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Phonology, reading development, and dyslexia: A cross-linguistic perspective
Abstract
In this paper, I present a theoretical overview at the cognitive level of the role of phonological awareness in reading development
and developmental dyslexia across languages. My assumption is that the primary deficit in developmental dyslexia in all languages
lies in representing speech sounds: a deficit in “phonological representation.” I will argue that this deficit manifests in
somewhat different ways, depending on orthography. I will also argue that the phonological deficit in dyslexia is initially
at the syllable and onset-rime levels of phonological awareness, with the development of “phonemic” awareness being a consequence
rather than a precursor of reading. Finally, I will suggest that some of the processes underpinning language acquisition are
disrupted in dyslexia, in particular, the detection of rhythm in speech.
... La posibilidad de que los niños reciban el tratamiento oportuno y adecuado a sus problemas lectores depende, en gran medida, del conocimiento que tengan los psicólogos, psicopedagogos y maestros sobre la enseñanza de la lectura y sus alteraciones, particularmente sobre las dificultades específicas de la dislexia en español. El español tiene una ortografía más transparente que la del inglés, por lo que su enseñanza y la atención a las dificultades en el aprendizaje de la lectura no pueden ser las mismas (Goswami, 2002). ...
... Los participantes en el presente estudio parecen no tener nociones claras sobre lo que significa la conciencia fonológica, la cual implica el conocimiento de la estructura de sonidos que componen las palabras y la habilidad para manipularlos en memoria de trabajo verbal. Se ha demostrado que el rendimiento en tareas fonológicas predice el rendimiento lector (Fletcher et al., 1994;Goswami y Bryant, 1990), aunque el déficit fonológico se manifiesta de diferente manera, en dependencia de la trasparencia de la ortografía de la lengua en que se aprenda a leer (Goswami, 2002). ...
... En el español, una ortografía más transparente que el inglés, se ha reportado que el déficit fonológico es menor (Gómez-Velázquez et al., 2010;Miles, 2000), probablemente debido a la mayor consistencia grafema-fonema de nuestra lengua (una letra consistentemente representa a un fonema) y a la enseñanza directa o fonológica, en la que se introduce al niño de manera explícita y sistemática en el aprendizaje de las relaciones letra-sonido, lo que hace que aprendan a leer mucho más rápido que en lenguas más opacas y que su rendimiento en tareas de conciencia fonémica sea más alto (Goswami, 2002). En cambio, el déficit más reportado en la dislexia de ortografías más transparentes es la dificultad para automatizar las relaciones letrasonido, que afecta el ensamble de sílabas y palabras, así como el guardado fiel en memoria de las representaciones ortográficas, lo que hace que su lectura sea muy lenta y existan problemas con la escritura ortográfica (Gómez-Velázquez et al., 2010;Landerl y Wimmer, 2008;López-Escribano, 2007;Serrano y Defior, 2008;Wimmer, 1993). ...
Introducción. El bajo conocimiento de los profesionales de la educación acerca de la dislexia es un motivo de preocupación en muchos países por el impacto que esto tiene en la educación y atención de los niños con este trastorno. Objetivo. identificar las áreas de mayor desconocimiento, así como la existencia de falsas creencias sobre la dislexia entre profesionales de la educación. Método. Se aplicó la Escala de Conocimientos y Creencias acerca de la Dislexia del Desarrollo a 428 personas: 165 estudiantes de psicología, 99 estudiantes de psicopedagogía, 72 psicólogos y 92 maestros, con un rango de edad entre 20 y 65 años. Se analizaron las respuestas de cinco aspectos: origen, prevalencia-duración, problemas emocionales, características y tratamiento de la dislexia. Resultados. Los maestros obtuvieron significativamente menos respuestas correctas en comparación con el resto de los profesionales, aunque el conocimiento general en todos los grupos es bajo. Algunos profesionales tienen conocimiento validado científicamente como: la dislexia es un trastorno de origen neurobiológico (71%), que no es originado por una inteligencia baja (87%). En contraste, un alto porcentaje (80%) aceptan como cierta la afirmación sin sustento científico de que la dislexia es causada por un déficit viso-perceptual que genera la inversión de letras y palabras. Conclusiones. Existe entre los profesionales de la educación un gran desconocimiento, combinado con creencias erróneas que afectan su percepción sobre lo que es la dislexia, esto puede limitar su capacidad para identificar el trastorno y para diseñar programas de intervención basados en evidencias científicas.
