Psychology 2013. Vol.4, No.12, 1018-1026 Published Online December 2013 in SciRes (http://www.scirp.org/journal/psych) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/psych.2013.412148 Open Access 1018 Investigating Cognitive Processes Underlying Reading in Arabic: Evidence from Typical and Poor Reading Performance Haitham Taha1,2 1The Cognitive Lab for Reading and Learning-Sakhnin College for Teachers’ Education, Sakhnin, Israel 2Safra Brain Research Center for Learning Disabilities-Haifa University, Haifa, Israel Email: htaha@macam.ac.il Received August 23rd, 2103; revised September 27th, 2013; accepted October 24th, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Haitham Taha. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attri- bution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. In accordance of the Creative Commons Attribution License all Copyrights © 2013 are reserved for SCIRP and the owner of the intellectual property Haitham Taha. All Copyright © 2013 are guarded by law and by SCIRP as a guardian. The current study has examined by which cognitive factors at the field of phonological and visual proc- essing, rapid automatized naming and morphological awareness, contribute to reading and decoding abili- ties among typical and poor native Arabic readers. In the current study, the performances of two groups of participants, typical and poor readers were compared through tasks that examined their performance with regard to the areas of functions mentioned above in addition to other tasks that examined their perform- ance in reading meaningful and pseudo words. The study’s results have indicated that the visual and pho- nological processing skills play an important role in reading among typical and poor readers as well. Moreover, it was found that the visual and phonological processing skills of participants with poor read- ing skills were lower in comparison to participants with typical reading abilities. Keywords: Phonological Processing; Morphological Processing; Visual Processing; R.A.N; Arabic Orthography Introduction The process of reading acquisition is regarded as complex and relies on the development of various cognitive processes. Many researchers suggest that during the process of reading acquisition, the reader learns the written representation of the phonemes of which the spoken words are composed, as during the process of reading, the reader can decode these phonemes according to the graphemes that represent them (Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). The reader can correctly pronounce written words through processes of sequential blending (Adams, 1990; Bradely & Bryant, 1978; Coltheart, 2005; Lundberg, Olofsson, & Wall, 1980; Snowling, 2001; Stanovich, 1986; Treiman, 1993). Many researchers also suggest that normal development of phonological processing skills, such as phonemic segmentation and phonemic blending, is acquired as the reader enjoys a nor- mal phonological awareness regarding the speaking sounds which composed the spoken words (Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2004, 2006; Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Share, 1995; Snowling, Gou- landris, & Defty, 1996; Stanovich, 1988; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Those phonological proc- essing skills are found to be main contributor to reading acqui- sition in several alphabetic orthographies and are affected mu- tually by the exposure to print (Ziegler et al., 2010; Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Accordingly, the study at the field of the reading acquisition and its development discerns that among readers with difficulties, particularly those with reading disabil- ity, an inadequate performance in tasks that investigate phono- logical awareness was found (Snowling, 2001; Stanovich, 1986; Vellutino, Fletcher, Snowling, & Scanlon, 2004). Along with the previous assumption, Snowling (2001) sug- gests that heterogeneity between various readers concerning the control of the processes of phonological processing distin- guishes between the sub populations of readers in the extent of their reading skills. In addition, such heterogeneity illustrates that readers with reading disability suffer from inadequate de- velopment of processes of phonological processing, as the level of difficulty in reading among this group is measured by the extent of inadequacy in these processes of processing. Consistent with Snowling’s assumption, research evidence argues that individual differences in the processes of reading and spelling are related to the processes of phonological proc- essing (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Share, 1995; Snowling, Goulandris, & Defty, 1996; Stanovich, 1988; Wagner & Tor- gesen, 1987). Appropriately, different developmental models in reading development (for example: Ehri, 1999; Frith, 1985), suggest that formation of a skilled reader is a matter of a transition from logographic stage where the child can identify forms of words that are familiar in his/her surrounding as symbols (such as his/her name etc.) to the alphabetic stage where the reader learns the letter-sound relationship and that reading of words becomes a matter of a process of phonological decoding that basically relies on a phonemic processes of segmentation and blending according to the grapheme sequence (the letters) and
