Are spelling difficulties the expression of a phonological deficit? The development of orthographic knowledge and phonological recoding ability in the 2(nd) to 4(th) grade of the elementary school
C. Klicpera et Bg. Klicpera, Are spelling difficulties the expression of a phonological deficit? The development of orthographic knowledge and phonological recoding ability in the 2(nd) to 4(th) grade of the elementary school, Z ENTWICK P, 32(3), 2000, pp. 134-142
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
ZEITSCHRIFT FUR ENTWICKLUNGSPSYCHOLOGIE UND PADAGOGISCHE PSYCHOLOGIE
The development of orthographic knowledge was investigated in pupils of the
: 2(nd) to 4(th) grade of elementary school by the recognition and producti
on of critical spelling patterns in words whose correct spelling could only
be found out through word specific knowledge or through the knowledge of m
orphematic connections. This line of development was contrasted with the de
velopment of phonological recoding which was evaluated by means of the task
of writing words with voiced versus unvoiced stop consonants, with consona
nt clusters and of pseudowords. Poor spellers lagged behind average speller
s of the same grade in both areas. Compared to younger average students of
the same spelling level they had greater problems with phonological recodin
g tasks and a higher developed orthographical knowledge. A more detailed an
alysis revealed that poor spellers did not fully overcome their specific pr
oblems with the spelling of consonant clusters and in the discrimination be
tween the spelling of voiced and unvoiced stop consonants until the middle
of the fourth grade, Difficulties in writing pseudowords persisted also and
these can be seen as an expression of enduring difficulties in phonologica
l recoding without the help of wordspecific information. Deficits in phonol
ogical recoding seem therefore to be a main source of spelling difficulties
in German despite the relatively regular nature of the writing system.