LCD720 – 04/29/09 Orthography and Phonics

Announcements Practice homework assignment about orthography Next week: graded homework assignment due (on interfaces) –Available on Blackboard –Submit electronically on Blackboard or on paper in class (May 6, 6:30pm) May 13: final paper / lesson plan due

Homework: Orthography Answers will be posted on Blackboard

Homework Select an activity from Phonics they use, Chapter 2 –Can you modify these activities for older children and adult? (If so, how?) –Consider: What is the objective of the activity? Do you think the activity will be effective? Why?

Theory and Research on Phonics Instruction Phonics They Use, Chapter 14, Theory and Research –Clarification questions? Discuss in groups of four –What do you think of the author’s “personal phonics history”? –What did you find most interesting about how good readers read words, and about how children learn to read words? For example, what did you not know, or what can you use in your classroom?

Models of reading Is reading decoding: converting letters into sound? Or is it something else? Or both?

Types of processing Bottom-up processing –Using language knowledge and language processing strategies to understand the text; e.g., decoding, sight words –Cf. phonics instruction Top-down processing –Using world knowledge and cognitive processing strategies to understand the text –Cf. “whole language” instruction Top-down and bottom-up processing may proceed in parallel Example of top-down processing…

What is the following text about? The procedure is actually quite simple. First, you arrange the items into different groups. Of course one pile may be sufficient depending on how much there is to do. If you have to go somewhere else due to lack of facilities that is the next step; otherwise, you are pretty well set. It is important not to overdo things. That is, it is better to do too few things at once than too many. In the short run this may not seem important but complications can easily arise. A mistake can be expensive as well. …

What is the following text about? … At first, the whole procedure will seem complicated. Soon, however, it will become just another fact of life. It is difficult to foresee any end to the necessity for this task in the immediate future, but then, one never can tell. After the procedure is completed one arranges the materials into different groups again. Then they can be put into their appropriate places. Eventually they will be used once more and the whole cycle will then have to be repeated. However, that is part of life.

What is this text about? John was hungry and decided to order a large meal. He was pleased that the waitress was attentive and prompt. After he finished the meal, he paid his bill and left an extra five dollars under his plate. Where does this take place? What schema did you need to utilize? How does it differ from the first text?

What is reading? 1970s (e.g., Goodman, Smith): –Reading is a “psycholinguistic guessing game”: Readers make predictions, and “sample the text” (= use some orthographic information) to confirm those predictions Mostly top-down processing –Words are read as a whole (cf. Chinese characters) –Skilled reading: Better first guesses; better sampling strategies –Strong influence on teaching of reading

What is reading Current opinions –Readers use both top-down and bottom-up processing in parallel

Example of a stage model Ehri’s four-phase model of reading development 1.Pre-alphabetic 2.Partial alphabetic 3.Full alphabetic 4.Consolidated alphabetic Ehri, L.C. (2005). Development of sight word reading: Phases and findings. In: The science of reading: A handbook, Snowling, M.J. & Hulme, C. (Eds.). Blackwell, pp

1. Pre-alphabetic phase Visual and contextual cues –Names of brands like candy or restaurants –Contextual cues (top-down) Location: name on locker –Visuographic cues (bottom-up) Non-phonetic graphic features, e.g., two “sticks” in William

1. Pre-alphabetic phase Children may recognize their own name or their friend’s names; focus on initial letters Known letters mostly from their own name Memory for words is limited Print-meaning correspondences rather than print-sound correspondences –Semantic errors when reading familiar words

Transition from pre-alphabetic to partial alphabetic Children begin to acquire letter knowledge, and use it to read words Personal name writing stronger predictor of future reading success than personal name reading –Writing draws attention to the sequence of sounds and their connection to letters

2. Partial alphabetic phase Children use the sound value of some letters to remember how to read (sight) words –E.g., read jail by remembering jay and el, ignoring ai –Use only part of the word to read it –They use letter names, or sounds from the letter name No decoding skill yet

Transition from partial alphabetic to full alphabetic Children begin to acquire decoding skill and grapho-phonemic knowledge Bond spellings fully to their pronunciations in memory; influenced by: –Phonemic awareness and letter-sound correspondences –Exposure to print –Cipher knowledge –Sight word knowledge

Transition from partial alphabetic to full alphabetic Beginning readers without/with phonemic segmentation and letter-sound knowledge make different types of errors (Stuart & Coltheart, 1988): –Without: Errors have some resemblance to written words, e.g., misread look as baby; milk as like –With: Preserve beginning or beginning + ending letters, e.g., misread cat as car; bird as bad Phonemic awareness and letter knowledge change the word reading process

3. Full alphabetic phase Beginners learn to form connections between all graphemes and phonemes to remember how to read words To learn sight words, readers need: –More complete knowledge of grapheme-phoneme relations, esp. vowels –Ability to use these relations to decode words –Phonemic segmentation skill Reading words just a few times can convert unfamiliar words to familiar sight words –Decoding facilitates memory for sight words Full phase readers remember entire sight words, whereas partial phase readers remember boundary letters

3. Full alphabetic phase Children need to learn decoding and sight word reading –Teaching only one strategy is not as efficient as teaching both –Sight word reading is necessary for irregularly spelled words –Decoding is necessary for unfamiliar words

4. Consolidated alphabetic phase Letter sequences for blends of graphophonemic units, including: –Morphemes, onsets, rimes –Also: sight words, and frequent syllables E.g., ing in bring, king, thing, sing Students who practiced reading syllables in multisyllabic words outperformed students who practiced whole-word reading in: –remembering sight words spellings –decoding new words –decoding pseudowords (Adolescent readers at 3 rd -grade level; Bhattacharya & Ehri, 2004)

Automaticity Mature readers recognize sight words automatically –and are facile or automatic in decoding unfamiliar words Recognizing words automatically: –Immediate –Without attention for decoding –Stroop effect: What color are these words? Sight word reading (and automaticity) also occurs in transparent writing systems REDYELLOWBROWN

Summary and relevance Reading is top-down and bottom-up Children progress through several stages: –Pre- => partial => full => consolidated alphabetic They gradually learn: –letter-sound correspondences –phonemic awareness –frequent syllables –automatic decoding and sight word reading (both!) Sight word reading originates in decoding, which requires phonemic awareness How is this the same or different in L2 reading?

L2 reading L1 literacy and L2 reading Also for older children and adult learners

Next week Read Chapters 10 and 11 There will be time for questions about the lesson plan / final paper at the end of class