A criança, desde muito precoce, domina a linguagem sob forma de compreensão e produção, habilidades que ocorrem espontaneamente como parte de seu desenvolvimento; só mais tarde se torna capaz de controlar conscientemente os tratamentos lingüísticos que realiza. A essa capacidade se dá o nome de habilidade metalingüística, que deve ser diferenciada da simples possibilidade de linguagem. Todas as aquisições da criança comportam sempre “metaprocessos”, presentes em todos os níveis do desenvolvimento e não apenas tardiamente. Isto permite distinguir os “metaprocessos precoces” dos “metaprocessos tardios”, que se tornam disponíveis para a consciência e são verbalizáveis. Assim, as habilidades metalingüísticas ocorrem como resultados explícitos de aprendizagem, freqüentemente de natureza escolar. É objetivo desta pesquisa avaliar a eficácia de um programa de desenvolvimento de habilidades metafonológicas no Ambiente de aprendizagem “Realidade Suplementar”. A pesquisa foi realizada em três escolas do Ensino Fundamental, com quatro Classes de Recuperação de Ciclo da Rede Estadual. A amostra compõe-se de quatro Grupos de Controle (GCa.1; GCa.2 e GCb.1; GCb.2) e de dois Grupos de Intervenção (GI.1 e GI.2). Para se identificarem os alunos que compuseram os grupos, foram utilizados a Prova de Consciência Fonológica (PCF) e o Teste de Desempenho Escolar (TDE), aplicados a todos os alunos da sala. Após a determinação da média/mediana dos resultados compostos nos dois testes, foi separada a metade dos alunos que obtiveram resultados maiores que a média/mediana como sendo o GCa. A outra metade dos alunos, com rendimento inferior à média/mediana, foi dividida em dois subgrupos, sendo um quarto dos alunos da classe para o GCb, que não participam da intervenção, e o outro quarto para o GI, cujos alunos participariam da intervenção, através do programa de treinamento das habilidades metafonológicas no ambiente de aprendizagem de “Realidade Suplementar” (RS). A amostra total de 61 alunos foi distribuída assim: 27 alunos para o GCa, sendo (GCa.1 – 14 alunos e GCa.2 – 13 alunos), 18 alunos para o GCb, sendo (GCb.1 - 08 alunos e GCb.2 – 10 alunos); 16 alunos para o GI, sendo (GI.1 – 07 alunos e GI.2 – 09 alunos). Para a análise dos dados quantitativos, colhidos através da PCF e do TDE, foi utilizado o Pacote Estatístico SPSS. Os dados qualitativos foram submetidos à análise sociométrica. Os resultados obtidos através das análises estatísticas revelaram diferenças significativas na PCF e no TDE para o grupo de intervenção, na Realidade Suplementar, tanto no pós-teste em relação ao pré-teste, como na comparação com os Grupos de Controle, demonstrando a eficácia da mesma. / The child, since his/her early days, masters the language under both the shape of comprehension and production, abilities that come up spontaneously as part of its proper individual development for, only later on, he/she will be able to control with awareness, the linguistic treatments that he/she has been envolved. To this awareness capacity the name of metalinguitic ability comes up, which must be differentiated of the simple language possibilities. All of the child´s acquisition always become “metaprocesses” available at every level of the infant development, not just something about to happen later on.This situation permits us distinguish the “precoucious metaprocesses” from the “ retarded ones”, those which become available for both conscience and verbalization attitudes. Thus, the metalinguistic skills occur as a result of explicit apprenticeship, frequently derived of a schooling nature. It is objective of this research to evaluate the effectiveness of a Program of metaphonological skills development performed in learning environments of the sort “Suplementary Reality”. The research was achieved at 3 Fundamental Schools holding 4 Recuperation Classes in the Cycle at given State School network.The sample is made up of 4 Groups of Control (GCa.1; GCa.2; and Gcb.1; GCb.2) and 2 Groups of Intervention(GI.1 and GI. 2). For the identification of the students who shared these groups, both the Phonological Awareness Proof (PCF) and The Schooling Performance Test(TDE) were applied to every single student in the classroom. Shortly after that both the average/median were obtained based on both tests , the half of the students who held better achievement scores than the average/median were named