Learning to Use an Alphabetic Writing System

Abstract

Gaining facility with spelling is an important part of becoming a good writer. Here we review recent work on how children learn to spell in alphabetic writing systems. Statistical learning plays an important role in this process. Thus, young children learn about some of the salient graphic characteristics of written texts and attempt to reproduce these characteristics in their own productions even before they use letters to represent phonemes. Later, children apply their statistical learning skills to links between phonemes and spellings, including those that are conditioned by context and morphology. Children use what they know about language and about letter names when learning about spelling, and learning to spell in turn influences their ideas about language. Although children learn about some aspects of spelling implicitly, explicit instruction has an important role to play. We discuss some implications of the research for the design of that instruction.

Integrating Orthographic and Phonological Knowledge in Early Readers: Implicit and Explicit Knowledge

“…That is, children may be able to extrapolate rules of spelling and orthography implicitly by unconsciously noting common patterns in the written language they encounter [21], thereby implicitly learning orthographic information through routine exposure before any direct instruction [22]. Accordingly, statistical probability seems to be a significant influence on children's spelling development (e.g., [23,24]) and other visual patterns [25][26][27].…”

Using symbols: developmental perspectives

“…Children also need to understand how a symbol stands for its referent. For example, understanding that text is a representation of language is not enough to allow a child to read; he or she also has to figure out the system that specifies how written text corresponds to spoken language . Similarly, even if a child understands that maps represent spaces, he or she may still struggle to figure out how a map represents different features of the environment.…”

“…For example, a great deal of research on reading development has focused on how children learn grapheme–phoneme correspondences—how written units of sounds correspond to spoken units. This work is extremely important because these emergent literacy skills strongly predict reading achievement . However, there are equally important and interesting developments that must occur before children begin to learn the specifics of how written language corresponds to spoken language.…”

“…For example, understanding that text is a representation of language is not enough to allow a child to read; he or she also has to figure out the system that specifies how written text corresponds to spoken language. 26 Similarly, even if a child understands that maps represent spaces, he or she may still struggle to figure out how a map represents different features of the environment. Indeed, some adults, with full knowledge that maps are intended to represent particular places still struggle to interpret complex or poorly designed maps.…”

“…This work is extremely important because these emergent literacy skills strongly predict reading achievement. 26 However, there are equally important and interesting developments that must occur before children begin to learn the specifics of how written language corresponds to spoken language. For example, a fundamental insight is to understand that text represents language-there is some correspondence between marks on the page (letters) and what people say.…”