Cognitive psychologists and brain researchers ran a series of studies of native language oral processing by experimental and control groups of adults, one group literate and the other illiterate in an alphabetic script (where phonemes are represented by visual symbols).  They gave them all the same oral tasks, some of them requiring semantic processing (using the meanings of words) and some requiring 'phonological' processing (perceiving and manipulating linguistic segments like phonemes, syllables, and words).  
 
 
Examples of phonological processing tasks are (1) pseudoword repetition: 'nontey' 'pagle' 'otsparp'

 

 
Unfortunately it is too difficult to decode these nonsense words above.  The spellings could have many phonetic interpretations.  Basically you need to put truespel to work here if you want to check brain processing for reading phonetically.  You need to use a phonetically consistent system based on English to get consistent answers.
 
you might find that the ability to decode a phonetic system is one thing and decoding English traditional spelling is another.  In English according to my data the consonants are about 90% consistent but the vowels only 50% when you consider the most common ways of spelling each phoneme.  A good phonetic decoder might be a poor tradspel decoder.
 

Tom Zurinskas, USA - CT20, TN3, NJ33, FL5+
see truespel.com













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> From: mbigelow at umn.edu

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Date: Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:10:10 -0600

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3696] Re: Post critical period oral L2 learning of adults w/low L1 litearcy

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> Many thanks for the time you took to elaborate on this

> important, but little known, research.

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> From:

> englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On

> Behalf Of Elaine Tarone

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> Sent: Wednesday, January 28, 2009 1:41 PM

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> To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

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> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 3689] Re: Post critical period oral L2

> learning of adults w/low L1 litearcy

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> Andrea asked for a fuller explanation of the literacy brain

> research; those not interested can skip this part!

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> Cognitive psychologists and brain researchers ran a series

> of studies of native language oral processing by experimental and control

> groups of adults, one group literate and the other illiterate in an alphabetic

> script (where phonemes are represented by visual symbols). They gave them

> all the same oral tasks, some of them requiring semantic processing (using the

> meanings of words) and some requiring 'phonological' processing (perceiving and

> manipulating linguistic segments like phonemes, syllables, and words).

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> Examples of semantic processing tasks are (1) word

> repetition: 'donkey' 'table' 'oxcart', and (2) semantic fluency: you have one

> minute to list all the animals you can think of.

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> Examples of phonological processing tasks are (1) pseudoword

> repetition: 'nontey' 'pagle' 'otsparp', (2) phonological fluency: you have one

> minute to list all the words you can think of that begin with the sound 's',

> and (3) segment manipulation tasks such as: phoneme deletion (if I take the 's'

> sound off the word 'strop', what do I have? (trop)); phoneme reversal

> (what is 'tob' backwards? (bot)); and syllable reversal (what is pa-me

> backwards? (me-pa)).

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> In study after study, in a range of different languages,

> they found there were no differences at all in their ability to do the semantic

> tasks ... and they also did equally well in rhyming tasks (do these words

> rhyme? bat-bot) But the studies found significant differences

> between literate and illiterate adults in their ability to do the phonological

> processing type tasks. (And brain imaging studies showed major

> differences of brain activation in pseudoword repetition tasks between literate

> and illiterate brains.)

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> How do they explain these differences? Reis and Castro

> Caldas say: both literate and illiterate adults can use meaning to do the

> semantic tasks, but when one learns to represent a phoneme with a visual

> symbol, one can then also use those visual symbols as additional tools in

> short term memory to help do the phonological fluency tasks. For example,

> in a syllable reversal task, when hearing the sequence ''pa-me", I

> know I visualize it in my mind, I reverse the visual symbols in my mind,

> and then I 'read' them off. If I didn't have visual symbols to represent the

> segments, I would have a much harder time doing this oral task.

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> I think this line of brain research sheds light on the

> frequent failure of our attempts to teach grammar -- patterns of

> linguistic forms -- to illiterate and low literate second language

> learners, or to get them to notice corrective feedback on grammatical errors

> that don't affect meaning: word order in questions, or grammatical

> morphemes where the meaning can be inferred from context (third person singular

> -s, plural -s, past tense -ed.)

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> On Jan 28, 2009, at 10:44 AM, Andrea Wilder wrote:

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> Could you explain this more fully?

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> Thank you!

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> Andrea

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> On Jan 28, 2009, at 11:15 AM, Elaine Tarone wrote:

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> I'm just urging caution: There is undoubtedly lots of

> research on how the brain learns, but almost all of it, (except for studies

> like Reis and Castro-Caldas, Read et al, etc) is research on the brains of

> literate people.

