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Context effects on heterophonic-homography resolution in learning to read hebrew

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Abstract

The paper examines the role of context in reading unpointed Hebrew, demonstrating the changing nature of reliance on context during the course of reading acquisition. We analyze the reading-aloud of sentences with heterographic-homographic ambiguity, aiming to shed light on the development of ambiguity resolution processes in typically developing schoolaged and adult populations. 171 Hebrew-speaking children and adolescents in seven age/schooling groups (beginning and end of second grade, third, fourth, seventh, and eleventh grade), and a group of adults, participated in the study. Using homographic garden-path and non-Garden-path sentences, we demonstrate the cumulative effect of context as well as processes of monitoring cum reanalysis. Two hypotheses are borne out in the present research: First, context effect is inherent to reading; it is present throughout all age/grade groups, becoming more efficient with age/grade level. Second, monitoring and reanalysis lag far behind context effects, appearing only as age and reading experience increase.

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Notes

  1. We use both Hebrew letters and capital Latin letters in representing unpointed written Hebrew words so as to facilitate understanding in readers who are not familiar with Hebrew (Ravid, 2005). Hebrew is read from right to left.

  2. For example, the string BHSKMTK בהסכמתך ‘with your permission’ pronounced behaskamatex contains the core noun HSKMH הסכמה, composed of a root and a noun pattern. This noun is preceded by the proposition be- ‘in/with’, and followed by the inflectional suffix –tex ‘your, feminine’.

  3. The motivation behind assessing reading level with a pointed text (rather than unpointed text, thus matching the assessment with the task in hand) is both methodological and substantial. From a methodological perspective, the national standards for reading rate and accuracy in the first four grades are available only with regard to pointed texts, thus making it impossible to uniformly account for unpointed reading level. And from a theoretical perspective, Schiff (2012) shows that the reading accuracy of pointed words in the second grade mediated the reading speed and comprehension of unpointed scripts. Thus we were able to rely on the pointed reading assessment, regardless of the mismatch with the task.

  4. Hebrew adjectives follow their nouns. Thus, in the phrase מדבר רחב midbar raxav '[a] wide desert', the adjective 'wide' follows the noun 'desert'.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Communication Disorders, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Amalia Bar-On

  2. The Department of Hebrew Language, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel

    Elitzur Dattner

  3. The Department of Communication Disorders, School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Dorit Ravid

Authors
  1. Amalia Bar-On
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  2. Elitzur Dattner
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  3. Dorit Ravid
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Correspondence to Amalia Bar-On.

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Bar-On, A., Dattner, E. & Ravid, D. Context effects on heterophonic-homography resolution in learning to read hebrew. Read Writ 30, 463–487 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9685-1

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