Becoming a skilled reader: Orthographic and semantic processing during reading

熟练的阅读包括自动激活单词的声音、字母和意义的详细表征(Adams，1990；Ehri，1992)。有大量证据表明，儿童分析单词的声音结构并将其应用于阅读的能力对阅读习得具有因果作用(即语音意识和解码；例如，国家阅读小组，2000)。然而，这些技能并不能解释阅读发展中的所有差异(例如，Juel等人，1986；Tunmer&Nesdale，1985)。为了解释儿童向熟练阅读的转变，我们需要从另外两个维度--拼写和语义--捕捉技能。我们还需要评估儿童获得表征的能力，或他们的流体处理技能。我们的综合研究项目验证了这样一个假设，即阅读过程中流畅的拼写和语义加工分别决定了儿童单词阅读和阅读理解的发展。我们通过实验和纵向研究的创新组合以及复杂的数据分析技术来做到这一点。我们的研究计划为新一代发展研究人员提供高质量的可转让技能培训，他们为科学和实际职业生涯做好了技能准备。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：儿童如何从字母声音解码转移到对单词的声音、字母和意义的详细、自动激活？大多数阅读发展模型关注于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项重大贡献。这样做将为一种新的阅读发展理论奠定基础，我们预计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.