Masters Degree - The research I am currently working on involves studying the literacy skills of learners in the Makana and Ndlambe municipalities, Eastern Cape as well as in the Moses Kotane East municipality, North West. The research covers a number of topics in the areas of phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and the orthography-linguistic interface. The aim of the research is to explore the strategies that learners use to read, with a focus on how cognitive skills, orthography and language of learning and teaching (LoLT) influence word recognition skills in primary school learners. Supervisors: Prof. Mark De Vos Phone: 083 584 3478
One factor, which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy, is the lack of understandi... more One factor, which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy, is the lack of understanding of how literacy develops in the Southern-Bantu languages. In particular, little is known about spelling in the Southern-Bantu languages such as isiXhosa. Through the use of an initial exploratory study and a conceptual replication study, we examined the relationships between reading, phonological awareness (PA), and spelling in isiXhosa grade 3 learners. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between reading and spelling, and PA and spelling in a sample of 49 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We then conceptually replicated this study with a larger sample of 200 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We expected that both reading and PA would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between reading and spelling, and PA and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Cross-sectional, quantitat...
The aims of this pre-registered study are to establish the unique contributions which decoding an... more The aims of this pre-registered study are to establish the unique contributions which decoding and phonological awareness have on spelling in Grade 3 isiXhosa first language readers, as well as to determine whether the strength of these relationships differ by spelling ability. This pre-registered study acts as a replication of a non-pre-registered initial study where the same research questions were examined in a smaller sample of Grade 3 readers. For the preregistered study, we use secondary data from the Volkswagen Literacy Legacy Intervention Project. Data were collected from Grade 3 isiXhosa-speaking children attending five isiXhosa medium of instruction schools, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Participants completed phonological awareness tasks which included syllable and phoneme isolation and elision, real word spelling tasks as a measure of encoding and a one minute oral reading fluency task as a measure of decoding. The research questions of our preregistered study are...
Through the use of an initial study and a pre-registered conceptual replication study we examined... more Through the use of an initial study and a pre-registered conceptual replication study we examined the relations between decoding, phonological awareness (PA), and spelling for third grade readers of isiXhosa, which uses a consistent alphabetic orthography. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between decoding and spelling, and PA and spelling in a sample of 49 third grade isiXhosa readers. We then conceptually replicated this study to confirm the hypotheses generated from the initial study with a larger sample of 149 third grade isiXhosa readers. We expected that both decoding and PA would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between decoding and spelling, and PA and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Cross-sectional, quantitative secondary data was used from two different projects to answer the research questions. Tasks of PA, oral reading fluency (as a me...
We include the course syllabus used to teach quantitative research design and analysis methods to... more We include the course syllabus used to teach quantitative research design and analysis methods to graduate Linguistics students using a blended teaching and learning approach. <br>The blended course took place over two weeks and builds on a face to face course presented over two days in 2019. Students worked through the topics in preparation for a live interactive video session each Friday to go through the activities. Additional communication took place on Slack for two hours each week. A survey was conducted at the start and end of the course to ascertain participants' perceptions of the usefulness of the course. The links to online elements and the evaluations have been removed from the uploaded course guide.<br>Participants who complete this workshop will be able to:- outline the steps and decisions involved in quantitative data analysis of linguistic data- explain common statistical terminology (sample, mean, standard deviation, correlation, nominal, ordinal and...
Word recognition is a core foundation of reading (Invenizzi and Hayes 2010) and involves interact... more Word recognition is a core foundation of reading (Invenizzi and Hayes 2010) and involves interactions of language skills, metalinguistic skills and orthography. The extent of the interaction with one another in reading has yet to be fully explored, especially in the Southern-Bantu languages. This comparative study of isiXhosa and Setswana explores this three-way interaction between language skills (effect of Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT)), metalinguistic skills (Phonological and Morphological Awareness) and orthography (conjunctivism vs. disjunctivism). This thesis is novel in three respects, (a) a set of linguistic-informed reading measures were developed in isiXhosa and Setswana for the first-time, (b) to my knowledge, the comparisons made and study of Morphological Awareness in the Southern-Bantu languages have never been done, and (c) the use of d-prime as a way of testing for grain size in reading is an innovative approach. Grade 3 and Grade 4 learners were tested on...
