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The Efficiency of Metacognitive and Metalinguistic Awareness in Word Spelling Among Hebrew Speaking Children with SLI: An Intervention Study

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Interventions in Learning Disabilities

Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 13))

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the effect of metacognitive and metalinguistic instructional practices on the spelling acquisition of Hebrew speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI). Sixty-seven kindergarteners with SLI in a supported learning context participated in the study. Children were classified into three groups: metalinguistic with metacognitive strategies (MLMC); metalinguistic (ML); and control. Letter naming, sounding letters, word spelling, and word recognition were assessed both on the pretest and posttests. Findings indicate that both the MLMC and the ML group made statistically significant gains in all measures. However, the metacognitive instructional practice had a stronger effect on the spelling and reading skills of children with SLI compared to the ML group and the controls. This study provides evidence that children with SLI benefit from the combination of metacognitive and metalinguistic instructional practices when acquiring early spelling skills.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Rachel Schiff, Ayelet Sasson & Yoci Nuri

  2. Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Elisheva Ben-Artzi

Authors
  1. Rachel Schiff
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  2. Ayelet Sasson
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  3. Yoci Nuri
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  4. Elisheva Ben-Artzi
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Schiff .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, Ramat Gan, Israel

    Rachel Schiff

  2. College of Education & Human Development, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    R. Malatesha Joshi

Appendices

Appendices

1.1 Appendix 1

1.1.1 Intervention Words

Session

Phonological structure

Phonetic transcription/orthographic representation/translation

1

3 letters CVCVC

gader/GDR/‘fence’, barad/BRD/‘hail’, beged/BGD/‘garment’

2

3 letters CVCVC

gamad/GMD/‘dwarf’, gamal/GML/‘camel’, naxash/NXSH/‘snake’

3

4 letters CVCCVC

sandal/SNDL/‘sandal’, sargel/SRGL/‘ruler’, mazleg/MZLG/‘fork’

4

4 letters CVCCVC

masmer/MSMR/‘nail’ parpar/PRPR/‘butterfly’, masger/MSGR/‘welder’

5

3 letters CVCVC +

zemer/ZMR/‘song’, xacer/XCR/‘yard’, carcar/CRCR/‘cricket’

4 letters CVCCVC

6

3 letters CVCVC +

naxal/NXL/‘stream’, namer/NMR/‘tiger’, Kalmar/KLMR/‘pencilbox’

4 letters CVCCVC

7

3 letters with the vowel H at the end CVCV

Shana/SNH/‘year’, cama/CMH/‘braid’, kala/KLH/‘bride’

8

3 letters with the vowel H at the end CVCV

xala/XLH/‘challa’, gada/GDH/‘bank’, xasa/XSH/‘lettuce’

9

4 letter with the vowel letter H at the end CVCCV

malka/MLKH/‘queen’, xalma/XLMH/‘dreamed’ (female), kalba/KLBH/‘dog’ (female)

10

4 letter with the vowel letter H at the end CVCCV

kanta/KNTH/‘bought’ (female), gamba/GMBH/‘pepper’, shatka/STKH/‘was silent’

11

3 letters with the vowel letter Y in the middle CVC

shir/SYR/‘song’, gil/GYL/‘joy’, sir/SYR/‘pot’

12

3 or 4 letters with the vowel letter Y in the middle CVC

nir/NYR/‘meadow’, pil/PYL/‘elephant’, xacil/XCYL/‘eggplant’

13

3 letters with the vowel letter W in the middle CVC

kor/KWR/‘coldness’, xod/XWD/‘tip’, mashot/MSWT/‘paddle’

14

3 or 4 letters with the vowel letter W in the middle CVC

rok/RWK/‘saliva’, raxok/RXWK/‘far’, mot/MWT/‘pole’

15

A different vowel letter per word

mana/MNH/‘portion’, gir/GYR/‘chalk’, yod/YWD/‘iodine’

16

2 different vowel letters per word

gina/GNH/‘garden’, shoteh/SWTH/‘drinks’ (female), sodi/SWDY/‘secretive’

1.2 Appendix 2

1.2.1 Test Words

Simple Word Spelling Task

  • bat/BT/‘girl’

  • ner/NR/‘candle’

  • gir/GYR/‘chalk’

  • pil/PYL/‘elephant’

  • sod/SWD/‘secret’

  • kol/KWL/‘voice’

  • shana/SNH/‘year’

  • mita/MTH/‘bed’

New Word Spelling Task

  • Intervention words

    • gader/GDR/‘fence’

    • sandal/SNDL/‘sandal’

    • shir/SYR/‘song’

    • xacil/XCYL/‘eggplant’

    • xod/XWD/‘tip’

    • mashot/MSWT/‘paddle’

    • sapa/SPH/‘coach’

    • gina/GNH/‘garden’

  • Non-intervention words

    • sapar/SPR/‘hairdresser’

    • shaldag/SLDG/‘kingfisher’

    • lama/LMH/‘lama’

    • shamra/SMRH/‘kept’ (female)

    • bish/BYS/‘bad’

    • xol/XWL/‘sand’

    • macil/MCYL/‘lifeguard’

    • rina/RYNH/‘dance’

1.3 Appendix 3

1.3.1 Intervention Description

MCML group

ML group

Control group

Making a statement about the purpose of the meeting: “Today we’ll learn how to spell words”

 

What is a fence?

Planning the steps that need to be completed for spelling a word

 

Where do we have fences?

“What is required from us to do for write a word”?

Breaking the word into sub-syllabic units and directing the child’s attention to listen to the sounds of the word.

Breaking the word into sub-syllabic units

Why do we need fences?

Ga-de-r

Ga-de-r

“We need to break the word into sounds and listen to each sound”

matching the sounds to the letters (Phoneme-grapheme correspondence) - /ג/ga - /ד/ de - /ר/ r

matching the sounds to the letters (Phoneme-grapheme correspondence)

What kind of fences are there?

“When we write a word, every sound is getting a letter. Let’s find out letters are in the word fence (gader)”

- /ג/ga - /ד/ de - /ר/ r

Matching the sounds to the letters (Phoneme-grapheme correspondence)

- /ג/ga - /ד/ de - /ר/ r

Write the word using letters cards

Write the word using letters cards

Who has a fence at home?

/ד/ /ד/ /ג/

/ד/ /ד/ /ג/

Providing feedback to the child which encourages evaluation of the written word

 

Each child received a paper and colors and draw the word fence

“Did we write correctly? Let’s find out!”

Reading the word

Reading the word

 

Writing the word in a notebook

Writing the word in a notebook

 

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Schiff, R., Sasson, A., Nuri, Y., Ben-Artzi, E. (2016). The Efficiency of Metacognitive and Metalinguistic Awareness in Word Spelling Among Hebrew Speaking Children with SLI: An Intervention Study. In: Schiff, R., Joshi, R. (eds) Interventions in Learning Disabilities. Literacy Studies, vol 13. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31235-4_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31235-4_5

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