Does Spelling Transparency Affect Visual Word Recognition - Dissertation Example

Does spelling transparency affect visual word recognition and short term memory? The purpose of this paper is to explain how spelling transparencyaffects visual recognition and phonological short term memory. Choice of the different channelling of the processing routes is contingent on the level of transparency of the language and the phonetic awareness one has before starting reading acquisition. It will be shown how the ability to go from the logographic stage (grapheme) to the alphabetic stage(grapheme +sound) to the orthographic stage leads to word acquisition. As each of these stages have sub stages and processes (maps), the difference between opaque and transparent languages determine the different routes to take. The young reader who does not have the phonetic awareness or cannot produce the phonetic coding, will have to be given access to other paths. There are three elements to determine fluency in language reading: the level of transparency , mapping of the 3 stages and acquisition of the phonological Short Term Memory (McBride-Change, et al. 2005) The fourth stage which is not documented is the transfer of word recognition of ones native language. If one speaks a heavily opaque language, he will transfer acquisition knowledge to his L2. The stages are mapped by use of different pathways of lexicons , morphemic content and experience. This paper will demonstrate how spelling transparency affect visual recognition and how phonological short term memory is necessary in the acquisition of languages. The paper will be divided into the four elements mentioned and show how they are not interchangeable. A conclusion will be made by briefly mapping the steps from spelling transparency to word recognition of one opaque language and one transparent language. Upon entering school, children should be tested for phonemic awareness. Poor readers are often those who have missed the stage of logographic to alphabetic association.(Assessing….) The first step toward word recognition is the phonological recoding of the logographic to phonemes reaching the alphabetic stage of reading. Once this skill is acquired, it opens the door to thousands of word immediately. (Ziegler, 2010) The young reader comes with a base knowledge of oral language. He knows how images are called but not the alphagraphic representation. Before this is attained the logographic stage represents a group of arbitrary symbols without any meaning. When the alphabetic stage is attained (phonological recoding), transparent languages, as Italian, Greek and Spanish where a d sounds like a d, the assembled pathway or assemble phonology is opened. It is not 100% infallible. The inconsistencies in the phonological recoding will mean that reading development will not be at the same rapidity for each language. A European study was completed of 14 European languages. It was found that "more transparent the language, the quicker students acquired logographic to phonemes (Ziegler, 2010). There were two other studies completed to confirm the findings. The socio-cultural behavioural differences were limited by taking similar cities which taught bilingual cultures. These two studies having taken into account the socio-cultural difference confirmed the findings of the European study. One study was done in Montreal where English and French are taught and in Whales where parents have a choice of sending their children to a Welsh or English speaking school. There is a relationship between those children, who have an understanding of a phoneme, rhyme or syllable, and those children who have better reading skills (Natasza 2010) "While early phonological awareness deficits do not have a strong influence on childrens later reading development, deficits in sequential naming speed measure do. The deficits will require use of different lexicons to have a high level of spelling accuracy." (Landerl, Wimmer , 2008) In transparent languages, acquisition of the alphabetic stage comes more easily. (Ziegler 2010) A conclusive example are the two Japanese written languages. There is a differentiation between the phonographic script and the logographic script. In Japanese, they use "Kana" which is phonographic and "Kanji" which is logographic. (Koyama, 2008)It has been proven through studies that students achieved a high level of word recognition after the first year in Kana which is a highly transparent. Whereas phonological short term memory is important in the use of word recognition in transparent languages, it seems to be not as important in logographic scripts. (McBride, et al. 2005). It took up to seven years to learn the same number of words in Kanji as in Kana. (Koyama 2008) Children are in the seventh year of school when they attain the same level of reading efficiency that they had in reading of Kana after one year. Other transparent languages are Italian, Turkish and Hebrew with Vowels. Hebrew and Arabic become transparent when written with vowels as there are no discrepancies in the pronunciation. Transparent languages only use the phonological lexicon as there is one grapheme to phoneme association. This is an example of assembled phonology. Whereas accessing one lexicon makes spelling transparency lead quicker to word recognition, the dyslexic child has problems as his phonological lexicon is under developed. The dyslexic child has an immature phonetic pathway and needs to rely on other lexicons (Goswami 2004). Here is the importance of identifying phonetic awareness through rimes and syllables before school. As his brain structure show significant changes in activity from a child who is not impaired and his right lobe is organized differently, the argument can be made that the dyslexic child needs to develop different strategies towards recognition . As he does not benefit from the phonetic lexicon, other lexicons need to be introduced. His word recognition will be through the techniques of an opaque language. This gives us significant knowledge in the acquisition of language that the technique used in learning opaque languages which is far more complex can be used and is used in learning transparent languages. There is other proof that there is transferable of technique but this significant proof shows us that spelling transparency can benefit from introducing multiple pathways. There are two processing routes for pronunciation of the written word: lexical-semantic pathway and the phonological