The relationships between oral language and reading instruction : Evidence from a computational model of reading

Chang, Ya-Ning and Taylor, Jo and Rastle, Kathy and Monaghan, Padraic (2020) The relationships between oral language and reading instruction : Evidence from a computational model of reading. Cognitive Psychology, 123: 101336. ISSN 0010-0285

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Abstract

Reading acquisition involves learning to associate visual symbols with spoken language. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that instruction on the relationship between spellings and sounds may be particularly important. However, it is unclear whether the effectiveness of this form of instruction depends on pre-existing oral language knowledge. To investigate this issue, we developed a series of computational models of reading incorporating orthographic, phonological and semantic processing to simulate both artificial and natural orthographic learning conditions in adults and children. We exposed the models to instruction focused on spelling-sound or spelling-meaning relationships, and tested the influence of the models’ oral language proficiency on the effectiveness of these training regimes. Overall, the simulations indicated that oral language proficiency is a vital foundation for reading acquisition, and may modulate the effectiveness of reading instruction. These results provide a computational basis for the Simple View of Reading, and emphasise the importance of both oral language knowledge and spelling-sound instruction in the initial stages of learning to read.

Item Type:
Journal Article
Journal or Publication Title:
Cognitive Psychology
Uncontrolled Keywords:
/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/1700/1702
Subjects:
?? reading instructionoral languagereading developmentcomputational modellingword learningartificial intelligenceneuropsychology and physiological psychologylinguistics and languageexperimental and cognitive psychologydevelopmental and educational psychology ??
ID Code:
146398
Deposited By:
Deposited On:
10 Aug 2020 12:30
Refereed?:
Yes
Published?:
Published
Last Modified:
04 Jan 2024 00:23