Spellings of Words

(Answer the questions in this study guide, save the file, then copy and paste it into your blog.)

Study Guide: Spellings of words: A neglected facilitator of vocabulary learning by Ehri & Rosenthal (2007)

Name:____Heather Yarber____________________

Please consider the following questions BEFORE you read the article.

What does it mean to know a word? When you know a word, what do you know of that word?

To know a word you must be able to recognize it by sight, you should be able to relate the word to other situations, and you should have at least a basic understanding of what the word or its base means.

We live in a print society, in which we are bombarded with a variety of text online or in print. Depending on complexity of the text content, we encounter words that may not be very familiar to us. Think of a time when you had a similar experience. Think of a word that you came across while you were reading a particular text online or in print.

What strategies did you use to figure out its meaning? Did you decode the word? Did you use the surrounding context to cling a meaning to it? Or did you look it up in a dictionary?

I can usually use surrounding context to find the meaning of a word. If a word has a base that I know I can decode it by using my word knowledge to “build a sandwich”, what this means is that I use the base word, and then add the prefix, and the suffix meaning to it, until I have an understanding of the word. If I still can’t figure out what it means, I look it up in the dictionary.

Do you think you learned the word’s meaning? Can you identify its meaning if you were presented its spelling?

I can use word bases to find the meaning of some words. If this is the case then I can spell the word using its base. If I use a word five or more times using a personal context then I know what the word means, and usually the spelling. However, I am not the best speller.

The article you are going to read deals with similar issues and sheds light on the connection between different representations of word knowledge.

 

Answer the following questions AS you read the article.

1. What was the hypothesis tested by the researchers?

The researchers thought that students could learn the proper pronunciation, and be taught the definitions of words better, if they could see the spellings of the words. “The hypothesis tested was that students will learn the pronunciations and meanings of new words better when they see spellings of the words during study periods than when they do not” (Ehri & Rosenthal 396).

2. Who were the subjects?

20 Second graders, and 32 fifth graders.

3. What were the experimental conditions?

Second graders – Mean age seven years, and seven months, the setting was in an urban school with a large minority population, most of the students were at a second grade reading level. Each student was shown the proper pronunciation, and the meanings of the words. The students were shown two sets of six concrete nouns, the spellings for one set and not for the other.

Fifth graders – Participants taken from the same school as the second graders, students were divided into two groups based upon their orthographic knowledge. The same procedures were used, but these students were given low-frequency nouns that were longer, consisting of two, and three-syllable words. Ten words were taught in each condition.

4. What did the treatment involve?

• Second grade Study Trial – The students were given six words, their meanings, and the proper pronunciation. Students would then repeat the pronunciation, look at a picture of the object, and then look at the spelling underneath the word.
• The students were then tested on recall of the words pronunciations and meanings.
• Students were given a minimum of six trials, and a maximum of nine trials to learn pronunciations and meanings to a criterion of three perfect trials.
• Fifth grade Study Trial – The same procedures were used, but these students were given low-frequency nouns that were longer, consisting of two, and three-syllable words.
• Ten words were taught in each condition.
• Students were given a minimum of five, and a maximum of eight trials to successfully recall the meaning and pronunciation of all the words, until they had three perfect trials.

5. Which group (spelling-present vs. spelling-absent) gained more in vocabulary learning?  How were the groups’ recall of pronunciations affected by the treatment?

The spelling present group gained more vocabulary learning. This advantage was the same for the recall of pronunciations. When students saw the spellings of the words, their understanding of pronunciations grew quickly.

6. Why do you think that fifth graders who were high on a word reading task benefited more from the spelling aids than their peers with less orthographic experience and knowledge, even though the two groups did not differ on receptive vocabulary knowledge?

Students who were at a higher reading level could relate the word to things that they already knew, enhancing their ability to recall the information. After seeing the word two, or three times they had it mastered. Spellers with less orthographic knowledge do not know the patterns of word development so when the good readers saw the words they picked up the pattern faster. However, both poor readers and higher level readers benefited from seeing the spelling. Orthographic knowledge alone did not hinder any of the lower-level readers.

7. What general conclusions were derived from the study findings by the authors? What implications were offered for vocabulary learning and instruction?

 

• Teachers need to be aware that when students see the spelling of a word, in conjunction with hearing the pronunciation and definition, their ability to recall the spelling and pronunciation is much better than students who do not receive this information.
• When teaching new vocabulary to students, it is important that teachers show the spelling of the word, as well as the pronunciation and definition.
• Teachers need to know the importance of showing the spelling of a word, and include this step as a recommendation to students to enhance their spelling ability.
• The instructor also needs to tell why this step is important, and how it enhances students’ vocabulary learning.
• When students encounter a new word during independent reading, they should stop and find out the meanings of the words, but also decode and pronounce their spellings.
• Spellings help to clarify phonemes in pronunciations when students listen to spoken words while inspecting their spellings, thereby securing more precise representations in their memories.
• Spellings also clarify the difference between similar sounding words.

 

8. What questions do you have from the article? List them here.

• In what manner should students who are independently reading find the meaning, spelling and pronunciation of words?
• Is the dictionary a good place for students to look up words?
• How early should you start kids to develop their understanding of root words?