GCa. The other half of students, holding an inferior yielding regarding the average/median was devided into 2 subgroups, being that one fourth of students in the classroom was named GCb, that is, to those that did not partake in the intervention, and another quarter to the GI, those who would be sharing the intervention later on, via the Program of Metaphological Skills abilities in the learning environment of Suplementary Reality(RS). The total sample of 61 students was distributed as follows: 27 students for the GCa, being (GCa.1 – 14 students and GCa.2 – 13 students), 18 students to the GCb being ( GCb 8 students and GCb.2 – 10 students), 16 students at GI being (GI.1 – 7 students and GI.2 –9 students). For the analysis of the quantitative data that were collected via (PCF – TDE), it was used the Statistical Package SPSS. On the other hand, the qualitative data were submitted to a sociometric analysis. The results obtained through the statistical analysis revealed significative differences at the PCF, at the TDE, that is, for the Intervention Group, at the Supplemetary Reality, as well as at after –testing regarding the pre-testing, as well while comparing the same values with other groups of control, the effectiveness showed to be the same

JUSTINO, M. I. S. V. Efeitos do reforço escolar numa abordagem fônica em alunos do ensino fundamental com graves defasagens na alfabetização. 2010. 156 p. Dissertação (Mestrado) Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto. Apesar das mudanças implantadas na política, currículo e metodologia educacional nos últimos dez anos, os resultados de avaliações do rendimento escolar dos alunos do ensino básico, em nível nacional e estadual, têm indicado sérios problemas no que se refere à aprendizagem das competências básicas de leitura e escrita. No contexto dessa problemática, o presente estudo buscou avaliar os efeitos de uma intervenção de reforço escolar, baseada no desenvolvimento da consciência fonológica e no ensino explícito da correspondência entre grafemas e fonemas, sobre a aprendizagem da leitura e escrita de um grupo de alunos do Ensino Fundamental ciclos I e II, com graves defasagens na alfabetização. Participaram do estudo 31 alunos, com idade entre 09 e 21 anos, de ambos os sexos, cursando da 4ª à 8ª série do Ensino Fundamental, de uma escola pública da periferia de Ribeirão Preto, em São Paulo. A pesquisa foi composta por quatro fases: inicialmente foi realizada uma avaliação diagnóstica coletiva das habilidades de leitura e escrita, com todos os alunos de 4ª a 8ª séries da referida escola. Aqueles apresentando dificuldades na alfabetização foram avaliados individualmente, no pré-teste, em provas de conhecimento de letras, consciência fonológica, leitura e escrita de palavras, sendo encaminhados para a intervenção 31 alunos com graves defasagens em termos de alfabetização. As atividades de reforço escolar foram desenvolvidas coletivamente, em duas aulas semanais, de duas horas cada, durante 10 meses. No final da intervenção foi realizado o pós-teste, com a reavaliação das mesmas habilidades do pré-teste, de modo a analisar os efeitos sobre a aprendizagem da leitura e escrita. As análises estatísticas mostraram diferenças significativas entre o pré e o pós-teste para todas as habilidades avaliadas. Dos 31 participantes do reforço escolar, em apenas seis alunos não se observou evolução do pré para o pós-teste. Os outros 25 alunos avançaram significativamente na aprendizagem da leitura e da escrita, concluindo-se que a intervenção mostrou-se eficaz para a superação das dificuldades de alfabetização para a maior parte dos alunos vítimas de fracasso escolar. / JUSTINO, M. I. S. V. Effects of tutoring in phonics approach in elementary school students with serious gaps in literacy. 2010. 