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Use orthography in L2 auditory word learning: Who benefits?

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Abstract

The effect of capitalizing on orthography in auditory learning of English words was examined in 74 children who spoke Mandarin Chinese as their primary language. To use orthographic information for auditory word learning, children must recode printed words phonologically to assist the reconstruction of the speech single misheard or underspecified, an ability that may depend heavily on phonological awareness (PA). In this study, children with poorer PA of Chinese and those with better PA were taught novel English words in an auditory learning task under two exposure conditions: auditory words presented with their written forms and auditory words presented with undecodable symbols. Word learning performance was better in the written form condition than in the symbol condition, but the effect was smaller for children with poorer PA. The facilitative effect was associated with L2 PA for children with poorer PA but not for children with better PA. The results are discussed with regard to how poor PA may constrain auditory word learning in an L2 context.

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Acknowledgments

The research reported in this paper was supported by grant from the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC892411H133010; NSC902411H133010; NSC912411H133006; NSC922411H133002). The authors thank the people and the institutions that helped locate the children, the parents who gave their consent, and the children who participated in the study.

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  1. Department of English Instruction, Taipei Municipal University of Education, No. 1, Ai-kuo W. Road, Taipei, 100, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chieh-Fang Hu

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Correspondence to Chieh-Fang Hu.

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Hu, CF. Use orthography in L2 auditory word learning: Who benefits?. Read Writ 21, 823–841 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-007-9094-6

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