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The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children

In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle suffi...

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Autores principales: Angelelli, Paola, Marinelli, Chiara Valeria, Burani, Cristina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4237035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477855
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01373
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author Angelelli, Paola
Marinelli, Chiara Valeria
Burani, Cristina
author_facet Angelelli, Paola
Marinelli, Chiara Valeria
Burani, Cristina
author_sort Angelelli, Paola
collection PubMed
description In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs. non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs. low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling.
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spelling pubmed-42370352014-12-04 The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children Angelelli, Paola Marinelli, Chiara Valeria Burani, Cristina Front Psychol Psychology In opaque orthographies knowledge of morphological information helps in achieving reading and spelling accuracy. In transparent orthographies with regular print-to-sound correspondences, such as Italian, the mappings of orthography onto phonology and phonology onto orthography are in principle sufficient to read and spell most words. The present study aimed to investigate the role of morphology in the reading and spelling accuracy of Italian children as a function of school experience to determine whether morphological facilitation was present in children learning a transparent orthography. The reading and spelling performances of 15 third-grade and 15 fifth-grade typically developing children were analyzed. Children read aloud and spelled both low-frequency words and pseudowords. Low-frequency words were manipulated for the presence of morphological structure (morphemic words vs. non-derived words). Morphemic words could also vary for the frequency (high vs. low) of roots and suffixes. Pseudo-words were made up of either a real root and a real derivational suffix in a combination that does not exist in the Italian language or had no morphological constituents. Results showed that, in Italian, morphological information is a useful resource for both reading and spelling. Typically developing children benefitted from the presence of morphological structure when they read and spelled pseudowords; however, in processing low-frequency words, morphology facilitated reading but not spelling. These findings are discussed in terms of morpho-lexical access and successful cooperation between lexical and sublexical processes in reading and spelling. Frontiers Media S.A. 2014-11-19 /pmc/articles/PMC4237035/ /pubmed/25477855 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01373 Text en Copyright © 2014 Angelelli, Marinelli and Burani. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Angelelli, Paola
Marinelli, Chiara Valeria
Burani, Cristina
The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title_full The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title_fullStr The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title_full_unstemmed The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title_short The effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on Italian children
title_sort effect of morphology on spelling and reading accuracy: a study on italian children
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4237035/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25477855
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01373
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