This study examined the relationship between kindergarteners' ability to detect lexical ambiguities (words with multiple meanings) and later reading skills. 32 children were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group received training to identify homophones and ambiguous sentences, while the control group engaged in language activities without ambiguity. Pre- and post-training assessments measured ambiguity detection and reading levels. The study aims to determine if early ambiguity detection relates to later reading, and if training improves reading connections. Analyses will compare pre- and post-test ambiguity scores against standardized reading assessments for differences between experimental and control groups.

1. Literacy Outcomes for Children Trained to Detect Lexical Ambiguities
Odalys Centeno1, Liliana Sevilla1, Samantha Kienemund1, Margaret T. Kamowski-Shakibai1,2
Marymount Manhattan College1
City University of New York, Graduate Center2
INTRODUCTION
Background:
• Metalinguistic awareness is an ability to think about features
of language, which have been shown to contribute to reading
in different ways. For example, phonemic awareness and
decoding skills have been linked in past research. Specific
metalinguistic skills and reading comprehension have
recently been explored (e.g., Zipke, 2007).
• Metalinguisitc skills such as the ability to make
grammaticality judgments, to correct ungrammatical
sentences (Cairns, Schlisselberg, Waltzman, & McDaniel,
2006), detect humor (Zipke, 2009) and ambiguity detection
(Cairns, Waltzman & Schlisselberg, 2004; Zipke, 2007;
Zipke, Ehri, Cairns, 2009) have been shown to be related to
early reading comprehension abilities.
• Homophone detection and lexical ambiguity detection are
the abilities to determine that a word or phrase, respectively,
can have more than one meaning. For example, “The children
saw a bat lying by the fence” could mean that a baseball bat
or the animal bat is by the fence.
• The ability to detect homophones seems to emerge in first
grade, and the ability to detect the ambiguity of lexically
ambiguous sentences seems to appear in second grade.
• The ability to detect the ambiguity of lexically ambiguous
sentences appears to be a precursor of reading skill rather
than a result of successful reading (Cairns, Waltzman &
Schlisselberg, 2004).
• Kindergarten children were successfully trained to detect
homophones and lexically ambiguous sentences (Kamowski-
Shakibai, 2008).
Purpose:
• To determine the relationship of early lexical ambiguity
skills, pre- and post-training, with later reading skills.
Hypotheses:
• Children’s later reading measures will correlate with pre-
test Homophone Detection Task (HDT) scores from
kindergarten.
• Children’s later reading measures will not correlate with
pre-test Lexical Ambiguity Detection Task (LADT) scores
from kindergarten.
• Later reading scores will correlate with post-test
Homophone Detection Task (HDT) scores for the children
who participated in the training paradigm in kindergarten
but not for the children in the control group.
• Later reading scores will correlate with post-test Lexical
Ambiguity Detection Task (LADT) scores for the children
who participated in the training paradigm in kindergarten
but not for the children in the control group.
Discussion
• A relationship of kindergarteners’ pre-test HDT
scores to later reading measures could be a valuable
screening measure to detect reading difficulty during
the emerging literacy period.
• A relationship of post-test HDT and LADT scores to
later reading ability could promote an easily-
administered training paradigm to support later
literacy development.
METHODOLOGY
Participants
• 32 Typically-developing English-speaking kindergarten
children aged 5;5 to 6;6, with a mean age of 6;0 at the
start of testing
• Randomly divided into control and experimental groups.
• Groups did not differ on pretest measures
Training Pre-tests:
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (PPVT-III)
• Picture Matching Test (PMT)
• Homophone Detection Task (HDT)
• Lexical Ambiguity Detection Task (LADT)
Training:
• All children met with the experimenter for 20 minutes,
twice a week, for four weeks in small groups.
• Children in the experimental group (n=16) received
homophone and lexical ambiguity detection training.
• Children in the control group (n = 16) read stories and
played language-based games using vocabulary without
dual meanings.
Training Post-tests:
• PMT
• HDT (unfamiliar words)
• LADT (unfamiliar sentences)
Follow-up Materials
• DRA (II-I)- Developmental Reading Assessment is a
standardized reading test given to determine a student’s
instructional level in reading.
• iReady- Diagnostic and Instructional tool of web-based
assessment, and instruction to improve student
performance in both reading and math.
Stimuli HDT
Pre-test N/N Post-test N/N Pre-test N/V Post-test N/V
Cellar/Seller Steak/Stake Roll Ring
Bat Cold Read/Red Clothes/Close
Straw Pipe Rains/Reins Wait/Weight
Nails Horn Soar/Sore Meat/Meet
Tail/Tale Night/Knight Wave Punch
Prince/Prints Glasses Tow/Toe Blue/Blew
Son Bow Rock Tie
Plane Flour/Flower Rode/Road Sink
Email: ocenteno@mmm.edu
Practice Pre-Test Sentences LADT
The cup is on the table.
The woman sat on the trunk.
The lady’s shoes were on the couch.
He felt terrible after the punch.
Ambiguous Pre-Test Sentences
The cellar/seller was cold.
The children saw a bat lying by the fence.
The kids showed the man the straw.
The man’s nails were very sharp.
The long tale/tail frightened the boy.
The man saw the prints/prince in the desert.
The man and lady wanted a bright son/sun.
The cowboy was on the plane/plain.
Practice Post-Test Sentences LADT
The woman sat on the trunk.
The train stopped near a tree.
The turtles had spots on their shells.
He felt terrible after the punch.
Ambiguous Post-Test Sentences
The man went to the store to buy a steak/stake.
The cold made Betty feel terrible.
The man held the pipe.
The children touched the horn.
The night/knight came quickly.
The glasses fell on the floor and broke.
The boy picked up the bow.
The lady put the flour/flower on the table.
Analyses
• Language subtests of the DRA II and iReady tests will be compared to
the pre- and post-test scores on the HDT and LADT of all children.
• To compare pre-test HDT and LADT scores: All 32 children’s scores on the
standardized measures will be divided into 3 reading groups (highest scores
>1SD above the mean, lowest scores >1SD below the mean, and a middle
group whose scores fell between 1SD above or below the mean).
• To compare post-test HDT and LADT scores: The standardized scores of the
experimental and control groups will be separately divided into 3 groups (6
groups total).
• Mean lexical ambiguity detection scores and number of spontaneous
detections of each of the reading groups will be compared (Cairns et al. 2004).