Linking the shapes of alphabet letters to their sounds: the case of Hebrew |
| |
| Authors: | Rebecca Treiman Iris Levin Brett Kessler |
| |
| Institution: | (1) Psychology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA;(2) School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel |
| |
| Abstract: | Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have
examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such
as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter’s name) are easier to learn than others (such as that of w, where the sound is not in the name). The present study examined Hebrew, where variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter
names are minimal. In a study of 391 Israeli children with a mean age of 5 years, 10 months, we used multilevel models to
examine the factors that are associated with knowledge of letter sounds. One set of factors involved letter names: Children
sometimes attributed to a letter a consonant–vowel sound consisting of the first phonemes of the letter’s name. A second set
of factors involved contrast: Children had difficulty when there was relatively little contrast in shape between one letter
and others. Frequency was also important, encompassing both child-specific effects, such as a benefit for the first letter
of a child’s forename, and effects that held true across children, such as a benefit for the first letters of the alphabet.
These factors reflect general properties of human learning. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 PubMed SpringerLink 等数据库收录！ |
|
