Learning about the letter name subset of the vocabulary: Evidence from US and Brazilian preschoolers

2006 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
REBECCA TREIMAN ◽  
BRETT KESSLER ◽  
TATIANA CURY POLLO
Keyword(s):  
Reading Instruction ◽  
Major Determinant ◽  
Uppercase Letter ◽  
Letter Frequency ◽  
Letter Names ◽  
Foundational Skills ◽  
General Frequency ◽  
The Continuum ◽  
Letter Shape

To examine the factors that affect the learning of letter names, an important foundation for literacy, we asked 318 US and 369 Brazilian preschoolers to identify each uppercase letter. Similarity of letter shape was the major determinant of confusion errors in both countries, and children were especially likely to interchange letters that were similar in shape as well as name. Errors were also affected by letter frequency, both general frequency and occurrence of letters in children's own names. Differences in letter names and letter frequencies between English and Portuguese led to certain differences in the patterns of performance for children in the two countries. Other differences appeared to reflect US children's greater familiarity with the conventional order of the alphabet. Boys were overrepresented at the low end of the continuum of letter name knowledge, suggesting that some boys begin formal reading instruction lacking important foundational skills.

Beyond zebra: Preschoolers' knowledge about letters

1997 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 391-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Treiman ◽  
Ruth Tincoff ◽  
E. Daylene Richmond-Welty
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Reading Instruction ◽  
False Positive ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
The United States ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
Letter Names

ABSTRACTChildren in the United States and in other English-speaking countries often learn a good deal about letters before they begin formal reading instruction. We suggest that one important and previously unrecognized type of knowledge about letters is knowledge of the phonological structure of the letters' names. In two experiments, preschoolers with a mean age of 4;8 judged whether various syllables were letters. The children made significantly more false positive responses to syllables such as /fi/, which have a phonological structure shared by a number of letters, than to syllables such as /fa/ and /if/, which sound less like real letters. This was true even for children who could recite the alphabet without error. Learning the alphabet, we conclude, forms the basis for generalizations about the structure of letter names.

scholarly journals Developmental Patterns in Elemental Skills: Knowledge of Upper-Case and Lower-Case Letter Names

1970 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Smythe ◽  
R. G. Stennett ◽  
Madeline Hardy ◽  
H. R. Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Rank Order ◽  
Lower Case Letter ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Letter Naming ◽  
Letter Frequency ◽  
Lower Case ◽  
Letter Names ◽  
Primary Type ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Two hundred children in grades K-3 were administered a test designed to assess knowledge of letter names in both upper- and lower-case primary type. Children exhibited better knowledge of upper- than lower-case letter names. Rank order, correlational analyses performed to determine the relationship of letter naming to visual discrimination and letter frequency revealed different patterns for upper- and lower-case letters. A subsequent, factor analytic treatment of the data also suggested differences in upper- and lower-case letter naming. Results are related to reading readiness norms and pedagogical implications are dealt with briefly.

The Foundations of Literacy

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Treiman
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Alphabetic Principle ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Phonological Skills ◽  
Letter Sounds ◽  
Sound Structure ◽  
Spoken Words ◽  
Letter Names ◽  
Foundational Skills ◽  
Regular Manner

Learning to read and write in English requires children to master the alphabetic principle, the idea that the letters in printed words represent the sounds in spoken words in a more or less regular manner. Children need at least two skills in order to grasp the alphabetic principle. The first is phonological awareness, or a sensitivity to the sound structure of spoken words. The second is knowledge about letters, including knowledge of letter names and knowledge of letter sounds. Recent research sheds light on these foundational skills, documenting the linguistic factors that affect children's performance and how children put their phonological skills and knowledge of letters to use in learning to read and spell.

C. The Continuous Spectrum of Pulsating Variable Stars

1967 ◽  
Vol 28 ◽  
pp. 177-206
Author(s):  
J. B. Oke ◽  
C. A. Whitney
Keyword(s):  
Continuous Spectrum ◽  
Variable Stars ◽  
Velocity Fields ◽  
The Other ◽  
Line Spectrum ◽  
Direct Information ◽  
Thermodynamic Structure ◽  
Diagnostic Interpretation ◽  
Pulsating Variable Stars ◽  
The Continuum

Pecker:The topic to be considered today is the continuous spectrum of certain stars, whose variability we attribute to a pulsation of some part of their structure. Obviously, this continuous spectrum provides a test of the pulsation theory to the extent that the continuum is completely and accurately observed and that we can analyse it to infer the structure of the star producing it. The continuum is one of the two possible spectral observations; the other is the line spectrum. It is obvious that from studies of the continuum alone, we obtain no direct information on the velocity fields in the star. We obtain information only on the thermodynamic structure of the photospheric layers of these stars–the photospheric layers being defined as those from which the observed continuum directly arises. So the problems arising in a study of the continuum are of two general kinds: completeness of observation, and adequacy of diagnostic interpretation. I will make a few comments on these, then turn the meeting over to Oke and Whitney.