Rapid and effortless word recognition is a major component of fluent reading (Aaron et al. 1999; ... more Rapid and effortless word recognition is a major component of fluent reading (Aaron et al. 1999; Invernizzi & Hayes 2010:196). Although reading straddles 'linguistic, neurolinguistic, cognitive, psychological, sociological, developmental and educational domains' (Pretorius & Mokhwesana 2009:55), word recognition, has been studied as a set of related neurological processes. There are distinct neural pathways for recognition of gestalt-like whole words versus decomposing a complex word into its component parts. However, there are at least three issues that impact on these neural processes. Firstly, at a psycholinguistic level, words are defined through the structures of a language; different languages package different phonological and morphosyntactic features in different ways. Secondly, linguistic words are mediated in print through orthographies. Orthographies are, more often than not, a set of linguistic and sociocultural compromises developed in particular social contexts. For instance, although all South African Bantu languages are agglutinative in their linguistic structure, they may have either conjunctive or disjunctive orthographies, reflecting both the linguistic and social decisions that went into their transcription (Louwrens & Poulos 2006). Thirdly, learners have at their disposal a number of cognitive tools which they use to solve the reading puzzles presented to them. These skills are dynamically developed through exposure to print orthography and include phonological and morphological awareness. These three sets of interacting factors conspire to make word recognition different in different languages and for different orthographies. Word structure in Bantu languages IsiXhosa, like all Bantu languages, has a relatively simple syllable structure based around a (C)V(V) template (Hua 2002). In addition, there are constraints on complex syllable onsets. Although some words appear to have a complex onset orthographically, these are often single consonants corresponding to single phonemes and not a true phonological cluster (1ab). In contrast, English allows for more complex structures than CV, such as CCV and CCCV words (2ab): (1) a. CV: Dla.la [lʒala] 'Play' Word recognition is a major component of fluent reading and involves an interaction of language structure, orthography, and metalinguistic skills. This study examined reading strategies in isiXhosa and the transfer of these strategies to an additional language, English. IsiXhosa was chosen because of its agglutinative structure and conjunctive orthography. Data was collected at two schools which differed with regards to their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the first three years of schooling: isiXhosa and English respectively. Participants completed a word-and pseudo-word reading aloud task in each of two languages which hypothetically impose different cognitive demands. Skills transfer occurs to a limited extent when the language of first literacy uses a transparent orthography, but is less predictable when the language of first literacy uses an opaque orthography. We show that although there is transfer of word recognition strategies from transparent to deep orthographies, felicitous transfer is limited to sublexical strategies; infelicitous transfer also occurs when lexical strategies are transferred in problematic ways. The results support the contention that reading strategies and cognitive skills are fine tuned to particular languages. This study emphasises that literacies in different languages present readers with different structural puzzles which require language-particular suites of cognitive reading skills. Word recognition strategies amongst isiXhosa/English bilingual learners: The interaction of orthography and language of learning and teaching Read online: Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. Note: We use the internationally accepted term, 'Bantu' to refer to the Bantu group within the Niger-Congo language family. We do not use the term to refer to people as occurred during the apartheid regime. We acknowledge that the use of the term Bantu has derogatory connotations in lay usage within the Republic of South Africa but use it in its technical sense in this article. The authors take full responsibility for this usage.
One factor, which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy, is the lack of understandi... more One factor, which is consistently highlighted in research on literacy, is the lack of understanding of how literacy develops in the Southern-Bantu languages. In particular, little is known about spelling in the Southern-Bantu languages such as isiXhosa. Through the use of an initial exploratory study and a conceptual replication study, we examined the relationships between reading, phonological awareness (PA), and spelling in isiXhosa grade 3 learners. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between reading and spelling, and PA and spelling in a sample of 49 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We then conceptually replicated this study with a larger sample of 200 grade 3 isiXhosa learners. We expected that both reading and PA would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between reading and spelling, and PA and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Cross-sectional, quantitat...
The aims of this pre-registered study are to establish the unique contributions which decoding an... more The aims of this pre-registered study are to establish the unique contributions which decoding and phonological awareness have on spelling in Grade 3 isiXhosa first language readers, as well as to determine whether the strength of these relationships differ by spelling ability. This pre-registered study acts as a replication of a non-pre-registered initial study where the same research questions were examined in a smaller sample of Grade 3 readers. For the preregistered study, we use secondary data from the Volkswagen Literacy Legacy Intervention Project. Data were collected from Grade 3 isiXhosa-speaking children attending five isiXhosa medium of instruction schools, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Participants completed phonological awareness tasks which included syllable and phoneme isolation and elision, real word spelling tasks as a measure of encoding and a one minute oral reading fluency task as a measure of decoding. The research questions of our preregistered study are...
Through the use of an initial study and a pre-registered conceptual replication study we examined... more Through the use of an initial study and a pre-registered conceptual replication study we examined the relations between decoding, phonological awareness (PA), and spelling for third grade readers of isiXhosa, which uses a consistent alphabetic orthography. The initial exploratory study sought to describe the relationships between decoding and spelling, and PA and spelling in a sample of 49 third grade isiXhosa readers. We then conceptually replicated this study to confirm the hypotheses generated from the initial study with a larger sample of 149 third grade isiXhosa readers. We expected that both decoding and PA would be related to spelling and that the strength of the relationship between decoding and spelling, and PA and spelling would vary with spelling ability, due to the changes that occur in the development of spelling. Cross-sectional, quantitative secondary data was used from two different projects to answer the research questions. Tasks of PA, oral reading fluency (as a me...
