phonological awareness after portuguese secondary

Phonological awareness

after Portuguese secondary schooling:

some results and “challenges”

Financial support: grants SFRH/BD/36669/2007 and PEst-OE/LIN/UI0214/2013.

ALA 2014 - Language Awareness: Achievements and Challenges

Hedmark University College, Hamar, NorwayJuly 1-4, 2014

Adelina Castelo#+ & Maria João Freitas +

# Polytechnic School of Education of Viseu+ Centre of Linguistics, University of Lisbon& Faculty of Letters, University of Lisbon

Overview

Introduction

Levels of linguistic knowledgeImportance of LA in the field of Educational LinguisticsPromotion of Phonological awareness in the Portuguese context

Method

SubjectsTasks

Results & Challenges

7 groups of results and challenges / didactic implicationsFinal remarks

Introduction Method Results & challenges Final remarks

Levels of linguistic knowledge

Phonological component

Linguistic

Competence1. Implicit phonological knowledge

Metalinguistic

Competence

2. Holistic phonological awareness (PA)

3. Analytic phonological awareness (PA)

4. Explicit phonological knowledge (EPK)

(see synthesis of Castelo, 2012, based on proposals by Karmiloff-Smith, 1992; Titone, 1998; Gombert, 1990; Morais, 2003; Sim-Sim & Micaelo, 2006; Ellis, 2008)

1. Research in Educational Linguistics…

Importance of promoting language awareness

>> means to achieve educational goals:

Instrumental – e.g. improvement of linguistic skills in native and

foreign languages

Cognitive – e.g. development of scientific thought

Attitudinal – e.g. respect for language diversity

(e.g. Garrett, 2006; Duarte,2008; Hudson, 2008)


In the Portuguese context…

2. Metaphonological competence in the context of global metalinguistic promotion

>> importance of developing phonological awareness and explicit phonological knowledge

in basic and secondary education

(e.g. Veloso & Rodrigues, 2002; Freitas, Rodrigues, Costa & Castelo, 2012)

3. Mother tongue syllabus for secondary school (2001)

>> prescription of metaphonological competence promotion

(see the study of phonological processes and prosodic propertiesin Programa de Português – 10º, 11º e 12º anos

dos Cursos Científico-Humanísticos e Cursos Tecnológicos, 2001 [Syllabus of

Portuguese – Grades 10, 11 and 12 of Science, Humanities and Technology Courses])


4. However…

>> studies with Portuguese college students:

low levels of metaphonological competence

(e.g. Veloso, 2005; Castelo, 2012)

>> scarce research on how to train

this competence in secondary school students


Goal of this presentation

Results for college students performing metaphonological tasks

Didactic implications (“challenges”) a teacher should consider

when promoting these abilities in secondary school students


Subjects

• Convenience sample: 36 1st-year college students

(19 male and 17 female; mean age 19;3)

• Monolingual native speakers of standard European Portuguese (EP)

• No known cognitive, linguistic, articulatory or auditory disorders

• No explicit knowledge on phonetics and/or phonology

• Individual testing (listening to recorded stimuli; oral verbal production of their responses)

(cf. Castelo, 2012)Introduction Method Results & challenges Final remarks

(see Castelo, 2012)

Tasks

Presen-

tation

order

Task Example Level of

knowledge

Focused

aspect

1 Nucleus 1 (N1 /1st

vowel) detection[‘m�du] / [‘tudu] / [‘mudu]‘manner’, ‘everything’, ‘dumb’>> [‘m�du]

PA segment

(/phoneme)

2 N1 replacement [‘mudu] ‘dumb’ >> [‘midu] PA segment

3 Word segmentation [‘mudu] >> [m-u-d-u] PA segment

N1 segmentation [‘mudu] >> [u] PA segment


Tasks

Presen-

tation

order

Task ExampleLevel of

knowledge

Focused

aspect

4 Phonological process deactivation

(with pseudowords)

[‘do�b�] >> [‘dob�] PA phonological process (/rule)

5 Identification of the segmental contrast in N1

[‘bob�] / [‘bo�b�] ‘silly’, ‘bomb’ (minimal pair)>> the sound [o] becomes [o�]

PA Segment

Description of the phonological process(cause of the relevant contrast)

>> difference due to thefact that nasalization (airrelease through the noise) occurs only in V1 of W2

EPK phonological process

(see Castelo, 2012)


