Children's Learning of Words as a Function of Minimum Contrasts in Variable Letter Positions

Abstract

Presents results of an experimental task which measured children's learning of CVC words when minimum contrasts were employed in first, middle, and last letter positions (e.g., tin, win vs. pan, pen vs. pit, pig). Subjects were 84 kindergarten and first grade pupils who knew the alphabet but who had not yet learned to read. The visual and oral task provided measures of transfer, recognition, recall, delayed recognition, and delayed recall. For the sexes separately and combined, first letter position contrasts (rhyming words) were superior to letter contrasts in the middle or last letter positions; middle letter position contrasts were least effective. Last letter position contrasts were more effective for females than males. The results suggest that the teaching of rhyming words is the most efficient initial presentation of CVC words for beginning readers.