Photo-electric Hβ and uvby photometry

1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 170-180
Author(s):  
D. L. Crawford
Keyword(s):  
Narrow Band ◽  
Line Strength ◽  
Interference Filter ◽  
B Stars ◽  
Relative Line ◽  
The Mean ◽  
F Stars ◽  
Two Parameters ◽  
Filter Photometry ◽  
The Continuum

Early in the 1950's Strömgren (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) introduced medium to narrow-band interference filter photometry at the McDonald Observatory. He used six interference filters to obtain two parameters of astrophysical interest. These parameters he calledlandc, for line and continuum hydrogen absorption. The first measured empirically the absorption line strength of Hβby means of a filter of half width 35Å centered on Hβand compared to the mean of two filters situated in the continuum near Hβ. The second index measured empirically the Balmer discontinuity by means of a filter situated below the Balmer discontinuity and two above it. He showed that these two indices could accurately predict the spectral type and luminosity of both B stars and A and F stars. He later derived (6) an indexmfrom the same filters. This index was a measure of the relative line blanketing near 4100Å compared to two filters above 4500Å. These three indices confirmed earlier work by many people, including Lindblad and Becker. References to this earlier work and to the systems discussed today can be found in Strömgren's article inBasic Astronomical Data(7).

Observations of the continuum near the galactic centre

1967 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 405
Author(s):  
F. J. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Galactic Centre ◽  
The Past ◽  
Centre Region ◽  
The Continuum

A continuum survey of the galactic-centre region has been carried out at Parkes at 20 cm wavelength over the areal11= 355° to 5°,b11= -3° to +3° (Kerr and Sinclair 1966, 1967). This is a larger region than has been covered in such surveys in the past. The observations were done as declination scans.

Removing Substrate Background in TEM Microanalysis

1974 ◽  
Vol 32 ◽  
pp. 568-569
Author(s):  
John C. Russ ◽  
Nicholas C. Barbi
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Conductivity ◽  
Rapid Growth ◽  
Organic Film ◽  
Absolute Concentration ◽  
Background Signal ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Elemental Concentrations ◽  
Transmission Electron ◽  
Electron Microscopes ◽  
The Continuum

The rapid growth of interest in attaching energy-dispersive x-ray analysis systems to transmission electron microscopes has centered largely on microanalysis of biological specimens. These are frequently either embedded in plastic or supported by an organic film, which is of great importance as regards stability under the beam since it provides thermal and electrical conductivity from the specimen to the grid.Unfortunately, the supporting medium also produces continuum x-radiation or Bremsstrahlung, which is added to the x-ray spectrum from the sample. It is not difficult to separate the characteristic peaks from the elements in the specimen from the total continuum background, but sometimes it is also necessary to separate the continuum due to the sample from that due to the support. For instance, it is possible to compute relative elemental concentrations in the sample, without standards, based on the relative net characteristic elemental intensities without regard to background; but to calculate absolute concentration, it is necessary to use the background signal itself as a measure of the total excited specimen mass.

EELS white line intensities calculated for the 3d and 4d metals

1989 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 388-389
Author(s):  
C. C. Ahn ◽  
D. H. Pearson ◽  
P. Rez ◽  
B. Fultz
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Line Intensity ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Initial Increase ◽  
White Line ◽  
Hartree Fock ◽  
Line Intensities ◽  
Integrated Intensity ◽  
X Ray Absorption ◽  
The Continuum

Previous experimental measurements of the total white line intensities from L2,3 energy loss spectra of 3d transition metals reported a linear dependence of the white line intensity on 3d occupancy. These results are inconsistent, however, with behavior inferred from relativistic one electron Dirac-Fock calculations, which show an initial increase followed by a decrease of total white line intensity across the 3d series. This inconsistency with experimental data is especially puzzling in light of work by Thole, et al., which successfully calculates x-ray absorption spectra of the lanthanide M4,5 white lines by employing a less rigorous Hartree-Fock calculation with relativistic corrections based on the work of Cowan. When restricted to transitions allowed by dipole selection rules, the calculated spectra of the lanthanide M4,5 white lines show a decreasing intensity as a function of Z that was consistent with the available experimental data.Here we report the results of Dirac-Fock calculations of the L2,3 white lines of the 3d and 4d elements, and compare the results to the experimental work of Pearson et al. In a previous study, similar calculations helped to account for the non-statistical behavior of L3/L2 ratios of the 3d metals. We assumed that all metals had a single 4s electron. Because these calculations provide absolute transition probabilities, to compare the calculated white line intensities to the experimental data, we normalized the calculated intensities to the intensity of the continuum above the L3 edges. The continuum intensity was obtained by Hartree-Slater calculations, and the normalization factor for the white line intensities was the integrated intensity in an energy window of fixed width and position above the L3 edge of each element.

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