between the DTI parameter and fMRI functional connectivity for the two writing tasks (alphabet and spelling) by seed points. Analyses, controlled for multiple comparisons, showed that (a) the control group exhibited more white matter integrity than either the dysgraphic or dyslexic group; (b) the dysgraphic and dyslexic groups showed more functional connectivity than the control group but differed in patterns of functional connectivity for task and seed point; and (c) the dysgraphic and dyslexic groups showed different patterns of significant DTI-fMRI connectivity correlations for specific seed points and written language tasks. Thus, dysgraphia and dyslexia differ in white matter integrity, fMRI functional connectivity, and white matter-gray matter correlations. Of clinical relevance, brain differences were observed in dysgraphia and dyslexia on written language tasks yoked to their defining behavioral impairments in handwriting and/or in word spelling and on the cognitive mind wandering rest condition and composition planning.

Contrasting brain patterns of writing-related DTI parameters, fMRI connectivity, and DTI–fMRI connectivity correlations in children with and without dysgraphia or dyslexia

PubMed Central

Richards, T.L.; Grabowski, T.J.; Boord, P.; Yagle, K.; Askren, M.; Mestre, Z.; Robinson, P.; Welker, O.; Gulliford, D.; Nagy, W.; Berninger, V.

2015-01-01

Based on comprehensive testing and educational history, children in grades 4–9 (on average 12 years) were diagnosed with dysgraphia (persisting handwriting impairment) or dyslexia (persisting word spelling/reading impairment) or as typical writers and readers (controls). The dysgraphia group (n = 14) and dyslexia group (n = 17) were each compared to the control group (n = 9) and to each other in separate analyses. Four brain region seed points (left occipital temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus, and inferior frontal gyrus) were used in these analyses which were shown in a metaanalysis to be related to written word production on four indicators of white matter integrity and fMRI functional connectivity for four tasks (self-guided mind wandering during resting state, writing letter that follows a visually displayed letter in alphabet, writing missing letter to create a correctly spelled real word, and planning for composing after scanning on topic specified by researcher). For those DTI indicators on which the dysgraphic group or dyslexic group differed from the control group (fractional anisotropy, relative anisotropy, axial diffusivity but not radial diffusivity), correlations were computed between the DTI parameter and fMRI functional connectivity for the two writing tasks (alphabet and spelling) by seed points. Analyses, controlled for multiple comparisons, showed that (a) the control group exhibited more white matter integrity than either the dysgraphic or dyslexic group; (b) the dysgraphic and dyslexic groups showed more functional connectivity than the control group but differed in patterns of functional connectivity for task and seed point; and (c) the dysgraphic and dyslexic groups showed different patterns of significant DTI–fMRI connectivity correlations for specific seed points and written language tasks. Thus, dysgraphia and dyslexia differ in white matter integrity, fMRI functional connectivity, and white matter–gray matter correlations. Of clinical relevance, brain differences were observed in dysgraphia and dyslexia on written language tasks yoked to their defining behavioral impairments in handwriting and/or in word spelling and on the cognitive mind wandering rest condition and composition planning. PMID:26106566

Automated smartphone audiometry: Validation of a word recognition test app.

PubMed

Dewyer, Nicholas A; Jiradejvong, Patpong; Henderson Sabes, Jennifer; Limb, Charles J

2018-03-01

Develop and validate an automated smartphone word recognition test. Cross-sectional case-control diagnostic test comparison. An automated word recognition test was developed as an app for a smartphone with earphones. English-speaking adults with recent audiograms and various levels of hearing loss were recruited from an audiology clinic and were administered the smartphone word recognition test. Word recognition scores determined by the smartphone app and the gold standard speech audiometry test performed by an audiologist were compared. Test scores for 37 ears were analyzed. Word recognition scores determined by the smartphone app and audiologist testing were in agreement, with 86% of the data points within a clinically acceptable margin of error and a linear correlation value between test scores of 0.89. The WordRec automated smartphone app accurately determines word recognition scores. 3b. Laryngoscope, 128:707-712, 2018. © 2017 The American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological Society, Inc.

