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Orthographic Mapping: Weak or Robust Theory? · The Reading Instruction Show

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  This is The Reading Instruction Show. I'm your
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  host, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's podcast
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  is orthographic mapping. Let's see if we can
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  learn a thing or two. Now, orthographic mapping
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  is a term invented by Linnea Erie. So let's start
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  with her definition. Quote, orthographic mapping
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  occurs when in the course of Reading specific
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  words, readers form connections between written
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  unit, either single grapheme or larger spelling
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  patterns, and spoken units, either phonemes,
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  syllables, or morphemes. These connections are
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  retained in memory, along with meanings, and
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  enable readers to recognize words by sight. An
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  important consequence of orthographic mapping
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  is that the spellings of words enter memory and
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  influence learning, the processing of phonological
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  constituents in words, and phonological memory
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  unquote. 2014, page 5 and 6. Now this is written
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  with all the stunning clarity of a Rorschach
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  inkblot test. So let's do a little on Packer
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  18 here. Orthography has to do with symbols representing
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  sounds and the arrangement of letters. The written
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  language that you read is an orthographic system.
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  You're putting sound symbols together to create
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  words. Other written language systems use symbols
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  to represent things. These are called logographic.
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  A logo is a symbol representing a thing. So here
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  you're putting symbols together to create meaning.
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  Now mapping in a cognitive sense refers to how
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  things are stored or connected in long -term
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  memory. And orthographic mapping, as stated above,
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  and I'll try to make it a little clearer, orthographic
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  mapping, according to Airy, is the cognitive
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  process by which readers store written words
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  in long -term memory. Airy calls these stored
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  words sight words. And readers are said to be
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  able to effortlessly retrieve these and use them
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  to recognize words during reading. Orthographic
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  mapping makes letter -sound connections and bonds
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  these to the spelling, punctuation, and meaning
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  of words in long -term memory according to the
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  theory of Linnea Erie. And the last term is upward
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  lexical repurposing. Upward lexical repurposing.
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  is when important -sounding words are combined
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  to make non -things sound like important things.
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  And research is showing that upward lexical repurposing
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  significantly enhances one's ability to get grants,
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  book contracts, consulting jobs, and large speaking
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  fees. And orthographic mapping is an example
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  of this. So it all makes sense, yes? If knowledge
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  was stored in long -term memory in the form of
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  words, orthographic mapping might make a bit
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  of sense. But knowledge is stored in the form
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  of associative networks, not words. Things in
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  long -term memory are connected to and organized
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  around related things. Any mapping that takes
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  place is primarily semantic mapping. For example,
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  when you hear the word cat or see the word cat
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  in print, you automatically associate it with
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  cat things. Soft, purry, paws, kitty, pet. These
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  things are closely related to cat. The neural
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  pathways leading to these things are activated.
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  things come to mind. Now what is not activated
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  when you hear the word cat? You don't automatically
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  think of short a words or cvc words or the at
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  phonograms. You don't think about letter sounds
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  or letter patterns. You think of things. Clearly
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  we have access to semantic information when we
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  see the word cat in print. Yes, there is orthographic
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  information on the page and some form of orthographic
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  mapping is stored in the head, but semantic information
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  takes precedent over orthographic information.
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  And if we just walked around recognizing individual
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  words floating in space, then the theory of orthographic
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  mapping would make a bit of sense. But semantic
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  connections between words in long -term memory
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  are much stronger than any orthographic connections.
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  And reading is primarily a meaning -making process,
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  not a word recognition process. So orthographic
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  mapping may be a thing, but semantic mapping
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  is much more of a thing. Now let's take a look
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  at orthographic facilitation. Orthographic facilitation
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  means seeing the spelling of words as you are
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  learning them. Now this is another example of
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  upward lexical repurposing. Airy said, orthographic
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  facilitation improves vocabulary, learning, and
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  spelling. In a 2017 study with 45 first grade
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  students, she compared their memory of two novel
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  sets of words. Now the first set, and I'm just
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  giving you a brief overview, the first set contained
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  just pictures of the novel word and along with
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  a spoken definition. The other set contained
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  pictures with the names of the word printed underneath.