Summary. Introduction. The low educator´s knowledge about dyslexia is a cause for concern in many countries due to the impact on the education and care of children with this learning disorder. Objective. To identify the areas of uncertainty and misconceptions about dyslexia among education professionals. Method. The Knowledge and Beliefs about Developmental Dyslexia Scale was applied to 428 people: 165 psychology students, 99 psychopedagogy students, 72 psychologists, and 92 teachers, aged between 20 and 65 years. Responses from five aspects were analyzed: origin, prevalence-duration, emotional problems, characteristics, and treatment of dyslexia. Results. The teachers obtained fewer correct answers than the rest of the professionals, although the general knowledge in all groups was low. Some professionals have scientifically validated knowledge, such as dyslexia is a disorder of neurobiological origin (71%), not caused by low intelligence (87%). In contrast, a high percentage (80%) accept as true the statement without scientific support that dyslexia is caused by a visual-perceptual deficit that generates the inversion of letters and words. Conclusions: There is a significant lack of knowledge among education professionals, combined with misconceptions that affect their perception of what dyslexia is; this can limit their ability to identify the disorder and design intervention programs based on scientific evidence.
... Such an advanced process rather loads on access to orthographic representations and their associated phonological forms than manipulation of speech sounds (Moll and Landerl, 2009). Empirical studies indeed demonstrated that while the resolution of phonological awareness increases with age (Goswami, 1999(Goswami, , 2002, its explanatory power decreases with reading expertise (Hogan et al., 2005;Powell and Atkinson, 2021). ...
... Several previous studies have identified the important role of phonological awareness as well as phonological skills in reading and developmental dyslexia (Alexander et al., 1991;Hogan et al., 2005;Ramus and Szenkovits, 2008;Landerl et al., 2018;Powell and Atkinson, 2021). Research has also documented that while phonological skills are a prerequisite for reading, its scope changes with age (Goswami, 2002), and its role decreases with development (Hogan et al., 2005;Powell and Atkinson, 2021). This is in accordance with reading development. ...
Purpose
Research on the association of short-term memory (STM) and reading expertise are dominated by studies with typically developing children and children with reading impairment. Many studies confirmed the role of short-term memory in reading development and reading, especially in the case of verbal and phonological STM. The current study takes an unusual perspective by contrasting age-appropriate readers with excellent readers (reading performance with at least 1 SD above average) on three different short-term memory skills: phonological STM, verbal STM and visuospatial STM.
Methods
We identified and recruited six groups of children. Three groups performed at least one SD above average in two standardized reading tasks (excellent readers), the three control groups performed within the domain of ±0.5 SD on reading (age-appropriate readers). One group of excellent readers and one group of age-appropriate readers participated in a Phonological Short-Term Memory (STM) task, one pair of groups participated in a Verbal STM task, whereas the last pair participated in a Visuospatial STM task.
Results
Pairwise comparisons demonstrated that excellent readers outperformed age-appropriate readers in Visuospatial STM. Phonological STM only differed across the groups after controlling for age. No group difference was observed in Verbal STM.
Conclusion
Our results confirm the role of short-term memory in reading expertise. However, data highlights that visuospatial and phonological information becomes more relevant in above-average readers. Results are discussed along grain-size theory, and whether and how focused educational programs can build on visuospatial short-term memory training to achieve better reading.
... Thus, the primary emphasis of this study was on phonological awareness and phonological memory. Phonological awareness is an individual's response to and manipulation of speech sound units (Goswami, 2002). Phonological memory is responsible for passively storing and maintaining verbal information (Wagner et al., 1987). ...
