Becoming an efficient reader: Tracking the emergence of high-quality written word representations in children

成为一名高效的阅读者：追踪儿童高质量书面文字表征的出现

• 批准号: ES/X002012/1
• 负责人: Jo Taylor
• 金额: $ 30.9万
• 依托单位: University College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FX002012%2F1
• 关键词: Becoming; efficient; reader; Tracking; emergence

Literacy is essential for societal success, supporting participation in education, employment, and democracy and promoting well-being. In alphabetic languages, like English or French, we know that it is vital for beginning readers to be taught letter-sounds in order to sound out (phonically decode) written words. However, literacy skills remain highly variable among adolescents and young adults and we now need to know how to help children become efficient readers, who are able to recognise and comprehend thousands of words with ease. Theories of reading propose that becoming an efficient reader involves a transition from phonic decoding to recognising words as wholes and that this requires high-quality representations of written words. This project will use behavioural and brain imaging measures to quantify how reading experience increases children's ability to read words as wholes, as well as the specificity and stability of their written word representations. It will also show how these markers of reading efficiency relate to word spelling and understanding. This aim will be achieved through three projects:Project 1 will measure children's reading, spelling, and understanding of a set of curriculum words before (year 4, age 8-9) and after (end of year 5, age 9-10) they have learned them in school. I will determine whether a year's experience with written words allows children to rely less on phonic decoding during reading, by measuring the extent to which print-to-sound regularity (e.g., dragon is regular but stomach is irregular) and word length influence reading accuracy and speed. I expect regularity and length effects to be smaller at the end of year 5 than year 4 and this should be associated with improvements in children's spelling and/or understanding of the words. Project 2 will measure brain activity as children read words they have learned early (age 5-6) versus late (age 8-9) in their reading development. I expect brain regions that are involved in whole-word reading to be more active for early versus late acquired words, whereas brain regions involved in decoding will be more active for late versus early acquired words. Greater activity in brain regions involved in whole-word reading should be associated with better spelling and/or understanding of these words. Project 3 will use brain imaging methods that go beyond measuring the amount of activity in brain regions involved in whole-word reading to specify how word representations are structured in these regions. I expect that words that children have acquired early will have better specified and more stable neural representations and that this will be associated with better spelling and/or understanding of these words. The outcomes of these projects will advance theories of reading development by showing how and why reading experience increases children's ability to read words as wholes and how this relates to their word spelling and understanding. This will help researchers and practitioners to understand the ways in which education can increase children's reading efficiency.

扫盲是社会成功的关键，支持参与教育、就业和民主，并促进福祉。在字母语言中，如英语或法语，我们知道，为了读出（语音解码）书面文字，初学者必须学习字母发音。然而，青少年和年轻人的识字技能仍然存在很大差异，我们现在需要知道如何帮助儿童成为高效的读者，他们能够轻松识别和理解数千个单词。阅读理论认为，要成为一个高效的阅读者，需要从语音解码过渡到将单词作为整体来识别，这需要高质量的书面单词表征。这个项目将使用行为和大脑成像措施来量化阅读经验如何提高儿童整体阅读单词的能力，以及他们书面单词表征的特异性和稳定性。它还将显示这些阅读效率的标志如何与单词拼写和理解相关。这一目标将通过三个项目实现：项目1将衡量儿童在学校学习一套课程词汇之前（4年级，8-9岁）和之后（5年级结束，9-10岁）的阅读、拼写和理解情况。我将通过测量印刷到声音的规律性（例如，龙是规则的，但胃是不规则的）和单词长度影响阅读的准确性和速度。我预计规律性和长度效应在第5年年底比第4年要小，这应该与儿童拼写和/或理解单词的改善有关。项目2将测量儿童在阅读他们阅读发展早期（5-6岁）和晚期（8-9岁）学习的单词时的大脑活动。我预计，与早期习得的单词相比，参与整词阅读的大脑区域更活跃，而与早期习得的单词相比，参与解码的大脑区域更活跃。参与全词阅读的大脑区域的更大活动应该与更好的拼写和/或理解这些单词有关。项目3将使用大脑成像方法，超越测量参与全词阅读的大脑区域的活动量，以确定单词表征在这些区域中是如何构建的。我希望孩子们早期习得的单词将具有更好的特定和更稳定的神经表征，这将与更好的拼写和/或理解这些单词有关。这些项目的成果将通过展示阅读经验如何以及为什么增加儿童整体阅读单词的能力，以及这与他们的单词拼写和理解的关系，推进阅读发展理论。这将有助于研究人员和实践者了解教育如何提高儿童的阅读效率。