H. TAHA the pattern of the written word. By the repeated exposure to the patterns of words in the case of normal processes of reading and a normal development of the processes of decoding at the alphabetic stage, the child stores these patterns of words to which he/she was exposed during the process of reading. Con- sequently as children read these words again, they can more accurately and swiftly identify the pattern of the word accord- ing to its orthographic structure. This stage is called the ortho- graphic stage or the consolidated one (Ehri, 1999; Frith, 1985). Various researchers argue that in spite of the significant role of the phonological awareness in controlling the processes of reading, it is important to consider the contribution of other linguistic variables in achieving fluency in reading. In recent years, the research conducted in the field of reading acquisition highlights the importance of the morphological awareness and the development of the morphological lexicon among readers for the purpose of a normal acquisition of reading skills (Ben- Dror, Bentin, & Frost, 1995; Elbro & Arnbak, 1996; Levin, Ravid, & Rapaport, 2001; Nunes & Bryant, 2009; Ravid, 2001; Senechal, 2000; Taha & Siaegh-Haddad, submitted; Treiman & Bourassa, 2000). The results of the studies that examined the reading acquisition among novice readers indicated that chil- dren eventually have a good intuitive knowledge regarding the morphology of the language (Clark & Hecht, 1982). Accord- ingly, Carlisle (1995) points out that the extent of the morpho- logical awareness at kindergarten years, which was measured by tasks of morphological differentiation successfully predicts the ability in reading comprehension at the second grade. In other words, the morphological awareness strengthens the skills that are related to reading such as the identification of words and even meta-linguistic ability such as reading comprehension (Tong et al., 2011). In addition, consistent with the approach which suggests that individual differences in reading abilities are produced as a result of a variation in the extent of the control of the processes of phonological processing (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Share, 1995; Snowling, Goulandis, & Defty, 1996; Stanovich, 1988; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987), other researchers suggest that dif- ferences in the processes of morphological processing and morphological awareness contribute to inter-personal differ- ences in the processes of literacy skills (Nunes, Bryant, & Lindman, 2006; Rubin, 1991). Other researchers argue that in addition to the contribution of processes of phonological and morphological processing to reading, other processes also predict reading such as automati- zation and the speed of retrieval and naming, particularly pho- nological naming to repeated visually presented forms (Denckla & Cutting, 1999; Wolf, Bowers, & Biddle, 2000). The argu- ment of researchers who advocate the approach of the speed of retrieval and naming indicates that the process of phonological naming according to visual labels as measured in tasks of rapid naming (Denckla & Rudel, 1974), is sort of analogy to the process of reading in which the reader is required to match the sound to the visual clue (The letter or the written form of words). On the other hand, such tasks can predict the success in the acquisition of skills of decoding and letter-sound relation- ship in the process of reading (Bowers & Newby-Clark, 2002). However, for the process of verbal retrieval according to the visual labels to occur, the verbal and visual processes need to occur simultaneously, a situation similar to the process of read- ing written words (for more details, see Breznitz, 2006). This process of timing or “synchronization” between the phonologi- cal processes and the processes of visual processing of the forms of word is considered as a fundamental process, as it may enable the reader to read words efficiently. Breznitz (2006) argues that the lack of synchronization between the processes certainly leads to a loss of the phonological and visual knowl- edge needed for reading words due to the limitation of the working memory. Therefore, there is a need for a “quick” work on this synchronized system to prevent inconsistency between the visual and phonological processes as the outcome could be a difficulty in reading words. This pace of work is called speed of processing (SOP) (Breznitz, 2006). Eventually, it can be inferred that similar to explanations about the variation in the reading ability based on the approach of phonological processing, mentioned above, and the approach of morphological processing and the speed of retrieval, SOP indicates that variation in the speed of processing is a possible source for variation in reading ability since it is a possible rea- son for disability in synchronization between the processes during the processing of words. The processes of synchroniza- tion deal with the visual-phonological synchronization in the process of processing of words, though other researchers argue that the processes of visual processing are at the center of proc- esses of reading and proved significant and distinctive in iden- tifying normal readers and readers with difficulties (Everatt et al., 1999; Heiervang & Hugdahl, 2003; Jaœkowski & Rusiak, 2005). A central research approach at the field of psychology of reading indicates that these processes of phonological decoding that occur during identification of words and the processing of the patterns of written words are directed through the resources of visual attention that need to be sufficiently available during the process (for more details, see Everatt, 1999). During read- ing, the