Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Morphology and spelling in French students with dyslexia: the case of silent final letters

  • Published:
Annals of Dyslexia Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Spelling is a challenge for individuals with dyslexia. Phoneme-to-grapheme correspondence rules are highly inconsistent in French, which make them very difficult to master, in particular for dyslexics. One recurrent manifestation of this inconsistency is the presence of silent letters at the end of words. Many of these silent letters perform a morphological function. The current study examined whether students with dyslexia (aged between 10 and 15 years) benefit from the morphological status of silent final letters when spelling. We compared, their ability to spell words with silent final letters that are either morphologically justified (e.g., tricot, “knit,” where the final “t” is pronounced in morphologically related words such as tricoter, “to knit” and tricoteur “knitter”) or not morphologically justified (e.g., effort, “effort”) to that of a group of younger children matched for reading and spelling level. Results indicated that the dyslexic students’ spelling of silent final letters was impaired in comparison to the control group. Interestingly, morphological status helped the dyslexics improve the accuracy of their choice of final letters, contrary to the control group. This finding provides new evidence of morphological processing in dyslexia during spelling.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Frequency of a pattern, i.e., the number of times that a certain pattern occurs. In this count, the frequency of the feminine and plural forms is not provided separately from the frequency of the base word.

  2. Frequency of an actual item, i.e., the number of times a particular form occurs in texts. In this count, the frequency of each orthographic form is provided, be it a plural or a feminine form.

References

  • Apel, K., Masterson, J. J., & Hart, P. (2004). Integration of language components in spelling: instruction that maximizes students’ learning. In A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, & L. C. Wilkinson (Eds.), Language and literacy learning in schools (pp. 292–315). New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boets, B., Op de Beeck, H. P., Vandermosten, M., Scott, S. K., Gillebert, C. R., Mantini, D.,…Ghesquière, P. (2013). Intact but less accessible phonetic representations in adults with dyslexia. Science, 342(6163), 1251–1254. doi: 10.1126/science.1244333

  • Bourassa, D., Deacon, S. H., Bargen, M., & Delmonte, M. (2011). Children with dyslexia have sophisticated spelling strategies. Paper presented at the 21th Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

  • Bourassa, D., & Treiman, R. (2009). Linguistic foundations of spelling development. In D. Wyse, R. Andrews, & J. Hoffman (Eds.), Routledge international handbook of English, language and literacy teaching (pp. 182–192). London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourassa, D., & Treiman, R. (2014). Spelling development and disability in English. In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. J. Ehren, & G. P. Wallach (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (2nd ed., pp. 569–583). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourassa, D., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006). Use of morphology in spelling by children with dyslexia and typically developing children. Memory & Cognition, 34(3), 703–714. doi:10.3758/BF03193589.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, P. N., & Kirby, J. R. (2010). Effects of morphological instruction on vocabulary acquisition. Reading and Writing, 23, 515–537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caravolas, M. (2006). Learning to spell in different languages: how orthographic variables might affect early literacy. In R. M. Joshi & P. G. Aaron (Eds.), Handbook of orthography and literacy (pp. 497–511). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caravolas, M., & Volín, J. (2001). Phonological spelling errors among dyslexic children learning a transparent orthography: the case of Czech. Dyslexia, 7(4), 229–245. doi:10.1002/dys.206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (1987). The use of morphological knowledge in spelling derived forms by learning-disabled and normal students. Annals of Dyslexia, 37(1), 90–108. doi:10.1007/BF02648061.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F., & Katz, L. (2006). Effects of word and morpheme familiarity on reading of derived words. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 669–693.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casalis, S. (2014). Written spelling in French children with dyslexia. In B. Arfe, J. Dockrell, & V. Berninger (Eds.), Writing development and instruction in children with hearing, speech and oral difficulties (pp. 201–213). NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Casalis, S., Colé, P., & Sopo, D. (2004). Morphological awareness in developmental dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 54(1), 114–138.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Casalis, S., Deacon, S. H., & Pacton, S. (2011). How specific is the connection between morphological awareness and spelling? A study of French children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(03), 499–511. doi:10.1017/S014271641100018X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassar, M., Treiman, R., Moats, L., Pollo, T., & Kessler, B. (2005). How do the spellings of children with dyslexia compare with those of nondyslexic children? Reading and Writing, 18(1), 27–49. doi:10.1007/s11145-004-2345-x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castles, A., & Coltheart, M. (1993). Varieties of developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 47, 149–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catach, N. (1973). Que faut-il entendre par système graphique du français? Langue Française, 20(1), 30–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., & Bryant, P. (2005). What young children do and do not know about the spelling of inflections and derivations. Developmental Science, 8(6), 583–594. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2005.00449.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., & Bryant, P. (2006a). Getting to the root: young writers’ sensitivity to the role of root morphemes in the spelling of inflected and derived words. Journal of Child Language, 33(2), 401–417.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., & Bryant, P. (2006b). This turnip’s not for turning: children’s morphological awareness and their use of root morphemes in spelling. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 24(3), 567–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diamanti, V., Goulandris, N., Stuart, M., & Campbell, R. (2013). Spelling of derivational and inflectional suffixes by Greek-speaking children with and without dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 1–22. doi: 10.1007/s11145-013-9447-2

