Why learning to read is easier in Welsh than in English: Orthographic transparency effects evinced with frequency-matched tests

2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 571-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
NICK C. ELLIS ◽  
A. MARI HOOPER
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Real Word ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Orthographic Transparency ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Math Ability ◽  
Reading Errors

This study compared the rate of literacy acquisition in orthographically transparent Welsh and orthographically opaque English using reading tests that were equated for frequency of written exposure. Year 2 English-educated monolingual children were compared with Welsh-educated bilingual children, matched for reading instruction, background, locale, and math ability. Welsh children were able to read aloud accurately significantly more of their language (61% of tokens, 1821 types) than were English children (52% tokens, 716 types), allowing them to read aloud beyond their comprehension levels (168 vs. 116%, respectively). Various observations suggested that Welsh readers were more reliant on an alphabetic decoding strategy: word length determined 70% of reading latency in Welsh but only 22% in English, and Welsh reading errors tended to be nonword mispronunciations, whereas English children made more real word substitutions and null attempts. These findings demonstrate that the orthographic transparency of a language can have a profound effect on the rate of acquisition and style of reading adopted by its speakers.

Nonword Reading Tests: A Review of the Available Resources

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danielle Colenbrander ◽  
Lyndsey Nickels ◽  
Saskia Kohnen
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Reading Test ◽  
Diagnostic Assessment ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Nonword Reading ◽  
General Functioning ◽  
Dual Route ◽  
Models Of Reading

AbstractResponse to Intervention (RTI) models of reading instruction have received much attention in the literature (Fuchs, Mock, Morgan, & Young, 2003; Hosp & Ardoin, 2008; Justice, 2006). Such models call for frequent and high-quality assessment of students' skills. One skill that is vital in the process of learning to read is the ability to sound out letters and blend these sounds together to produce a word. According to Dual Route models of reading (e.g., Coltheart, Rastle, Perry, Langdon, & Ziegler, 2001), these skills comprise the sublexical route to reading. This is best assessed by tests of nonword reading. In this article, 17 tests of nonword reading were reviewed in light of RTI and Dual Route models. The aim of the review was to determine the best available nonword reading tests for use at the Tier One and Tier Two levels of intervention, and the best available nonword reading test for diagnostic (Tier Three) purposes. The review determined that several good-quality tests of nonword reading, suitable for assessing the general functioning of the sublexical route to reading (at the Tier One and Tier Two level), are available, but that no test of nonword reading is available that fulfils all of the desirable criteria for a Tier Three, diagnostic assessment.

Scaffolds for Learning to Read in an Inclusion Classroom

2000 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-279 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elaine R. Silliman ◽  
Ruth Bahr ◽  
Jill Beasman ◽  
Louise C. Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Typically Developing ◽  
Emergent Reading ◽  
Reading Groups ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Inclusion Classroom ◽  
Language Learning Disability

Purpose: This article describes a study on the scaffolding of learning to read in a primary-level, continuous-progress, inclusion classroom that stressed a critical thinking curriculum and employed a collaborative teaching model. Two emergent reading groups were the focus of study—one group that was taught by a general educator and the other by a special educator. The primary purposes were to discern the teachers’ discourse patterns in order to define whether scaffolding sequences were more directive or more supportive and the degree to which these sequences represented differentiated instruction for children with a language learning disability (LLD). Method: Two students with an LLD and two younger, typically developing peers were videotaped in their emergent reading groups during an 8-week period. The distribution, types, and functions of teacher scaffolding sequences were examined. Results: Both team members primarily used directive scaffolding sequences, suggesting that the assistance provided to children emphasized only direct instruction (skill learning) and not analytical thinking concerning phonemegrapheme relationships (strategy learning). Distribution of scaffolding sequence types directed to the four students indicated that the two children with an LLD were receiving reading instruction that was undifferentiated from the two typically developing, younger children. Clinical Implications: In order for children with an LLD to benefit from inclusion, explicit, systematic, and intensive instruction in phonological awareness and spelling-sound relationships should be implemented within the context of multilevel instruction that balances skill- and strategy-based learning.

Initial Reading Instruction: Phonemes, Syllables, or Ideographs?

1976 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Harrigan
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Initial Phase ◽  
Initial Step ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Great Difficulty ◽  
Teaching Reading ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
American Children ◽  
Initial Reading

In an experiment similar to that of Rozin's (1971), Chinese ideographs were taught to a group of American children having great difficulty learning to read English by the phonemic approach. The quick and sure learning of the ideographs suggests we should explore less abstract, less phonemic approaches to the initial phase of teaching reading in the hope of facilitating early learning. Because English is mapped through syllable sounds, a syllable introduction is suggested as the best initial step, later introducing phonemes as syllable building blocks.

