ERIC Number: EJ1312580
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1088-8438
EISSN: N/A
Letter Features as Predictors of Letter-Name Acquisition in Four Languages with Three Scripts
Kim, Young-Suk Grace; Petscher, Yaacov; Treiman, Rebecca; Kelcey, Benjamin
Scientific Studies of Reading, v25 n6 p453-469 2021
To expand our understanding of script-general and script-specific principles in the learning of letter names, we examined how three characteristics of alphabet letters -- their frequency in printed materials, order in the alphabet, and visual similarity to other letters -- relate to children's letter-name knowledge in four languages with three distinct scripts (English [N = 318; M age = 4.90], Portuguese [N = 366; M age = 5.80], Korean [N = 168; M age = 5.48], and Hebrew [N = 645; M age = 5.42]). Explanatory item response modeling analysis showed that the frequency of letters in printed materials was consistently related to letter difficulty across the four languages. There were also moderation effects for letter difficulty in English and Korean, and for discriminatory power of letters in Korean. The results suggest that exposure to letters as measured by letter frequency is a language-general mechanism in the learning of alphabet letters. [For the corresponding grantee submission, see ED609249.]
Descriptors: Alphabets, Orthographic Symbols, Written Language, Printed Materials, Portuguese, Korean, Contrastive Linguistics, Item Response Theory, Phoneme Grapheme Correspondence, Preschool Children, Semitic Languages, Difficulty Level, Foreign Countries, Language Variation, North American English, Task Analysis, Kindergarten, Grade 1, Visual Discrimination, College Students, Rating Scales
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education; Elementary Education; Kindergarten; Primary Education; Grade 1; Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: Institute of Education Sciences (ED); Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (DHHS/NIH)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: South Korea; Brazil; Israel; Michigan (Detroit)
IES Funded: Yes
Grant or Contract Numbers: R305A180055; R305A200312; 2P50HD052120