Language and Cognition Seminar - Hear a word, see a word, learn a word: The impact of orthography on oral vocabulary acquisition

Speaker: Dr Jessie Ricketts, Senior Lecturer, Royal Holloway, University of London

Oral vocabulary and reading are inextricably linked in development. Oral vocabulary will determine reading success; a reader must understand the words in a text in order to fully understand it. Equally though, for individuals who can read, the reading process affords opportunities for novel words to be learned, and existing lexical representations to be further specified. Three experiments will be presented that demonstrate another way in which reading may impact on oral vocabulary development: oral vocabulary items are more likely to be learned when they are taught with the orthographic (printed) form present. Across the experiments this effect will be shown in typically developing children, children with autism spectrum disorders and children with specific language impairment. These findings are consistent with theoretical accounts positing that the orthographic form of a word aids memory for its phonological form, which in turn promotes learning of mappings between the phonological form and meaning (e.g., Ehri, 2014).

Time: Monday 21 November, 1pm

Venue: Room G15, Chandler House, 2 Wakefield St, London WC1N