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> There are brain imaging studies showing that literate and

> illiterate brain images are different during oral pseudoword repetition tasks,

> where individuals can't process words semantically but have to process them in

> terms of linguistic form. (One such is Castro-Caldas et al

> (1998) Brain 121, 1053-1063.)

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> These results are consistent with what teachers tell us they

> see in the classroom with regard to the difficulties typically experienced by

> adults who aren't alphabetically literate in 'focus on form' type activities.

> There are cognitive reasons why literacy affects certain kinds of oral

> language processing.

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> On Jan 28, 2009, at 9:23 AM, Steve Kaufmann wrote:

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> I am not talking about generalizations about how the brain

> learns. I ma referring to the work of Manfred Spitzer who describes where in

> the brain this leaning takes place and how.

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> Reading is learned in a different area of the brain from the spoken language,

> by the way. In any case there is a lot of research on how the brain learns, and

> that research should be applied to teaching. We should recognize that learning

> takes place in the brain, not in the classroom, as Spitzer says. Read

> Spitzer's book on learning and the brain when it comes out in English.

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> Steve Kaufmann

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> www.lingq.com

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> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 5:27 AM, Elaine Tarone> wrote:

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> There is research demonstrating significant differences in

> cognitive processing between matched groups of literate and illiterate adults.

> I can send copies of these studies to anyone who is interested.

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> These studies suggest that we need to be very cautious in

> making generalizations about the way illiterate adults' brains process and

> acquire second languages.

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> In the meantime, it is very important to do what we are

> doing in this discussion -- share information on what works in classrooms, and

> what doesn't.

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> On Jan 27, 2009, at 8:46 PM, Steve Kaufmann wrote:

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> I believe that our brain

> will, with enough exposure to content that is relevant and interesting, start

> to sort out some rules relating to word order, and other aspects of the

> structure of the new language, with or without explicit grammar explanations

> and drills. Some degree of grammar review, corrections etc, are helpful but not

> necessary, and not as important as the massive input. Most learners attending

> ESL language class do not get enough input of English.

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> Some aspects of a new language may never stick. In English, articles are

> difficult for people form languages without articles. The spoken difference

> between "he" and "she" is difficult for well educated

> Chinese people, even after ten or more years of grammar study, and even though

> the concept is not difficult and universally understood. It just does not

> exist in Chinese, so it is hard to develop the natural ability to say

> "she" and "he" when required.

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>>From my reading and observation, the brain sorts these things out on its own

> schedule, and slowly. Explanations and drills are relatively ineffective, but

> can help a little. Only lots of input will enable the brain to gradually get

> better, as long as there is a will, and the input continues. That has been my

> experience in learning Russian over the last 2 years, and that has been the

> experience of many others who are prepared to put in the time, listening and

> reading, according to what they have told me.

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> Obviously the non-reader is at a disadvantage. However, intensive listening on

> an iPod to content of interest could go a long way. However, I admit I have no

> experience with non-literate learners.

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> Steve Kaufmann

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> www.lingq.com

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> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 3:58 PM, Elaine Tarone> wrote:

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> It is possible that formal teaching imposes accuracy

> standards that are very difficult to attain unless the learner is

> alphabetically literate. I think this is particularly true of grammatical

> features that do not dramatically change the semantics, like word order in

> questions and final morphemes that are really redundant in context.

> Maybe teachers can find other ways to communicate those standards (like use of

> cuisinaire rods to show word order shifts) to make the learner aware of the

> difference between their production and the accurate target.

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> On Jan 27, 2009, at 5:10 PM, Steve Kaufmann wrote:

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> Is it possible that formal

> teaching imposes accuracy standards on learners that are either not relevant to

> their own language goals, or applied too soon in their language development? We

> all know fluent speakers of English and other languages who make many mistakes.

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> Steve Kaufmann

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> www.lingq.com

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> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 2:15 PM, Martha Bigelow> wrote:

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> Anne,

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> This is fascinating. Would you happen to have a publication or citation

> you could share with the list yet? I'm sure many would be very interested

> to read more, even if it is a handout. I'm often overwhelmed by the

> English language fluency and pragmatic skills of the teens I've worked with.

> But sometimes the transcriptions show surprises! They are not as

> accurate as they seem.

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> Martha

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> ----------------------------------------------------

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> ----------------------------------------------------

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