pathway. (Shibahara 2003) Since the dyslexic child can not develop the phonological pathway, he will have a harder time in word recognition. The working memory is depended on being able to retrieve phonological information quickly and efficiently. (Natasza 2010) As it was stated earlier, his phonetic recoding route is immature. If a child has not acquired phonetic awareness, the teacher will also have a difficult time bringing the student up to the alphabetic stage. Lack of phonetic awareness can be a sign of a learning disability and also a child who does not come from an English speaking environment. If a language is being taught other than a home language, the first step will be to make sure the sounds have been acquired . The phonetic processing is more difficult in opaque languages. An opaque language is on the other end of the spectrum. A letter does not correspond to a sound. English spelling is both transparent and opaque. "According to Coltheart’s (1978) influential dual route model, there are two types of spelling sound rules: those words to be read via grapheme-phoneme conversions and those that are exceptions to the rules (irregular) are read via the direct lexical route". (Natasza 2010) Young reading will not have the facility to use other lexicons other than the phonological lexicon. A language, as in English, will have a letter or group of letters for the same sound. English is so inconsistent that it is not enough to rely on the alphabet. Recoding Strategies must be learned. (Ziegler 2010) It will have various lexicons and pathways needed for word recognition. If a word is taken verbally such "read", or "red", the spelling transparency has to take into account the assembled pathway of the morphemic content, and the semantic, visual and phonological lexicons in order to be able to recognize the word on paper. "Read" is part of the semantic, phonological and visual lexicon. The morphemic content teaches the irregular forms of the verb. The reader knows by the context that it is a verb in the past tense. This is an example of addressed phonology where the orthographic lexicon is the basis of deciding the pronunciation. "Red" takes the alphabetic to orthographic step to visual recognition. This assembled phonology of the grapheme to phoneme is the spelling transparency and word recognition. "English words that conform to the spelling sound rules may be read via grapheme-phone conversions and those that are exceptions to the rules are read via the direct lexical route". (Natasza 2010) "Read" is an example of addressed phonology. Assembled phonology occurs in reading, when each grapheme is converted to a phoneme by use of a phonological lexicon, the storage of all grapheme-phoneme associations. To understand the importance of assembled phonology, unknown words with no representation in the visual lexicon are pronounced on the grapheme-phoneme association. The same principle can be applied to new words, such as "capture" and chapter: “pt” digraph pronunciation as in “chip” and as in "kept". Though the phonological lexicon might be the first lexicon which is used, it can only be used separately if the language is highly transparent. This assumption is confirmed by Baddeleys saying that when we retrieve a word from our working memory, it come from the phonological lexicon. (1990) In assembled phonology, priming is stronger with pseudohomophones(i.e. sounds the same). and other lexicons must be used in addition to the phonological lexicon in order for words to be more easily recognized in transparent languages by their phonological components. French is a transparent language but there are many homophones. Take the example, soie/soit/sois/mer/mére The semantic, visual and phonological lexicons are necessary to access the pathway. By associating two lexicons at least, the young reader will be able to associate the phonology with semantics or a visual association. If I am talking about père my father, by the semantic lexicon, I can make the association that I am not talking about mer sea but about mère mother. Visual lexicons required a fundamental understanding of the language to maintain complex and unusual words. For it to be accessible on paper, the word recognition already means that the you reader has gone through the necessary pathways and the word is in his working memory for him to be able to retrieve it phonetically. Young learners find it easier to learn a transparent language using an assembled phonology than an opaque language using an addressed phonology. Since there is little spelling transparency in Opaque languages, other pathways must be used. According to Szpyra (1989), morphology could help in word recognition. A morpheme is the smallest discrete unit of meaning. Morphemes may be stored in the visual and semantic lexicons as well as whole words(Sandra, 1994). For morphology to be effective in spelling transparency, the morphemes must be part of the visual lexicon during reading. When morphemes are part of the semantic lexicon, the young reader already knows the difference between such morphemes as intro and extra. Hebrew is an opaque language when it is written without vowels. What were addressed pathways become the assembled pathways. It is necessary to have a lexical knowledge to know how to pass from the alphabetic to orthographic stage. "sh" changes in meaning from man to fire depending on which vowel is added. The orthographic, semantic, and phonological lexicon are needed for word recognition. Spelling transparency would only lead to word recognition when all the elements of the orthographic stages are taken into account. Hebrew has a deep morphologically complex structure. Two morphemes added together become a root and word pattern with a completely different meaning.