Orthography
English Language: AQA A Level, topic 2.4.1
Orthography and Orthographic Mistakes
Orthography is all about spelling. When a child learns to write, this is one of our core language levels which we use for analysis.
Orthographic analysis
- There a number of errors which you may wish to look for when analysing the data in the exam:
- Substitution – one letter is swapped for another letter.
- Omission – unstressed sounds get missed out.
- Insertion – spurious letter is added.
Orthographic analysis cont.
- Transposition (or a transposed letter) – the letter is the wrong way around.
- Note: dyslexic children will often get the letters < b >, < p > and < d > mixed up.
- Grapheme cluster substitution – a combination of letters are swapped for a different set of letters.
Read
- Read states that children’s spellings are creative because they notice distinctions that adults are no longer aware of.
- For example, a child may spell ‘cruise’ as ‘crews’, as adults, as experienced writers, may have over-exposure to the word that we no longer think of the irregular spelling of the word.
Ferreiro
- Ferreiro believes that children think that words must have several letters.
- For example, QWE could be a word, but QW could not.
- In addition, he states that children believe that words should have different letters.
- As a result, you may often see double letters in words missed out.
Biancardi
- Biancardi believes that children think that the bigger the object, the bigger the word should be.
- For example, they may include more letters in ‘whale’ than in ‘ladybird’.
‘Statistical Learning’
Psychologists believe ‘statistical learning’ is key for children learning to read.
‘Statistical learning’
- Psychologists believe ‘statistical learning’ is key for children learning to read.
- This theory essentially states that children find patterns in spelling from exposure to forms of writing.
- In this sense, you can link reading development to written development.
Seidenberg
- The psycholinguist Seidenberg believes that pattern finding is all a part of finding connections between words.
- For example, a child may notice that lots of words end in ‘ed’ when we’re talking about things in the past.
Treiman
- Treiman says that the child’s own name can have an influence on their orthography.
- He states that quite often, the child will use a capital when there is no need because it is drilled into them that their name needs a capital.
Whole Word vs Phonic
As with reading, there is an argument over whole word or phonic in writing too.
Phonics
- Reyner believes that children should be taught to write from ‘sounding out’ the word and writing down what they hear.
Issues
- However, this method does not work well for words which do not have phoneme-grapheme correspondence or homonyms (everything the same, like ‘right’ in the sense of a direction and in the sense of being correct).
Whole word
- On the opposite view, Curtis believes that children should be taught to write as whole words as this is more fluent and adult-like.
- Curtis says that this aids comprehension over pronunciation.
Issues
- However, if the child has not seen the word before, then this can make it very difficult to write, even if the word has phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
Test yourself on Orthography
Which letters will dyslexic children often get mixed up?
Who states that children believe that words should have different letters?
Who said the child’s own name can have an influence on their orthography?