process of words identification starts with the visual processing of the orthographic form of words. The eyes scan the written form through a series of movements of fixation and saccades. As the eyes are fixed on the word during the scanning, the situation is called fixation and as the eyes move toward the following word, the situation is called saccadic movement. These two movements of the eyes, fixation and saccades, play a significant role in centering the pattern of the scanned word at the fovea, the eye’s most sensitive position, for the purpose of increasing the possibility that the word will be processed to the maximum. The success of the process of visual scanning neces- sitates mobilization of sufficient resources of visual attention. On the other hand, research on the psychology of reading indi- cates that disabilities in the processes of visual attention disturb the movements of the eyes during the process of reading of words (Everatt, et al., 1999; Heiervang & Hugdahl, 2003; Jaœkowski & Rusiak, 2005). Besides, the research in the field of psychophysiology and neuropsychology indicates that the visual areas at parietal lobes of the brain are related to focusing the movements of the eyes and to processes of visual attention (Glickstein, 2000; Goodale & Milner, 2004; Milner & Goodale, 1995). Beside, Kinsey et al., (2004) argue that the function of visual attention is particularly important during reading new words and pseudo words. The failure of readers with reading disability in reading pseudo words can be attributed to their failure in processes of visual processing of the written words’ orthographic form (Heiervang & Hugdahl, 2003). This failure in the processes of processing that rely on proc- esses of visual attention during reading leads to failure in de- Open Access 1019
H. TAHA tecting the position of the letter in the word, a thing that leads to reading errors of letters transposition and migration (Friedman & Gvion, 2001). Studies that compared the performances of readers with reading disability versus normal readers in tasks that examined the processes of visual attention and spatial processing indicated that readers with reading disability achieved lower performance than readers with normal reading ability (Facoetti & Turatto, 2000; Vidyasagar & Pammer, 1999). Consistent with the above mentioned review, it can be indi- cated that the research regarding the study of reading acquisi- tion and the skills of recognition of words emphasizes the de- velopment of a variety of cognitive process. Accordingly and in light of the abovementioned review, the current study seeks to investigate by which phonological processing, automatized na- ming, morphological awareness and visual processes contribute to the ability of reading new unfamiliar words as well as famil- iar words in Arabic orthography which has unique characteris- tics. Hence, this study tries to identify the implications of the unique orthographic and linguistic characteristics of the written Arabic language on the cognitive processes related to the read- ing process. Reading in Arabic Orthography Studies in the field of reading in Arabic orthography argue that the process of phonological processing is significantly related to the processes of reading in Arabic orthography (Abu- Rabia, 2001, 1997a, 1997b, 2007). Furthermore, other re- searchers argue that the development of phonological aware- ness, at the center of the processes of phonological processing, among native Arab readers is highly influenced from diglossia; a situation that may be clearly manifested during the acquisition of reading and spelling (Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2005; Saiegh- Haddad, 2003, 2004). In unique linguistic situation of the Ara- bic language, the distance within different linguistic domains between the spoken language and dialect to the written lan- guage acquired by children at the formal framework of school is a classic situation of diglossia (Ayari, 1996; Ferguson, 1959; Taha, 2013). Other studies also suggest that process of mor- phological processing have high importance regarding control- ling processes of reading at the Arabic orthographic system, due to the morphological richness of the Arabic language (for more details, see Abu-Rabia, 2007; Abu-Rabia & Taha, 2005; Taha, 2013). Beside to the specific linguistic features of the Arabic language and their effect on reading, recent studies suggest that the specific orthographic features of the written Arabic may affect the process of word recognition in Arabic (Ibrahim, Eviatar, & Aharon Peretz, 2002; Taha, Ibrahim, & Khateb, 2013). Two main unique features are account within this frame, the level of connectedness of the letters within the word and the existence of dots and vowelization marks above and below the letters within the written word. A former study conducted by Ibrahim, Eviatar and Aharon-Peretz (2002) showed that the orthographic structure of the Arabic language may decelerate the pace of the visual processing during reading. While other studies found that this effect of orthographic struc- ture on word recognition might be modulated by development and exposure to print (Khateb et al., Submitted). Yet, so far studies have not investigated the contribution of processes of visual processing and the speed of naming according to visual stimuli besides the contribution of the processes of phonologi- cal and morphological processing to the ability of reading and decoding, neither familiar nor unfamiliar words, in the Arabic language. Also, investigating