The benefits of syllable segmentation and word reading practice for adolescents with reading and spelling difficulties.
Item
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Title
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The benefits of syllable segmentation and word reading practice for adolescents with reading and spelling difficulties.
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Identifier
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AAI3024763
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identifier
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3024763
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Creator
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Bhattacharya, Alpana.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Linnea C. Ehri
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Date
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2001
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education, Educational Psychology | Education, Secondary | Education, Reading
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Abstract
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This study examined the effectiveness of two instructional treatments, a syllable segmentation approach and a whole word approach, on adolescent disabled readers' ability to read words, to decode nonwords, and to spell words from memory. Sixty junior high and high school students who scored between the third and fifth grade-equivalent levels on a standardized word identification test were selected for the study. Triplets of disabled readers matched on word reading scores were randomly assigned to one of two instructional treatments or a no-treatment control condition. Syllable-treatment participants practiced reading 100 multisyllabic words by breaking them into syllables. Whole word participants practiced reading the same words as wholes. Several tasks measured participants' pre-treatment and post-treatment word reading, nonword reading, and spelling skills.;Results showed that the syllable treatment produced superior gains in reading words, decoding nonwords, and spelling words compared to the whole word treatment and no-treatment control. Gains were especially large on the nonword decoding subtest of the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests - Revised (Woodcock, 1987) among syllable-trained participants who read at the third grade-equivalent level. The whole word treatment did not improve participants' reading and spelling performance compared to the no-treatment control group.;Results suggest that reading and spelling deficits of disabled readers can be treated effectively through explicit instruction and practice segmenting multisyllabic words into constituent syllables. Effects are attributed to the benefit of fully analyzing words. According to Ehri's (1992) theory, disabled readers retain only partial representations of words in memory when they learn to read them. Word reading practice that requires forming connections between syllabic spelling units and pronunciation help disabled readers attend to and remember the full spellings of words.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