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  followed by a spoken definition. After two weeks,
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  children were shown the pictures and asked to
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  remember the word associated with it and the
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  meaning of the word. And it turns out that when
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  the printed word was included in the original
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  exposure with the picture, children remembered
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  the pronunciation of it slightly better. Aerie
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  reasoned that since pronunciation was the most
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  difficult part of vocabulary learning, something
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  I questioned, she reasoned that orthographic
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  facilitation thereby enhanced vocabulary learning.
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  Now, again, in case you missed that, students
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  were able to remember the pronunciation of a
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  word when it was presented with letters, with
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  the word printed. And based on that, they were
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  able to remember the pronunciation. And based
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  on that, she says, ah, it facilitates vocabulary
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  learning. This is an example of a research -based
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  conclusion. You can technically say that orthographic
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  facilitation is a research -based strategy. There's
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  research to indicate it does something, but the
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  research is not very good. and the something
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  it does is not really indicative of something
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  else. Remember the pronunciation of a word has
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  very little to do with acquiring the word. Children
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  learn between 3 ,000 and 4 ,000 words a year.
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  By the end of elementary school they know approximately
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  25 ,000 words and by the end of high school approximately
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  50 ,000 to 80 ,000 words. And how much orthographic
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  facilitation was taking place here? Children
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  learned the vast majority of words with no orthographic
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  facilitation. They learned them by hearing them
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  used in conversation or by seeing the words in
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  print. In the study above, when children had
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  letter clues as they were learning the pronunciation
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  or sound of the word, they were better able to
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  remember the sound of the word when compared
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  to having no letter clues. Yes, absolutely. Seeing
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  sound symbols as you're learning the sound of
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  a new word provides another modality for remembering
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  the sound of the word. And if you have a visual
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  representation of that sound while you're learning
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  the pronunciation, chances are that you're better
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  able to remember the pronunciation. Most people
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  could have told you that up front. So, orthography
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  and vocabulary learning. This is a 2008 study,
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  Rosenthal and Airy, and there were two experiments
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  in this article. The first one was conducted
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  with 20 second grade students. They were given
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  two sets of low frequency CVC nouns, 12 words
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  total. One set was taught with the word given
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  orally and a picture, and again with the word
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  printed on the picture. The other set was given
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  the word orally, but picture, but no word on
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  it. Vocabulary learning was determined by assessing
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  students' ability to remember the pronunciation
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  of the words and their meaning. It was found
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  that these students could remember the pronunciation
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  and meaning of words better when it was accompanied
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  by seeing the spelling of the word. The second
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  experiment was similar but was conducted with
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  32 fifth grade students and 20 words. And after
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  one day, vocabulary learning was assessed with
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  an oral close task, remembering the word definitions
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  and meaning, and to see if they could spell the
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  words. Seeing the word while learning it improved
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  their memory of spelling, pronunciation, and
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  meaning of these 20 words. The results were followed
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  by four pages of general discussion in this research
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  article to draw logical conclusions based on
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  the data. And the authors concluded that, quote,
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  elementary school students learned and remembered
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  the pronunciation and meanings of new vocabulary
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  words better when they were exposed to written
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  forms of the word during study periods than when
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  they only heard and repeated the words, unquote.
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  And this is why you must evaluate A sample size
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  of 20 in one experiment asks students to remember
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  12 words, and 32 in the other group asks students
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  to remember 20 words. But one could hardly generalize
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  to elementary school students in general based
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  on this. But the larger point is that this is
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  a remembering experiment, not a vocabulary learning
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  experiment. Yes, if you provide an additional
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  variable, seeing the spelling of the word, this
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  will likely enhance students' ability to remember
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  the pronunciation and meaning of the word. But
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  it doesn't mean that orthography provided a mnemonic
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  device that tied the spelling of words to the
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  pronunciation and memory. It does not mean that
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  spelling became bonded to word pronunciations
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  and meaning as Airy tries to explain. It just
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  means that this group of students remembered
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  things better when you included spelling. And
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  I would posit that if you had students do a little
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  dance as they learned one set of words, the dance
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  set would show similar results. And this does
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  not mean that word learning is tied to dance.
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  It just means that when you present multiple
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  forms of data with a thing, or if you're more
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  engaged with the thing while learning, that thing
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  is more easily remembered. This has been The
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  Reading Instruction Show. I'm your host, Dr.
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  Andy Johnson.