Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The role of vowels in reading Semitic scripts: Data from Arabic and Hebrew

  • Published:
Reading and Writing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of vowels and context on readingaccuracy of skilled adult native Arabic speakers in Arabic and inHebrew, their second language. Their reading comprehension was alsotested in Arabic and Hebrew texts as a function of vowels. Theparticipants (n = 65) read fully vowelized and unvowelized lists ofArabic words, and vowelized and unvowelized paragraphs of Arabic.Further, they, read pointed and unpointed lists of Hebrew words, andpointed and unpointed paragraphs of Hebrew. They were also administeredtwo stories, one in Arabic and one in Hebrew, in two reading conditions,a fully vowelized and unvowelized Arabic story and a pointed andunpointed Hebrew story. The results revealed a significant effect forvowels and for context across all reading conditions in Arabic andHebrew. The surprising result was that the vowelized texts in Arabic andthe pointed and unpointed texts in Hebrew were comprehendedsignificantly better. Further, Pearson correlation procedures andmultiple regression analysis indicated no positive significantrelationship between oral reading accuracy results and silent readingcomprehension results. These findings are explained throughcharacteristics of the Semitic languages Arabic and Hebrew, and thetriliteral/quadriliteral-root model is suggested toexplain reading in unvowelized/unpointed texts in Semitic languages.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1995). Learning to read in Arabic: Reading, syntactic, orthographic and working memory skills in normally achieving and poor Arabic readers, Reading Psychology: An International Quarterly 16: 351-394.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1996). The role of vowels and context in reading of highly skilled native Arabic readers, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 25: 629-641.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1997a). The need for cross-cultural considerations in reading theory: The effects of Arabic sentence context in skilled and poor readers, Journal of Research in Reading 20: 137-147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1997b). Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and isolated words, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 26: 465-482.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1997c). Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 9: 65-78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1998). Reading Arabic texts: Effects of text type, reader type and vowelization, Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal 10: 105-119.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. (1999). The effect of Arabic vowels on the reading comprehension of secondand sixth-grade native Arab children, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 28: 93-101.

    Google Scholar 

  • Abu-Rabia, S. &; Siegel, L.S. (1995). Different orthographies, different context effects: The effects of Arabic sentence context in skilled and poor readers, Reading Psychology: An International Quarterly 16: 1-19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alsman, G. (1973). The love of Gada Alsman. Beirut: Dar-Aladab.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ayari, S. (1996). Diglossia and illiteracy in the Arab world, Language, Culture and Curriculum 9: 243-253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Badry, F. (1983). Acquisition of lexical derivational rules in Moroccan Arabic: Implications for the development of standard Arabic as a second language through literacy. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Balota, R.A. &; Chumbley, J.I. (1984). Are lexical decisions a good measure of lexical access? The role of word frequency in the neglected decision stage, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 10: 340-357.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentin, S., Bargai, N. &; Katz, L. (1984). Orthographic and phonemic coding for lexical access: Evidence from Hebrew, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 10: 353-368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bentin, S. &; Frost, R. (1987). Processing lexical ambiguity and visual word recognition in a deep orthography, Memory and Cognition 25: 13-23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chumbley, J.I. &; Balota, D.A. (1984). A word's meaning affects the decision in lexical decision, Memory and Cognition 12: 590-606.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doret, A. (1994). Echoes and ghosts. Hakibbutz Hameuhad.

  • Feitelson, D., Goldstein, Z., Iraqi, G. &; Share, D. (1993). Effects of listening to story reading on aspects of literacy acquisition in a diglossic situation, Reading Research Quarterly 28: 71-79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frost, R. &; Bentin, S. (1992). Processing phonological and semantic ambiguity: Evidence from semantic priming at different SOAs, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition 18: 58-68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frost, R., Katz, L. &; Bentin, S. (1987). Strategies for visual word recognition and orthographic depth: A multilingual comparison, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 13: 104-114.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hanokh, L. (1992). A man stands behind a sitting woman. Hakibbutz Hameuhad.

  • Jobran, K. (1964). The writings of Jobran. Beirut: Dar-Alnasher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A. (1984). Reading without vowels: Lexical access in Hebrew. In H. Bouma &; D.G. Bouwhuis (eds.), Attention and performance X (pp. 1-15). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koriat, A. (1985). Lexical access for low and high frequency words in Hebrew, Memory and Cognition 13: 37-44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Navon, D. &; Shimron, Y. (1985). Source and function of phonological codes in processing written Hebrew: Final report to the U.S.-Israeli Binational Science Foundation. Haifa, Israel: University of Haifa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rumelhart, D. (1984). Understanding. In J. Food (ed.), Understanding reading comprehension (pp. 1-44). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seidenberg, M.S. &; McClelland, J.L. (1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming, Psychological Review 96: 523-568.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimron, J. (1993). The role of vowels in reading: A review of studies of English and Hebrew, Psychological Bulletin 114: 52-67.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimron, J. &; Sivan, T. (1994). Reading proficiency and orthography. Evidence from Hebrew and English, Language Learning 44: 5-27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. (1980) Toward an interactive-compensatory model of individual differences in the development of reading fluency, Reading Research Quarterly 16: 32-71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K.E. &; Feeman, D.J. (1981). A longitudinal study of sentence context effects in second-grade children: Tests of an interactive compensatory model, Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 32: 185-199.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Orden, G.C., Pennington, B.F. &; Stone, G.O. (1990). Word identification in reading and the promise of subsymbolic psycholinguistics, Psychological Review 97: 488-522.

    Google Scholar 

  • Venezky, R.L. (1970). The structure of English orthography. The Hague, The Netherlands: Mouton. ai]West, R.F. &; Stanovich, K.E. (1978) Automatic contextual facilitation in readers of three ages, Child Development 49: 717-727.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, 31905, Israel

    Salim Abu-Rabia

Authors
  1. Salim Abu-Rabia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Abu-Rabia, S. The role of vowels in reading Semitic scripts: Data from Arabic and Hebrew. Reading and Writing 14, 39–59 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008147606320

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008147606320

Search

Navigation