The Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary Learning

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The Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary
Learning

• Linnea Ehri
• Program in Educational Psychology
• CUNY Graduate Center

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Environmental Print Research
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The Mnemonic Value of Orthography for Vocabulary
Learning

• Collaborator Julie Rosenthal
• Mnemonic value improving memory
• Orthography spellings of words

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Two Ways to read words

• DECODING MEMORY
• rume ocean
• rane iron
• taik yacht
• gote tongue
• yung sugar
• interpossism
• subharkible
• contorrention

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Ways to Read Words

• UNFAMILIAR WORDS
• By Decoding
• Graphemes -gt Phonemes
• Larger units spelling patterns for syllables or
  morphemes
• FAMILIAR WORDS
• By Memory or Sight
• Note All words when practiced become read from
  memory

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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

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Examples of connections for regularly spelled
words

• S T O P CH E CK
• /s/-/t/-/a/-/p/ /c/-/E/-/k/
• G I GG LE B IR D
• /g/-/I/-/g/-/L/ /b/-/r/-/d/

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Examples of connections for irregularly spelled
words

• I S L A N D S W O R D
• /ay/-/L/-/ae/-/n/-/d/ /s/ - /o/ - /r/ - /d/
• L I S T E N S I G N
• /L/-/I/-/s/-/t/-/e/-/n/ /s/ - /I/ - /n/

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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

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Connections for Specific Words are Learned Quickly

• Reitsma (1983)
• - Taught 1st 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 3rd graders
• - Memory for letters persisted one month

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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

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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.

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First Experiment

• N 20 2nd graders, Mean age 7yrs. 7 months
• Pretests
• Woodcock word identification M 2.2
  grade-equivalent
• CVC nonword reading (M55) and spelling (M53)
• 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

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Spelling Seen ConditionInitial study trial
Student hears each word and a defining sentence,
sees picture and written word, repeats word and
sentence
(picture) gam
yag
(picture)
sod
(picture)
fet
(picture)
(picture) nib
(picture) yag
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Nib
An example
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Spelling Seen ConditionWord 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)

(picture)

(picture)

(picture)
(picture)
(picture)
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Spelling Seen ConditionDefinition 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.
sod
nib
gam

cur
fet

yag
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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

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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.

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(Study with 2nd graders)

Recall
Definitions / spell seen
Definitions / spell not seen
Words / spell seen
Words /spell not seen

Recall of words and definitions during the
learning trials
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Recall Measure
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Posttest Measures
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Conclusion and explanation

• Conclusion 2nd 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

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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

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

• Spellings will help 5th 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)

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Recall of Words by 5th 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
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Recall of Definitions by 5th graders (10 max)
Spell seen
Hi Readers Lo Readers
Spell not seen
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(No Transcript)
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Recall Words
Write Spellings
Fill Cloze Sentences
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Conclusions

• Seeing spellings helped 5th 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

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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

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The End