Relations Between Reading and Speech Manifest Universal Phonological Principle

Abstract

All writing systems represent speech, providing a means for recording each word of a message. This is achieved by symbolizing the phonological forms of spoken words as well as information conveying grammar and meaning. Alphabetic systems represent the segmental phonology by providing symbols for individual consonants and vowels; some also convey morphological units. Other systems represent syllables (typically CVs) or morphosyllables. In all cases, learning to read requires a learner to discover the forms of language that writing encodes, drawing on metalinguistic abilities that are not needed for the acquisition of speech. Therefore, learning to read is harder and rarer than acquiring speech. Research reveals that skilled readers of every studied orthography access phonological language forms automatically and early in word reading. Although reading processes differ according to the cognitive demands of specific orthographic forms, the differences are subservient to the universal phonologic principle that all readers access phonological language forms.

How many words do we read per minute? A review and meta-analysis of reading rate

“…The written text must be translated into a spoken form before it can be processed. There is indeed good evidence that silent reading involves the activation of phonology (Frost, 1998;Rastle & Brysbaert, 2006;Shankweiler & Fowler, 2019;Van Orden,, Johnston, & Hale, 1988), possibly because verbal short term memory relies on a phonological code (Baddeley, 2012). Alternatively, it could be that the maximum speed in reading and hearing coincides because both inputs must be translated into an abstract, amodal memory code for thought (Aydede, 2010).…”

Learning to Read Interacts with Children’s Spoken Language Fluency

“…In languages with consistent orthographies such as German, reading fluency, acquired subsequently, not only relies on knowledge of individual speech sounds and their gestural specificities, it also requires at least two additional types of knowledge, which are not directly available in children's daily interactions. It necessitates explicit training in letter knowledge, that is, the ability to differentiate individual letters and associate them with distinct speech sounds (review in Hulme & Snowling, 2015) but not only that (see Shankweiler & Fowler, 2019). It also requires developing the awareness that various sized units of sound have a phonological structure (e.g., phonemes, syllables).…”

“…Coarticulatory processes are therefore essential to both speaking and reading aloud. For a general discussion on the links between reading and speech production, we recommend Shankweiler and Fowler (2019).…”

Transitioning from paper to touch interface: Phoneme-grapheme recognition testing and gamification in primary school classrooms

“…When learning an alphabetic language, one critical component of developing literacy is phonological awareness, which refers to an understanding of how speech is broken down into individual sounds and how those sounds can be combined to form words (Bedewy, 2020;Kahn-Horwitz et al, 2012). A second step is the acquisition of sound-letter correspondences (Siegelman et al, 2020), which is regarded as a universal element in learning to read alphabetic scripts (Shankweiler & Fowler, 2019). Young learners first develop some level of phonological awareness (Melby-Lervåg et al, 2012), and then use that knowledge to create phoneme-grapheme correspondences, such as associating the sound [d] with the letter "d" in English.…”