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The relationship between phonological awareness, spelling and reading abilities was studied comparing first grade (N=39) Spanish-speaking skilled and less skilled readers' performance on three measures: phoneme segmentation, word spelling and word reading. Results showed that skilled readers performed at ceiling on the three tasks, whereas less skilled readers had a better performance on spelling than on reading, and most of them reached segmentation criterion in the phonological awareness task. Performance on this task was Significantly correlated with word spelling, while no association was found between phoneme segmentation and word reading. The less skilled readers could spell many words they could not read, and children in both groups spelled most of the words in a conventional way.It is agreed that certain characteristics of Spanish phonetic structuresmall number of vowels, simple syllabic structureand the relative transparency of its orthography may account for the early development of phonemic segmentation skills and allow the mastery of sound-letter correspondence rules that is reflected in good spelling performance.

This paper examines the acoustic properties of Argentine Spanish fricatives and the spectral cues in recognition of these consonants. It was observed that [s] spectrally peaks around 5000 and 8000 Hx, [formula: see text] around 2500 and 5000 Hz, [f] around 1500 and 8500 Hz, [x] around 1000 and 4000 Hz and [ç] around 2000 and 4000 Hz. The perceptual importance of each of these spectral peaks was determined by filtering and synthesis experiments. With regard to the voice fricatives: [beta, ŏ, Y, Y, 3] the analysis showed periodic components with an F1 of similar frequency and a variable F2. Noise components with an F1 of similar frequency and a variable F2. Noise components were principally observed in [3]. Voiced fricatives proved to be shorter than voiceless ones. The analysis of fricatives in consonant-vowel syllables suggested that both the friction and vocalic portions may provide relevant acoustic cues. Tape-splicing experiments, designed to test this observation, showed that except for [x] and [Y], all Spanish fricatives were accurately identified by the friction portion alone. However, it was also observed that in transitionless syllables the vocalic portion affected the phonetic identification of the friction portion. This phenomenon pointed to the perceptual relevance of the transition in some combinations of fricatives and vowels.

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ResumenEn el presente trabajo se analizaron las relaciones entre una serie de habilidades consideradas precursoras de la lectura y la escritura convencional en 80 niños de 4 años de edad, diferenciados por sector social de procedencia. Se evaluó a los niños con tareas de vocabulario receptivo y productivo, representaciones fonológicas y reconocimiento de rima y de sílaba inicial. Se obtuvieron diferencias estadísticamente signifi cativas entre grupos en todas las tareas exceptuando la identifi cación de sílabas. Los análisis de regresión mostraron un patrón similar entre grupos: el vocabulario receptivo predijo la identifi cación de rimas y la tarea que evalúa representaciones fonológicas predijo el reconocimiento de sílabas. La diferencia entre los predictores de una y otra habilidad sugiere que el desarrollo léxico temprano proporciona el marco para el desarrollo de niveles rudimentarios de sensibilidad fonológica, pero la identifi cación de unidades menores requiere de representaciones fonológicas más especifi cadas.Palabras claves: representaciones fonológicas, sensibilidad fonológica, conocimiento de vocabulario, diferencias socioeconómicas. AbstractThe aim of this study was to examine the relationships among vocabulary knowledge, phonological representations and phonological sensitivity in 80 Spanish-speaking preschool children from middle-and low-SES families. Signifi cant social class differences were obtained on all tasks except syllable matching.Regression analyses were carried out to test the predictive power of vocabulary knowledge and accuracy of phonological representations on the phonological sensitivity measures. Receptive vocabulary predicted rhyme identifi cation. Syllable matching was predicted by a task tapping accuracy of phonological representations.The fact that rhyme identifi cation was predicted by vocabulary knowledge but syllable matching was predicted by a measure tapping accuracy of phonological representations in both groups suggests that early lexical development sets the stage for the development of the lower levels of phonological sensitivity but identifi cation of smaller units requires more accurate and segmented phonological representations.

Este artículo presenta algunos resultados de una investigación sobre el aprendizaje a través de la interacción verbal en el aula en entornos escolares formales a los que asisten niños de clase media y en programas no formales de apoyo escolar para niños de nivel socioeconómico bajo. El análisis cualitativo mostró que las estrategias docentes seguidas por las maestras siguen dos direcciones complementarias: 1) partir de conceptos abstractos y desconocidos para los niños relacionándolos con los conceptos que éstos han adquirido a través de la interacción social cotidiana -estrategias de contextualización; 2) partir de nociones cotidianas para llegar a conceptos abstractos desconocidos para los niños -estrategias de descontextualización. A pesar de que la enseñanza en ambos entornos (escuela y programas de apoyo escolar) puede ser, en gran medida, descrita por medio de estas estrategias, los datos sugieren que ciertas diferencias culturales y discursivas entre los niños de los dos entornos pueden dar cuenta de algunas diferencias en estas estrategias.

Demandas cognitivas de la escritura: comparación de dos situaciones de producción Cognitive demands of writing: comparison of two different situations of production Exigências cognitivas da escritura: comparação de duas situações de produção

The spectral analysis of the 14 Spanish diphthongs was undertaken under two different speaking rates. The central frequency and relative intensity of the first (F1) and second (F2) formant were measured as well as the duration of the onset and offset steady states, the transition between them, and the total duration of the diphthong. The values in hertz per millisecond for the rate of change of the F2 transition were also obtained. Results show that the formant pattern, rate of change and temporal relations between both steady states contribute to the characterization of Spanish diphthongs; the distinction between diphthongs and vowel sequences in hiatus depends on the temporal relationship.