Word Recognition in Auditory Cortex

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeWitt, Iain D. J.

2013-01-01

Although spoken word recognition is more fundamental to human communication than text recognition, knowledge of word-processing in auditory cortex is comparatively impoverished. This dissertation synthesizes current models of auditory cortex, models of cortical pattern recognition, models of single-word reading, results in phonetics and results in…

Teaching English-Spanish Cognates Using the Texas 2x2 Picture Book Reading Lists

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Montelongo, José A.; Hernández, Anita C.; Herter, Roberta J.

2015-01-01

English-Spanish cognates are words that possess identical or nearly identical spellings and meanings in both English and Spanish as a result of being derived mainly from Latin and Greek. Of major importance is the fact that many of the more than 20,000 cognates in English are academic vocabulary words, terms essential for comprehending school…

Alphabetic and Nonalphabetic L1 Effects in English Word Identification: A Comparison of Korean and Chinese English L2 Learners.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Min; Koda, Keiko; Perfetti, Charles A.

2003-01-01

Examined Korean and Chinese college-level ESL learners for relative reliance on phonological and orthographic processing in English word identification. Found that Korean, but not Chinese, students made more false positive errors in judging stimuli that were homophones to category exemplars than in judging spelling controls. Chinese students made…

Systematic Instruction in Phoneme-Grapheme Correspondence for Students with Reading Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Earle, Gentry A.; Sayeski, Kristin L.

2017-01-01

Letter-sound knowledge is a strong predictor of a student's ability to decode words. Approximately 50% of English words can be decoded by following a sound-symbol correspondence rule alone and an additional 36% are spelled with only one error. Many students with reading disabilities or who struggle to learn to read have difficulty with phonology,…

Dr. Seuss's Sound Words: Playing with Phonics and Spelling.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gardner, Traci

Boom! Br-r-ring! Cluck! Moo!--exciting sounds are everywhere. Whether visiting online sites that play sounds or taking a "sound hike," ask your students to notice the sounds they hear, then write their own book, using sound words, based on Dr. Seuss's "Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You?" During the three 45-minute sessions, grade K-2…

An exploratory study of phonological awareness and working memory differences and literacy performance of people that use AAC.

PubMed

Gómez Taibo, María Luisa; Vieiro Iglesias, Pilar; González Raposo, María del Salvador; Sotillo Méndez, María

2010-11-01

Twelve cerebral palsied adolescents and young adults with complex communicative needs who used augmentative and alternative communication were studied. They were classified according to their working memory capacity (high vs. low) into two groups of 6 participants. They were also divided into two groups of 6 participants according to their high vs. low phonological skills. These groups were compared on their performance in reading tests -orthographic knowledge, a word test and a pseudoword reading test- and in the spelling of words, pseudowords and pictures' names. Statistical differences were found between high vs. low phonological skills groups, and between high and low working memory groups. High working memory capacity group scored significantly higher than low working memory group in the orthographic and word reading tests. The high phonological skills group outperformed the low phonological skills group in the word reading test and in the spelling of pseudowords and pictures' names. From a descriptive point of view, phonological skills and working memory, factors known to be highly predictive of literacy skills in people without disabilities, also hold as factors for the participants that used AAC in our study. Implications of the results are discussed.

Groundwater, A century of word evolution

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Diefendorf, A.F.

1995-08-01

Words, especially those that apply directly to more than one discipline, often become the object of intense debate among professionals in those disciplines. This is particularly true with those people who have to deal with technical jargon on a day-to-day basis and who are concerned that scientific facts get communicated in as clear and concise a manner as possible. Communications regarding environmental restoration projects for the US Department of Energy are no exception. Lockheed Martin Energy Systems, Inc., its subcontractors and other prime contractors often disagree about the spelling and use of compound words. This frequently results in inconsistent spellingmore » between project reports and incorrect spelling of referenced document titles. The following discussion is an attempt to provide an objective, in-depth examination of the evolution of one particular word and recommendations for its proper and consistent use. This discussion is the result of an extensive literature search conducted within the library system at Oak Ridge National Laboratory as well as the personal geologic libraries of the author and colleagues. The author has attempted to cite only those works produced by recognized names in the related disciplines or those works that constitute common references or glossaries.« less

Brand names of Portuguese medication: understanding the importance of their linguistic structure and regulatory issues.

