Relations Between Sounds and Spellings in English: Nature, Use, and Acquisition

英语中声音和拼写之间的关系：性质、使用和习得

• 批准号: 9807736
• 负责人: Rebecca Treiman
• 金额: $ 24万
• 依托单位: Wayne State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1998
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1998-12-15 至 2002-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9807736&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Relations; Between; Sounds; Spellings; English

The goal of the research is learn more about how the sounds of English words are related to their spellings, and to use this information as a basis for studying the processes involved in spelling and reading. The results will shed light on the cognitive and linguistic foundations of reading and writing ability, as well as on the nature of the English spelling system itself. In the first part of the project modern computer methods will be used to study the links from sounds to spellings in several thousand words of English. It is hypothesized that, even when it is not possible to predict exactly how a given sound will be spelled, there are certain factors that can help narrow the range of alternatives. For example, the spellings of vowels may be influenced by the following consonants in such a way that spelling becomes more predictable when vowel + final consonant units are taken into account. For example, the short `e` sound has a higher chance of being spelled as `ea` when it comes before `d` (as in `head`) than when it comes before `m` (as in `hem`). Such results would suggest that the English writing system is not as chaotic and illogical as commonly believed. It is further hypothesized that users of English develop a sensitivity to the patterns in the writing system. As a result, words with more predictable relationships between sounds and spellings should be spelled and read more easily than words with less predictable relationships. The development of this sensitivity will be mapped out in a series of studies with adults and children of various ages. These studies will include not only traditional small-scale experiments but also large-scale studies in which each participant pronounces or spells thousands of words over the course of several sessions. The findings will have implications not only for basic understanding of reading and spelling, but also for the teaching of reading and spelling skills to normal children and to children with learning difficulties.

这项研究的目的是更多地了解英语单词的发音与其拼写之间的关系，并将这些信息作为研究拼写和阅读过程的基础。这一结果将有助于阐明阅读和写作能力的认知和语言基础，以及英语拼写系统本身的性质。在该项目的第一部分，将使用现代计算机方法研究几千个英语单词中从语音到拼写的联系。它假设，即使不可能准确地预测一个给定的声音将如何拼写，也有某些因素可以帮助缩小可供选择的范围。例如，元音的拼写可能会受到以下辅音的影响，当考虑到元音+韵母单位时，拼写变得更可预测。例如，当短音`e‘在`d`之前(如`head`)时，其被拼写为`ea`的几率比它在`m`之前(如在`hem`中)时更高。这样的结果将表明，英语书写系统并不像人们通常认为的那样混乱和不合逻辑。进一步的假设是，英语使用者对写作系统中的模式发展了一种敏感性。因此，在发音和拼写之间具有更可预测的关系的单词应该比具有较难预测的关系的单词更容易拼写和阅读。这种敏感性的发展将在一系列针对不同年龄段的成年人和儿童的研究中阐明。这些研究将不仅包括传统的小规模实验，还包括大规模研究，在这些研究中，每个参与者在几个课程的过程中发音或拼写数千个单词。这些发现不仅对阅读和拼写的基本理解有影响，而且对正常儿童和学习困难的儿童的阅读和拼写技能的教学也有意义。