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How Children Learn About Morphological Spelling Rules
Author(s) -
Chliounaki Kalliopi,
Bryant Peter
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
child development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.103
H-Index - 257
eISSN - 1467-8624
pISSN - 0009-3920
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01070.x
Subject(s) - spelling , psychology , spell , linguistics , word (group theory) , verbal learning , test (biology) , cognitive psychology , natural language processing , cognition , computer science , paleontology , philosophy , neuroscience , sociology , anthropology , biology
A 2‐year longitudinal study was carried out to test the hypothesis that children’s word‐specific learning of inflectional spellings is an essential first step in their acquiring an understanding of morphological rules for spelling inflections. Ninety children, who were 6‐years‐old at the start of the project, were asked to spell pseudowords and real words on three separate occasions. Inflections in pseudowords can be spelled only on the basis of morphological spelling rules, whereas the same inflections in real words can be spelled either through familiarity with the specific words (word‐specific knowledge) or through morphological rules. Cross‐lagged correlations suggested that the children’s initial word‐specific learning may be the basis for their later adoption and use of morphological spelling rules.