PubMed

Pires, Carla; Vigário, Marina; Cavaco, Afonso

2015-08-01

Among other regulatory requirements, medicine brands should be composed of single names without abbreviations to prevent errors in prescription of medication. The purposes of the study were to investigate the compliance of a sam ple of Portuguese medicine brand names with Portuguese pharmaceutical regulations. This includes identifying their basic linguistic characteristics and comparing these features and their frequency of occurrence with benchmark values of the colloquial or informal language. A sample of 474 brand names was selected. Names were analyzed using manual (visual analyses) and computer methods (FreP - Frequency Patterns of Phonological Objects in Portuguese and MS word). A significant number of names (61.3%) failed to comply with the Portuguese phonologic system (related to the sound of words) and/or the spelling system (related to the written form of words) contained more than one word, comprised a high proportion of infrequent syllable types or stress patterns and included abbreviations. The results suggest that some of the brand names of Portuguese medication should be reevaluated, and that regulation on this issue should be enforced and updated, taking into consideration specific linguistic and spelling codes.

Patterns of brain reorganization subsequent to left fusiform damage: fMRI evidence from visual processing of words and pseudowords, faces and objects.

PubMed

Tsapkini, Kyrana; Vindiola, Manuel; Rapp, Brenda

2011-04-01

Little is known about the neural reorganization that takes place subsequent to lesions that affect orthographic processing (reading and/or spelling). We report on an fMRI investigation of an individual with a left mid-fusiform resection that affected both reading and spelling (Tsapkini & Rapp, 2010). To investigate possible patterns of functional reorganization, we compared the behavioral and neural activation patterns of this individual with those of a group of control participants for the tasks of silent reading of words and pseudowords and the passive viewing of faces and objects, all tasks that typically recruit the inferior temporal lobes. This comparison was carried out with methods that included a novel application of Mahalanobis distance statistics, and revealed: (1) normal behavioral and neural responses for face and object processing, (2) evidence of neural reorganization bilaterally in the posterior fusiform that supported normal performance in pseudoword reading and which contributed to word reading (3) evidence of abnormal recruitment of the bilateral anterior temporal lobes indicating compensatory (albeit insufficient) recruitment of mechanisms for circumventing the word reading deficit. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Development of brain networks involved in spoken word processing of Mandarin Chinese.

PubMed

Cao, Fan; Khalid, Kainat; Lee, Rebecca; Brennan, Christine; Yang, Yanhui; Li, Kuncheng; Bolger, Donald J; Booth, James R

2011-08-01

Developmental differences in phonological and orthographic processing of Chinese spoken words were examined in 9-year-olds, 11-year-olds and adults using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Rhyming and spelling judgments were made to two-character words presented sequentially in the auditory modality. Developmental comparisons between adults and both groups of children combined showed that age-related changes in activation in visuo-orthographic regions depended on a task. There were developmental increases in the left inferior temporal gyrus and the right inferior occipital gyrus in the spelling task, suggesting more extensive visuo-orthographic processing in a task that required access to these representations. Conversely, there were developmental decreases in activation in the left fusiform gyrus and left middle occipital gyrus in the rhyming task, suggesting that the development of reading is marked by reduced involvement of orthography in a spoken language task that does not require access to these orthographic representations. Developmental decreases may arise from the existence of extensive homophony (auditory words that have multiple spellings) in Chinese. In addition, we found that 11-year-olds and adults showed similar activation in the left superior temporal gyrus across tasks, with both groups showing greater activation than 9-year-olds. This pattern suggests early development of perceptual representations of phonology. In contrast, 11-year-olds and 9-year-olds showed similar activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus across tasks, with both groups showing weaker activation than adults. This pattern suggests late development of controlled retrieval and selection of lexical representations. Altogether, this study suggests differential effects of character acquisition on development of components of the language network in Chinese as compared to previous reports on alphabetic languages. Published by Elsevier Inc.