156 p. Masters dissertation Ribeirão Preto School of Philosophy, Sciences and Literature USP. Despite the changes implemented in policy, curriculum and instructional methodology in the last ten years, the results of evaluations of the performance of pupils in basic education, in national and state levels, have indicated serious problems at learning basic skills in reading and writing. In the context of this issue, this study sought to evaluate the effects of an intervention to enhance these skills, starting at the development of phonological awareness and explicit teaching of the correspondence between graphemes and phonemes, in a group of students of elementary school cycles I and II, with serious gaps in literacy. This study involved 31 students, aged between 09 and 21 years, of both sexes, attending the 4th to 8th grades, in a public elementary school on the outskirts at Ribeirão Preto, in São Paulo. The research comprised four stages: initially a collective diagnostic evaluation was performed to assess the skills of reading and writing of all students from 4th to 8th grades of that school. Those having difficulties in literacy were assessed individually in the pre-test in letter knowledge, phonological awareness, reading and writing words, and 31 students with serious gaps in terms of literacy were sent to the intervention. Tutoring activities were developed collectively in two weekly classes of two hours each, for 10 months. At the end of the intervention was performed post-test, with a reassessment of the same abilities of the pre-test in order to analyze the effects on reading and writing skills. The statistical analysis showed significant differences between pre and post test for all abilities evaluated. Among the 31 participants only in six students we have not observed great changes between the pre and post-test. The other 25 students made significant progress in reading and writing, concluding that the was effective in overcoming the difficulties in literacy for most students who are victims of school failure.

Pessoas com fissura lábio palatina apresentam alterações na acuidade auditiva por um grande período de suas vidas, ou por toda vida, devido à constante disfunção tubária, que acarreta a otite média, impedindo assim uma recepção adequada dos sons da fala. Influência de otite média durante a infância é uma das características que está associada com o distúrbio de aprendizagem e transtornos de processamento auditivo. A consciência fonológica envolve o reconhecimento de que as palavras são formadas por diferentes sons que podem ser manipulados, abrangendo além da capacidade de reflexão (constatar e comparar), também a de operação com fonemas, sílabas, rimas e aliterações (contar, segmentar, unir, adicionar, suprimir, substituir e transpor). O objetivo principal deste trabalho foi estudar a associação entre a consciência fonológica e o processamento temporal em crianças com fissura labiopalatina. Foram avaliadas 41 crianças de ambos os sexos, com idades entre 7 anos e 10 anos e 11 meses, com fissura labiopalatina transforame unilateral, sem outras anomalias associadas ou síndromes. As crianças foram submetidas ao teste de processamento temporal Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT) e a avaliação de consciência fonológica CONFIAS adaptada com figuras. Os resultados indicaram não haver associação, nesta amostra, entre a consciência fonológica e o processamento temporal. Porem outros estudos devem ser realizados com um número maior de crianças na amostra. / Persons with cleft lip and palate presents alterations in the auditory sharpness by a big period of his lives, or by all life, because the constant tube dysfunction, that causes otitis media, stopping like this an adequate reception of the sounds of the speak. Influence of the otitis media during the childhood is one of the characteristics that is associated with the disturbance of learning and auditory process disorders. The phonological awareness involves the recognition of that the words are graduates by different sounds that can be manipulated, including beyond the capacity of reflection (establish and compare), also the operation with phonemes, syllables, rhymes and alliterations (count, segment, unite, add, suppress, replace and transpose). The main objective of this work was study the association between the phonological awareness and the temporal processing in childrens with cleft lip and palate.The work counted on 41 children of both sexes, with ages between 7 years and 10years and 11 monts, with cleft lip and palate, without other anomalies associated or syndromes. The children were submitted temporal processing test Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT) and the evaluation of the phonological awareness CONFIAS, adapted with figures. The results showed there isnt association, in this sample, bettween the phonological awareness and the temporal processing. But others studies should be realized with more children in the sample.