the differences of the contribution of the abovementioned factors to reading among typical readers versus poor readers have not been conducted. It should be noted that a study conducted by Abu-Rabia, Share and Mansour, (2003) examined the processes of performance in tests of visual memory among typical readers and readers with reading dis- ability at the same chronologic age group and reading age and their contribution to reading words, as no differences were found in the performances of participant in the tests of visual memory. The study of Abu-Rabia and his colleagues focuses on examining the process of global and analytical visual memory but it does not directly focus on examining the processes of sequential visual scanning and search. While the process of orthographic processing of the orthographic words patterns relies on processes of visual scanning and processing and se- quential visual processing in addition to processes of visual identification. Accordingly, due to the fact of the orthographic complexity of the written Arabic, where letters shapes changes according to their position in the written form and according to the letters that precede and follow them. And due to the visual intensity that exists as a result of the vowelization marks above and under the letters within the written words. Accordingly, the current study assumes that the processes of visual sequential processing and distinction will have an essential contribution to achieving efficient processes of reading in the Arabic language beside to other cognitive abilities that were found to affect reading in Arabic like the phonological and morphological skills. In general, it is important to investigate the contribution of the different cognitive and linguistic skills that were reported during the abovementioned review on reading in Arabic or- thography among typical and poor readers. Methods Participants. 67 native Arab children studying at Arab school in north of Israel have participated in the study. The participants were divided into two groups according based on their performances in the test of reading words in context. From the first sample, children whose performance was below 70% at the task of reading meaningful words were defined as children with reading difficulties. The chosen words were regarded as highly frequent taken from pedagogical texts. A skilled reader can identify these words at a high level of accuracy (Taha & Saiegh-Haddad, Submitted). Thus readers whose percentage of accuracy in reading these words is below 70% can be regarded as reader with reading difficulty. The group of typical readers is those who achieve above 90% in reading meaningful words. The reading screening task included 60 meaningful punctuated words (α = 0.82). The group of poor readers included 11 boys and 21 girls whose age average was 12.04 (SD ± 0.29). The group of typical readers included 18 boys and 17 girls whose age average was 12.12 (SD ± 0.39) years old. All participants were from the middle class of socioeconomic status. The participants in the two groups took part in tasks that examined reading meaningful words, pseudo words, processes of phonological processing, automatic naming, orthographic and morphological awareness and processes of visual process- ing. Procedure. The testing procedures were conducted at the school in a quiet room dedicated specifically for the purpose of Open Access 1020
H. TAHA current study. Testing procedure took place during the regular school days of the week. Tests were conducted on a one-on-one basis. The order of the tests was counterbalanced across par- ticipants. Material and Stimuli Rapid Automatized Namin g ( R.A.N) (De n ck l a & Rudel, 1974) Naming of letters. A sheet of 5 Arabic letters, ten-times ran- domly repeated, was presented before the participants, who was asked to name the 50 letters at the fastest possible pace. Digit naming. A sheet of 5 digits, ten-times randomly re- peated was presented for each participant who was asked to name the 50 digits at the fastest possible pace. Naming of objects. A sheet of 5 pictures of objects ten-times randomly repeated was presented before each participant who was asked to name the 50 pictures at the fastest possible pace. Phonological Processing Phonemic Deletion. The test is composed from 20 items. Within each item of the test, words were presented Auditory before the participant who was eventually asked to omit a pho- neme from the word and pronounce the word without the omit- ted phoneme (α = 0.86). Phonemic Blending. The test is composed from 10 items. Within each item of the test, phonemes were presented before each participant who was asked to combine the phonemes se- quentially and to submit the produced word (α = 0.91). Short-term phonological memory. Series of digits was pre- sented before the participants who were asked to repeat the series again after hearing it through an immediate retrieval from their memory. Each item included two series with a same num- ber of digits. The series begins with two digits in the first item and for each additional item one digit to each series. Each par- ticipant score was calculated as the total number of the correct series were retrieved (α = 0.93). Phonological Working memory. Audio series of digits were presented before the participants who were asked eventually (after hearing the series) to repeat it again by an immediate retrieval from their memory but in an opposite order. Each item included two series. The series starts with two digits in the first item and in each additional item one