Spongelike acquisition of sight vocabulary in beginning readers?

Abstract

We report two training studies designed to investigate the relation between phonological awareness, sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge, and printed word learning in novice five‐year‐old readers. Effects of visual memory and of teaching methods are also explored. In our first study, novice five‐year‐old readers able to segment initial phonemes and with good knowledge of mappings between sounds and letters learned words more easily from repeated exposure to texts. Results suggested that visual memory influenced word learning in non‐segmenting but not in segmenting children. Spelling regularity did not affect ease of learning. Nouns were easier to learn than function words. In the second study, although phonological awareness and sound‐to‐letter mapping knowledge still exerted a significant influence, all novice five‐year‐olds were able to learn words more easily if these were taught out‐of‐context singly on flashcards. Results support the view that mental representations of printed words are more easily formed by beginners who are able to match at least some of the phonological segments detected in the spoken word to letters in the printed word.

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