Reading strategies of bilingual normally progressing and dyslexic readers in Hindi and English

2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
ASHUM GUPTA ◽  
GULGOONA JAMAL
Keyword(s):  
Reading Strategies ◽  
Word Length ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Age Of Acquisition ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Orthographic Transparency ◽  
Reading Accuracy

This study examined the reading accuracy of dyslexic readers in comparison to chronological age-matched normally progressing readers in Hindi and English using word reading tasks, matched for spoken frequency of usage, age of acquisition, imageability, and word length. Both groups showed significantly greater reading accuracy in Hindi than in English. For normally progressing readers, spoken frequency of usage had no significant effect in Hindi and a significant effect in English, whereas for dyslexic readers it had a significant effect in both languages. In Hindi, normally progressing readers produced only nonword errors; dyslexic readers produced a far greater percentage of nonword than word errors. In English, normally progressing readers produced greater percentage of word than nonword errors, whereas dyslexic readers produced greater percentage of nonword than word errors. Results are discussed in terms of orthographic transparency, sublexical, and lexical reading strategies.

scholarly journals Effect of a Canine-Assisted Read Aloud Intervention on Reading Ability and Physiological Response: A Pilot Study

Animals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 474 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suk-Chun Fung
Keyword(s):  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Third Graders ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Reading Tests ◽  
Post Test ◽  
Character Reading ◽  
Grade 3

The aim of this study was to determine whether there is an increase in the reading fluency and accuracy of three lower performing third-graders after participating in a canine-assisted read-aloud program, as well as an increase in the relaxation level during and after the program. This study employed a pre-test-post-test design to test the hypotheses that gains would be made in both reading fluency and reading accuracy upon completion of the program. The three grade 3 students were assessed by the Chinese Character Reading Test and the Reading Fluency Test. During the intervention, they read to a trained canine in the presence of a handler. Three days after the completion of the seven 20-min interventions, the participants were assessed by the two standardized reading tests a second time. Heart rate variability (HRV) responses to the pre-test, the intervention and the post-test were recorded. The three grade 3 students attained a higher level of relaxation while reading to the dog and increased their reading fluency after the reading sessions. These results provided preliminary evidence that the canine-assisted read-aloud program can increase the reading performance of children with lower performance. Implications for future research and reading programs will be discussed.

Modality Preference as a Model for Differentiating Beginning Reading Instruction: A Review of the Issues

1981 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Larrivee
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Beginning Reading ◽  
Measurement Instruments ◽  
Instructional Programs ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Differential Instruction ◽  
Differentiating Instruction ◽  
Marked Preference ◽  
Beginning Reading Instruction ◽  
Modality Preference

This paper reviews accumulated research pertinent to the issue of modality preference as a method for differentiating beginning reading instruction. Research is considered here in the following categories: Studies providing differential instruction based on modality preference; related studies comparing auditory and visual modes as mediational channels; and studies dealing with the extent to which auditory and visual capacities are related to success in beginning reading. The following conclusions are presented: 1) Regardless of the measure used to classify learners, only a relatively small percentage of children showed a marked preference for either modality; 2) most current measurement instruments did not demonstrate the necessary reliability to be used in decisions concerning differential assignment of children to instructional programs; and 3) differentiating instruction according to modality preference apparently did not facilitate learning to read.

scholarly journals A Qualitative Analysis of Oral Reading Errors of Reflective and Impulsive Second Graders: A Follow-Up Study

1975 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joyce Hood ◽  
Janet Ross Kendall
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Oral Reading ◽  
Second Graders ◽  
Second Grade ◽  
Basal Reader ◽  
Reading Errors ◽  
Extreme Groups ◽  
Matching Familiar Figures Test ◽  
Midwestern City

This study investigates differences between reflective (REF) and impulsive (IMP) second-graders in number and category of oral reading errors and their correction. Kagan's Matching Familiar Figures test (MFF) was employed in selecting extreme groups of 25 REF and 25 IMP Ss from all 166 second-graders in one midwestern city using the same second-grade basal reader for reading instruction. The Ss' oral reading and their answers to questions over two stories (of second- and third-grade readability levels) were audio-tape-recorded. Five scorers were trained to code the oral reading errors. The scores for each error category were based on the combined stories, and were means of the errors coded by the five scorers. Reliabilities of error scores ranged from .84 to .99. Results indicate: (a) more REF than IMP Ss with low error scores but insignificant differences in mean number of errors, (b) proportionately more graphically similar errors for REF than for IMP Ss but no significant differences in any other category, (c) more corrections by REF Ss overall and within the categories of graphically dissimilar errors and errors appropriate to the preceding but not the following context, (d) no significant differences between REF and IMP Ss in number of repetitions, rate of reading, nor in comprehension scores.

Impact of orthographic transparency on typical and atypical reading development: Evidence in French-Spanish bilingual children

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 1177-1190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie Lallier ◽  
Sylviane Valdois ◽  
Delphine Lassus-Sangosse ◽  
Chloé Prado ◽  
Sonia Kandel
Keyword(s):  
Reading Development ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Orthographic Transparency

scholarly journals Structured Read-Aloud In Middle School: The Potential Impact On Reading Achievement

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Kohart Marchessault ◽  
Karen H. Larwin
Keyword(s):  
Middle School ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Read Aloud ◽  
School Level ◽  
Elementary Level ◽  
Online Reading ◽  
Middle School Reading ◽  
Virginia School ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
To Receive

Read-aloud is a technique predominantly utilized at the elementary level. This study was designed to research the effectiveness of this technique at the middle school level, specifically students who were not receiving special education or additional reading intervention services. For the current investigation, students in two middle schools within the same Virginia school district were assigned to receive the treatment of Structured Read-Aloud or received traditional middle-school reading instruction. These students were tested using the Diagnostic Online Reading Assessment (DORA), both in the fall before the intervention was implemented and again in the spring of the same year, to assess gains. Results indicate that the use of Read-Aloud instruction had an impact on student DORA scores, and implications of the research are discussed.

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