digit for each series. Each participant score was calculated as the total number of the cor- rect series were retrieved (α = 0.91). Morphological Awareness Morphological decision task. This task included 15 items. Each item included five words, four of which are derived from the same root and the fifth word is morphologically different but phonologically and orthographically similar to the other four words. The participant was asked to identify and circle the word which is different concerning its morphological relation- ship (α = 0.85). Visual Proce ssing Visual Perception Test (Beery, 1997). The test included 27 items. Each item has a target image and a number of other im- ages below. The participant was asked to identify the image that exactly fit in with the target image using visual distinction processes. The level of the test’s difficulty was at an increasing pace. Visual search test of the diamond shape (Rudel, Denckla, & Broman, 1978). The participant was asked to mark the target image in a sheet that included a lot of distractors. The target image appeared 14 times randomly in the sheet. Visual search test of a series of digits (592) (Rudel, Denckla, & Broman, 1978). The participant was asked to mark the series of digits (592) in a sheet that included a lot of distractors (series from other digits). The target series appeared 14 times ran- domly in the sheet. Reading Tests Reading pseudo words. The participant was asked to read a list of 22 pseudo words connected according to common form in the Arabic orthography and conform to words at the age of orthographic exposure. The reader has never been exposed to these words, meaning that the words were regarded as new (α = 0.79). Reading meaningful words. The participant was asked to read a list that included 56 familiar, meaningful and fully-punc- tuated words. The words conformed to the level of difficulty and exposure according to the participant’s age (α = 0.85). Results Using the model of stepwise regression indicates that there is a significant correlation between the processes of visual dis- tinction as measured by the visual perception test and processes of visual search as measured by the test of searching the series of digits, but not by the test of visual searching of the visual shape, to reading meaningful and pseudo words. Calculating Person correlation indicates that in reading pseudo words there is a significant and positive correlation (r = 0.34, p < 0.01) with the processes of visual distinction measured through the Beery test. In addition, regarding the reading of pseudo words, a significant positive correlation was found with the processes of visual searching of the series of digits (r = 0.32, p < 0.01). Also concerning reading regular meaningful words, a signify- cant positive correlation was found with the performance in the task of visual distinction (r = 0.51, p < 0.001). In addition, a positive correlation was found with the performance in the test of visual searching for the series of digits (r = 0.34, p < 0.01). Significant correlation was found between the processes of phonological processing as examined in the tests of phonemic blending and phonemic omission to the processes of reading. A positive and significant correlation was found between the pro- cesses of phonemic blending and phonemic omission to reading pseudo words (r = 0.28, p < 0.05 and r = 0.5, p < 0.001 re- spectively). Also positive and significant correlation was found between the processes of phonemic blending and phonemic omission to reading meaningful and regular words (r = 0.5, p < 0.001 and r < 0.53, p < 0.001). A positive and significant correlation was also found be- tween the phonemic blending and working memory (r = 0.27, p < 0.03), in addition to the positive correlation that was found between the processes of phonemic omission and the processes of working memory (r = 0.4, p < 0.01). From the above analysis, based on the model of regression, it Open Access 1021
H. TAHA can be indicated that the variables which added to the regres- sion model explain 53% of the variance in the process of read- ing meaningful words beyond the two populations of the study (see Table 1). The first variable is the ability of phonemic dele- tion (R2 = 0.29). The second variable is the performance in the test of visual distinction of Beery (R2 = 0.12). The third vari- able is the search for symbols (diamond test) (R2 = 0.08) and the fourth is phonemic blending (R2 = 0.04). In reading pseudo words 31.6% of the explained variance was explained by the variables of phonemic omission (R2 = 0.244) as the second variable was the visual search for series of digits (R2 = 0.072) (see Tables 1 and 2). According to the analysis conducted separately on the two groups of readers regarding reading meaningful words, 34.2% of variance within the poor readers was explained significantly by phonemic blending and visual search of digits (R2 = 0.229, and R2 = 0.113 respectively). Besides, 49.5% of variance was found among the group of participants with typical reading abilities was significantly explained by the following variables; phonemic omission, naming of objects, naming of digits and working memory (R2 = 0.161, R = 0.116, R2 = 0.141, and R2 = 0.077 respectively) (see Tables 3 and 4). Regarding reading pseudo words, among the poor readers group 29.6% of variance was significantly explained by the phonemic omission and the visual search for digits (R2 = 0.194, and R2 = 0.102 respectively) Among the groups of readers with typical reading abilities, 32.6% of variance in reading pseudo words was significantly explained by working memory and object naming (R2 = 0.185 and R2 = 0.114 (see Tables 5 and 6). The analysis of variance indicated that there was a significant Table 1. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading words beyond to the both groups of participants. F R2 Change R2 Predictors 25** 0.29 0.29 Phonological Deletion 19.12** 0.12 0.37 Visual perception (distinction-Beery) 16.88** 0.08 0.45 Visual search-Diamond 14.57** 0.04 0.49 Visual search-592 **p < 0.001. Table 2. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading pseudo words beyond to the both groups of participants. F R2 Change R2 Predictors 20.98** 0.244 0.24 Phonological Deletion 14.75** 0.072 0.31 Visual search-592 **p < 0.001. Table 3. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading words within poor readers group. F R2 Change R2 Predictors 8.8* 0.229 0.229 Phonological Blending 7.55* 0.113 0.342 Visual search-(592) *p < 0.05. Table 4. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading words among typical readers group. F R2 ChangeR2 Predictors 6.31* 0.161 0.161 Phonological deletion 6.11* 0.116 0.277 Speed naming of objects (R.A.N) 7.41* 0.141 0.418 Visual search-592 7.36* 0.077 0.495 Phonological working memory *p < 0.05, Abbreviation: R.A.N (Rapid Automatized Naming). Table 5. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading pseudo words among poor readers group. F R2 ChangeR2 Predictors 7.2* 0.194 0.194 Phonological deletion 6.1* 0.102 0.296 Visual search-(592) *p < 0.05. Table 6. Stepwise Regression Analysis results of predictors for reading psuedo words among typical readers group. F R2 Change R2 Predictors 7.49* 0.185 0.418 Phonological working memory 7.74* 0.141 0.495 Speed naming of objects (R.A.N) *p < 0.05, Abbreviation: R.A.N (Rapid Automatized Naming). difference between the group of typical readers and the group of poor readers in reading pseudo words [F(1, 65) = 32.62, p <0.001] (see Table 7). In addition such significant difference was also found between the two groups of participants in read- ing meaningful words [F(1, 65) = 64.38, p < 0.001]. Also a significant difference was found between the two groups in the performance in the tests of phonological processes that include phonemic blending and phonemic omission [F(1 , 65) = 5.71, p < 0.05, and F(1, 65) = 10.43, p < 0.05]. Also the difference was significant between the two groups in the performance of the working memory test [F(1, 65) = 7.047, p= 0.01]. The analysis of variance for the performance in the tests of visual processing indicated a significant difference between the two groups of participants in the test of visual search for series of digits and the visual distinction as was tested by the visual perception test [ F(1, 65) = 5.4, p < 0.05 and F(1 ,65)= 23.45, p < 0.01]. Discussion The study’s findings clearly indicate that visual processing capacities and variables relevant to processes of phonemic pro- cessing predict reading in Arabic. Visual processing capacities that have been basically examined through tasks of visual dis- tinction and visual scanning and search have significant corre- lation with the ability of reading pseudo words and meaningful words as well. Yet, it can be indicated that the correlation be- tween the processes of visual distinction and reading meaning- ful words is higher than the correlation with reading pseudo words, but still, the correlations are significant. It can be in- ferred that reading pseudo words highly rests on the processes of phonological processing, generally on the processes of pho- nological working memory that is required in the process of Open Access 1022
H. TAHA Table 7. Averages and standard deviation for the performances in the different tasks for each group of readers and the F value for the ANOVA be- tween the groups. Typical ReadersPoor Readers F valueSD M SD M Test n.s 7.3137.33 7.24 39.93R.A.N objects n.s 6.2326.88 4.34 27.42R.A.N letters n.s 4.6321.41 3.1 23.31R.A.N Digits 5.71* 0.9819.45 2.56 18.34Phonological blending 10.43** 1.8417.85 2.14 16.28Phonological deletion n.s 2.638.31 1.93 7.78Short-term phonological memory 7.05* 1.294.97 1.31 4.125Phonological working memory 32.62*** 1.4219.97 2.65 17.03Reading pseudowords 64.38*** 1.4153.14 5.65 45.21Reading words n.s 2.7 10.57 1.82 9.87Visual search (592) 5.39* 1.7312.25 2.23 11.12Visual search-Diamond 23.45*** 2.2 23.65 2.3 20.97Visual distinction (Beery) n.s 2.0813.8 2.04 13.31Morphological awareness *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, n.s = non significant. decoding during the reading of pseudo words in particular. Though, a significant correlation was found between the proc esses of distinction and visual processing to the process of reading pseudo words. This finding clearly indicates that read- ing unfamiliar words in Arabic orthography is associated with visual processing and processes of phonological processing. In reading regular words, a high and significant correlation was received between the processes of visual distinction and the processes of reading, as it was also found that the variable of visual distinction significantly explains part of the variation in reading regular meaningful words. The finding indicates that there is a significant reliance on processes of visual processing of the orthographic pattern of words during reading. Accord- ingly, among participants in the two groups, it was found that the processes of visual processing play an important role in identifying familiar words. This finding shows that the process of reading