O objetivo desse trabalho foi caracterizar as habilidades em consciência fonológica e o desempenho escolar em leitura e escrita de crianças soropositivas para o HIV, a fim de observar o desenvolvimento dessas habilidades de linguagem com a evolução do quadro clínico da Aids. A amostra estudada foi composta por vinte e seis crianças com idades variando entre sete e treze anos, de ambos os sexos, portadoras do HIV adquirido por transmissão vertical. Todas as crianças já haviam sido avaliadas em relação aos aspectos fonológicos da linguagem oral utilizando o ABFW - Teste de Linguagem Infantil, no ano de 2005. Em 2010 foi realizada avaliação da consciência fonológica, por meio do Teste CONFIAS - Consciência Fonológica: Instrumento de avaliação sequencial, do nível de leitura e escrita utilizando o TDE: Teste de desempenho escolar e, novamente, dos aspectos fonológicos utilizando o ABFW. Os dados obtidos foram associados com o estadiamento clínico e os marcadores imunovirológicos da Aids e com a avaliação fonológica realizada há cinco anos. Com base nos resultados dessa pesquisa pôde-se confirmar a relação entre a linguagem oral e o posterior desenvolvimento das habilidades linguísticas, pois, as crianças que apresentaram desvio fonológico, mesmo após sua superação, também apresentaram dificuldade no aprendizado da leitura e da escrita, corroborando com a hipótese do déficit fonológico como causa dos problemas de leitura e escrita. Além disso, é possível afirmar que crianças infectadas pelo HIV constituem um grupo de alto risco para alterações de linguagem escrita, leitura e consciência fonológica, e que estas alterações independem da gravidade do quadro clínico e do perfil imunovirológico da Aids. / The objective of the present study was to characterize the skills of phonological conscience and the reading and writing school performance of HIV-seropositive children in order to observe the development of these language skills during the clinical course of Aids. The study population consisted of 26 children of both genders ranging in age from seven to 13 years, with HIV acquired by vertical transmission. All children had already been evaluated in terms of the phonological aspects of oral language using the ABFW- Childhood Language test, in 2005. In 2010 they were evaluated in terms of phonological conscience using the CONFIAS Test Phonological Conscience: an instrument of sequential assessment, of reading and writing level using the TDE: School performance test and, again, of the phonological aspects using the ABFW. The data obtained were associated with clinical staging, with the immunovirological markers of Aids and with the phonological evaluation performed five years earlier. On the basis of the results of the present study, we may confirm the relation between oral language and the later development of linguistic skills, since the children who presented phonological deviation also presented difficulties in learning to read and write even after overcoming their condition, supporting the hypothesis of phonological deficit as a cause of the reading and writing problems. In addition, we may state that HIV-infected children represent a high risk group for changes in written language, reading and phonological conscience and that these changes do not depend on the severity of the clinical signs and symptoms or the immunovirological profile of Aids.

