Becoming a skilled reader: Orthographic and semantic processing during reading

熟练的阅读包括自动激活单词的发音、字母和含义的详细表征（Adams, 1990; Ehri, 1992）。大量证据表明，儿童分析单词的声音结构并将其应用于阅读的能力在阅读习得（即语音意识和解码；例如，National reading Panel, 2000）中起着因果作用。然而，这些技能并不能解释阅读发展的所有差异（例如，Juel et al., 1986; Tunmer & Nesdale, 1985）。为了解释儿童向熟练阅读的过渡，我们需要从正字法和语义两个方面来捕捉技能。我们还需要评估儿童获得表征的能力，或者他们的流体处理技能。****我们的综合研究计划验证了阅读过程中流畅的正字法和语义处理分别决定儿童单词阅读和阅读理解能力的增长这一假设。我们将实验和纵向研究与复杂的数据分析技术创新地结合起来。我们的研究项目为新一代发展研究人员提供高质量的可转移技能培训，他们为科学和实际职业做好了技能准备。****我们的研究项目将填补我们在儿童阅读习得知识方面的一个核心空白：儿童是如何从字母-声音解码到详细的、自动激活单词的声音、字母和含义的？阅读发展的大多数模型都集中在学习阅读的早期阶段，因此，明确儿童成为熟练读者的机制将是一个实质性的贡献。这样做将为一种新的阅读发展理论奠定基础，在这种理论中，我们期望儿童在阅读过程中获得正字法和语义知识的技能将分别推动他们获得单词阅读和阅读理解。＊＊＊＊

Skilled reading involves the automatic activation of detailed representations of a word's sounds, letters and meaning (Adams, 1990; Ehri, 1992). There is abundant evidence that children's ability to analyse the sound structure of words and to apply this to reading has a causal role in reading acquisition (i.e., phonological awareness and decoding; e.g., National Reading Panel, 2000). Yet these skills do not account for all variance in reading development (e.g., Juel et al., 1986; Tunmer & Nesdale, 1985). To explain children's transition to skilled reading, we need to capture skill in two other dimensions, orthographic and semantic. We also need to evaluate children's ability to acquire representations, or their fluid processing skill. ****Our comprehensive program of research tests the hypothesis that fluid orthographic and semantic processing during reading determines growth in children's word reading and reading comprehension, respectively. We do so with an innovative combination of experimental and longitudinal research with sophisticated data analytic techniques. Our research program offers high-quality training in transferable skills to a new generation of developmental researchers, who are prepared with skills for both scientific and practical careers. ****Our program of research will fill a core gap in our knowledge of children's reading acquisition: how do children move from letter-sound decoding to detailed, automatic activation of the sounds, letters and meanings of words? The majority of models of reading development focus on the early stages of learning to read, and so it would be a substantial contribution to specify the mechanisms by which children become skilled readers. Doing so will set the stage for a new theory of reading development in which we expect that children's skill in acquiring orthographic and semantic knowledge during their reading will drive their acquisition of word reading and reading comprehension, respectively. ****