words visually integrates processes linked to the processing of orthographic structure and the processes of pho- nological processing. Various theories suggest that during the reading, there is synchronization between visual and phonological process, as an efficient synchronization which is the result of typical devel- opment of the processes of processing increases the probabili- ties that the process of reading and word identification will occur appropriately (Breznitz, 2006). The study's result shows that readers in Arabic orthography rely on processes of visual processing when reading orthographically regular and familiar words as well as new and unfamiliar words. The results also emphasize the significant difference between the group of par- ticipants with difficulties and the group of those who succeed in the performances related to tasks that examine visual process- ing. Similarly, significant difference was found between the two groups in task that examine phonological processing and phonological working memory that relates to processes of reading. this finding advocates the claim that interpersonal differences in reading abilities can be explained not only through differences in the processes of visual processing (Ever- att, 1999; Facoetti & Turatto, 2000; Vidyasagar & Pammer, 1999), but also, through differences in the processes of phono- logical processing, as many researchers have suggested (Snow- ling, 2001) More specifically, it can be suggested that in the case that the particular orthographic structure of the written word in the Ara- bic language places the reader under cognitive burden while performing the reading, a situation that necessitates him/her to try to invest visual resources for the sake of the task in addition to the processes of phonological processing that simultaneously occur (Ibrahim, Eviatar, & Aharon-Peretz, 2002; Taha & Khateb, Submitted). In the processes of synchronization terms, it can be indicated that a high level of synchronization between processes of visual and phonological processing is required by readers in the Arabic orthography for the purpose of an accurate reading. Regarding visual processing during the reading of words, it is acceptable to point at two basic eye movements that occur during the reading for the purpose of performing the visual scanning for the form of the written word. The processes of visual scanning are the first stage in the reception of the ortho- graphic form visually before the grapheme-phonemic transduc- tion happens. Performing the process in a controlled and se- quential way may increase the possibility that the reader will succeed to read appropriately. The study provides evidence for the importance of the processes of visual scanning and proc- essing during the reading. Yet, it is still interesting to examine whether there is sequential processing at the level of letters, while reading pseudo words, whereas the processing will be at the global level when reading familiar words. The study’s re- sults underscore that there is a positive correlation between the sequential visual scanning and the global distinction to reading pseudo words and familiar words. Yet it can be suggested that a specific answer to such question is to be received in a study that investigates the eye movements during reading pseudo and regular words. Besides, we cannot ignore the fact that the processes of pho- nological processing play a primary and essential role in read- ing and decoding familiar and unfamiliar words as well (Goswami & Bryant, 1990; Share, 1995; Snowling, Goulandris, & Defty, 1996; Stanovich, 1998; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). A specific look into the relation between the performances in the various tasks indicates that there is a significant correlation between the performance of tasks that examine phonological processing, phonemic omission and phonemic blending to the processes of phonological working memory. It can be sug- gested that the fact of the existence of this high correlation in the performance between tasks and the nature of these tasks indicates that the processes of phonological working memory are the primary factor on which the process of phonological processing relies and that tasks that examine processes of pho- nological processing, such as phonemic omission and phonemic blending, are actually tasks that examine phonological process- ing which basically relies on phonological working memory (Bradely & Bryant, 1987). This claim concerning the contribu- tion of processes of phonological processing to the processes of reading, in particular at the Arabic orthography, is advocated by various studies (Abu-Rabia, 1997a, 1997b, 2003, 2007). Simi- larly, other researchers suggest that the development of phono- logical awareness which constitutes a basis for the processes of phonological processing among native Arab readers is evi- dently influenced by diglossia, a situation that may be mani- fested during reading and writing acquisition particularly Open Access 1023