When does speech sound disorder matter for literacy? The role of disordered speech errors, co-occurring language impairment and family risk of dyslexia.

PubMed

Hayiou-Thomas, Marianna E; Carroll, Julia M; Leavett, Ruth; Hulme, Charles; Snowling, Margaret J

2017-02-01

This study considers the role of early speech difficulties in literacy development, in the context of additional risk factors. Children were identified with speech sound disorder (SSD) at the age of 3½ years, on the basis of performance on the Diagnostic Evaluation of Articulation and Phonology. Their literacy skills were assessed at the start of formal reading instruction (age 5½), using measures of phoneme awareness, word-level reading and spelling; and 3 years later (age 8), using measures of word-level reading, spelling and reading comprehension. The presence of early SSD conferred a small but significant risk of poor phonemic skills and spelling at the age of 5½ and of poor word reading at the age of 8. Furthermore, within the group with SSD, the persistence of speech difficulties to the point of school entry was associated with poorer emergent literacy skills, and children with 'disordered' speech errors had poorer word reading skills than children whose speech errors indicated 'delay'. In contrast, the initial severity of SSD was not a significant predictor of reading development. Beyond the domain of speech, the presence of a co-occurring language impairment was strongly predictive of literacy skills and having a family risk of dyslexia predicted additional variance in literacy at both time-points. Early SSD alone has only modest effects on literacy development but when additional risk factors are present, these can have serious negative consequences, consistent with the view that multiple risks accumulate to predict reading disorders. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Hope for Aphasia Patients

MedlinePlus

... specific language problems, such as naming and word retrieval, spelling, and sentence processing. There is a "use ... 12 Number 1 Page 11 MedlinePlus Subscribe Magazine Information Contact Us Viewers & Players Friends of the National ...

Lexical and age effects on word recognition in noise in normal-hearing children.

PubMed

Ren, Cuncun; Liu, Sha; Liu, Haihong; Kong, Ying; Liu, Xin; Li, Shujing

2015-12-01

The purposes of the present study were (1) to examine the lexical and age effects on word recognition of normal-hearing (NH) children in noise, and (2) to compare the word-recognition performance in noise to that in quiet listening conditions. Participants were 213 NH children (age ranged between 3 and 6 years old). Eighty-nine and 124 of the participants were tested in noise and quiet listening conditions, respectively. The Standard-Chinese Lexical Neighborhood Test, which contains lists of words in four lexical categories (i.e., dissyllablic easy (DE), dissyllablic hard (DH), monosyllable easy (ME), and monosyllable hard (MH)) was used to evaluate the Mandarin Chinese word recognition in speech spectrum-shaped noise (SSN) with a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 0dB. A two-way repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted to examine the lexical effects with syllable length and difficulty level as the main factors on word recognition in the quiet and noise listening conditions. The effects of age on word-recognition performance were examined using a regression model. The word-recognition performance in noise was significantly poorer than that in quiet and the individual variations in performance in noise were much greater than those in quiet. Word recognition scores showed that the lexical effects were significant in the SSN. Children scored higher with dissyllabic words than with monosyllabic words; "easy" words scored higher than "hard" words in the noise condition. The scores of the NH children in the SSN (SNR=0dB) for the DE, DH, ME, and MH words were 85.4, 65.9, 71.7, and 46.2% correct, respectively. The word-recognition performance also increased with age in each lexical category for the NH children tested in noise. Both age and lexical characteristics of words had significant influences on the performance of Mandarin-Chinese word recognition in noise. The lexical effects were more obvious under noise listening conditions than in quiet. The word-recognition performance in noise increased with age in NH children of 3-6 years old and had not reached plateau at 6 years of age in the NH children. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.

