Phonological decoding enhances orthographic facilitation of vocabulary learning in first graders

An experiment examined orthographic facilitation of vocabulary learning, that is, whether showing students spellings of novel words during learning helps them remember the words when spellings are no longer present. The purpose was to determine whether having students decode the spellings of vocabulary words improves word learning over passive exposure to spellings, and whether both treatments boost word memory compared to no spelling exposure. Low SES, urban first graders (N = 55) were randomly assigned to one of two word learning conditions: a decoding condition (printed words sounded out and blended) or an exposure without decoding condition (print present but no attention drawn to it). Students were taught the pronunciations and meanings of unfamiliar words over several test trials with feedback, one set with spellings present during learning but not when recall was tested, and one set with no spellings present. Results revealed that students remembered words better when spellings were seen than not seen during learning and on delayed posttests. Students who decoded spellings learned pronunciations and meanings better during the learning trials compared to students who only viewed spellings, but the advantage of decoding declined one and 7 days later. The favored explanation is that exposure to spellings activated grapho-phonemic connections to better secure spellings to pronunciations in memory, especially when students’ had decoded them. This was supported by a posttest showing that spellings were written more accurately when students had seen them than when they had not, with decoding producing better recall than exposure. Results suggest that teachers should incorporate spellings into their vocabulary instruction, and they should direct students to decode them to enhance learning.