Le but de cette thèse est de mieux comprendre le phénomène de renforcement initial pour les voyelles du français : ses mécanismes de réalisations et sa fonction linguistique. Pour cela, cette thèse compare la réalisation acoustique et articulatoire (lèvres et menton) des voyelles orales du français /i, e, ɛ, a, y, ø, œ, u, o, ɔ/ en position strictement initiale de Groupe Intonatif et en position médiane de Groupe Intonatif. Le corpus a été enregistré par quatre locutrices avec deux appareils en simultané : une caméra pour l’analyse de l’aperture et l’étirement des lèvres et un appareil de capture mouvements (Qualisys) pour l’analyse articulatoire de la protrusion des lèvres et de l’abaissement du menton. Une étude acoustique a également été menée (formants, intensité, durée). Cette thèse montre que, d’une part, le renforcement initial modifie des caractéristiques phonétiques des voyelles qui peuvent contribuer, à renforcer les contrastes syntagmatiques en augmentant la sonorité de la voyelle: augmentation de l’aperture et l’étirement aux lèvres pour l’ensemble des voyelles et augmentation d’intensité acoustique pour la plupart. D’autre part, le renforcement initial renforce des caractéristiques acoustiques et articulatoires propres à chaque voyelle. Ces variations contribuent à maximiser les contrastes paradigmatiques entre voyelles : soit par une maximisation de chacune des valeurs du contraste ([+F] et [-F]), soit par une maximisation d’une des deux valeurs du contraste ([+F] ou [-F]). / The goal of this thesis is to better understand the phenomenon of domain-initial strengthening on French vowels: how it is realized and its linguistic function. We compare the acoustic and articulatory variations (on the lips and chin) of the French oral vowels /i, e, ɛ, a, y, ø, œ, u, o, ɔ/ in initial position of Intonational Phrase and in medial position of Intonational Phrase. The corpus was recorded by four female speakers with two different systems simultaneously. Lip aperture and lip width were analyzed from the video data and lip protrusion and lowering of the chin were captured by an optical motion capture system (Qualisys). An acoustic study was also conducted (formants, intensity, duration). Results show that initial strengthening affects phonetic properties of vowels which may contribute to enhance syntagmatic contrasts by increasing their sonority: increased lip aperture and width for all vowels, and increased acoustic intensity for most. Moreover, initial strengthening enhances vowel-specific acoustic and articulatory properties. Consequently, initial strengthening contributes to maximize paradigmatic contrasts between vowels, either by maximizing contrast of each of the values ([+F] and [-F]), either, or by maximizing the value of a single contrast ([+F] or [-F]).

The purpose of this study is to investigate students who struggle with their reading, from pre-school to first grade with the help of Bornholm test (it is important to know that the students have not been diagnosed, it may be due to early reading). The ambition is to know about and how the difficulties develop and how they perform on a new Bornholm test and a hearing comprehension test. The study is a follow-up and in-depth study of hearing comprehension and phonological awareness among students struggling with their reading. In order to fulfill the purpose, the following questions have been formulated: What parts of the Bornholm test showed the students difficulties? How does the result look after a new test is done to the same students in first grade? How do the same students perform on a hearing comprehension test? The results showed that these students had problems in four areas: to determine how many sounds a word consists of, to determine which word is the longest and phonem-graphem correspondence as well as understanding rimes. After six months, a new test was done that showed that eight out of ten students showed phonological development while two out of ten students still had difficulties. The hearing comprehension test performed by the students showed that the two students who still experienced difficulties with phonological development also had difficulties in replying the text in the correct order and finding their own statements. The students that showed a phonological development also performed well on the hearing comprehension test.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The aim of this work is to analyze the application of therapeutic models of phonetic and phonological base in order to overcome the consonant clusters simplification (CC) in children who perform compensatory lengthening in the CCV structure. The thesis of this study is that there is underlying phonological knowledge on the syllabic structure CCV in children who perform compensatory lengthening when this structure is not filled in a proper way. For this reason, the best therapeutic approach is the one that can help in the phonetic implementation rather than the phonological organization. Thus, the present research aims to verify the effects of different therapeutic approaches in relation to the production and stabilization of CC in the speech of children who perform the compensatory lengthening and simplify the CC. Besides, it aimed to verify the