... Doskonale przewiduje też rozwój czytania (Hogan i in., 2005). Osoby nieczytające i słabo czytające: czy to przedszkolaki (Carrol i in., 2003), osoby z dysleksją w różnym wieku (Goswami, 2002), czy dorosłe osoby nieczytające (Landgraf i in., 2012), świadomość fonologiczną mają rozwiniętą w mniejszym stopniu niż sprawnie czytający. I choć wszyscy na początku nauki czytania mocno angażują do dekodowania tekstu procesy fonologiczne, wydaje się, że słabiej czytający dorośli w mniejszym stopniu niż dzieci polegają na fonologii, a w większym niż dzieci -na zapamiętywaniu wzorów i całych słów (Thompkins i Binder, 2003). ...
Joanna Landy made significant contributions throughout her fifty-year academic and educational career to combat illiteracy in post-war Poland. She also shed light on issues related to functional illiteracy, lifelong learning, and the lack of institutional support for adult learners. In this paper, I discuss the course books she developed for adults in introductory courses. I present a follow-up study conducted fifteen years after the conclusion of the literacy campaign, focusing on the situation of the courses’ graduates. I also discuss a unique study of autobiographical materials collected through a memoir competition targeting adults who informally taught themselves to read and write. Finally, I delve into Joanna Landy's advocacy and activism for self-education and lifelong learning, which she promoted in Poland.The article is written in Polish.
... Schuele et al. (2008) highlight that early phonological awareness training for low-achieving children has a positive impact on children at risk for reading difficulties (e.g. on spelling). According to Barbour et al. (2003) and Goswami (2002), there are two different levels that can be identified: the phonological and phonemic levels. The phonological (or non-phonemic) level consists of making up rhymes, segmenting syllables and separating syllables and rhymes. ...
Previous research has shown that phonological awareness is one of the most important prerequisites for early reading. Monitoring its development requires reliable, easy-to-use instruments especially in the last years of kindergarten. The present study aims to explore the potential for assessing phonological awareness and some of its subskills through online testing. Participants of the study were 317 kindergarteners (Mage = 6.61, SD = .54 years). The instruments developed for this study within an online assessment platform in two assessment dimensions (syllable and phoneme awareness) contain nine subtests (syllable synthesis, segmentation, deletion; phoneme identification in different sound environments, identification of phoneme position, identification of initial phonemes, phoneme synthesis and segmentation). The results of the study show that: (1) the test is a reliable assessment tool for kindergarteners’ phonological awareness skills; (2) according to the underlying measurement model of phonological awareness, the tasks are separated based on particular operational components independently of the size of the language element involved; (3) segmentation tasks proved to be the most difficult parts of the test; and (4) the media effect is insignificant. The online test aims to emphasize the importance of online testing and the inseparable relationship between measuring and developing phonological awareness, prompting teachers to rethink their teaching methods. It also introduces a new tool for educators to use, tailored to children's needs but potentially challenging for teachers with lower ICT literacy, requiring methodological support, ultimately providing a new opportunity for kindergartens.
Reading, mathematics and science are important subjects in the compulsory educational stage. Promoting students’ learning in these subjects has become a focus. Early reading achievement and reading interest may play a critical role. Using two waves of data collected from 2,722 Chinese students in Grade 4 and Grade 6, the study investigated the longitudinal within-domain relationship between reading achievement and reading interest, as well as their cross-domain effects on mathematics and science. The results of the structural equation model showed that reading achievement and reading interest were mutually reinforced over time. Except for the path from reading achievement to science interest, the two reading-related constructs in Grade 4 positively predicted achievement and interest in mathematics and science in Grade 6. The findings underline the significance for primary schools to cultivate proficient reading skills and positive reading attitudes in promoting students’ long-term learning in reading, mathematics and science.