Method

7 groups of relevant results

their didactic implications / challenges


Tasks1st

college

N1 detection 90%

N1 replacement 50%

N1 segmentation 61%

Word segmentation 73%

Phonological process

deactivation60%

Identification of the

segmental contrast in N124%

Description of the

phonological process11%

Sucess rates for the tasks


1st

Tasks Grade 5 Grade 7Grade

10

1st

college

N1 detection 76% 81% 93% 90%

N1 replacement 43% 50% 52% 50%

N1 segmentation 54% 63% 69% 61%

Word segmentation 58% 65% 79% 73%

Phonological process

deactivation41% 48% 61% 60%

Identification of the

segmental contrast in N1-- -- 34% 24%

Description of he

phonological process-- -- 7% 11%

Evolution of students’ metaphonological performance

(comparison with results reported in Castelo, 2012)

>> Performance levels of college students similar to those of lower grades


1st

Challenge # 1

Consideration of the students’

metaphonological performance level

(instead of their schooling grade)


Types of response for Description of the phonological process

1st college

occur. %

NASAL-

ISATION

orthography 18 25%

word identity 1 1%

irrelevant phonological aspect (IPHA) 6 8%

relevant phonological aspect (RPHA) 6 8%

RPHA + orthography 16 22%

IPHA + orthography 2 3%

other responses 1 1%

no response 22 31%

Total 72 100%


>> Orthographic strategies are used to solve metaphonological tasks:

Absence of distinction between sound and writing systems causes difficulties.

(also reported in Bruck, 1992; Ehri & Wilce, 1980; Treiman & Cassar, 1997; Scarborough et al., 1998; Freitas & Vidor, 2005; Mesa, 2008; among many others)

2nd

Challenge # 2

Distinction between sound / writing systems


1st college

occur. %

mudo

‘dumb’

target 34 94%

grapheme(s) 0 0%

syllable 2 6%

Other response 0 0%

Total 36 100%

tema

‘theme’

target 28 78%

grapheme(s) 2 6%

syllable 1 3%

Other response 5 14%

Total 36 100%

Types of response in two stimuli of N1 Segmentation

N1 segmentation: better when letter designation or full word

Example: tema - N1 never used as a full word (14% of unsuccessful attempts to isolate [e]; some productions as [�])


3rd

Challenge # 3

Training the articulation

of isolated segments


1. Mean success rate in the identification of all sounds within the word (73%): fast learning of the task, although most students had never before performed the task.

2. Several spelling-like answers to the training items (e.g. [D-O-N-A]);correct identification of phonetic segments within the word (e.g. [d-o-n-�])after negative feedback from the researcher.

Task Mean success rate

Word segmentation 73%

Mean success rate for Word Segmentation


4th

Challenge # 4

Fast promotion of phonetic sensitivity


1st college

Nasalisation 17%

Vowel reduction 4%

V1 Gliding 6%

Mean success rate for Description of the Phonological Process

Nasalisation easier to describe:

- not due to orthographic cues (see lower success rate in items with orthographic cues)- due to changes exclusively in the feature [nasal]

>> Subjects’ performance also constrained by the properties

of the phonological processes activated in the items presented

>> Need to develop metaphonological competence

related to different phonological processes


5th

TasksMean success

rates

Proportion of correct

answers for the

items with VOWEL

REDUCTION

N1 detection 90% 78%

N1 replacement 50% 97%

N1 segmentation 61% 72%

Word segmentation 73% 73%

Phonological process deactivation 60% 54%

Identification of the segmental

contrast in N124% 22%

Description of the phonological

process11% 4%

>> In general, better performance in detection (identification)

and in replacement (manipulation) tasks

≠

segmentation tasks


5th

TasksMean success

rates


answers for the

items with VOWEL

REDUCTION









process11% 4%

>> Better performance in most tasks testing segmental awareness

≠

tasks testing awareness of phonological processes (deactivation)


5th

TasksMean success

rates


answers for the

items with VOWEL

REDUCTION









process11% 4%

>> Very low performance in the task testing explicit phonological knowledge

(description of the phonological process)≠

tasks testing phonological awareness

(of segments and of phonological processess)


5th

Challenge # 5

Need to promote

different types of metaphonological competence

in a hierarchical fashion


>> Low ability of autonomous analysis of linguistic data

(unlimited time + example)

Tasks Mean success rates

Phonological process deactivation 60%

Description of the phonological process 11%

Discovery-based activities

(e.g. Hudson, 1992, 2006; Duarte, 2008;

Honda, O’Neill & Pippin, 2010; Costa et al., 2011)

Metalinguistic activities Training of analytical thinking andteaching of scientific method


6th

Challenge # 6

Promotion of discovery-based learning

to develop autonomous language analysis


Qualitative analysis of the subjects’ answers

in the task of phonological process description:

- Orthographic strategy

- No mastery of basic metalanguage for the naming of linguistic structures


7th

Responses – some examples (translated from Portuguese):

