Knowledge of letter sounds in children from England (original) (raw)
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Reading and Writing, 2006
In this study 149 kindergarten children were assessed for knowledge of letter names and letter sounds, phonological awareness, and cognitive abilities. Through this it examined child and letter characteristics influencing the acquisition of alphabetic knowledge in a naturalistic context, the relationship between letter-sound knowledge and letter-name knowledge, and the prediction of Grade 1 phonological awareness and word identification from these variables. Knowledge of letter sounds was better for vowels and for letters with consonant-vowel names than for those with vowel-consonant names or names bearing little relationship to their sounds. However, there were anomalies within each category reflecting characteristics of the individual letters. Structural equation modelling showed that cognitive ability, comprising receptive vocabulary, non-verbal reasoning, rapid automatized naming of colours, and phonological memory significantly contributed to alphabetic knowledge and phonological awareness. In turn, letter-name knowledge but not phonological awareness predicted letter-sound knowledge and subsequent reading skill.
Which children benefit from letter names in learning letter sounds
Cognition, 2008
Typical U.S. children use their knowledge of letters' names to help learn the letters' sounds. They perform better on letter sound tests with letters that have their sounds at the beginnings of their names, such as v, than with letters that have their sounds at the ends of their names, such as m, and letters that do not have their sounds in their names, such as h. We found this same pattern among children with speech sound disorders, children with language impairments as well as speech sound disorders, and children who later developed serious reading problems. Even children who scored at chance on rhyming and sound matching tasks performed better on the letter sound task with letters such as v than with letters such as m and h. Our results suggest that a wide range of children use the names of letters to help learn the sounds and that phonological awareness, as conventionally measured, is not required in order to do so.
Letter names and phonological awareness help children to learn letter–sound relations
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2011
Two experimental training studies with Portuguese-speaking preschoolers in Brazil were conducted to investigate whether children benefit from letter name knowledge and phonological awareness in learning letter-sound relations. In Experiment 1, two groups of children were compared. The experimental group was taught the names of letters whose sounds occur either at the beginning (e.g., the letter /be/) or in the middle (e.g., the letter /'eli/) of the letter name. The control group was taught the shapes of the letters but not their names. Then both groups were taught the sounds of the letters. Results showed an advantage for the experimental group, but only for beginning-sound letters. Experiment 2 investigated whether training in phonological awareness could boost the learning of letter sounds, particularly middle-sound letters. In addition to learning the names of beginning-and middle-sound letters, children in the experimental group were taught to categorize words according to rhyme and alliteration, whereas controls were taught to categorize the same words semantically. All children were then taught the sounds of the letters. Results showed that children who were given phonological awareness training found it easier to learn letter sounds than controls. This was true for both types of letters, but especially for middle-sound letters.
An investigation of factors associated with letter-sound knowledge at kindergarten entry
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2014
Letter-sound knowledge is necessary for children to begin reading and writing, and kindergarteners who know only a few letter sounds are at risk for later reading difficulties. This study examines the letter-sound knowledge of 1197 first-time kindergarteners who were economically disadvantaged, in light of six hypotheses about letter-sound knowledge acquisition: (1) the letter-name structure effect hypothesis, (2) the letter-sound ambiguity hypothesis, (3) the letter-name knowledge hypothesis, (4) the own-name advantage hypothesis, and 5) the phonological awareness facilitation hypothesis, as well as the interactions between phonological awareness and letter-name structure. Results using threelevel multilevel modeling indicate that letter sounds have varying levels of difficulty and several letterand child-related factors are associated with naming a letter sound correctly. Implications for instruction are discussed.
The foundations of literacy: Learning the sounds of letters
Child …, 1998
Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning to read and spell. To explore the factors that make some letter-sound correspondences easier for children to learn than others, we first analyzed knowledge of letters' sounds (and names) by 660 children between 3 ½ and 7 ½ years old. A second study examined preschoolers' (mean age 4 years, 11 months) ability to learn various sound-letter mappings. Together, the results show that an important determinant of letter-sound knowledge is whether the sound occurs in the name of the letter and, if so, whether it is at the beginning or the end. The properties of the sound itself (consonant vs. vowel, sonorant vs. obstruent, stop vs. continuant) appear to have little or no influence on children's learning of basic letter-sound correspondences.
