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Children’s orthographic representations in English and Greek

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Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to compare the development of orthographic representations in children learning to read English and Greek. Nonsense words that either shared both orthography and phonology at the level of the rhyme with real words (comic-bomic), phonology only (comic-bommick), or neither (dilotaff) were created for each orthography. Experiment 1 compared children’s reading of bisyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense words likebomic vs.bommick, taffodil vs.tafoddyl, and found a significant facilitatory effect of orthographic rhyme familiarity for English only. Experiment 2 compared children’s reading of trisyllabic nonsense words that either shared rhyme phonology with real words (tafoddyl) or did not (dilotaff). Significant facilitation in reading accuracy was found for shared rhyme phonology in English, with a significant speed advantage in Greek. These results are interpreted in terms of the level of phonology that is represented in the orthographic recognition units being developed by children who are learning to read more and less transparent orthographies.

Résumé

Deux études ont été réalisées afin de comparer le développement des représentations de l’orthographe chez des enfants apprenent à lire en Anglais et en Grec. On a créé des mots sans signifcation ressemblant à des mots réels soit simultanément par leur orthographe et leur phonologie (comic-bomic), soit seulement par leur phonologie (comic-bommick), ou n’ayant aucune resemblance entre eux. L’Expérience 1 a porté sur la comparaison de lecture de non-mots bisyllabiques et trisyllabiques comebomic vs.bommick, taffodil vs.tafoddyl. Un effet facilitateur de la familiarité des rimes orthographiques apparaît uniquement en Anglais. L’Expérience 2 a porté sur la comparaison de lecture de non-mots trisyllabiques ayant (taffodyl-daffodil) ou non (dilotaff-daffodil) la même rime finale qu’un mot réel. Des effets de facilitation sont apparus concernant la correction de la lecture en Anglais et la vitesse de lecture en Grec. L’interprétation de ces résultats fait intervenir le niveau de phonologie représenté dans les unités de reconnaissance orthographique des apprentis lecteurs.

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Goswami, U., Porpodas, C. & Wheelwright, S. Children’s orthographic representations in English and Greek. Eur J Psychol Educ 12, 273–292 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172876

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