Phonological awareness: Tracking what the eyes hear
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1
United Arab Emirates University, linguistics, United Arab Emirates
Phonological awareness is the ability to perceive and manipulate the sounds of spoken words (e.g., Alamri, 2017; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Holm, Farrier & Dodd, 2008). It is considered a good predictor of reading and spelling abilities (e.g., Schneider, Roth & Ennemoser, 2000; Holm et al., 2008). The current study is a follow-up investigation of a behavioral study conducted with first grade Emirati Arabic children on phonological awareness (Marquis 2016-2018). Using eye-tracking as the experimental methodology, we measure fixation and gaze duration differences and compare three different phonological awareness conditions in Emirati Arabic: 1. explicit instructions for onset consonant matching (OCM), 2. implicit instructions for segmentation of initial consonant (SIC), and 3. rhyme matching (RM). These tasks were developed as part of the LATFA project (the Language Acquisition Test for Arabic, an assessment tool aiming at evaluating oral skills in Arabic speaking children, Marquis, 2016-2018). We hypothesize that fixation duration as a dependent variable varies according to the experimental conditions. First, we hypothesize that explicit instructions facilitate phonological awareness. Thus, explicit instructions for onset consonant matching (OCM) should differ from implicit instruction condition for segmentation of initial consonant (SIC) regarding fixation duration, i.e. fixation duration should be shorter in the former than the latter. Moreover, since that Arabic orthography is consonant-based, we hypothesize that participants perform better in the consonant tasks (i.e., OCM and SIC) than in the rhyme task (i.e., RM).
Emirati Arabic speakers are being tested in a single session with the three tasks: OCM, SIC, and RM. For each task, there are 4 different target nouns, one for each target phoneme, paired with a prime character (that introduces the target phoneme). Nouns of one to three syllables were selected from the EMALAC corpus for Emirati Arabic (Ntelitheos & Idrissi, 2017). There are 3 test trials for each target phoneme. The full stimuli set consists of a total of 36 target nouns, 12 for each task. In addition, 3 distractors are presented along with each target. All nouns (prime, target and distractors) are paired with a colorful image (see Figure 1). The images have been pseudo-randomized in a 2 x 2 grid to ensure that targets are not always in the same position (see Figure 1). At the beginning of each task, 2 additional target phonemes are presented to introduce the task to participants as a practice. Before each trial, there is an introduction in Arabic of a character’s name serving as prime for the target. Then, 4 image choices are presented consisting of the target and 3 distractors (see Figure 1). All instructions and auditory stimuli were pre-recorded by a native speaker of Emirati Arabic. Participants must listen to instructions, look at the given choices and select their choice by clicking on the image corresponding to their response. Reaction time and correct click responses, along with fixation durations and number of eye gazes are collected.
To this date, over 20 participants have been tested. Statistical analyzes will be conducted against the aforementioned hypotheses. In parallel, we are also developing eye tracking experiments on the reading of Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) words, which we hope will shed light on a better understanding of the nature of Arabic word structures and orthographic system.
References
Alamri, A. (2017). Phonological, Semantic and Root Activation in Spoken Word Recognition in Arabic: Evidence from Eye Movements (Doctoral dissertation). University of Ottawa, Canada.
Goswami, U., & Bryant, P. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. New York: Psychology Press.
Holm, A., Farrier, F. & Dodd, B. (2008). The phonological awareness, reading accuracy and spelling ability of children with inconsistent phonological disorder. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 43(3), 300-322.
Marquis, A. (2016-2018). Development of an assessment tool for oral skills in Emirati Arabic speaking children. Al Ain, United Arab Emirates: UAEU.
Ntelitheos, D., & Idrissi, A. (2017). Language growth in child Emirati Arabic. In H. Ouali (Ed.), Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics XXIX (pp.229-248). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Schneider, W., Roth, E., & Ennemoser, M. (2000). Training phonological skills and letter knowledge in children at risk for dyslexia: A comparison of three kindergarten intervention programs. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 284–295.
Keywords:
neurolinguistics,
Arabic language,
phonology,
eyetracking,
word recognition
Conference:
3rd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 11 Mar - 12 Mar, 2018.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Educational Neuroscience
Citation:
Marquis
A,
Al Kaabi
M and
Leung
T
(2018). Phonological awareness: Tracking what the eyes hear.
Conference Abstract:
3rd International Conference on Educational Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2018.225.00016
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Received:
14 Feb 2018;
Published Online:
14 Dec 2018.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Alexandra Marquis, United Arab Emirates University, linguistics, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates, alexandramarquis@uaeu.ac.ae
Dr. Meera Al Kaabi, United Arab Emirates University, linguistics, Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates, m_alkaabi@uaeu.ac.ae