Learning to label letters by sounds or names: A comparison of England and the United States
Learning about letters is an important foundation for literacy development. Should children be taught to label letters by conventional names, such as /bi/ for b, or by sounds, such as /bE/? We queried parents and teachers, finding that those in the United States stress letter names with young children, whereas those in England begin with sounds. Looking at 5-to 7-year-olds in the two countries, we found that U.S. children were better at providing the names of letters than were English children. English children outperformed U.S. children on letter-sound tasks, and differences between children in the two countries declined with age. We further found that children use the first-learned set of labels to inform the learning of the second set. As a result, English and U.S. children made different types of errors in letter-name and letter-sound tasks. The children's invented spellings also differed in ways reflecting the labels they used for letters. Introduction The written words of English and other alphabetic languages are composed of letters, and learning about these letters is an important part of learning to read and spell. Most North American children begin to learn the conventional names for letters at an early age. From parents, educational media, and preschool teachers, they learn to sing the Alphabet Song. They become familiar with the shape that corresponds to each letter, typically starting with the uppercase shape. By the time that formal instruction in reading and writing begins, U.S. and Canadian children usually know the names of many uppercase letters (e.
Influence of Letter Sound Correspondence on Performance of English Reading in Early Childhood
2018
Letter sound correspondence is the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes). These connections between the sounds in words and the letters that are used to represent those sounds are referred to as letter sound correspondence. The effect of letter sound correspondence on performance of English reading is highlighted on basis of phonemic awareness and phonological awareness. The objective of this mixed method study was to examine the influence of learners' ability to correspond letters to their correct sounds on performance of English reading in Grade One. The geographical locale of the study was Keiyo Sub County. Stratified and random sampling techniques were used to select the 26 schools and 78 teachers. Fifty two (52) pupils of Grade One were selected (a boy and a girl) using simple random sampling and assessed. The instruments used were questionnaire for ECDE and Grade One teachers and an EGRA checklist for Grade One learner. Data was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The research results rejected the null hypothesis which stated that there exists no significant relationship between a learner's ability to correspond letters with their correct sound and performance of English reading in Grade One. This was interpreted to mean that pupils need to be taught letter sound correspondences as it will improve their ability to read English. Given the importance of letter sounds in learning to read, this study recommends that preschool teachers be adequately prepared in phonemic and phonological awareness for sustainable development.
Journal of Learning Disabilities, 2006
Development of reading skills was examined in 4-year-old children from low-income homes attending a prekindergarten program. Fall to spring gains in letter identification were examined and compared with skills in phonological processing, rhyme detection, and environmental print, and with performance on a screening tool (Get Ready to Read). It was anticipated that participants might show slow skill development. However, the identification of a large group of children (n = 30) who made little or no gains in letter identification compared to their classmates (n = 27), whose gains averaged 7 letters, was not anticipated. Fall to spring gains in letter identification correlated with phonological processing, rhyme detection, environmental print, and Get Ready to Read! scores. Age and general cognitive skills influenced performance on some tasks. More knowledge of the characteristics of children who show the most variations in skill development may lead to insights on using classroom curriculum to focus on skill development.
Early Childhood Research …, 2006
This study tested four complementary hypotheses to characterize intrinsic and extrinsic influences on the order with which preschool children learn the names of individual alphabet letters. The hypotheses included: (a) own-name advantage, which states that children learn those letters earlier which occur in their own names, (b) the letter-order hypothesis, which states that letters occurring earlier in the alphabet string are learned before letters occurring later in the alphabet string, (c) the letter-name pronunciation effect, which states that children learn earlier those alphabet letters for which the name of the letter is in the letter's pronunciation, and (d) the consonant-order hypothesis, which states that children learn earlier those letters for which corresponding consonantal phonemes are learned early in phonological development. Participants were 339 four-year-old children attending public preschool classrooms serving primarily low-income children. Children's knowledge of each of the 26 alphabet letters was assessed, and these data were tested for the four hypotheses using a linear logistic test model (LLTM). Results from the LLTM confirmed all four hypotheses to show that the order of letter learning is not random, in that some letters hold an advantage over other letters to influence their order of learning. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.