H. TAHA among children with difficulties (Saiegh-Haddad, 2003, 2004; Taha, 2013). The study’s results reveal that there is a significant difference in the ability of phonological processing between poor and typical readers. It can be suggested that the groups of readers with reading difficulties experience difficulty in the processes of phonological processing as a result of individual developmental factors and also due to the impact of diglossia on the development of the phonological awareness among this group. Consequently, the phonological structure of the literary Arabic language which is the language studied in reading and the distance between the literary and spoken language consti- tutes more burden on the typical development of the processes of phonological processing, specifically among people with poor developmental potential to this skill. The main cones- quences of such negative contribution of diglossia may be ob- viously manifested in difficulties in reading and decoding ac- quisition. Concerning the processes of visual processing in the same context, it can be suggested that variance in the processes of visual processing points at primary cognitive developmental difficulties that impede the success in reading, especially in orthographies that have complex structure. Moreover, the or- thographic structure of written words, specially, unfamiliar words that are not stored as consolidated orthographic patterns in the orthographic lexicon constitutes a burden during the pro- cesses of decoding, as processes of visual scanning and proc- essing of the word’s pattern are required. This situation of se- quential visual processing or visual distinction that can be called the processes of visual processing may become more complex and packed during reading, decoding and orthographic processing in Arabic language due to the complexity of its or- thographic features. Thus people with developmental difficult- ties in visual processing capacities may experience difficulties at a more significant level than those enjoying a normal func- tioning in these processes of processing. Thus based on the abovementioned analysis, the phonological status of the literary Arabic language and its orthographic status emphasize the de- velopmental cognitive abilities that set the basis for the acquisi- tion of reading skills I.e. the processes of phonological and visual processing. Besides, the current study examines the process of the speed of verbal retrieval according to grapheme, visual and numerical stimuli, the so-called “Rapid automatized naming”. However, there was no significant and sequential correlation between those processes and the processes of reading and decoding. It can bee seen that the primary components during reading in Arabic orthography are the processes of visual and phonologi- cal processing, as these processes are at the processing level and not only at the identification level. In other words, the ver- bal naming according to the visual stimulus basically rests on identification and retrieval, while the process of reading rests on variety of complex processing, specially reading in a com- plex orthography such as Arabic. Thus it is hard to confirm the claim that the processes of verbal naming according to the vis- ual label constitute pure analogy for the processes of reading (Denckla & Cutting, 1992; Wolf & Bowers, 1999; Wolf, Bow- ers, & Biddle, 2000). Yet it can be suggested that the speed of processing, especially the synchronization between the proc- esses of visual and phonological processing is responsible for reading accuracy (Breznitz, 2006). The speed of processing may bridge difficulties in the processes of working memory that are produced due to the cognitive burden during the proc- essing. The faster the processing is, the coordination between the two processing will be and the probability of reading accu- racy increases accordingly. Though this argument need to be further investigated through specific study. The study’s results reveal that the variable of morphological awareness does not have significant correlation with the per- formance in the reading tasks. Yet examination the task through which the morphological awareness is studied reveals that the task that basically examines morph-orthographic awareness and that the performance among the two populations was similar. The finding indicates that the nature of the task that examines morphological awareness through the reliance on processes of deduction of semantic links between words is not that task that purely examines morphological awareness, but rather, a task that examines awareness to semantic and morphological links between words, as participants was able to rely on the semantic links between words for the purpose of deduction of words that are not morphologically related to the rest of the words. Also, given that the reader is not aware to this linguistic fact, he/she can conclude that the word that does not semantically relate to the rests of the words is the odd word also if he/she does not enjoy a good morphological awareness. It can be inferred that the lack of the task’s specificity regarding the mission fails to accurately distinguish those with good morphological aware- ness and those whose morphological awareness is inadequate and even loses the sensitivity of distinction people with normal abilities and those with difficulties due to the reliance on se- mantic clues. Thus, it can be suggested that examining the morphological awareness should occur at various levels for the purpose of ensuring the examination of the skills in a complete way. In sum, the study’s results raise a very important point sug- gesting that the process of reading in Arabic orthography ne- cessitates normal functions of visual processing beside to the phonological processing abilities. This may make the process of orthographic visual processing more efficient either during a sequential decoding of new words or during the processes of identification of familiar words. REFERENCES Abu-Rabia, S. (1997a). 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