Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-2pp2p Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T20:15:03.800Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Longitudinal predictors of Chinese word reading and spelling among elementary grade students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 August 2012

PUI-SZE YEUNG ,
CONNIE SUK-HAN HO ,
YAU-KAI WONG ,
DAVID WAI-OCK CHAN ,
KEVIN KIEN-HOA CHUNG  and
LAP-YAN LO
PUI-SZE YEUNG
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
CONNIE SUK-HAN HO*
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
YAU-KAI WONG
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
DAVID WAI-OCK CHAN
Affiliation:
Chinese University of Hong Kong
KEVIN KIEN-HOA CHUNG
Affiliation:
Hong Kong Institute of Education
LAP-YAN LO
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Connie Suk-Han Ho, Department of Psychology, Knowles 616A, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. E-mail: shhoc@hku.hk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The longitudinal predictive power of four important reading-related skills (phonological skills, rapid naming, orthographic skills, and morphological awareness) to Chinese word reading and writing to dictation (i.e., spelling) was examined in a 3-year longitudinal study among 251 Chinese elementary students. Rapid naming, orthographic skills, and morphological awareness assessed in Grade 1 were significant longitudinal predictors of Chinese word reading in Grades 1 to 4. As for word spelling, rapid naming was the only significant predictor across grades. Morphological awareness was a robust predictor of word spelling in Grade 1 only. Phonological skills and orthographic skills significantly predicted word spelling in Grades 2 and 4. After controlling for autoregressive effects, morphological awareness and orthographic skills were the significant longitudinal predictors of Chinese word reading and word spelling, respectively. These findings reflected the impacts of the Chinese orthography on children's reading and spelling development.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 34 , Issue 6 , November 2013 , pp. 1245 - 1277
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Aaron, P. G., & Joshi, R. M. (1992). Reading problems: Consultation and remediation. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Adams, M. J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Barker, T. A., Torgesen, J. K., & Wagner, R. K. (1992). The role of orthographic processing skills on five different reading tasks. Reading Research Quarterly, 27, 335–345.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berninger, V. (2004). Understanding the graphia in dysgraphia. In Dewey, D. & Tupper, D. (Eds.), Developmental motor disorders: A neuropsychological perspective. New York: Guilford Press.Google Scholar
Bowers, P. G., & Swanson, L. B. (1991). Naming speed deficits in reading disability: Multiple measures of a singular process. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 51, 195–219.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bowey, J. A., McGuigan, M., & Ruschena, A. (2005). On the association between serial naming speed for letters and digits and word-reading skill: Towards a developmental account. Journal of Research in Reading, 28, 400–422.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. E. (1983). Categorizing sounds and learning to read—a causal connection. Nature, 301, 419–421.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradley, L. L., & Bryant, P. E. (1985). Rhyme and reason in reading and spelling. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, G. D. A., & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.). (1994). Handbook of spelling: Theory, process, and application. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Bryant, P. E., & Bradley, L. (1980). Why children sometimes write words which they do not read. In Frith, U. (Ed.), Cognitive processes in spelling. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Bryant, P. E., & Bradley, L. (1983). Psychological strategies and the development of reading and writing. In Martlew, M. (Ed.), The psychology of written language. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Carlisle, J. F. (1995). Morphological awareness and early reading achievement. In Feldman, L. B. (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 189–209). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Castles, A., & Nation, K. (2006). How does orthographic learning happen? In Andrews, S. (Ed.), From inkmarks to ideas: Current issues in lexical processing (pp. 151–179). Hove: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Chan, D. W., Ho, C. S. H., Tsang, S. M., Lee, S. H., & Chung, K. K. H. (2006). Exploring the reading–writing connection in Chinese children with dyslexia in Hong Kong. Reading and Writing, 19, 543–561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan, M. Y. (1982). Statistics on the strokes of present-day Chinese script. Chinese Linguistics, 1, 299–305.Google Scholar
Chen, X., Anderson, R. C., Li, W. L., Hao, M. L., Wu, X. C., & Shu, H. (2004). Phonological awareness of bilingual and monolingual Chinese children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 142–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen, Y. P. (1993). Word recognition and reading in Chinese. PhD dissertation, Oxford University.Google Scholar
