The role of systematicity between orthography and morphology in reading and writing

English is a language that is difficult to read and to spell. Words that are written similarly often have different sounds (compare bush and lush). Further, words that sound similar are often represented differently in writing (compare field and feel). Yet, English is the most widely spoken language in the world. Children and adults learning to read and write in English (in their mother tongue or foreign language) must cope with this complexity. Cross-linguistic studies on literacy acquisition have consistently shown that English-speaking children make many errors in reading and spelling and lag behind their peers who learn to read in other European languages (Seymour et al., 2003).

However, English does have important regularities between spelling and sound. Substantial research effort has been undertaken in recent years to understand these regularities, and to teach learners to capitalise on them to support their literacy development. This research has had powerful implications for literacy teaching, and has motivated the implementation of systematic phonics instruction in UK schools (Rose, 2006).

This project focuses on a different kind of regularity that has received relatively little research attention -- that between orthography and morphology. It turns out that one can predict aspects of a word's spelling if its grammatical class is known (noun, adjective). For example, if one hears an adjective that ends in the sound "ick", then one can almost be sure that the correct spelling is -ic (e.g. cosmic). Conversely, if this word is not an adjective, then it is likely to have a different spelling (for example, -ik, beatnik). Such regularity was described decades ago, but more recent evidence has shown that it is ubiquitous in English (Berg & Aronoff, 2015). Interestingly, systematicity between orthography and grammatical class is unique to spelling; the spoken forms of words do not carry this meaningful information.

Is it possible that humans unconsciously make use of this morphological information encrypted in English spelling? We will conduct a series of five experimental investigations in skilled adult readers to find out whether this is so, using classic behavioural, as well as cutting-edge eye-tracking and word learning methods. Our experiments will ask whether participants show enhanced reading of words whose spelling accords with their grammatical class. We will also determine whether participants produce different spellings for spoken novel words depending on their morpho-syntactic role in a sentence. Finally, we will ask whether participants show superior learning of novel words that are spelled consistently with their morpho-syntactic function.

The finding that skilled readers are sensitive to regularities between spelling and morphology would lead to an intriguing question: is explicit emphasis of these regularities beneficial for learners of English? If so, in the longer term, we expect that highlighting the regularities between spelling and morphology could enhance literacy instruction programmes, and yield positive outcomes for children and adults learning to read and spell English.

This work will be guided by a psychologist with expertise in the processes that underpin reading (Prof. Rastle) and a linguist with expertise in morphology (Prof. Aronoff, Stony Brook), both of whom are international leaders in their fields. Thus, we propose an international collaboration between the disciplines of psychology and linguistics, which should give rise to novel research questions and surprising theoretical developments. We expect this work to have a strong immediate impact on several disciplines within academia. Further, we have designed a strong programme of engagement with non-academic stakeholders to ensure that this work's potential for enhancing methods for literacy instruction is realised.

The proposed work has the potential to influence the current state of affairs both within and outside academia.

On the academic side, the alliance between psychologists and linguists who strive to understand how morphology is represented in the English orthography and in the human brain will have a double effect: first, this work will become known to a wider community of scholars including psychologists, linguists and psycholinguists; and second, joint perspectives may foster innovation in both fields. The dissemination strategy covers a wide scientific audience and ensures that the researchers in domains adjacent to cognitive psychology, for example, developmental psychology and second-language acquisition, will benefit from this work. It is especially important to embrace these fields, because in the future, our proposed line of research may be followed up by intervention studies of reading and spelling acquisition, and our work is expected to have implications for enhancing methods for reading and spelling instruction (see Pathways to Impact).

On the non-academic side, this work is expected to inform education through the enhancement of methods for teaching reading, spelling, and vocabulary in English. This goal is, beyond question, long-term, for two reasons. First, realistic goals should be set that can be accomplished within the duration of this grant. Second, we embrace the tenets of evidence-based practice, which means that, prior to any practical applications, interventions following from this project's findings will need to be designed and evaluated. Nonetheless, we keep these distant goals in mind, and suggest pathways for our work to have a positive influence on a wide range of non-academic users already in the short-term.

First, we intend to disseminate the outcomes of this research widely in general and more specialised outlets, targeting primary and secondary school teachers and professionals involved in teaching adults to read and write in English (as a native or a foreign language). Raising awareness of the role of morphology in reading and spelling among teachers and educators results in significant gains in spelling among their students (Hurry et al., 2005). If the hypotheses proposed are upheld, then these specialist teacher audiences will benefit from knowing that regularity between the spelling of morphemes and their morpho-syntactic function is common in English, and this regularity facilitates reading, spelling and vocabulary acquisition in adult native speakers. In addition, we will make the list of regularities between orthography and morphology freely available online on the project website, so that the teachers can use it in their practice.

Second, we shall focus on building the necessary foundation to facilitate future research and intervention work. In particular, we intend to build a network of professionals who are interested in evidence-based methods to support literacy acquisition, consisting of teachers, educators, policy makers, school governors, professionals involved in developing children's reading books, and other practitioners. I will join two relevant communities (Forum for Research in Language and Literacy, ResearchED) and attend their meetings on a regular basis and interact with target groups via social media. The formed links will be strengthened by organising a workshop on the role of morphology in reading and spelling (for both academic and non-academic audiences) toward the end of the grant. A test bed for evaluating novel interventions will be in place by the end of this fellowship, which will enable a smooth transition of this project to the next phase and secure maximal impact in the future.