Rapid Word Recognition as a Measure of Word-Level Automaticity and Its Relation to Other Measures of Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Frye, Elizabeth M.; Gosky, Ross

2012-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between rapid recognition of individual words (Word Recognition Test) and two measures of contextual reading: (1) grade-level Passage Reading Test (IRI passage) and (2) performance on standardized STAR Reading Test. To establish if time of presentation on the word recognition test was a factor in…

The effect of word concreteness on recognition memory.

PubMed

Fliessbach, K; Weis, S; Klaver, P; Elger, C E; Weber, B

2006-09-01

Concrete words that are readily imagined are better remembered than abstract words. Theoretical explanations for this effect either claim a dual coding of concrete words in the form of both a verbal and a sensory code (dual-coding theory), or a more accessible semantic network for concrete words than for abstract words (context-availability theory). However, the neural mechanisms of improved memory for concrete versus abstract words are poorly understood. Here, we investigated the processing of concrete and abstract words during encoding and retrieval in a recognition memory task using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As predicted, memory performance was significantly better for concrete words than for abstract words. Abstract words elicited stronger activations of the left inferior frontal cortex both during encoding and recognition than did concrete words. Stronger activation of this area was also associated with successful encoding for both abstract and concrete words. Concrete words elicited stronger activations bilaterally in the posterior inferior parietal lobe during recognition. The left parietal activation was associated with correct identification of old stimuli. The anterior precuneus, left cerebellar hemisphere and the posterior and anterior cingulate cortex showed activations both for successful recognition of concrete words and for online processing of concrete words during encoding. Additionally, we observed a correlation across subjects between brain activity in the left anterior fusiform gyrus and hippocampus during recognition of learned words and the strength of the concreteness effect. These findings support the idea of specific brain processes for concrete words, which are reactivated during successful recognition.

New Insights on Developmental Dyslexia Subtypes: Heterogeneity of Mixed Reading Profiles

PubMed Central

Zoubrinetzky, Rachel; Bielle, Frédérique; Valdois, Sylviane

2014-01-01

We examined whether classifications based on reading performance are relevant to identify cognitively homogeneous subgroups of dyslexic children. Each of the 71 dyslexic participants was selected to have a mixed reading profile, i.e. poor irregular word and pseudo-word reading performance (accuracy and speed). Despite their homogeneous reading profile, the participants were found to split into four distinct cognitive subgroups, characterized by a single phonological disorder, a single visual attention span disorder, a double deficit or none of these disorders. The two subgroups characterized by single and contrasted cognitive disorders were found to exhibit a very similar reading pattern but more contrasted spelling performance (quantitative analysis). A qualitative analysis of the error types produced in reading and spelling provided some cues about the participants' underlying cognitive deficit. The overall findings disqualify subtyping based on reading profiles as a classification method to identify cognitively homogeneous subgroups of dyslexic children. They rather show an opaque relationship between the cognitive underpinnings of developmental dyslexia and their behavioral manifestations in reading and spelling. Future neuroimaging and genetic studies should take this issue into account since synthesizing over cognitively heterogeneous children would entail potential pitfalls. PMID:24918441

Task Effects Reveal Cognitive Flexibility Responding to Frequency and Predictability: Evidence from Eye Movements in Reading and Proofreading

PubMed Central

Schotter, Elizabeth R.; Bicknell, Klinton; Howard, Ian; Levy, Roger; Rayner, Keith

2014-01-01

It is well-known that word frequency and predictability affect processing time. These effects change magnitude across tasks, but studies testing this use tasks with different response types (e.g., lexical decision, naming, and fixation time during reading; Schilling, Rayner & Chumbley, 1998), preventing direct comparison. Recently, Kaakinen and Hyönä (2010) overcame this problem, comparing fixation times in reading for comprehension and proofreading, showing that the frequency effect was larger in proofreading than in reading. This result could be explained by readers exhibiting substantial cognitive flexibility, and qualitatively changing how they process words in the proofreading task in a way that magnifies effects of word frequency. Alternatively, readers may not change word processing so dramatically, and instead may perform more careful identification generally, increasing the magnitude of many word processing effects (e.g., both frequency and predictability). We tested these possibilities with two experiments: subjects read for comprehension and then proofread for spelling errors (letter transpositions) that produce nonwords (e.g., trcak for track as in Kaakinen & Hyönä) or that produce real but unintended words (e.g., trial for trail) to compare how the task changes these effects. Replicating Kaakinen and Hyönä, frequency effects increased during proofreading. However, predictability effects only increased when integration with the sentence context was necessary to detect errors (i.e., when spelling errors produced words that were inappropriate in the sentence; trial for trail). The results suggest that readers adopt sophisticated word processing strategies to accommodate task demands. PMID:24434024