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
This volume provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of theory and research in the field of human intelligence. Each of the 42 chapters is written by world-renowned experts in their respective fields, and collectively, they cover the full range of topics of contemporary interest in the study of intelligence. The handbook is divided into nine parts: Part I covers intelligence and its measurement; Part II deals with the development of intelligence; Part III discusses intelligence and group differences; Part IV concerns the biology of intelligence; Part V is about intelligence and information processing; Part VI discusses different kinds of intelligence; Part VII covers intelligence and society; Part VIII concerns intelligence in relation to allied constructs; and Part IX is the concluding chapter, which reflects on where the field is currently and where it still needs to go.
This chapter discusses the neurolinguistic aspects of reading in Hangul and translinguistic interactions and transfers in bilingualism or multilingualism. The recent scientific enterprise has focused on neural mechanisms behind written text processing in the human brain. Reading-universal networks in the brain as well as differential circuitry that is activated in the brain according to the script being read are reviewed focusing on reading Hangul and Hanja. Discussed next are translinguistic interactions and relationships, as linguistic skills are fluid and flexible. Translinguistic facilitation and interference effects are discussed in light of orthographic, phonological, and morphological processing. Future research into Korean as a heritage language in psycholinguistic and neuronal approaches is warranted.
A4-year longitudinal study was conducted to examine the relationship between Chinese children's phonological skills and their success in reading. Initially, 100 Hong Kong Chinese children were tested on visual and phonological skills at the age of 3, before they could read. The findings showed that prereading phonological skills significantly predicted the children's reading performance in Chinese 2 and 3 years later, even after controlling for the effects of age, IQ, and mother's education. The main reason for this relationship is that phonological knowledge helps children to use the phonetic component in Chinese characters.
Goswami and Bryant (1990) proposed a theory of reading development based on three causal connections. One of these causal connections was based on the relationship between rhyming skills and reading development found in English. To explain this connection, they suggested that young readers of English used analogies based on rimes as one means of deciphering the alphabetic code. This proposal has recently become the subject of some debate. The most serious critique has been advanced by Seymour and his colleagues (Duncan, Seymour, & Hill, 1997; Seymour & Duncan, 1997; Seymour & Evans, 1994). These authors reported a series of studies with Scottish schoolchildren which, they claim, show that progression in normal reading acquisition is from a small unit (phonemic) approach in the initial stage to a large unit (rime-based) approach at a later stage. Two experiments are presented which replicate those conducted by Seymour and his group with samples of English schoolchildren. Different results are found. It is argued that methodological and instructional factors may be very important for the conceptual interpretation of studies attempting to pit "small" units (phonemes) against "large" units (onsets and rimes) in reading. In particular, it is necessary to consider whether a given phonological awareness task requires the recognition of shared phonological segments ("epilinguistic" processing) or the identification and production of shared phonological segments (metalinguistic processing). It is also important to take into account the nature of the literacy instruction being implemented in participating schools. If the phonological aspects of this tuition focus solely on phonemes (small units), then poor rime-level (large unit) performance may be found in metalinguistic tasks.
Commentaries 27 addressing stored orthographic knowledge. Accordingly , more recent cognitive conceptualizations of developmental dyslexia have focused on the possibility that poor readers have difiiculty in establishing well-specified phonological representations in the language processing areas of the brain. Dyslexic children's 'degraded' phonological representations are postulated to be the most likely source of their poor phonological processing skills and poor reading (e.
This book sets out to integrate recent exciting research on the precursors of reading and early reading strategies adopted by children in the classroom. It aims to develop a theory about why early phonological skills are crucial in learning to read, and shows how phonological knowledge about rhymes and other units of sound helps children learn about letter sequences when beginning to be taught to read. The authors begin by contrasting theories which suggest that children's phonological awareness is a result of the experience of learning to read and those that suggest that phonological awareness precedes, and is a causal determinant of, reading. The authors argue for a version of the second kind of theory and show that children are aware of speech units, called onset and rime, before they learn to read and spell. An important part of the argument is that children make analogies and inferences about these letter sequences in order to read and write new words.