Cheung, K., & Bauer, R. S. (2002). The representation of Cantonese with Chinese characters. Journal of Chinese Linguistics Monograph Series, 18, 487.Google Scholar
Chung, F. H.-K., & Leung, M.-T. (2008). Data analysis of Chinese characters in primary school corpora of Hong Kong and mainland China: Preliminary theoretical interpretations. Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics, 22, 379–389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cunningham, A. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (1991). Tracking the unique effects of print exposure in children: Associations with vocabulary, general knowledge, and spelling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 264–274.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denckla, M. B., & Rudel, R. (1976). Rapid “automatized” naming (R. A. N.): Dyslexia differentiated from other learning disabilities. Neuropsychologia, 14, 471–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ehri, L. C. (1992). Reconceptualizing the development of sight word reading and its relationship to recoding. In Gough, P., Ehri, L., & Treiman, R. (Eds.), Reading acquisition (pp. 107–143). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Ehri, L., & Wilce, L. (1985). Movement into reading: Is the first stage of printed word learning visual or phonetic? Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 163–179.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fan, K. Y. (1986, September). Graphic symbol of Chinese character modernization. Paper presented at the Symposium of Chinese Character Modernization, Beijing.Google Scholar
Feldman, L. B., & Siok, W. W. T. (1999). Semantic radicals in phonetic compounds: Implications for visual character recognition in Chinese. In Wang, J., Inhoff, A. W., & Chen, H.-C. (Eds.), Reading Chinese script: A cognitive analysis (pp. 19–35). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Frith, U. (1980). Unexpected spelling problems. In Frith, U. (Ed.), Cognitive processes in spelling (pp. 495–515). Toronto: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Frith, U. (1985). Beneath the surface of developmental dyslexia. In Patterson, K. E., Marshall, J. C., & Coltheart, M. (Eds.), Surface dyslexia (pp. 301–330). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., & Baddeley, A. D. (1989). Evaluation of the role of phonological STM in the development of vocabulary in children: A longitudinal study. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 200–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., & Baddeley, A. D. (1991). Differentiating phonological memory and awareness of rhyme: Reading and vocabulary development in children. British Journal of Psychology, 82, 387–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gathercole, S. E., Willis, C., Emslie, H., & Baddeley, A. (1992). Phonological memory and vocabulary development during the early school years: A longitudinal study. Development Psychology, 28, 887–898.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gentry, J. R. (1982). An analysis of developmental spelling in GNYS at WRK. Reading Teacher, 36, 192–200.Google Scholar
Goswami, U., & Bryant, P. (1990). Phonological skills and learning to read. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Gough, P. B., & Hillinger, M. L. (1980). Learning to read: An unnatural act. Bulletin of the Orton Society, 30, 179–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, C. S.-H., & Bryant, P. (1997a). Learning to read Chinese beyond the logographic phase. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 276–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, C. S.-H., & Bryant, P. (1997b). Phonological skills are important in learning to read Chinese. Developmental Psychology, 33, 946–951.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ho, C. S.-H., Chan, D. W., Chung, K. K. H., Lee, S.-H., & Tsang, S.-M. (2007). In search of subtypes of Chinese developmental dyslexia. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 97, 61–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ho, C. S.-H., Chan, D. W.-O., Tsang, S.-M., & Lee, S.-H. (2000). The Hong Kong Test of Specific Learning Difficulties in Reading and Writing. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Specific Learning Difficulties Research Team.Google Scholar
Ho, C. S.-H., Chan, D. W.-O., Tsang, S.-M., & Lee, S.-H. (2002). The cognitive profile and multiple-deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Developmental Psychology, 38, 543–553.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ho, C. S.-H., Chan, D. W.-O., Tsang, S.-M., Lee, S.-H., & Luan, V. H. (2004). Cognitive profiling and preliminary subtyping in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 91, 43–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ho, C. S.-H., Ng, T. T., & Ng, W.-K. (2003). A “radical” approach to reading development in Chinese: The role of semantic radicals and phonetic radicals. Journal of Literacy Research, 35, 849–878.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ho, C. S.-H., Wong, W.-L., & Chan, W.-S. (1999). The use of orthographic analogies in learning to read Chinese. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40, 393–403.Google ScholarPubMed
