Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy

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 o...

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Main Authors: Wegener, S, Wang, H, de Lissa, P, Robidoux, S, Nation, K, Castles, A
Format: Journal article
Published: Wiley 2017
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author Wegener, S
Wang, H
de Lissa, P
Robidoux, S
Nation, K
Castles, A
author_facet Wegener, S
Wang, H
de Lissa, P
Robidoux, S
Nation, K
Castles, A
author_sort Wegener, S
collection OXFORD
description 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.
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spelling oxford-uuid:38a8dbcd-a667-402e-ad2d-64b52bc6d4352022-03-26T13:51:27ZChildren reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancyJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:38a8dbcd-a667-402e-ad2d-64b52bc6d435Symplectic Elements at OxfordWiley2017Wegener, SWang, Hde Lissa, PRobidoux, SNation, KCastles, AThere 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.
spellingShingle Wegener, S
Wang, H
de Lissa, P
Robidoux, S
Nation, K
Castles, A
Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title_full Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title_fullStr Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title_full_unstemmed Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title_short Children reading spoken words: Interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
title_sort children reading spoken words interactions between vocabulary and orthographic expectancy
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AT delissap childrenreadingspokenwordsinteractionsbetweenvocabularyandorthographicexpectancy
AT robidouxs childrenreadingspokenwordsinteractionsbetweenvocabularyandorthographicexpectancy
AT nationk childrenreadingspokenwordsinteractionsbetweenvocabularyandorthographicexpectancy
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