Surface errors without semantic impairment in acquired dyslexia: a voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping study

PubMed Central

Pillay, Sara B.; Humphries, Colin J.; Gross, William L.; Graves, William W.; Book, Diane S.

2016-01-01

Patients with surface dyslexia have disproportionate difficulty pronouncing irregularly spelled words (e.g. pint), suggesting impaired use of lexical-semantic information to mediate phonological retrieval. Patients with this deficit also make characteristic ‘regularization’ errors, in which an irregularly spelled word is mispronounced by incorrect application of regular spelling-sound correspondences (e.g. reading plaid as ‘played’), indicating over-reliance on sublexical grapheme–phoneme correspondences. We examined the neuroanatomical correlates of this specific error type in 45 patients with left hemisphere chronic stroke. Voxel-based lesion–symptom mapping showed a strong positive relationship between the rate of regularization errors and damage to the posterior half of the left middle temporal gyrus. Semantic deficits on tests of single-word comprehension were generally mild, and these deficits were not correlated with the rate of regularization errors. Furthermore, the deep occipital-temporal white matter locus associated with these mild semantic deficits was distinct from the lesion site associated with regularization errors. Thus, in contrast to patients with surface dyslexia and semantic impairment from anterior temporal lobe degeneration, surface errors in our patients were not related to a semantic deficit. We propose that these patients have an inability to link intact semantic representations with phonological representations. The data provide novel evidence for a post-semantic mechanism mediating the production of surface errors, and suggest that the posterior middle temporal gyrus may compute an intermediate representation linking semantics with phonology. PMID:26966139

Exploring a recognition-induced recognition decrement

PubMed Central

Dopkins, Stephen; Ngo, Catherine Trinh; Sargent, Jesse

2007-01-01

Four experiments explored a recognition decrement that is associated with the recognition of a word from a short list. The stimulus material for demonstrating the phenomenon was a list of words of different syntactic types. A word from the list was recognized less well following a decision that a word of the same type had occurred in the list than following a decision that such a word had not occurred in the list. A recognition decrement did not occur for a word of a given type following a positive recognition decision to a word of a different type. A recognition decrement did not occur when the list consisted exclusively of nouns. It was concluded that the phenomenon may reflect a criterion shift but probably does not reflect a list strength effect, suppression, or familiarity attribution consequent to a perceived discrepancy between actual and expected fluency. PMID:17063915

Syntactic and semantic errors in radiology reports associated with speech recognition software.

PubMed

Ringler, Michael D; Goss, Brian C; Bartholmai, Brian J

2017-03-01

Speech recognition software can increase the frequency of errors in radiology reports, which may affect patient care. We retrieved 213,977 speech recognition software-generated reports from 147 different radiologists and proofread them for errors. Errors were classified as "material" if they were believed to alter interpretation of the report. "Immaterial" errors were subclassified as intrusion/omission or spelling errors. The proportion of errors and error type were compared among individual radiologists, imaging subspecialty, and time periods. In all, 20,759 reports (9.7%) contained errors, of which 3992 (1.9%) were material errors. Among immaterial errors, spelling errors were more common than intrusion/omission errors ( p < .001). Proportion of errors and fraction of material errors varied significantly among radiologists and between imaging subspecialties ( p < .001). Errors were more common in cross-sectional reports, reports reinterpreting results of outside examinations, and procedural studies (all p < .001). Error rate decreased over time ( p < .001), which suggests that a quality control program with regular feedback may reduce errors.