variants of the therapeutic process in the acquisition of the CCV structure. In order to perform this investigation, four children aged between 5:4 and 7:7 with phonological disorder, CC simplification, lateral and non lateral liquid and who performed the compensatory lengthening strategy were used. Two subjects were under phonetic/articulatory therapy while the others were under phonological therapy. The results showed that the children exposed to phonetic/articulatory therapy need less sessions to the acquisition of CC than the ones exposed to phonological therapy. It was observed that the smaller the degree of phonological disorder is, the bigger the chances of appropriate production of CC. Taking into consideration the obtained results, the thesis of this research may be confirmed since the phonetic/articulatory therapy propitiated quicker progress in relation to the CC stabilization when compared to the phonological therapy and benefit the production of the correct structure. / O tema do presente trabalho é a aplicação de modelos terapêuticos de base fonética e fonológica utilizados na superação da simplificação do onset complexo (OC) em crianças que realizam alongamento compensatório na estrutura CCV. A hipótese norteadora deste estudo é que há conhecimento fonológico subjacente a respeito da estrutura silábica CCV nas crianças que realizam o alongamento compensatório quando a estrutura ainda não é preenchida de forma adequada. Com isso, a abordagem terapêutica que mais favoreceria às crianças que utilizam a referida estratégia seria aquela que auxiliasse na implementação fonética e não na organização fonológica. Assim, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo verificar os efeitos de diferentes abordagens terapêuticas em relação à produção e estabilização do OC na fala de crianças que utilizam a estratégia de alongamento compensatório e simplificam o OC. Além disso, objetivou-se verificar as variáveis intervenientes no processo terapêutico na aquisição da estrutura CCV. Para tal investigação, foram selecionadas quatro crianças, com idade entre 5:4 e 7:7, com diagnóstico de desvio fonológico, que apresentavam simplificação do OC, possuíam a líquida lateral e nãolateral no seu inventário fonético e aplicavam estratégia de alongamento compensatório (verificada através da análise acústica). Dois sujeitos receberam terapia com enfoque fonético/articulatório e dois receberam terapia fonológica. Os resultados demonstraram que as crianças expostas à terapia fonética/articulatória precisam de menos sessões para a aquisição do OC do que aquelas expostas à terapia fonológica. Além disso, a abordagem fonética se mostrou favorecedora na realização correta da estrutura CCV. Dentre as variáveis relevantes durante o processo terapêutico para aquisição do OC, observou-se que quanto menor o grau do desvio fonológico, maiores as chances de produção correta do OC. As palavras polissilábicas com OC formado por oclusiva velar vozeada e sílaba pré-pré-tônica também favorecem o processo de aquisição. Com os resultados, a hipótese norteadora da pesquisa parece ser confirmada, visto que a terapia fonética/articulatória proporcionou progressos mais rápidos quanto à estabilização do OC quando comparada à terapia fonológica, além de beneficiar a produção correta da estrutura.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate a number of factors that could affect the performance of an Arabic automatic speech understanding (ASU) system. The work described in this thesis belongs to the speech recognition (ASR) phase, but the fact that it is part of an ASU project rather than a stand-alone piece of work on ASR influences the way in which it will be carried out. Our main concern in this work is to determine the best way to exploit the phonological properties of the Arabic language in order to improve the performance of the speech recogniser. One of the main challenges facing the processing of Arabic is the effect of the local context, which induces changes in the phonetic representation of a given text, thereby causing the recognition engine to misclassifiy it. The proposed solution is to develop a set of language-dependent grapheme-to-allophone rules that can predict such allophonic variations and eventually provide a phonetic transcription that is sensitive to the local context for the ASR system. The novel aspect of this method is that the pronunciation of each word is extracted directly from a context-sensitive phonetic transcription rather than a predened dictionary that typically does not reect the actual pronunciation of the word. Besides investigating the boundary effect on pronunciation, the research also seeks to address the problem of Arabic's complex morphology. Two solutions are proposed to tackle this problem, namely, using underspecified phonetic transcription to build the system, and using phonemes instead of words to build the hidden markov models (HMMS). The research also seeks to investigate several technical settings that might have an effect on the system's performance. These include training on the sub-population to minimise the variation caused by training on the main undifferentiated population, as well as investigating the correlation between training size and performance of the ASR system.

