How semantic knowledge enhances word recognition? New evidence from struggling readers performances.

The current study examined the contribution of semantic knowledge to the process of reading aloud unfamiliar words among thirty non-typical readers from third grade. The performances of reading aloud were tested by using three lists of pseudowords: semantic, phonological, and un-trained. For each pseudoword in the list of semantic condition, an invented meaning was matched, and the participants orally trained to learn such invented meaning. For the list of the phonological condition, the participants were orally taught the pronunciation of the pseudowords only, while the third list of pseudowords was not trained at all. After the training phase, the subjects were examined by reading aloud the pseudowords which were presented randomly. For all lists of the pseudowords, there was no orthographic exposure before the reading trial. The findings showed that the higher levels of accuracy were significantly recorded for the semantic condition as compared to the other conditions, without a significant difference in the reading rate between all the conditions. The current findings were discussed in the context of the contribution of semantic activation to reading aloud of written words.