Hoosain, R. (1991). Psycholinguistic implications for linguistic relativity: A case study of Chinese. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Hue, C. W. (1992). Recognition processes in character naming. In Chen, H. C. & Tzeng, O. J. L. (Eds.), Language processing in Chinese (pp. 93–107). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joshi, R. M., & Aaron, P. G. (2003). A new way of assessing spelling ability and its classroom implications. In Joshi, R. M., Leong, C. K., & Kaczmarek, B. L. J. (Eds.), Literacy acquisition: The role of phonology, morphology and orthography (pp. 153–161). Washington, DC: IOS Press.Google Scholar
Kang, J. S. (1993). Analysis of semantics of semantic-phonetics compound characters in modern Chinese. In Chen, Y. (Ed.), Information analysis of usage of characters in modern Chinese (pp. 66–83). Shanghai: Shanghai Education.Google Scholar
Kavale, K. A., & Forness, S. R. (2000). Auditory and visual perception processes and reading ability: A quantitative reanalysis and historical reinterpretation. Learning Disability Quarterly, 23, 253–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kwong, T. E., & Varnhagen, C. K. (2005). Strategy development and learning to spell new words: Generalization of a process. Developmental Psychology, 41, 148–159.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lee, C. Y., Tsai, J. L., Su, E. C., Tzeng, O. J. L., & Hung, D. L. (2005). Consistency, regularity, and frequency effects in naming Chinese characters. Language and Linguistics, 6, 75–107.Google Scholar
Lee, H. M. (Ed.). (2000). 常 用 字 字 形 表 [Commonly used Chinese character set]. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Institute of Education.Google ScholarPubMed
Lennox, C., & Siegel, L. S. (1993). Visual and phonological spelling errors in subtypes of children with learning disabilities. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14, 473–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lennox, C., & Siegel, L. S. (1994). The role of phonological and orthographic processes in learning to spell. In Brown, G. D. A. & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.), Handbook of spelling: Theory, process and intervention (pp. 93–109). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Lennox, C., & Siegel, L. S. (1996). The development of phonological rules and visual strategies in average and poor spellers. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 62, 60–83.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leung, M. T., & Lee, A. W. Y. (2002). The Hong Kong corpus of primary school Chinese. Paper presented at the 9th Meeting of the International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association, Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Li, W., Anderson, R. C., Nagy, W., & Zhang, H. (2002). Facets of metalinguistic awareness that contribute to Chinese literacy. In Li, W., Gaffney, J., & Packard, J. (Eds.), Chinese children's reading acquisition: Theoretical and pedagogical issues. London: Kluwer Academic.Google Scholar
Lo, L. Y., Yeung, P. S., Ho, C. S. H., Wong, Y. K., Chan, D. W., & Chung, K. K. H. (2010). The role of stroke knowledge in reading and spelling Chinese. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Manis, F. R., Doi, L. M., & Bhadha, B. (2000). Naming speed, phonological awareness, and orthographic knowledge in second graders. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 325–333.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marsh, G., Friedman, M., Welch, U., & Desberg, P. (1980). The development of strategies in spelling. In Frith, U. (Ed.), Cognitive processes in spelling (pp. 339–353). London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mason, J. (1980). When do children begin to read: An exploration of 4-year-old children's letter and word-reading competencies. Reading Research Quarterly, 15, 203–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., & Ho, C. S.-H. (2005). Predictors of beginning reading in Chinese and English: A 2-year longitudinal study of Chinese kindergartners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 117–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., Zhou, A., Wat, C. P., & Wagner, R. K. (2003). Morphological awareness uniquely predicts young children's Chinese character recognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95, 743–751.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McBride-Chang, C., Wagner, R. K., Muse, A., Chow, B. W. Y., & Shu, H. (2005). The role of morphological awareness in children's vocabulary acquisition in English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 415–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moats, L. C. (1995). Spelling: Development, disability, and instruction. Timonium, MD: York Press.Google Scholar
Packard, J. L. (2002). Metalinguistic awareness as a critical construct. In Li, W., Gaffney, J. S., & Packard, J. L. (Eds.), Chinese children's reading acquisition: Theoretical and pedagogical issues (pp. 107–111). Amsterdam: Kluwer.Google Scholar
Packard, J. L., Chen, X., Li, W., Wu, X., Gaffney, J. S., Li, H., et al. (2006). Explicit instruction in orthographic structure and word morphology helps Chinese children learn to write characters. Reading and Writing, 19, 457–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perfetti, C.A., Rieben, L., & Fayol, M. (Eds.). (1997). Learning to spell: Research, theory and practice across languages. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perfetti, C. A., & Tan, L. H. (1998). The time course of graphic, phonological, and semantic activation in Chinese character identification. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 24, 101–118.Google Scholar