(Atira et al., 2009) As explained with "ish" and "esh", they are not semantically related. "Roots and word patterns are abstract structures because only their joint combination results in specific phonological word forms with specific meanings." (Atira et al, 2009) Each word changes in meaning according to the vowel or the affixes. As Hebrew is both transparent and opaque and morphologically complex, young readers are able to apply and use cross techniques in learning a second language. They have the facility of establishing multiple lexicons in transparent languages and morphological analysis in opaque language study. The phonological dyad of grapheme to phoneme is kept to a minimal. They are not limited by one pathway or simplistic pathway application. One can observe that most Israelis are fluent in English. They have a facility in language learning Finnish differs with Hebrew in that as an agglutinative language the morpheme changes the meaning of the word but leaves the root. The language is transparent. There is a morphology lexicon but the phonology stays consistent. Talo House Taloni My house Talossa In the house Talossani In my house Taloja Houses Taloissa in the houses Some other agglutinative morphologies are in Russian, Korean, Turkish, Hungarian or Korean. Russian is more on the transparent spectrum. There are only a few letters that change sounds when next to "o". As the morphology is agglutinative, it is a complicated language for those who do not have phonological awareness or second language learners. There is a complex system of word endings. Knowing the root is enough to have complete word recognition. Transparent languages have visual lexicons. If the morphological system is complicated, then the assumption can be made the affixes should help in reading recognition as it does in opaque languages as English or Dutch. Phonological processing plays an important role in working memory. (Baddeley, 1990; Just & Carpenter, 1992). This has been proven through studies with dyslexic childrens processing of grapheme to phoneme relationships. For this paper, the importance of the verbal temporary storage system will be discussed . Baluch & Tousi (2006) have tested verbal recall from dyslexic and unimpaired children. "The phonological mapping from spelling transparency to short term memory changes from the dyslexic to the unimpaired child. The verbal sub-system stores all the phonologically coded information." "The efficient functioning of the system in relation to reading and comprehension is argued to depend on fast and error free retrieval of phonological information generated from print" (Baddeley, 1990; de Jong, 1998; Just & Carpenter, 1992) Baddeley calls this his Phonological Loop which can be used as a model of how spelling transparency affect short term memory. A word or group of sounds which is translated into the auditory memory rapidly dissipated if there is no sort of verbal repetition (articulatory rehearsal). It explains why students will practice vocabulary or have subvocal repetition without knowing that they are having "articulatory rehearsal" to retain word recognition. Many of us will read to ourselves as we type or read vocabulary lists from a foreign language. There are 5 parts to the model. It will be explained how spelling transparency effects phonological short term memory by using this model. 1. Phonological similarity effect: words belonging to the same phonological code are more difficult to remember confirming that word retrieval is primarily from the phonological code. 2. Words length effect: shorter word require shorter subvocal repetition and thus can be kept in the short term memory. 3. Effect of articulatory suppression: if he is asked to repeat something totally irrelevant, his memory chain will be broken. A dyslexic child who has poor phonetic coding will not be affected by repeating something as memory and irrelevant speech are different parts of the brain. 4. Transfer of information between codes: phonological recall is the most efficient of all systems of recall. Subjects will automatically resort to transferring from a visual to auditory code. If the articulatory code is stopped, the words in the visual code cannot be retained. The model was set up to show that rehearsal is needed to pass from phonological short term memory to the working memory and other lexicons. An opaque language will require much more than phonological lexicon or mapping to develop the phonological short term memory. It can be said that the more the language is transparent, the easier the word is kept in the short term memory. For a word to be remembered, Baddeley is saying that there doesnt have to be any acknowledgement that it is an actual word, therefore one can say that only the visual and phonological lexicons are being used. Repetition of a non word with more than one syllable will not be kept in the loop according to Baddeleys model. On the other hand, this model shows a more complex system of mapping has been established as his phonological loop is just a system of practicing. It has been shown that the phonological lexicon is essential in the quick retrieval of words implying it is in the phonological short term memory. For it to be in the short term memory, word recognition or the assumption of word recognition will have had gone through the stages from spelling transparency to word recognition. Therefore spelling transparency does have an effect on short term memory. In conclusion, it has been shown that spelling transparency is determined by the accessibility of the grapheme to phoneme association (alphabetical stage) and its link to creating words (orthographic stage). It has been demonstrated that there are different degrees of transparencies from Italian to Kanji where a "d" is a "d" and where a language stay completely in the logographic stage. The more transparent a language is the more access a reader has to an addressed process and to fewer lexicons thus easier comprehension to visual recognition. If a language is opaque and has a complex morphological system, the channeling processes requires the development of address processes and at least two lexicons. Visual Recognition takes longer. In both situations it has been shown that it is important to have developed the phonetic awareness of the young reader through rhymes, and syllables. If he does not possess the phonetic awareness, he will have to be given other paths. The 3 elements needed to determine fluency have been illustrated by showing examples with an opaque language, Hebrew, and a transparent language, Finnish. The phonological short term memory has been treated separately because of the importance of phonetic awareness and the effect on dyslexic children. The different mapping and lexicons have been shown to be an integral part of spelling transparency thus one can conclude that Spelling transparency effects word recognition. One can also conclude that Spelling transparency has an effect on phonological short term memory for non cognitive impaired subjects. References Assessing Phonemic Awareness using childrens writing: what does "bobiblokhed" tell us? Assink, E., Vooijs, C. & Knuijt, P. (2000). 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