Variations in the use of simple and context-sensitive grapheme-phoneme correspondences in English and German developing readers

Bibliographic Data

ID20478555
AuthorsXenia Schmalz (0000-0002-3365-257X, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, corresponding author), Serje Robidoux (0000-0002-4581-3297, Macquarie University), Anne Castles (0000-0001-8228-8260, Macquarie University), Eva Marinus (0000-0002-3628-0695, Schwyz University of Teacher Education)
Year2020
Volume70
Issue2
Pages180-199
Publication date2020-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnnals of Dyslexia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0736-9387 • E-ISSN: 1934-7243
PublisherSpringer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1007/s11881-019-00189-3
PMID31955322
OpenAlexW2999064000
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited32

Learning to read in most alphabetic orthographies requires not only the acquisition of simple grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) but also the acquisition of context-sensitive GPCs, where surrounding letters change a grapheme’s pronunciation. We aimed to explore the use and development of simple GPCs (e.g. a ➔ /æ/) and context-sensitive GPCs (e.g. [w]a ➔ /ɔ/, as in “swan” or a[l][d ] ➔ /o:/, as in “bald”) in pseudoword reading. Across three experiments, English- and German-speaking children in grades 2–4 read aloud pseudowords, where vowel graphemes had different pronunciations according to different contexts (e.g. “hact”, “wact”, “hald”). First, we found that children use context-sensitive GPCs from grade 2 onwards, even when they are not explicitly taught. Second, we used a mathematical optimisation procedure to assess whether children’s vowel responses can be described by assuming that they rely on a mix of simple and context-sensitive GPCs. While the approach works well for German adults (Schmalz et al. in Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 26 , 831–852, 2014), we found poor model fits for both German- and English-speaking children. Additional analyses using an entropy measure and data from a third experiment showed that children’s pseudoword reading responses are variable and likely affected by random noise. We found a decrease in entropy across grade and reading ability across all conditions in both languages. This suggests that GPC knowledge becomes increasingly refined across grades 2–4

Cognition · German · Grapheme · Linguistics · Natural language processing · Neurolinguistics · Psycholinguistics · Computer Science · Digital Communication and Language · History · Neuroscience · Philosophy · Psychology · Reading and Literacy Development · Writing and Handwriting Education

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