Abstract
This chapter describes the results of studies investigating early spelling development among Portuguese-speaking individuals in Brazil. Similar to what has been found for English- and Hebrew-speaking children, we present evidence that 1) non-literate speakers of Brazilian Portuguese – both children and adults – use their knowledge of letter names to connect print to speech; and 2) reliance on letter names in beginning spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese accounts for the so-called syllabic spellings, i.e., spellings in which letters stand for whole syllables in the pronunciation of words. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that an adequate theory of early spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese has to grant a major role for children’s knowledge of letter names and sounds. We argue that Ehri’s phase theory, developed on the basis of her observations of English-speaking children’s spellings, can be successfully extended to the case of early spelling development in Brazilian Portuguese.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Cardoso-Martins, C., Resende, S. M., & Rodrigues, L. A. (2002). Letter name knowledge and the ability to learn to read by processing letter-phoneme relations in words: evidence from Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children. Reading and Writing, 15, 409–432.
Cardoso-Martins, C., Rodrigues, L. A., & Ehri, L. C. (2003). Place of environmental print in reading development: evidence from nonliterate adults. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 335–355.
Cardoso-Martins, C., & Batista, A. C. E. (2005). O conhecimento do nome das letras e o desenvolvimento da escrita: evidência de crianças falantes do português. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica, 18, 330–336.
Cardoso-Martins, C., Corrêa, M. F., Lemos, L. S., & Napoleão, R. F. (2006). Is There a Syllabic Stage in Spelling Development? Evidence From Portuguese-Speaking Children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 628–641.
Corrêa, M. F., Cardoso-Martins, C., & Rodrigues, L. A. (in press). O conhecimento do nome das letras e a sua relação com o desenvolvimento da escrita: evidência de adultos iletrados. Psicologia: Reflexão e Crítica.
Ehri, L. (1992). Reconceptualizing the development of sight word reading and its relationship to recoding. In P. Gough, L. Ehri & R. Treiman (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp. 107–143). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ehri, L. (1998). Learning to read and learning to spell are one and the same, almost. In C. Perfetti, L. Rieben & M. Fayol (Eds.), Learning to spell: research, theory, and practice across languages (pp. 237–269). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Ehri, L., & Wilce, L. (1985). Movement into reading: is the first stage of printed word learning visual or phonetic?. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 163–179.
Ferreiro, E. (1989). Reflexões sobre a alfabetização. São Paulo, Brazil: Cortez.
Ferreiro, E. (1990). Literacy development: psychogenesis. In Y. M. Goodman (Ed.), How children construct literacy: Piagetian perspectives (pp. 12–25). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Ferreiro, E., & Gomez Palacio, M. (1982). Analisis de las perturbaciones en el proceso de aprendizaje escolar de la lectura y de la escritura. Mexico City, Mexico: Siglo XXI.
Ferreiro, E., & Teberosky, A. (1986). Psicogênese da língua escrita. São Paulo, Brazil: Artes Médicas.
Grossi, E. P. (1990). Applying psychogenesis principles to the literacy instruction of lower-class children in Brazil. In Y. M. Goodman (Ed.), How children construct literacy: Piagetian perspectives (pp. 99–114). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Levin, I. (2007). The role of Hebrew letter names in early literacy: the case of multi-phonemic acrophonic names. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 98, 193–216.
Levin, I., Patel, S., Margalit, T., & Barad, N. (2002). Letter names: effect on letter saying, spelling, and word recognition in Hebrew. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23, 269–300.
Pinheiro, A. M. V. (1996). Contagem de freqüência de ocorrência de palavras expostas a crianças na faixa pré-escolar e séries iniciais do 1º. grau. São Paulo: Associação Brasileira de Dislexia.
Pollo, T. C., Kessler, B., & Treiman, R. (2005). Vowels, syllables, and letter names: differences between young children’s spelling in English and Portuguese. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92, 161–181.
Pollo, T. C., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2008). Preschoolers use partial letter names to select spellings: evidence from Portuguese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 195–212.
Pontecorvo, C., & Zucchermaglio, C. (1990). A passage to literacy: learning in a social context. In Y. Goodman (Ed.), How children construct literacy (pp. 55–78). New York, NY: International Reading Association.
Seymour, P. (1986). Cognitive analysis of dyslexia. New York, NY: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Treiman, R., Tincoff, R., & Richmond-Welty, D. (1996). Letter names help children connect print and speech. Developmental Psychology, 32, 505–514.
Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2003). The role of letter names in the acquisition of literacy. In R. Kail (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 31, pp. 105–135). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Weisz, T. (2000). O diálogo entre o ensino e a aprendizagem. São Paulo, Brazil: Ática.
Acknowledgments
The research described in this chapter was funded by Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazil. We thank the children and the schools for their cooperation.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cardoso-Martins, C., Corrêa, M.F. (2010). The Role of Letter Name Knowledge in Early Spelling Development: Evidence from Brazilian Portuguese. In: Aram, D., Korat, O. (eds) Literacy Development and Enhancement Across Orthographies and Cultures. Literacy Studies, vol 2. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0834-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0834-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-0833-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-0834-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawEducation (R0)