Raven, J. C. (1958). Standard Progressive Matrices. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.Google Scholar
Rego, L. L. B., & Bryant, P. E. (1993). The connection between phonological, syntactic and semantic skills and children's reading and spelling. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 8, 235–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rittle-Johnson, B., & Siegler, R. S. (1999). Learning to spell: Variability, choice, and change in children's strategy use. Child Development, 70, 332–348.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roman, A. A., Kirby, J. R., Parrila, R. K., Wade-Woolley, L., & Deacon, S. H. (2009). Toward a comprehensive view of the skills involved in word reading in Grades 4, 6 and 8. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 96–113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shen, H. H., & Bear, D. R. (2000). Development of orthographic skills in Chinese children. Reading and Writing, 13, 197–236.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, H., Anderson, R. C., & Wu, N. (2000). Phonetic awareness: Knowledge of orthography–phonology relationships in the character acquisition of Chinese children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 56–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shu, H., Chen, X., Anderson, R. C., Wu, N., & Xuan, Y. (2003). Properties of school Chinese: Implications for learning to read. Child Development, 74, 27–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shu, H., McBride-Chang, C., Wu, S., & Liu, H. (2006). Understanding Chinese developmental dyslexia: Morphological awareness as a core cognitive construct. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 122–133.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegler, R. S. (1995). How does change occur: A microgenetic study of number conservation. Cognitive Psychology, 28, 225–273.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snowling, M. J. (1994). Towards a model of spelling acquisition: The development of some component skills. In Brown, G. D. A. & Ellis, N. C. (Eds.), Handbook of spelling: Theory, process and intervention (pp. 111–128). Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Sterling, C. M., & Robson, C. (Eds.). (1992). Psychology, spelling and education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Taft, M., Liu, Y., & Zhu, X. (1999). Morphemic processing in reading Chinese. In Wang, J., Inhoff, A., & Chen, H. C. (Eds.), Reading Chinese script: A cognitive analysis (pp. 91–113). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tong, X., McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., & Wong, A. M.-Y. (2009). Morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and spelling errors: Keys to understanding early Chinese literacy acquisition. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13, 426–452.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tunmer, W. E., & Chapman, J. W. (1998). Implicit and explicit processes in reading acquisition. In Kirsner, K., Speelman, C., Maybery, M., O'Brien-Malone, A., Anderson, M., & MacLeod, C. (Eds.), Implicit and explicit mental processes (pp. 357–370). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Upward, C. (1999). Anglo (-Japanese Non-) Dyslexia. Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society, 26, 30–31.Google Scholar
Varnhagen, C. K., McCallum, M., & Burstow, M. (1997). Is children's spelling naturally stage-like? Reading and Writing, 9, 451–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R. K., & Torgesen, J. K. (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 192–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., Rashotte, C. A., Hecht, S. A., Barker, T. A., Burgess, S. R., et al. (1997). Changing relations between phonological processing abilities and word-level reading as children develop from beginning to skilled readers: A 5-year longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 33, 468–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, M., Cheng, C. X., Chen, S. W. (2006). Contribution of morphological awareness to Chinese–English biliteracy acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 542–553.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yeung, P. S., Ho, C. S. H., Chik, P. P. M., Lo, L. Y., Luan, H., Chan, D. W. O., et al. (2011). Reading and spelling Chinese among beginning readers: What skills make a difference? Scientific Studies of Reading, 15, 285–313.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yin, L., Anderson, R. C., & Zhu, J. (2007). Stages in Chinese children's reading of English words. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 852–866.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Y. K. (1980). Precise guide to pronunciation with Chinese phonological roots [in Chinese]. Jilin, China: People's Publishing.Google Scholar
Zhu, Y. P. (1987). Analysis of cuing functions of the phonetic in modern China [in Chinese]. Shanghai: East China Normal University–Shanghai.Google Scholar