The mental lexicon as a mediator on the effects of speech skills on phonological awareness in Turkish kindergarteners
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2019-07-01
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en
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Abstract
The current study focuses on underlying cognitive-linguistic precursors of phonological
awareness which is important for learning to read. The lexical restructuring hypothesis relates a
higher speech perception and higher vocabulary to a higher phonological awareness. A missing
link between these is the phonological specificity of the mental lexicon that is a logical result of
higher vocabulary and speech perception. This “lexical specificity” was found to mediate the
relation between speech perception and vocabulary on the one hand, and phonological awareness
on the other hand. Although phonological representations are both perceptual and articulatory,
role of speech production was highly neglected. This study investigated whether lexical
specificity and vocabulary mediate the effects of speech perception and speech production on
phonological awareness in 57 Turkish kindergartners. Speech perception and production were
significantly correlated. Speech perception significantly predicted vocabulary, lexical specificity
and phonological awareness, while speech production did not. Results did not support the
mediation of mental lexicon on the effects of speech skills on phonological awareness. We
conclude that speech perception is an important precursor of language skills and that
development of certain skills may differ for languages with different orthographies.
Keywords: phonological awareness, lexical specificity, speech production, speech
perception, lexical restructuring hypothesis
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen