Linguistics Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Linguistics, including details on human language, phonetics, syntax, phonology.

The role of phonological recoding in orthographic learning.

Kyte CS, Johnson CJ

Graduate Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., Canada. c.kyte@utoronto.ca

The objective of this research was to explore whether orthographic learning occurs as a result of phonological recoding, as expected from the self-teaching hypothesis. The participants were 32 fourth- and fifth-graders (mean age = 10 years 0 months, SD = 7 months) who performed lexical decisions for monosyllabic real words and pseudowords under two matched experimental conditions: a read aloud condition, wherein items were named prior to lexical decision to promote phonological recoding, and a concurrent articulation condition, presumed to attenuate phonological recoding. Later, orthographic learning of the pseudowords was evaluated using orthographic choice, spelling, and naming tasks. Consistent with the self-teaching hypothesis, targets learned with phonological recoding in the read aloud condition yielded greater orthographic learning than those learned with concurrent articulation. The research confirms the critical nature of phonological recoding in the development of visual word recognition skills and an orthographic lexicon.

Published 13 February 2006 in J Exp Child Psychol, 93(2): 166-85.
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