1 The Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary Learning Linnea Ehri Program in Educational Psychology CUNY Graduate Center

2 Environmental Print Research

3 The Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary Learning Collaborator: Julie Rosenthal Mnemonic value – improving memory Orthography – spellings of words

Two Ways to read words DECODINGMEMORY rumeocean raneiron taikyacht gotetongue yungsugar interpossism subharkible contorrention

5 Ways to Read Words UNFAMILIAR WORDS By Decoding: – Graphemes -> Phonemes – Larger units: spelling patterns for syllables or morphemes FAMILIAR WORDS By Memory or Sight – Note: All words when practiced become read from memory

Reading Words from Memory Process of forming connections Spelling Meaning glue Pronunciation Knowledge of the grapheme-phoneme system provides the glue connecting spellings to pronunciations in memory

7 Examples of connections for regularly spelled words S T O PCH E CK /s/-/t/-/a/-/p//c/-/E/-/k/ G I GG LEB IR D /g/-/I/-/g/-/L//b/-/r/-/d/

8 Examples of connections for irregularly spelled words I S* L A N DS W* O R D /ay/-/L/-/ae/-/n/-/d//s/ - /o/ - /r/ - /d/ L I S T* E NS I G* N /L/-/I/-/s/-/t/-/e/-/n//s/ - /I/ - /n/

9 Knowledge needed to form connections Phoneme segmentation – To analyze pronunciations into phonemes Grapheme-phoneme correspondences – To access constituents of the writing system (the glue) Grapho-phonemic matching – To connect graphemes to phonemes within specific words

10 Connections for Specific Words are Learned Quickly Reitsma (1983) - Taught 1 st graders to read words - Minimum of 4 practice trials to read words from memory Share (2004) – self teaching mechanism - 1 exposure to words in text for 3 rd graders - Memory for letters persisted one month

11 Application to Vocabulary Learning Examined connection forming process as it contributes to vocabulary learning Explicit Word Learning Task: – Students rehearsed pronunciations and meanings of new words over several trials Procedure: – Initial study trial: words and meanings were introduced Pictures and defining sentences – Several test trials with feedback followed Experimental Manipulation – Treatment condition: spellings of words were shown during study and feedback periods but NOT when recall of words was tested – Control condition: same except spellings of words were not shown

12 Hypothesis and Explanation Hypothesis: Students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of words more readily when they are exposed to spellings of the words during study periods than when they are not exposed to spellings. Explanation: Grapheme-phoneme connections are activated by spellings and will better secure the words in memory.

First Experiment N = 20 2 nd graders, Mean age = 7yrs. 7 months Pretests Woodcock word identification: M = 2.2 grade-equivalent CVC nonword reading (M=55%) and spelling (M=53%) Word Learning Conditions They were taught two sets of 6 concrete nouns and their meanings – One set: spellings of words accompanied learning – The other set: spellings did not accompany learning Counterbalancing Examples: – Gam – family of whales – Cur – a homeless dog – Sod – wet, grassy ground – Fet – big, fun party – Nib – tip of a pen – Yag – fake jewelry

(picture) gam yag sod fet (picture) nib (picture) Spelling Seen Condition: Initial study trial: Student hears each word and a defining sentence, sees picture and written word, repeats word and sentence (picture) yag

Nib An example:

(picture) Spelling Seen Condition : Word Recall Test Trial: Student sees each picture and recalls word. Then word is seen, pronounced, and heard in a sentence. Students repeats the word and its sentence. (picture)

sod nib gam cur fet Spelling Seen Condition : Definition Recall Test Trial: Student hears and sees each word and recalls its meaning. Then meaning is given, and student repeats the word and its meaning. yag

18 No-Spelling Condition: Procedures are the same as in the Spelling Condition – Except: Spellings of words are never shown Students pronounce the words extra times

Summary of word learning events Each child learns one set of vocabulary words with spellings and another set without spellings One initial study trial to introduce words Followed by trials to test recall of words and definitions Word recall trials are interleaved with definition recall trials Maximum of 9 trials are provided to learn words and meanings Note: Spellings of words are not shown when words are tested, so recall depends upon having the spellings of words in memory.

Recall Words /spell not seen Words / spell seen Definitions / spell not seen Definitions / spell seen (Study with 2 nd graders) Recall of words and definitions during the learning trials

Recall Measure

Posttest Measures

23 Conclusion and explanation Conclusion: 2 nd graders learned vocabulary words and their meanings better when they were exposed to spellings of the words than when they only practiced speaking the words Explanation: – Pronunciations were unfamiliar. – Grapho-phonemic connections better secured their representations in memory – Stronger base for attaching meanings

Second Experiment N = 32 5th graders, Mean age = 10 yrs. 11 months Pretests Reading words and nonwords; spelling words; vocabulary test; Reader Ability Groups (word reading task) Higher Readers (7.3 GE) vs. Lower Readers (4.6 GE) Word Learning Conditions They were taught two sets of 10 concrete nouns and their meanings – One set: spellings accompanied word learning – One set: spellings did not accompany word learning – Maximum of 8 trials to achieve 3 perfect successive trials Examples: – Barrow: a small hill – Tandem: a horse-drawn carriage – Fribble: a foolish shallow person – Tamarack: a big tree found all over America – Proboscis: a really big nose

25 Word-recall training/feedback card in the spellings present vs. spellings absent conditions. Tamarack

26 Hypotheses Spellings will help 5 th graders learn the pronunciations and meanings of new vocabulary words Students with stronger orthographic knowledge (hi readers) will benefit more from spellings than students with weaker orthographic knowledge (lo readers)

Recall of Words by 5 th Graders (10 max) Hi Readers, Spell seen Lo Readers, Spell seen Hi Readers, Spell not seen Lo Readers, Spell not seen Hi Readers Lo Readers

Hi Readers Lo Readers Spell seen Spell not seen Recall of Definitions by 5 th graders (10 max)

Recall WordsWrite SpellingsFill Cloze Sentences

31 Conclusions Seeing spellings helped 5 th graders learn the pronunciations and meanings of new vocabulary words more than not seeing spellings. Students with strong orthographic knowledge benefited more from seeing spellings than students with weak orthographic knowledge Matthew Effect: rich getting richer over time Explanation: grapho-phonemic connections better secured pronunciations of words in memory; better specified pronunciations provided a stronger base for learning meanings. Effect incidental: no attention directed at spellings; no instruction to decode words; automatic activation of mapping relations

32 Implications for Vocabulary Instruction and Learning Grapho-phonemic instruction: - It is important for students to acquire strong orthographic knowledge as they learn to read Strategy instruction: – When students encounter new vocabulary words, they should be taught to examine the spellings of the words as they pronounce them aloud or as they listen to someone else pronounce them

The End