  • Dunn, L. M., Theriault-Whalen, C. M., & Dunn, L. M. (1993). Echelle de vocabulaire en images Peabody, adaptation française. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Psycan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elbro, C., & Arnbak, A. (1996). The role of morpheme recognition and morphological awareness in dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 46, 31.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fayol, M., & Jaffré, J.-P. (2012). Orthographier [spelling] (2nd ed.). Paris: PUF.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, A. P., Lipsky, M., & Ahn, S. (2012). Word detectives: using units of meaning to support literacy. The Reading Teacher, 65(7), 461–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacquier-Roux, M., Valdois, S., & Zorman, M. (2005). Odédys 2: Outil de Dépistage des Dyslexies. from Laboratoire Cogni-Sciences IUFM de Grenoble http://www.cognisciences.com

  • Joshi, R. M., Treiman, R., Carreker, S., & Moats, L. C. (2008–2009). How words cast their spell: spelling is an integral part of learning the language, not a matter of memorization. American Educator, 32(4), 6–43

  • Landerl, K., & Wimmer, H. (2000). Deficits in phoneme segmentation are not the core problem of dyslexia: evidence from German and English children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21(02), 243–262.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landerl, K., Wimmer, H., & Frith, U. (1997). The impact of orthographic consistency on dyslexia: a German-English comparison. Cognition, 63(3), 315–334.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefavrais, P. (1967). Test de l’Alouette (the Alouette test). Paris: Editions du Centre de Psychologie Appliquée.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lété, B., Sprenger-Charolles, L., & Colé, P. (2004). MANULEX: a lexical database from French readers. Behavioral Research Methods, Intruments and Computers, 36(1), 56–166.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leybaert, J., & Alegria, J. (1995). Spelling development in deaf and hearing children: evidence for use of morpho-phonological regularities in French. Reading and Writing, 7(1), 89–109. doi:10.1007/BF01026949.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2003). A definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy, W. E., Berninger, V. W., & Abbott, R. D. (2006). Contributions of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle-school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 134–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Plisson, A., Daigle, D., & Montésinos-Gelet, I. (2013). The spelling skills of French-speaking dyslexic children. [article]. Dyslexia (10769242), 19(2), 76–91. doi:10.1002/dys.1454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Programme de formation de l’école québécoise. (2009). La progression des apprentissages au primaire: français langue d’enseignement. Québec: Ministère de l’éducation, du loisir et du sport.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conseil Supérieur des Programmes (2015). Projet de programmes pour le cycle 2, 3 et 4. Ministère de l’Education Nationale, de l’Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche.

  • Sénéchal, M. (2000). Morphological effects in children’s spelling of French words. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54, 76–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Share, D. L., & Shalev, C. (2004). Self-teaching in normal and disabled readers. Reading and Writing, 17(7–8), 769–800. doi:10.1007/s11145-004-2658-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. J. (2000). Dyslexia (2nd ed.). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Snowling, M. J., van Wagtendonk, B., & Stafford, C. (1988). Object-naming deficits in developmental dyslexia. Journal of Research in Reading, 11(2), 67–85. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.1988.tb00152.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Suárez-Coalla, P., Ramos, S., Álvarez-Cañizo, M., & Cuetos, F. (2014). Orthographic learning in dyslexic Spanish children. [Article]. Annals of Dyslexia, 64(2), 166–181. doi:10.1007/s11881-014-0092-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swan, D., & Goswami, U. (1997). Picture naming deficits in developmental dyslexia: the phonological representations hypothesis. Brain and Language, 56(3), 334–353. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/brln.1997.1855

  • Treiman, R., & Cassar, M. (1997). Spelling acquisition in English. In C. A. Perfetti, L. Rieben, & M. Fayol (Eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory, and practice across languages (pp. 61–80). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsesmeli, S. N., & Seymour, P. H. K. (2006). Derivational morphology and spelling in dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 19(6), 587–625. doi:10.1007/s11145-006-9011-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsesmeli, S. N., & Seymour, P. H. K. (2009). The effects of training of morphological structure on spelling derived words by dyslexic adolescents. [Article]. British Journal of Psychology, 100(3), 565–592. doi:10.1348/000712608X371915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vellutino, F. R., Fletcher, J. M., Snowling, M. J., & Scanlon, D. M. (2004). Specific reading disability (dyslexia): what have we learned in the past four decades? Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 45(1), 2–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H.-C., Marinus, E., Nickels, L., & Castles, A. (2014). Tracking orthographic learning in children with different types of dyslexia. [Original Research]. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 8. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00468

  • Wechsler, D., & Naglieri, J. (2009). Wechsler nonverbal scale of ability: French adaptation. Paris: ECPA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M., & Obregon, M. (1992). Early naming deficits, developmental dyslexia, and a specific deficit hypothesis. Brain and Language, 42(3), 219–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ziegler, J. C., Jacobs, A. M., & Stone, G. O. (1996). Statistical analysis of the bidirectional inconsistency of spelling and sound in French. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers, 28(4), 504–515. doi:10.3758/BF03200539.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Poitiers, Université de Tours & CNRS, Centre de recherches sur la cognition et l’apprentissage (CeRCA), UMR CNRS 7295, Maison des sciences de l’homme et de la société (MSHS), 5 rue Théodore Lefebvre, TSA 21103, F-86073, Poitiers, CEDEX 9, France

    Pauline Quémart

  2. SCAlab, Université de Lille & CNRS, Sciences Cognitives & Sciences Affectives Lab (SCALab), UMR CNRS 9193, Université Charlesde-Gaulle Lille III, Domaine universitaire du Pont de Bois, BP 60149, 59653, Villeneuve d’Ascq Cedex, France

    Séverine Casalis

Authors
  1. Pauline Quémart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Séverine Casalis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Pauline Quémart.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 3 Complete list of the stimuli and their token and type frequencies
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Quémart, P., Casalis, S. Morphology and spelling in French students with dyslexia: the case of silent final letters. Ann. of Dyslexia 67, 85–98 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0133-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0133-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation