DISCERNIMIENTO DE ESPÍRITUS

The second generalisation test required the participants to choose the correct sequence of symbols corresponding to a sample spoken onset–inconsistent rime nonword. Accuracy was much higher for the onset and rime and phoneme trained participants on this test compared to their performance in the previous test.

Of the three training groups, the onset and rime participants were the most accurate in recognising the friend and enemy nonwords. These participants demonstrated a mean accuracy of 92% for both the friend and enemy nonwords (friend range, 79% to 100%; enemy range, 78% to 100%). The phoneme trained participants also showed high accuracy, achieving a mean accuracy of 89% (range, 71% to 100%) and 86% (range, 78% to 100%) for the friend and enemy nonwords respectively. Although the syllable trained participants correctly identified a smaller number of the friend nonwords than participants from the onset and rime and phoneme training groups, (mean accuracy = 57%; range, 43% to 71%), they did show high accuracy in matching the enemy nonwords. Enemy nonword recognition was

superior to friend nonword recognition for the syllable trained participants, with mean accuracy reaching 85% (range, 67% to 100%).

There was a statistically significant effect for unit size on spoken nonword-to- symbol matching accuracy for the friend nonwords only, F(2, 21) = 42.24, p < .001. Although Tukey post hoc analyses indicated that there was no difference in the recognition performance of onset and rime participants compared to phoneme participants (p = .84), both the onset and rime and phoneme participants performed significantly better than the syllable participants (p < .001) in recognising the symbols for the friend spoken nonwords.

The effect of unit size on spoken nonword-to-symbol matching accuracy for the enemy nonwords did not reach statistical significance, F(2, 21) = .97, p = .39, with participants from the three training conditions demonstrating similar accuracy in identifying the symbol sequences to match a given spoken enemy nonword sample. Syllable trained participants received explicit training with all nine enemy nonwords but only nine of the fourteen friend nonwords that were presented in the test trials. This is one possible reason as to why enemy nonword recognition was better than friend nonword recognition for these participants.

0 20 40 60 80 100

Friends Enemies Total

Onsets and rimes Phonemes Syllables 0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Friends Enemies Total

Onsets and rimes Phonemes Syllables Mean Perce ntage Correct Symbols-to-spoken nonwords Spoken nonwords-to-symbols

Figure 8.2 Mean percentage correct on the recombinative generalisation tests (symbols-to-spoken nonwords and spoken nonwords-to-symbols) for the recombined onset–inconsistent rime friend and enemy nonwords across the onset and rime, phoneme, and syllable training conditions. Standard deviation lines are shown for each bar.

8.5 Discussion

For this final adult experiment, modifications were made not only to the type of training completed by participants, but also to the consistency of the symbol–sound relations from which the recombined test words were formed. There was a particular interest in exploring how accurately participants could recognise recombined nonwords constructed from consistent rimes and inconsistent rimes following training with onsets and rimes, phonemes, or syllables. Although the findings obtained are preliminary, they do seem to suggest that there are advantages and disadvantages for

the different MTS training procedures in terms of facilitating recognition of words containing consistent or inconsistent rimes.

Firstly, the onset and rime and phoneme trained participants appeared to have an advantage over the syllable trained participants when presented with the recombined consistent rime nonwords. While the syllable trained participants, on average, correctly recognised just over half of the consistent rime nonwords tested, the onset and rime and phoneme trained participants accurately identified nearly all of the consistent rime nonwords.

Recombined words that adhered to the sound–symbol mappings posed little difficulties for the onset and rime and phoneme participants. However, a very different finding emerged when the participants were presented with the recombined words constructed from the inconsistent rimes. For the symbols-to-spoken nonword test, it was the syllable trained participants who showed an advantage in recognising the correct spoken nonword to match a sample symbol sequence. This advantage was most apparent for the enemy nonwords, with the syllable trained participants correctly identifying considerably more of the enemy nonwords than the onset and rime or phoneme trained participants. The syllable trained participants also correctly recognised a greater number of the friend nonwords in the symbols-to-spoken nonword test, although the difference in performance between participants from the three training conditions in identifying the friend nonwords was much smaller.

Interestingly, this advantage for the syllable trained participants did not extend to the spoken nonword-to-symbols test. Overall, the onset and rime participants were the most accurate in recognising the friend and enemy nonwords in this second test. The onset and rime and phoneme participants demonstrated higher accuracy than the syllable participants in recognising the friend nonwords. However, the syllable trained

participants demonstrated a high level of accuracy which was comparable to the phoneme trained participants in matching the enemy nonwords.

These findings suggest that the syllable training in which all enemy nonwords and a subset of friend nonwords were explicitly trained as whole words was beneficial, especially in facilitating recognition of the enemy nonwords. Although the onset and rime and phoneme participants completed training in which the two different possible rime or vowel (as found within the rime) pronunciations were presented, these participants were largely inaccurate in matching the enemy nonwords.

The syllable participants received direct instruction in how the enemy nonwords, in their entirety, were pronounced. Such explicit instruction in how whole words are pronounced has been suggested to be effective in promoting the recognition of irregular words. According to Rayner et al. (2001), with continual practice and exposure to words, beginning readers develop an awareness of how context can affect the pronunciation of both individual letters (i.e., phonemes) and larger units (i.e., rimes) found within words (see also Nielsen & Bourassa, 2008).

It may be suggested that the whole word training completed by the syllable participants may possibly have triggered some awareness in the participants of how context, in terms of an initial symbol or consonant sound, could affect the pronunciation of the remaining three symbol sequence (the rime) contained within that word. Thus, perhaps through their explicit whole word training, the syllable trained participants may have begun to learn that a rime symbol sequence is pronounced one way in a certain context (e.g., when the rime symbols are preceded by a particular symbol), and another way in a different context (e.g., when the same rime symbols are preceded by a different symbol this changes the pronunciation). As an

example, the syllable participants may have learned in training that the rime /int/ is pronounced one way when combined with /s/ (/sint/ as in /pint/), and another way when joined with /y/ (/yint/ as in /hint/).

The onset and rime and phoneme participants did not have such a context- based knowledge established in their training, which instead focused on the vowel mappings and rime mappings in isolation. Although the training may have increased awareness that the pronunciation of a symbol or symbols was variable, these participants did not know when the variation in pronunciation occurred (i.e., in what context). This may have impeded enemy nonword recognition, at least in the symbols- to-spoken nonword test. A number of studies (e.g., Craig, Kim, Rhyner & Chirillo, 1993; Nittrouer & Boothroyd, 1990; Roe et al., 2000) have stressed the importance of context for beginning readers who are trying to decipher the pronunciation of a word.

Yet the onset and rime and phoneme participants demonstrated high accuracy in matching the enemy and friend nonwords presented during the spoken nonword-to- symbols test. It may be suggested that this test was simpler than the symbols-to- spoken nonword test. Participants did not have to choose between the enemy and friend rime pronunciation which increased the difficulty of the first test for those participants who did not know in which context the friend or enemy rime pronunciation was applicable.

Based on the supposition that the onset and rime and phoneme trained participants may have acquired a greater knowledge of the sound–symbol relations (as was discussed in Chapter 7), they may have relied upon their sound–symbol knowledge more when responding in the spoken nonword-to-symbols test. If they could see the symbols matching three of the sounds contained within the spoken nonword sample and could also deduce the correct vowel sound and corresponding

symbol, they might have been able to pinpoint the correct comparison symbols for the spoken nonword, whether friend or enemy.

Noticeably, the syllable trained participants were not as accurate as the onset and rime and phoneme participants in recognising the friend nonwords in this second test. During the syllable training for the inconsistent rimes, the participants were exposed to all of the enemy nonwords, but only a proportion of the friend nonwords. Without explicit training with all of the friend nonwords, and perhaps with less knowledge of the individual sound–symbol discriminations, this may have reduced the syllable participants’ ability to recognise all of the friend nonwords.

To summarise, the current findings suggest that each training approach, taken individually, appears to be insufficient for the recognition of both consistent and inconsistent (friend and enemy) words. While the onset and rime and phoneme training facilitates recognition of consistent words and inconsistent friend words, such training was not conducive to facilitating enemy word recognition. On the other hand, the syllable training with whole words was associated with more accurate enemy word recognition. Thus, when exception words were incorporated into the protocol, a whole word method seemed to be the most effective, at least for this size of vocabulary. However, the major disadvantage for the syllable training was that the participants were not as accurate in recognising the consistent nonwords.

These findings concur with data (e.g., Frith, Wimmer, & Landerl, 1998; Goswami et al., 1998; Seymour et al., 2003) showing that beginning readers of English (an inconsistent script) are less likely to sound-out unfamiliar words and are extremely poor at decoding nonwords compared to beginning readers of more consistent scripts such as Finnish, German or Spanish. The superior decoding performance of children learning to read more consistent scripts is thought to be

directly linked to the unambiguous and highly predictable individual letter–sound relations within their language, a predictability that is largely absent from English when considering its individual letter–sound correspondences (see Caravolas, 2005).

What is perhaps needed is an amalgamation of the two training approaches. If we subscribe to the dominant dual-route view (e.g., Coltheart et al., 2001) that there are two pathways needed for proficient recognition of regular and irregular words, it is reasonable then, that any form of reading instruction should aim to tap into, make use of, and ideally develop both of these processes.

One option might be a MTS protocol that combines elements of the onset and rime training with the syllable whole word training component to promote consistent and inconsistent word identification. Integrating the two approaches together would ideally benefit the participants by establishing a more developed sound–symbol knowledge, which is essential to decode novel consistent words. It might also enable the participants to cope with inconsistent words that cannot be read through the application of sound–symbol mappings, by providing direct instruction in how such words are pronounced, and introducing the context in which the pronunciation for a rime can change.

The results from the current experiment also coincide with the findings from studies with beginning readers of English highlighting the detrimental effects to word recognition when only one form of reading instruction, decoding (i.e., applying letter– sound rules) or sight word reading (i.e., teaching whole words) is emphasised (see Seymour & Duncan, 2001). Seymour and Elder (1986) compared the reading skills of children who were taught using a whole word instructional approach, or who received a combination of sight word reading and decoding instruction. Only the children who experienced the mixed instruction incorporating both processes (i.e., reading by sight

and reading by decoding) were capable of naming some novel words, and were observed to engage in both decoding and sight word reading practices. Conversely, children from the whole word training group made few attempts to read unfamiliar words, and were restricted in their ability to only read words that they had been explicitly taught (see also Bhattacharya & Ehri, 2004; Ehri et al., 2001).

Taken together, the overarching finding from previous studies and the current experiment, points to the importance of learning letter–sound relations to enable decoding of novel regular words, and learning to read some words (such as irregular or ‘enemy’ words) through whole word approaches. Although different training approaches were compared, the preliminary data is in accordance with the view expressed by Ziegler and Goswami (2005) in the psycholinguistic grain size theory that what is essential when learning to read inconsistent orthographies (such as English) is flexibility in the size of orthographic–phonological mappings that are acquired and applied. MTS training in isolation with either small grain sizes (e.g., phonemes, onsets and rimes) or larger grain sizes (syllables) did not seem to be sufficient to enable participants to tackle all possible words formed from the invented inconsistent script. Through the research with the children with LD, described in the remaining chapters, it was possible to develop such a MTS training procedure using a combination of small units (e.g., phoneme–grapheme relations) and large units (e.g., rimes, syllables, and whole words), and to explore the effectiveness of this ‘flexible’ training protocol for the children learning to read an inconsistent script such as English.

Furthermore, throughout the completion of the current experiment, it was observed that many of the participants from all training conditions did find the inconsistent rime training and testing challenging. Possibly, this may have been due to

the quite abstract nature of the training and testing. It may be helpful to incorporate a stimulus equivalence type component into the protocol whereby participants would learn to relate spoken words and printed words with pictures of what the words are referring to. Such a stimulus equivalence component might help participants to learn and retain the different pronunciations of words containing the same printed rime when each word can be related to a unique picture. As part of the research conducted with the children with LD, such a MTS protocol including onset and rime, syllable and stimulus equivalence training components was developed. It is to this second part of the thesis to which we now turn.

Chapter Nine

Experiment 8A: Using the Matching-to-Sample Protocol with Children with Learning Difficulties

9.1 Introduction

Up to this point, the experiments reported have been conducted with adult participants. After modifications were made to the MTS procedures, it was necessary to test the suitability of these revisions, and the studies with the adults enabled this. Once established that the amended protocol was effective in promoting recombinative generalisation and facilitating recognition of novel recombined words, the next step was to extend the use of the protocol. Arguably this research was instructive in providing a glimpse into the different ways in which the protocol could potentially be used to support recognition of the types of words that beginning readers of English may be likely to encounter during reading instruction (e.g., consonant blend words, consistent words, exception words). The results from these experiments were not only informative, but they were encouraging. For example, participants could recognise untrained words formed from new onsets and rimes, they could identify consonant blend words. But the participants in question who demonstrated these performances were adults; adults who had already mastered the skill of reading in English. Although an invented alphabetic type script was employed that was modelled on English, there is no escaping the fact that because the adults were already able to read, this may have influenced, even improved, their performance on the recombinative generalisation tests. Through their reading experiences, the adults were all capable of forming relations between arbitrary symbols (letters) and sounds. A child who has not yet learned how to read may not be proficient in this relational process. As it stands, it

could be that the protocol was effective in the previously reported experiments in facilitating recombinative generalisation skills with the adults because they had already acquired the relational process. It is too much of an extrapolation to assume that the protocol would be effective with children learning to read. What was needed then to rectify this problem was to see if the MTS procedures could be of any benefit to children who cannot read.

For the purpose of the current thesis, rather than investigating the use of the procedures with typically developing children, the focus was on whether the procedures could be used as a remedial aid to support the oral reading skills of a small group of children with learning difficulties (LD). Primarily, this was due to my own classroom experiences working with children at a school for children with mild learning disabilities, and my interest in exploring ways to facilitate learning for children from this population. While some of the children attending this particular school can read, other children have extremely minimal reading skills. To try and help these children experiencing problems in learning to read, it was felt that some of the children might benefit from taking part in the training procedures. Thus, in part, the aim of the current thesis was to see if the MTS protocol could be used as a remedial tool to help aid and hopefully improve the printed word recognition and word naming skills of a specific group of children with LD.

With appropriate instruction, practice and support, many children do learn to read in English. It is a skill that can be difficult for typically developing children to acquire, but for children with LD, learning to read can be an extremely difficult and challenging task (see Conners, 2003; Swanson & Hoskyn, 1998). Furthermore, research has highlighted that children with LD are more at risk of not acquiring basic reading skills compared to typically developing children (Cawley & Parmar, 1995).

Given the somewhat worrying nature of these findings, it might be expected that research investigating ways to facilitate reading skills in children with LD would be plentiful. Unfortunately, the great strides that have been made in terms of what is known about reading development and effective reading instruction for typically developing children have not been followed by similar advances in research geared towards helping children with LD learn to read (Saunders, 2007). The shortage of research exploring instructional practices to promote reading skills in children with LD was another reason why, the focus of this thesis was on using the protocol with children with LD, and not, at least for the current body of research, typically developing children.

It is widely recognised that children with LD constitute a heterogeneous group of learners, with varying cognitive abilities, strengths and weaknesses (see Bergeron & Floyd, 2006). What seems to be effective for one child will not necessarily be as effective for another child. Bearing all this in mind, it becomes increasingly important to try and develop procedures for children with LD that can be used to help support