Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Influence of Orthography on the Development of Functional Phonological Units in Spoken Word Production

处理语音信息的能力（即一个人的语言的声音）在语言和读写能力的发展中是至关重要的。语音加工对读写能力的发展很重要，反过来，读写经验促进语音技能。语音提取与编码是语音加工的重要组成部分；然而，很少有人研究读写经验如何影响语音检索和编码。语音功能单位是指说话者用来组织和构建口语单词的单位，在这一领域的调查可以告诉研究人员说话者如何检索和编码语音信息。本研究旨在探讨语音功能单位的发展及读写经验的影响。这项研究的结果可以帮助教育工作者开发教育方法来促进儿童的语言发展，特别是那些有不流利或其他语言相关困难的儿童。涉及识字训练，符合语言的性质可能有助于提高儿童的语言流畅性。这项研究将在以普通话为母语的人群中进行。将招募五组参与者，包括1)4岁的学龄前儿童，2)7岁的一年级儿童，3)8岁的二年级儿童，4)10岁的四年级儿童和5)成人。每组将进行三次实验。在每个实验中，将进行一个简单的图片命名任务，并采用形式准备范式（一组图片的名称可能具有相同的起音，相同的首音节或没有系统的共同之处）。实验1考察单音节图片名称的启动准备效应（即当图片名称具有相同的启动时，更快的命名延迟）。实验2考察双音节图片名称的起始准备效应。实验3考察了音节准备效应（即当图片名称具有相同的首音节时，更快的命名延迟）。起始准备效应表明功能语音单位是音段，而音节准备效应表明音节是功能单位。音节是学前儿童规划口语单词时自然接触到的单位，因此学前儿童选择音节作为功能语音单位。一年级儿童广泛接触拼音，拼音的字母特征会引导他们将语音功能单位从音节转移到音段。较高年级的儿童和成人直接阅读音节对应的汉字，因此这些年龄组的功能音系单位可能会变回音节。本研究结果将有助于科学地理解读写经验对语音表征和加工发展的影响。此外，基于本研究的结果，教育工作者可以将儿童的语音训练与他们的识字经验结合起来，开发出更有效的教育方法来促进儿童语音技能的发展。例如，将汉语作为第二语言学习的孩子可能会受益于包括强调音节单位的字符教学的语言训练。

The ability to process phonological information (i.e., the sounds of one's language) is critical in language and literacy development. Phonological processing is important for literacy development, and in turn, literacy experience promotes phonological skills. Phonological retrieval and encoding in spoken word production is an important component of phonological processing; however, little research has been conducted to examine how literacy experience influences phonological retrieval and encoding. The functional phonological units refer to the units that speakers use to organize and construct a spoken word, and investigation in this area can inform researchers on how speakers retrieve and encode phonological information. This research aims to investigate the development of the functional phonological units and the influence of literacy experience. The results of this research can help educators develop educational methodologies to promote children's language development, particularly those with disfluency or other speech-related difficulties. Involving literacy training that is consistent with the nature of a language may help improve children's speech fluency.This research will be conducted among native Mandarin speakers. In Mainland China, children first study an alphabetic writing system called Pinyin in Grade 1, and begin to study morphosyllabic Chinese characters afterwards. Five groups of participants will be recruited, including 1) preschool children at 4 years of age, 2) Grade 1 children at 7 years, 3) Grade 2 children at 8 years, 4) Grade 4 children at 10 years, and 5) adults. For each group, three experiments will be conducted. In each experiment, a simple picture naming task with the form preparation paradigm (the names of a list of pictures may share the same onset, same initial syllable or nothing systematically in common) will be conducted. Experiment 1 examines the onset preparation effect (i.e., faster naming latency when the picture names share the same onset) using monosyllabic picture names. Experiment 2 examines the onset preparation effect using disyllabic picture names. Experiment 3 examines the syllable preparation effect (i.e., faster naming latency when the picture names share the same initial syllable). An onset preparation effect would suggest that the functional phonological unit is the segment, whereas a syllable preparation effect would suggest that syllable is the functional unit. It is expected that the syllable is the unit preschool children naturally access for planning a spoken word, so preschool children selects the syllable as the functional phonological unit. Grade 1 children are extensively exposed to Pinyin, and the alphabetic characteristic of Pinyin will lead them to shift the functional phonological unit from syllable to segment. Higher-grade children and adults read characters which correspond to syllables directly, so the functional phonological unit for these age groups may change back to syllable. The findings of this research will improve the scientific understanding of the influence of literacy experience on the development of phonological representation and processing. Furthermore, based on the results of this research, educators may be able to develop more efficient educational methodologies to improve children's development of phonological skills by combining children's phonological training and their literacy experience. For example, children who learn Chinese as a second language may benefit from language training involving character instruction that emphasizes the syllabic unit.