Submitted by Ricardo Cedraz Duque Moliterno (ricardo.moliterno@uefs.br) on 2016-07-12T23:55:46Z No. of bitstreams: 1 disserta??o VF.pdf: 2056447 bytes, checksum: 8ef74deb9f7b016bc1bcb7b53c71b685 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-12T23:55:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 disserta??o VF.pdf: 2056447 bytes, checksum: 8ef74deb9f7b016bc1bcb7b53c71b685 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-23 / This study focused on the investigation of phonological awareness skills according to the stages of acquisition of written language, guided by the work of Ferreiro and Teberosky (1991). It is understood here that phonological awareness refers to the ability to manipulate the sounds of a language, and can be subdivided into various skills both syllabic and phonemic levels. The study included 24 students, 12 who have already attended the 2nd year; and 12, the 5th year. The population was divided into two groups, control and experimental, and divided by sex/gender, grade/year and performance in relation to the school year, according to the indication of the teachers from those classes. To evaluate the two groups, the standardized test CONFIAS - Consci?ncia Fonol?gica Instrumento de Avalia??o Sequencial (MOOJEN et alii, 2011) and a dictation of words and pseudowords prepared by Moreira (2009) were applied, in order to identify in which level the students fit. The objectives are: to describe the performance of children with and without difficulties in learning of written language who have attended the 2nd and the 5th years of elementary school in tasks of phonological awareness; to trace the acquisitional profile of the abilities of phonological awareness of children with or without difficulties in learning of written language who have already attended the 2nd and the 5th years of elementary school; to make a comparative analysis of the results in the evaluation of children without learning disabilities with the results in the evaluation of children with difficulties in learning of written language; to check whether the gender factor interferes in the performance of tasks of both groups; and identify possible strategies used by the subjects in an attempt to predict the proposed task. For this purpose, it was used as a theoretical framework the work of authors such as Lemle ([1985] 2009), Ferreiro and Teberosky (1991), Capovilla and Capovilla (2000), Navas and Santos (2002), Freitas (2004), Lamprecht et alii (2004), Morais (2007, 2012), Moreira (2009), Moojen et alii (2011), Pepe (2014), among others. The results show that, in all the investigated grades, the Group A showed superior performance in all tasks, when compared to the Group B. As for the hierarchy of tasks, it was found that those ones that involve syllables are mostly considered easier and are acquired before those ones that involve phonemes. Among the investigated variables, those that showed significance in relation to the dependent variable - having or not phonological awareness - were those ones related to tasks and informants. We have also identified 20 strategies used by the students in an attempt to adequately respond to the proposed activities. Thus, we see the relevance of this study to the educational and clinical field, to delimit educators from kindergarten and elementary school as the observance of the need for phonological awareness, and health professionals who work with children have learning difficulties, in order to direct the therapeutic proposal. / O presente estudo se concentrou na investiga??o das habilidades de consci?ncia fonol?gica de acordo com os est?gios de aquisi??o da l?ngua escrita, pautados no trabalho de Ferreiro e Teberosky (1991). Entende-se, aqui, que a consci?ncia fonol?gica refere-se ? capacidade de manipular os sons de uma l?ngua, e pode ser subdividida em v?rias habilidades tanto no n?vel sil?bico quanto no n?vel fon?mico. Tem-se como objetivos: descrever o desempenho de crian?as com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem da l?ngua escrita que frequentaram o 2? e o 5? anos do Ensino Fundamental em tarefas de consci?ncia fonol?gica; tra?ar o perfil aquisicional das habilidades de consci?ncia fonol?gica das crian?as com e sem dificuldades de aprendizagem da l?ngua escrita, que j? cursaram os 2? e 5? anos do Ensino Fundamental I; fazer uma an?lise comparativa dos resultados obtidos na avalia??o das crian?as sem dificuldades de aprendizagem com os resultados da