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SUMMARY:Reading irregular words - the role of word knowledge - Janet Vousd
 en
DTSTART:20130305T163000Z
DTEND:20130305T180000Z
UID:TALK41381@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Araceli Hopkins
DESCRIPTION:Research has highlighted the importance of phonic skills (the 
 ability to apply letter sound knowledge to decode from print to sound) for
  beginning readers. For regular languages\, these skills are adequate to a
 ccurately decode from print to sound\; however\, for irregular languages\,
  such as English\, the application of these skills will not provide a corr
 ect pronunciation for all words. In English\, many spelling patterns have 
 multiple pronunciations (great\, head\, leap)\, so applying the regular pr
 onunciation for a spelling pattern will not always yield the correct pronu
 nciation (e.g. said\, wasp). Before children learn to read they will have 
 acquired an extensive oral vocabulary. They will be familiar with the spok
 en form and meaning of many words. The contribution that such knowledge ma
 y make in helping children to read irregular words has been less well rese
 arched. The occurrence of words in a child’s vocabulary and a word’s p
 honological and orthographic properties may provide additional cues to its
  pronunciation\, especially for irregular words. Our proposed research aim
 s to examine the extent to which such word knowledge facilitates irregular
  word reading in beginning \n\n\n\nProfile\n\nJanet completed her PhD at W
 arwick University\, where she developed a computational model of adult spe
 ech errors derived from a model of short-term memory for serial order.  Sh
 e went on to work on several ESRC funded projects on short-term memory for
  serial order at Warwick\, further developing and testing computational mo
 dels.  She then worked on several funded projects on applying cognitive le
 arning principles to the classroom\, specifically to reading instruction. 
 During this time\, Janet applied her modelling skills to explore theoretic
 ally optimal reading materials to teach beginning readers.  More recently 
 she has  begun to investigate how children acquire the skills they need to
  learn to read\, and how these skills relate to the different types of wor
 ds found in the English language - phonics lends itself to learning regula
 r words\, but is less suited to irregular and exception words.
LOCATION:Faculty of Education\, 184 Hills Road\, Cambridge\, CB2 8PQ\, (Rm
  GS5\, Donald McIntyre Building)
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