Week 8 Flashcards
(20 cards)
1
Q
Why written language?
A
It is imperative that any service provider regardless of their discipline, who is charged with the critically important role of supporting low-progress readers have a highly sophisticated knowledge of the structure of language with particular emphasis on phonological properties
2
Q
A brief history of the written language
A
- Humans have been speaking and signing for tens of thousands of years, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years
- But writing is a relatively recent human invention in comparison
- We can trace written language to its original
- Developed in Mesopotamia (Iraq) by Samarians and Egyptians 5000 years ago
Pictorial representations
3
Q
Earliest writing systems: Pictographic writing systems
A
- 5k years ago: Pictographic writing systems
- One pictograph or symbol represents an entire word, or referent
- Contrasts with the alphabet in which one symbol e.g. letter/grapheme represents a vowel or consonant unit of sound
- Written in column from top to bottom or left to right (either being vis versa)
- Not conveying sentence equivalents but key ideas or objects
4
Q
The phonetic alphabet
A
- 3k years ago: Phonetic alphabet
- Based on encoding of vowel and consonant speech sounds with corresponding graphemes (grapheme-phoneme correspondence)
- Allows for encoding (writing) of any word
- Contrast with alphabetic system: Letter symbols represent a consonant unit of sound rather than an entire word
- Phonetic based alphabet: Phoenician alphabet (Phoenicians in Israel)
- Based on a corresponding letter or grapheme
- Based on matching speech sounds to letters or phonemes to graphemes
- Not just whole words by pictographs
- Matching phonemes with graphemes
Inspired Greek and roman alphabet which influences English
5
Q
From Phonecians to the English alphabet
A
- The Latin alphabet upon which English is based, shares roots with the Phoenician alphabet
- Inspired Greek and Roman and therefore English
- Greeks added vowels for capturing of spoken language: First true alphabetic system
- Each phoneme was associated with a letter/phoneme
- Cross-fertilization of Greek into Latin after the Greek empire was overthrown by Romans
Latin system: Heavy basis of English
6
Q
Other writing systems
A
- Other early writing systems include Chinese, Japanese, Mayan and Zapotec from 1st and 2nd Centuries BC
- Before Latins/Phoenicians
- Developed independently in China (requires memorization of thousands of characters), most people would have a working memory of 5000 characters
- Japanese: introduced from China, 3000 Chinese characters in roots of Japanese words
Based on pictorials
7
Q
What the written language means
A
- The advent of written language is relatively recent
- Unlike spoken language written language is not natural
- For the human brain, reading and writing are incredibly complex skills
- Only been using language in a brief language
- Biologically wired to learn spoken language, writing is not a biologically natural skill
Not evolved to naturally acquire written language
8
Q
Spelling and reading
A
- The writing system of English is based on speech sounds
- Specifically, it is based on the encoding and decoding of speech sounds with corresponding letters (grapheme-phoneme correspondence)
- Spelling = Encoding speech sounds into graphemes
- Reading = Decoding graphemes into speech sounds
In English there are: - 43-44 speech sounds or phonemes
- 26 letters
- 100 different spellings for the various speech sounds
- Orthography: Spelling system of a language
- Worst relationship between sound and writing as there are many ways we can spell sounds
9
Q
The reading brain: How reading works
A
- Dual route model
- Familiar words are instantly recognised
- Information
- Letter-sound knowledge facilitates the decoding of unfamiliar words
- A: Whole word recognition (lexical route)
B: Phonological decoding (non-lexical route)
10
Q
lexical route/phonological recognition
A
- According to research at an English university, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter is at the right place
- The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without problem
- This is because we do not read every letter by itself but the word as a whole
- Skilled readers can recognize known words by sight alone (sight recognition)
- Requires that words have already been learned: or that words are already stored in the mental lexicon
- Important for reading fluency
- Instantaneously
- Whole word storage, we can recognise the meaning immediately as we can process on a whole word level
- Words have already been learnt and stored
11
Q
Non-lexical route/phonological decoding
A
- Involves the conversation of graphemes to phonemes
- Processes sub-word information
- Allows for reading of unfamiliar/novel words, including non-words
- Fluent reading requires access to both non-lexical and lexical pathways
- Relies on strong phoneme-grapheme knowledge and with sounds are represented by which phonemes
- Matching graphemes to spellings
- Readers have to sound out individual letters to figure out the words
- Typically young readers learn through the phonological route, which then become stored in the mental lexicon and is stored in the lexical route
- Efficient readers use both pathways the whole time
- Poor readers have worse knowledge of what words make what sounds
- Poor readers have poorer memory or storage of sight words
Sight recognition is harder
12
Q
Skilled reading and writing
A
- Skilled reading = word recognition
- Language comprehension (semantics, syntax, word knowledge, text knowledge)
- Effective reading/comprehension: Requires more than word recognition but language comprehension skills
- Involves effective word recognition and comprehension
- These skills twist to form two main strands of the rope, when practiced it all becomes more automatic and unconscious
- With continued language skill development and word recognition allows for reading improvement
If strands are weak or not tight enough: It effects the whole rope and one’s overall reading skills
13
Q
Word recognition
A
- Dual route model
- Requires phonological awareness: Awareness of sound structure and ability to identify word phonemes, syllables and word shapes
- Decoding skills
- Knowledge of which letters correspond to which sound
- Sight recognition
Poor phonemic awareness lead to weak lower strand which makes reading difficult
14
Q
Language comprehension
A
- Background knowledge: Facts, concepts
- Vocabulary: phonology, phonotactic structure
- Language structures: Syntax, semantics
- Verbal reasoning: Inference, metaphor
- Literacy knowledge: Print concepts, genres
People with language disorders/difficulty weakens this which is why they have issues with readings
15
Q
Skilled reading
A
Fluent execution and coordination of word recognition and text comprehension
16
Q
Rope analogy
A
Language comprehension + Word recognition = Skilled reading
17
Q
The link between language and literacy: the language house
A
- At the heart of skilled reading is oral competence
- When reading gets better = oral improves
- Oral gets better = reading improvement
- One strengthens/ even weakens the other
The language house - Describes the development of oral and reading
- Highly independent
- Includes social context
- Begins with when we build a house we start with foundations before roof and walls
- Equally important to identify and acknowledge social, cognitive and educational environment and emotional environment: Can be modifiable with the correct measures in place
Important for a population level
18
Q
Components of the language house
A
Foundation
- Social and emotional context, first 5 years, receptive and expressive language
Prosocial skills
- Different language skills
- From caregivers
- Pragmatics
- Interpersonal
Other wall
- Reading and writing
- Semantic and syntax
- Fluency
- Needs effective reading instruction
Roof
- Social emotional and behavioural wellbeing
- Ability to think about what other people can be thinking
- Reading the room
- Inference
- Person’s ability to transfer from school into the workplace/society/ further education and training
19
Q
Written language challenges
A
- Approximately 16-3-% of Australian children have significant difficulties learning to read
Poor reading associated with- Lower education attainment
- Underemployment
- Criminal behaviour
Mental illness
20
Q
Causes of written language challenges
A
- Dyslexia: Difficulties with accurate and/ or fluent word recognition. Typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language
- Poor comprehension: Challenges in the area of oral language
Instructional casualty: Insufficient instruction
- Poor comprehension: Challenges in the area of oral language