avalia??o das crian?as com dificuldades de aprendizagem de l?ngua escrita; verificar se o fator sexo interfere no desempenho das tarefas de ambos os grupos; e identificar poss?veis estrat?gias utilizadas pelos sujeitos na tentativa de acertarem a tarefa proposta. Para tanto, foram utilizados como aporte te?rico os trabalhos de autores como Lemle ([1985] 2009), Ferreiro e Teberosky (1991), Capovilla e Capovilla (2000), Navas e Santos (2002), Freitas (2004), Lamprecht et alii (2004), Morais (2007, 2012), Moreira (2009), Moojen et alii (2011), Pepe (2014), entre outros. Participaram deste estudo 24 escolares, 12 que j? cursaram o 2? ano e 12 que j? cursaram o 5? ano. A popula??o foi dividida em dois grupos: A e B e subdividida por sexo/g?nero, s?rie/ano e desempenho em rela??o ? s?rie/ano, segundo indica??o dos professores. Para avaliar os dois grupos, foram aplicados o teste padronizado CONFIAS ? Consci?ncia Fonol?gica Instrumento de Avalia??o Sequencial (MOOJEN et alii, 2011) e um ditado de palavras e pseudopalavras elaborado por Moreira (2009), com o objetivo de identificar em qual n?vel de escrita se encontravam os escolares. Os resultados encontrados apontam que em todas as s?ries investigadas, o Grupo A apresentou desempenho superior, em todas as tarefas, quando comparado ao Grupo B. Quanto ? hierarquiza??o das tarefas, observou-se que as que envolvem s?labas, em sua maioria, s?o consideradas mais f?ceis e s?o adquiridas antes das que envolvem fonemas. Dentre as vari?veis investigadas, as que demonstraram signific?ncia em rela??o ? vari?vel dependente ? ter ou n?o consci?ncia fonol?gica ? foram as relacionadas ?s tarefas e aos informantes. Foram tamb?m identificadas 20 estrat?gias utilizadas pelos escolares na tentativa de responder adequadamente ? atividade proposta. Dessa forma, percebe-se a relev?ncia deste estudo para o campo educacional e cl?nico, no sentido de balizar os educadores da Educa??o Infantil e do Ensino Fundamental I quanto ? observ?ncia da necessidade de estimula??o da consci?ncia fonol?gica e os profissionais da sa?de que trabalham com crian?as que apresentam dificuldades de aprendizagem no sentido de direcionar a proposta terap?utica.

Similarity has been regarded as a primary means by which lexical representations are organized, and hence an important determinant of processing interactions between lexical items. A central question on lexical-semantics similarity is how it influences lexical processing. There have been much fewer investigations, however, on how lexical-semantic similarity might influence novel word learning. This dissertation work aimed to fill this gap by addressing one kind of lexical-semantic similarity, similarity among the novel words that are being learned concurrently (concurrent similarity), on the learning of phonological word forms. Importantly, it aimed to use tests that eliminated the real time processing confound at test so as to provide convincing evidence on whether learning was indeed affected by similarity. The first part of the dissertation addressed the effect of concurrent referent similarity on the learning of the phonological word forms. Experiment 1 used a naming test to provide evidence on the direction of the effect. Experiment 2 and Experiment 3 used the stem completion test and the recognition from mis-pronunciation test that controlled for real time processing between conditions. Then a 4-layer Hebbian Normalized Recurrent Network was also developed to provide even more convincing evidence on whether learning was affected (the connection weights). Consistently across the three tasks and the simulation, a detrimental effect of referent similarity on the phonological word form learning was revealed. The second part of the dissertation addressed the effect of cohort similarity on the learning of the phonological word forms. The recognition from mis-pronunciation on partial words was developed to control for real time processing between conditions so as to capture the effect of learning. We examined the effect of cohort similarity at different syllable positions and found a detrimental effect at the second syllable and non-effect at the third syllable. This is consistent with the previous finding that competition among cohorts diminishes as the stimulus is received, suggesting that the effect of cohort similarity depends on the status of competition dynamics among cohorts. The theoretical and methodological implications of this study are discussed.