We include the course syllabus used to teach quantitative research design and analysis methods to... more We include the course syllabus used to teach quantitative research design and analysis methods to graduate Linguistics students using a blended teaching and learning approach. <br>The blended course took place over two weeks and builds on a face to face course presented over two days in 2019. Students worked through the topics in preparation for a live interactive video session each Friday to go through the activities. Additional communication took place on Slack for two hours each week. A survey was conducted at the start and end of the course to ascertain participants' perceptions of the usefulness of the course. The links to online elements and the evaluations have been removed from the uploaded course guide.<br>Participants who complete this workshop will be able to:- outline the steps and decisions involved in quantitative data analysis of linguistic data- explain common statistical terminology (sample, mean, standard deviation, correlation, nominal, ordinal and...
Word recognition is a core foundation of reading (Invenizzi and Hayes 2010) and involves interact... more Word recognition is a core foundation of reading (Invenizzi and Hayes 2010) and involves interactions of language skills, metalinguistic skills and orthography. The extent of the interaction with one another in reading has yet to be fully explored, especially in the Southern-Bantu languages. This comparative study of isiXhosa and Setswana explores this three-way interaction between language skills (effect of Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT)), metalinguistic skills (Phonological and Morphological Awareness) and orthography (conjunctivism vs. disjunctivism). This thesis is novel in three respects, (a) a set of linguistic-informed reading measures were developed in isiXhosa and Setswana for the first-time, (b) to my knowledge, the comparisons made and study of Morphological Awareness in the Southern-Bantu languages have never been done, and (c) the use of d-prime as a way of testing for grain size in reading is an innovative approach. Grade 3 and Grade 4 learners were tested on...
Rapid and effortless word recognition is a major component of fluent reading (Aaron et al. 1999; ... more Rapid and effortless word recognition is a major component of fluent reading (Aaron et al. 1999; Invernizzi & Hayes 2010:196). Although reading straddles 'linguistic, neurolinguistic, cognitive, psychological, sociological, developmental and educational domains' (Pretorius & Mokhwesana 2009:55), word recognition, has been studied as a set of related neurological processes. There are distinct neural pathways for recognition of gestalt-like whole words versus decomposing a complex word into its component parts. However, there are at least three issues that impact on these neural processes. Firstly, at a psycholinguistic level, words are defined through the structures of a language; different languages package different phonological and morphosyntactic features in different ways. Secondly, linguistic words are mediated in print through orthographies. Orthographies are, more often than not, a set of linguistic and sociocultural compromises developed in particular social contexts. For instance, although all South African Bantu languages are agglutinative in their linguistic structure, they may have either conjunctive or disjunctive orthographies, reflecting both the linguistic and social decisions that went into their transcription (Louwrens & Poulos 2006). Thirdly, learners have at their disposal a number of cognitive tools which they use to solve the reading puzzles presented to them. These skills are dynamically developed through exposure to print orthography and include phonological and morphological awareness. These three sets of interacting factors conspire to make word recognition different in different languages and for different orthographies. Word structure in Bantu languages IsiXhosa, like all Bantu languages, has a relatively simple syllable structure based around a (C)V(V) template (Hua 2002). In addition, there are constraints on complex syllable onsets. Although some words appear to have a complex onset orthographically, these are often single consonants corresponding to single phonemes and not a true phonological cluster (1ab). In contrast, English allows for more complex structures than CV, such as CCV and CCCV words (2ab): (1) a. CV: Dla.la [lʒala] 'Play' Word recognition is a major component of fluent reading and involves an interaction of language structure, orthography, and metalinguistic skills. This study examined reading strategies in isiXhosa and the transfer of these strategies to an additional language, English. IsiXhosa was chosen because of its agglutinative structure and conjunctive orthography. Data was collected at two schools which differed with regards to their language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in the first three years of schooling: isiXhosa and English respectively. Participants completed a word-and pseudo-word reading aloud task in each of two languages which hypothetically impose different cognitive demands. Skills transfer occurs to a limited extent when the language of first literacy uses a transparent orthography, but is less predictable when the language of first literacy uses an opaque orthography. We show that although there is transfer of word recognition strategies from transparent to deep orthographies, felicitous transfer is limited to sublexical strategies; infelicitous transfer also occurs when lexical strategies are transferred in problematic ways. The results support the contention that reading strategies and cognitive skills are fine tuned to particular languages. This study emphasises that literacies in different languages present readers with different structural puzzles which require language-particular suites of cognitive reading skills. Word recognition strategies amongst isiXhosa/English bilingual learners: The interaction of orthography and language of learning and teaching Read online: Scan this QR code with your smart phone or mobile device to read online. Note: We use the internationally accepted term, 'Bantu' to refer to the Bantu group within the Niger-Congo language family. We do not use the term to refer to people as occurred during the apartheid regime. We acknowledge that the use of the term Bantu has derogatory connotations in lay usage within the Republic of South Africa but use it in its technical sense in this article. The authors take full responsibility for this usage.
Uploads
Papers by Tracy Probert