Acquired prosopagnosia without word recognition deficits.

PubMed

Susilo, Tirta; Wright, Victoria; Tree, Jeremy J; Duchaine, Bradley

2015-01-01

It has long been suggested that face recognition relies on specialized mechanisms that are not involved in visual recognition of other object categories, including those that require expert, fine-grained discrimination at the exemplar level such as written words. But according to the recently proposed many-to-many theory of object recognition (MTMT), visual recognition of faces and words are carried out by common mechanisms [Behrmann, M., & Plaut, D. C. ( 2013 ). Distributed circuits, not circumscribed centers, mediate visual recognition. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 210-219]. MTMT acknowledges that face and word recognition are lateralized, but posits that the mechanisms that predominantly carry out face recognition still contribute to word recognition and vice versa. MTMT makes a key prediction, namely that acquired prosopagnosics should exhibit some measure of word recognition deficits. We tested this prediction by assessing written word recognition in five acquired prosopagnosic patients. Four patients had lesions limited to the right hemisphere while one had bilateral lesions with more pronounced lesions in the right hemisphere. The patients completed a total of seven word recognition tasks: two lexical decision tasks and five reading aloud tasks totalling more than 1200 trials. The performances of the four older patients (3 female, age range 50-64 years) were compared to those of 12 older controls (8 female, age range 56-66 years), while the performances of the younger prosopagnosic (male, 31 years) were compared to those of 14 younger controls (9 female, age range 20-33 years). We analysed all results at the single-patient level using Crawford's t-test. Across seven tasks, four prosopagnosics performed as quickly and accurately as controls. Our results demonstrate that acquired prosopagnosia can exist without word recognition deficits. These findings are inconsistent with a key prediction of MTMT. They instead support the hypothesis that face recognition is carried out by specialized mechanisms that do not contribute to recognition of written words.

Improved word recognition for observers with age-related maculopathies using compensation filters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lawton, Teri B.

1988-01-01

A method for improving word recognition for people with age-related maculopathies, which cause a loss of central vision, is discussed. It is found that the use of individualized compensation filters based on an person's normalized contrast sensitivity function can improve word recognition for people with age-related maculopathies. It is shown that 27-70 pct more magnification is needed for unfiltered words compared to filtered words. The improvement in word recognition is positively correlated with the severity of vision loss.

Rule-based Approach on Extraction of Malay Compound Nouns in Standard Malay Document

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Abu Bakar, Zamri; Kamal Ismail, Normaly; Rawi, Mohd Izani Mohamed

2017-08-01

Malay compound noun is defined as a form of words that exists when two or more words are combined into a single syntax and it gives a specific meaning. Compound noun acts as one unit and it is spelled separately unless an established compound noun is written closely from two words. The basic characteristics of compound noun can be seen in the Malay sentences which are the frequency of that word in the text itself. Thus, this extraction of compound nouns is significant for the following research which is text summarization, grammar checker, sentiments analysis, machine translation and word categorization. There are many research efforts that have been proposed in extracting Malay compound noun using linguistic approaches. Most of the existing methods were done on the extraction of bi-gram noun+noun compound. However, the result still produces some problems as to give a better result. This paper explores a linguistic method for extracting compound Noun from stand Malay corpus. A standard dataset are used to provide a common platform for evaluating research on the recognition of compound Nouns in Malay sentences. Therefore, an improvement for the effectiveness of the compound noun extraction is needed because the result can be compromised. Thus, this study proposed a modification of linguistic approach in order to enhance the extraction of compound nouns processing. Several pre-processing steps are involved including normalization, tokenization and tagging. The first step that uses the linguistic approach in this study is Part-of-Speech (POS) tagging. Finally, we describe several rules-based and modify the rules to get the most relevant relation between the first word and the second word in order to assist us in solving of the problems. The effectiveness of the relations used in our study can be measured using recall, precision and F1-score techniques. The comparison of the baseline values is very essential because it can provide whether there has been an improvement in the result.

