ABSTRACT

Research Findings: Letter name knowledge (LNK) is essential for a good start in learning to read. However, the literature shows conflicting results. Using an associative learning theory framework, the present study examined the influence of child and letter characteristics on LNK in French-speaking children. Children aged 3 to 5–6 years were asked to name the 26 letters of the alphabet printed in uppercase (Study 1) or printed or cursive lowercase (Study 2). Several effects on their naming scores were tested: gender, letters in the first name, letter frequency in print, letter rank in the alphabet, shape similarity between letter cases, and phonological effects related to letter name type. Learning to name uppercase letters relied primarily on knowledge of the personal name letters, whereas learning to name lowercase letters relied heavily on the similarity in shape of these letters to their uppercase counterparts (or for cursive letters, to their lowercase printed analogs). Practice or Policy: Some practical consequences are drawn from the associative learning perspective, such as pairing uppercase and lowercase letters with their name and sound at the same time. In addition, grouping letters according to their shape stability through their case may be an advantageous strategy for teaching letter names.

摘要

研究成果：字母名称知识（LNK）对于学习阅读的良好开端至关重要。然而，文献显示了相互矛盾的结果。本研究使用联想学习理论框架，研究了儿童和字母特征对法语儿童 LNK 的影响。3 至 5-6 岁的儿童被要求说出 26 个大写字母（研究 1）或印刷或草书小写字母（研究 2）。测试了对其命名分数的几种影响：性别、名字中的字母、印刷中的字母频率、字母表中的字母排名、字母大小写之间的形状相似性以及与字母名称类型相关的语音效应。学习命名大写字母主要依赖于个人姓名字母的知识，实践或政策：一些实际结果是从联想学习的角度得出的，例如同时将大写和小写字母与其名称和发音配对。此外，根据字母大小写的形状稳定性对字母进行分组可能是教授字母名称的有利策略。