Treiman Rebecca, Levin Iris, Kessler Brett
Psychology Department, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
Read Writ. 2012 Feb 1;25(2):569-585. doi: 10.1007/s11145-010-9286-3.
Learning the sounds of letters is an important part of learning a writing system. Most previous studies of this process have examined English, focusing on variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names as a reason why some letter sounds (such as that of b, where the sound is at the beginning of the letter's name) are easier to learn than others (such as that of w, where the sound is not in the name). The present study examined Hebrew, where variations in the phonetic iconicity of letter names are minimal. In a study of 391 Israeli children with a mean age of 5 years, 10 months, we used multilevel models to examine the factors that are associated with knowledge of letter sounds. One set of factors involved letter names: Children sometimes attributed to a letter a consonant-vowel sound consisting of the first phonemes of the letter's name. A second set of factors involved contrast: Children had difficulty when there was relatively little contrast in shape between one letter and others. Frequency was also important, encompassing both child-specific effects, such as a benefit for the first letter of a child's forename, and effects that held true across children, such as a benefit for the first letters of the alphabet. These factors reflect general properties of human learning.
学习字母发音是学习书写系统的重要组成部分。此前关于这一过程的大多数研究都以英语为研究对象，重点关注字母名称在语音象似性上的差异，以此来解释为什么某些字母发音（比如字母b的发音，该发音位于字母名称的开头）比其他发音（比如字母w的发音，该发音不在字母名称中）更容易学习。本研究以希伯来语为研究对象，在希伯来语中字母名称的语音象似性差异极小。在一项针对391名平均年龄为5岁10个月的以色列儿童的研究中，我们使用多层次模型来研究与字母发音知识相关的因素。其中一组因素涉及字母名称：儿童有时会将由字母名称的首个音素组成的辅音-元音发音归属于某个字母。另一组因素涉及对比度：当一个字母与其他字母在形状上的对比度相对较小时，儿童学习起来会有困难。频率也很重要，这既包括特定于儿童的影响，比如对儿童名字首字母的偏好，也包括适用于所有儿童的影响，比如对字母表中首字母的偏好。这些因素反映了人类学习的一般特性。
