Phonological and Syntactic Processing in Models of Reading

This study discusses the models of reading with regard to the role of phonological and syntactic processing in the cognitive process of reading. Research literature indicates that syntactic and especially phonological processing are identified as critical factors for the explanation of many reading problems such as dyslexia. The main concern of this paper is to determine how critical these two components are with regard to reading problems and to decide which of them is more determinant in the explanation of reading problems. The other question is how the role of these two components is shown in the models of reading.

There are 2 main hypotheses explaining the role of phonological and syntactic awareness, accounting for the problems of reading. The 2 hypotheses are “processing limitation hypothesis” and “structural lag hypothesis”. The hypotheses are explained and the models of reading are discussed and analyzed with regard to them. The models which are investigated in this paper include word recognition models and the models of reading process in general. From among the word recognition models, dual-route models are chosen to be studied since, they are considered as the most crucial ones. The models of reading process also include bottom-up and top-down models, interactive-compensatory model, connectionist models, balanced model of reading, verbal efficiency and phonological capacity models.

Finally it is indicated that there is not a unitary model in which the role of both phonological and syntactic awareness is clearly defined. Depending on the practical objects of the models, they might focus either on phonological level of processing (e.g., Phonological Capacity Model) or syntactic level of processing (e.g., Balanced Model of Reading).