Spelling Processes of Children With Nonsyndromic Cleft Lip and/or Palate: A Preliminary Study.

PubMed

Lee, Karen Shi Mei; Young, Selena Ee-Li; Liow, Susan Jane Rickard; Purcell, Alison Anne

2015-01-01

Objective :  To compare the cognitive-linguistic processes underlying spelling performance of children with cleft lip and/or palate with those of typically developing children. Design :  An assessment battery including tests of hearing, articulation, verbal short-term and working memory, and phonological awareness, as well as word and nonword spelling, was administered to both groups. Participants :  A total of 15 children with nonsyndromic cleft lip and/or palate were case-matched by age and sex to 15 typically developing children. The children were aged between 6 and 8 years and were bilingual, with English the dominant language. Results :  Wilcoxon signed-rank tests revealed that the performance of children with cleft lip and/or palate was significantly poorer on phoneme deletion and nonword spelling (P < .05) compared with typically developing children. Spearman correlation analyses revealed different relationships between the cognitive-linguistic and spelling measures for the cleft lip and/or palate and typically developing groups. Conclusions :  Children with cleft lip and/or palate underachieve in phonological awareness and spelling skills. To facilitate early intervention for literacy problems, speech-language pathologists should routinely assess the cognitive-linguistic processing of children with cleft lip and/or palate, especially phonological awareness, as part of their case management protocols.

A Conceptual Paper on the Application of the Picture Word Inductive Model Using Bruner's Constructivist View of Learning and the Cognitive Load Theory

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jiang, Xuan; Perkins, Kyle

2013-01-01

Bruner's constructs of learning, specifically the structure of learning, spiral curriculum, and discovery learning, in conjunction with the Cognitive Load Theory, are used to evaluate the Picture Word Inductive Model (PWIM), an inquiry-oriented inductive language arts strategy designed to teach K-6 children phonics and spelling. The PWIM reflects…

Contribution of Phonemic Segmentation Instruction with Letters and Articulation Pictures to Word Reading and Spelling in Beginners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boyer, Nancy; Ehri, Linnea C.

2011-01-01

English-speaking preschoolers who knew letters but were nonreaders (M = 4 years 9 months; n = 60) were taught to segment consonant-vowel (CV), VC, and CVC words into phonemes either with letters and pictures of articulatory gestures (the LPA condition) or with letters only (the LO condition). A control group received no treatment. Both trained…

Processing Words Varying in Personal Familiarity (Based on Reading and Spelling) by Poor Readers and Age-Matched and Reading-Matched Controls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Corcos, Evelyne; Willows, Dale M.

2009-01-01

To evaluate whether performance differences between good and poor readers relate to reading-specific cognitive factors that result from engaging in reading activities and other experiential factors, the authors gave students in Grades 4 and 6 a perceptual identification test of words not only drawn from their personal lexicon but also varying in…

Color-Coded Vowels and Spelling with Visual Cues in Beginning Reading.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Turner, Ann Coffeen

Twenty-four beginning readers participated in a study of the effectiveness of cued learning. The study was carried out in two phases--a letter-learning phase and a word-learning phase. The children were taught one at a time by the same teacher over a four-year period. During the word-learning phase, one fourth of the children used a vowels-only…

[Explicit memory for type font of words in source monitoring and recognition tasks].

PubMed

Hatanaka, Yoshiko; Fujita, Tetsuya

2004-02-01

We investigated whether people can consciously remember type fonts of words by methods of examining explicit memory; source-monitoring and old/new-recognition. We set matched, non-matched, and non-studied conditions between the study and the test words using two kinds of type fonts; Gothic and MARU. After studying words in one way of encoding, semantic or physical, subjects in a source-monitoring task made a three way discrimination between new words, Gothic words, and MARU words (Exp. 1). Subjects in an old/new-recognition task indicated whether test words were previously presented or not (Exp. 2). We compared the source judgments with old/new recognition data. As a result, these data showed conscious recollection for type font of words on the source monitoring task and dissociation between source monitoring and old/new recognition performance.