Abstract
It has been theorized that children learning to read identify, retain, and use regular spelling-to-sound vowel and consonant combinations to decode unknown words. Some research indicates that the use of letter combinations to mediate unknown words is developmental, and generated by reading experience. One hundred and seventy-seven first and second grade students were administered a reading achievement test and three spelling pattern tests of vowel combinations to determine if accelerated beginning readers learning to recognize words with and without formal instruction differ from average and low beginning readers in the kind and amount of grapheme-phoneme correspondences they can pronounce.
The data indicate that beginning readers with advanced word recognition skills may use different word mediation strategies, identify letter combinations that are rule related, and recognize spelling patterns that are defined as higher ordered correspondences. Previous method of instruction, age, and school did not influence test performance. Advanced readers at first and second grade induced more spelling patterns regardless of presentation. The study supports several contentions made by different theorists about how children learn to read, and specifically, endorses the position of Gibson (1971) that some form of perceptual learning occurs without intention and instruction as the child's reading experiences increase.