(i) ‘there is a transformation of sound [o] into [õ] and the reason is the introductionof letter M’(response for boba / bomba; subject 1ºFI-10)

(ii) ‘what changes in the first syllable is the letter E because it has an ‘acento circunflexo’[diacritic used in Portuguese orthography] in the first word but not in the second one’(response for pera / perada; subject 1ºMI-01)

(iii) ‘[e] and [p�]; I think maybe it is because one has two beats and the other one three’(response for pera / perada; subject 1ºFI-04)

(iv) ‘[u�a] turns [�wa]; it looks like the [a] becomes stronger, it looks like the word isproduced quicker; I can’t explain why well’(response for b[u]ato / b[w]ato; subject 1ºFI-02).


7th

Challenge # 7

Teaching the metalanguage

that enables the description of phonological aspects


1. Main didactic implications:

•Level of metaphonological awareness ≠ schooling grades

•Sound system ≠ orthographic system

•Promotion of different types of metaphonological competence

in a hierarchical fashion

•Development of language workshops with discovery-based activities

•Introduction of metalanguage

2. Importance of research findings for the promotion of the

mother tongue study in the classroom


3. Proposal of 31 language activities (Castelo, 2012) based on the listed

didactic implications (RESEARCH / TEACHING dialogue)

>> promoting metaphonological competence on the EP non-consonantal system

Reinforcing knowledge

on metaphonological

aspects of EP

Using

metaphonological knowledge

to develop other skills

17 activities 14 activities


Muito obrigada!

[�mu�j �tu�b�i�gad�]

References

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Bruck, M. (1992). Persistence of Dyslexics' Phonological Awareness Deficits. Developmental Psychology, 28 (5), 874-886.

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References

Freitas, G. C. M. & D. Vidor (2005). A consciência fonológica em adultos alfabetizados [The phonological awareness in adults knowing an alphabet]. Cadernos de Pesquisas em Lingüística, 1(1), 7-23.

Freitas, M. J., Rodrigues, C., Costa, T., & Castelo, A. (2012). Os sons que estão nas palavras. Descrição e Implicações para o Ensino do Português como Língua Materna [The Sounds that are in Words: Description and Implications to the Teaching of Portuguese as Mother Tongue]. Lisbon: Colibri/APP.

Garrett, P. (2006). Language Education: Language Awareness. In E. K Brown & A. Anderson (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (pp. 480-483). Amsterdam/London: Elsevier.

Gombert, J. É. (1990). Le développement métalinguistique. Paris: PUF.Honda, M., W. O’Neil & D. Pippin (2010). On promoting linguistics literacy: bringing language science to the

English classroom. In K. Denham & A. Lobeck (Eds.). Linguistics at school: language awareness in

primary and secondary education (pp. 175-188). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Hudson, R. (1992). Teaching Grammar. A Guide for the National Curriculum. Oxford: Blackwell.Hudson, R. (2006). Language Education–Grammar. In E. K. Brown & A. Anderson (Eds.). Encyclopedia of

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References

Morais, J. (2003). Levels of phonological representation in skilled reading and in learning to read. Readingand Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16, 123–151.

Scarborough, H., L. Ehri, R. Olson & A. Fowler (1998). The fate of phonemic awareness beyond theelementary school years. Scientific Studies of Reading, 2, 115–142.

Sim-Sim, I. & M. Micaelo (2006). Determinantes da compreensão de leitura [Determinants ofunderstanding in reading]. In I. Sim-Sim (Ed.), Ler e Ensinar a Ler (pp. 35-62). Oporto: Asa.

Titone, R. (1998). Loquor, ergo sum: from communicative competence through bilingualism tometalinguistic/ metacognitive development. Letras de Hoje, 33(4), 165-185.

Treiman, R. & M. Cassar (1997). Can children and adults focus on sound as opposed to spelling in aphoneme counting task? Developmental Psychology, 33, 771-780.

Veloso, J. (2005). Orthographic knowledge, the “Visual Identity Effect” and phonemic transcription. Preliminary results from a study with Portuguese subjects. Cadernos do CLUP, 10.

Veloso, J., & Rodrigues, A. S. (2002). A presença da fonética e da fonologia no ensino do Português (ensino básico e secundário): Algumas considerações preliminares [The Presence of Phonetics andPhonology in the teaching of Portuguese (basic and secondary schooling): Some preliminaryconsiderations]. In I. M. Duarte, J. Barbosa, S. Matos & T. Hüsgen (Eds.), Actas do Encontro Comemorativo dos 25 Anos do Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto (vol. 1, pp. 231-246). Oporto: Centro de Linguística da Universidade do Porto.

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