Bhide, Adeetee
(2017)
INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS FOR PROMOTING THE DEVELOPMENT OF ORTHOGRAPHIC AND PHONOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS OF INDIC LANGUAGES.
Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
In three experiments, I test whether the application of particular instructional principles improves the teaching of the orthographic and phonological systems of Indic languages to second language learners. In Experiment 1, I developed a mobile game that teaches 4th grade children Hindi decoding skills, with an emphasis on complex akshara. There were two versions of the game that varied in terms of stimuli spacing (narrow and wide). I found that the game improved participants’ akshara recognition and their ability to read and spell words that contain complex akshara. Both versions of the game yielded equivalent levels of improvement, but participants played the narrow spacing version faster. Analysis of the game data revealed interesting patterns of common mistakes. Children struggled with akshara that were non-linear and opaque. When spelling words, children struggled when the complex akshara crossed a syllabic boundary and they often made phonological errors. In Experiment 2, I examined whether motor encoding and testing benefit orthographic learning. I found that motor encoding benefits orthographic learning when tasks require pure orthographic knowledge or the production of an orthographic form when given a phonological form. Testing does not benefit beginning learners. In Experiment 3, I tested whether pedagogical differences or individual differences affect the learning of non-native phonemic contrasts. I found that learning of the difficult dental/retroflex contrast can be improved by increasing the voice onset times of the dental sounds. Both English phonological skills and rise time discrimination positively predict learning the non-native contrasts. Furthermore, pairing phonemes with English transliterations impairs discrimination learning, likely because of interference from the English pronunciation. Orthographic support helps people remember which phonemes are in words. Therefore, the use of akshara can benefit second language learners because the graphs are not already associated with phonological referents and the graphs help people remember which phonemes are in vocabulary words. When considered together, these three experiments suggest that multisensory encoding and reducing interference benefit second language learners.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
20 June 2017 |
| Date Type: |
Publication |
| Defense Date: |
6 April 2017 |
| Approval Date: |
20 June 2017 |
| Submission Date: |
26 March 2017 |
| Access Restriction: |
1 year -- Restrict access to University of Pittsburgh for a period of 1 year. |
| Number of Pages: |
170 |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Psychology |
| Degree: |
PhD - Doctor of Philosophy |
| Thesis Type: |
Doctoral Dissertation |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
alphasyllabary
non-native phonemic contrasts
akshara
motor encoding
testing effect
mobile technology
Hindi
transliteration
orthographic support
rise time
phonological awareness
decoding
individual differences
Marathi
desirable difficulties
orthographic learning
proactive interference
multisensory encoding
spelling
reading
spacing effect |
| Date Deposited: |
20 Jun 2017 22:53 |
| Last Modified: |
20 Jun 2018 05:15 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/31047 |
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