Orthographic-Phonological Mapping and the Emergence of Visual Expertise for Print: A Developmental Event-Related Potential Study

The N1 effect is an electrophysiological marker of visual specialization for print. The phonological mapping hypothesis (Maurer & McCandliss, 2007) posits that the left-lateralized effect reflects grapheme-phoneme integration. In this event-related potential study, first (age = 7.06 years, N = 32) and third-grade readers (age = 9.29 years, N = 28) were presented with pairs of pseudowords and Armenian character strings in a novel implicit same-different paradigm. To test the phonological mapping hypothesis, stimuli were presented in visual-only and audiovisual conditions. The results demonstrated that tuning for print already emerges in first grade. Moreover, the parallel presentation of auditory stimuli enhanced the N1 effect suggesting a role of orthographic-phonological mapping in the development of specialization for print.     

Learning to Read Words in Albanian: A Skill Easily Acquired

According to many views of literacy development, prereaders use a logographic approach when they attempt to link print and speech. If so, these children should find pairs in which the spelling–pronunciation links are consistent with their writing system no easier to learn than arbitrary pairs. We tested this idea by comparing the ability of U.S. prereaders (M age = 4 years 9 months) to learn phonetically motivated pairs like AP–ape and MA–may and arbitrary pairs like OM–ape and PO–may. In both spelling and reading tasks, children learned the pairs with vowel letter name cues more easily than the arbitrary pairs. Phonetically motivated pairs were especially advantaged when the vowel letter names were at the beginning (e.g., AP–ape) rather than the end (MA–may). Prereaders who have some knowledge about letters, as U.S. preschoolers typically do, are not limited to a logographic approach in learning about print.     

对小学语文拼音教学的再认识

汉语拼音的目的是帮助学生识字和学习推广普通话,它只是一种工具,但中国长期的语文教学对其要求甚高,使得这一＂拐棍＂变成了目的。2001年的《语文课程标准》对其做了相当大的改革,但传统观念的影响已经根深蒂固,而且对汉语拼音的的理解和认识都直接影响着小学语文教学改革的方向和成果。所以有必要对小学语文拼音教学进行再认识,从而消除传统观念对教师教学实践所造成的不良影响。     

Effects of removing morphemic information and adding interword spacing on reading in Chinese experienced and inexperienced readers

Two experiments tested the role of morphemic information and interword spacing in reading in experienced and inexperienced Chinese readers. Chinese is normally written in hanzi, or characters, which mostly represent monosyllabic morphemes, but it can also be written in pinyin, or romanised Chinese, which represents phonemes and is word-spaced. While previous research has shown that Chinese readers are slower with pinyin than hanzi materials, this has mostly been explained in terms of lack of proficiency in pinyin reading. The present study aimed at testing whether pinyin reading may be slow because morphemic information is needed for fluent Chinese reading, and phonemic information alone is not sufficient; for this purpose, the study included not only adults but also primary school students, who are experienced pinyin readers and unproficient hanzi readers. Participants performed a sentence-picture verification task. Sentences were written with morphemic or phonemic information (in hanzi or pinyin, respectively), and with interword or inter-morpheme spacing. Removing morphemic information had strong negative effects on all readers, including children. Adding interword spacing had no facilitative effects, and had some negative effects, especially with children. Results reveal the important role of morphemic information in Chinese reading, and fail to support the universality of the facilitative effects of interword spacing.     

On Sources of the Word Length Effect in Young Readers

We investigated how letter length, phoneme length, and consonant clusters contribute to the word length effect in 2nd- and 4th-grade children. They read words from three different conditions: In one condition, letter length increased but phoneme length did not due to multiletter graphemes (Haus-Bauch-Schach). In the remaining conditions, phoneme length increased in correspondence with letter length. One presented monosyllabic words with consonant clusters (Herbst); the other presented disyllabic words without consonant clusters (Kö.nig). Phoneme and letter length contributed to the length effect in naming latencies. Words with consonant clusters elicited the largest length effect. We interpreted this finding as reflecting difficulties of young readers with accessing the output phonology of the tightly coarticulated consonant clusters from the separate phonemes delivered from serial grapheme-to-phoneme conversions. Moreover, eye-movement data indicated that increased reading speed, accompanied with decreased word length effects, is due to more efficient grapheme-to-phoneme conversions rather than the emergence of whole-word recognition.     

Effective Use of Hanyu Pinyin and English Translations as Extra Stimulus Prompts on Learning of Chinese Characters

Previous research has shown that the learning of second language words in the simultaneous presence of pictures or first language translation equivalents interferes with their acquisition. The purpose of this study was to investigate variables associated with the learning of Chinese characters as second language stimuli (L2). Acquisition for both naming of English translations and pronunciations was shown to proceed more rapidly under conditions in which each character was presented 5 s prior to its pinyin and English word equivalent, in contrast to simultaneous presentation conditions. These data were interpreted in terms of (a) interference, which can occur when students attend to multiple input simultaneously, and (b) the beneficial effects of attending to L2 stimuli prior to their associations in language learning contexts. It was concluded that the presentation of a character first, and the provision of its associated pinyin and English translation after a short delay is recommended when teaching characters for non-native speakers of Chinese at the early stage.     

汉字拼音化摭拾

汉字有十分悠久的历史,随着近百年来中国社会发生的剧烈变化,人们对汉字也进行了激烈争论,古老的汉字几经沉浮。有人主张废除汉字,走拼音化道路;有人主张汉字不能废除;也有人主张“双文制”。本文主要回顾汉字拼音化的历程并发表一些观点,我们认为由于汉字承载着灿烂的中华文化、大量的同音词、方言、形声字等因素,不能走上拼音化道路,但是可以借鉴拼音的辅助作用,适应现代文字生活的需要。     

Is a picture worth a thousand words? The flexible nature of modality dominance in young children

When presented simultaneously with equally discriminable, but unfamiliar, visual and auditory stimuli, 4-year-olds exhibited auditory dominance, processing only auditory information (Sloutsky & Napolitano, 2003). The current study examined factors underlying auditory dominance. In 6 experiments, 4-year-olds (N=181) were presented with auditory and visual compounds in which (a) the complexity and familiarity of stimuli were systematically varied (Experiments 1-5) and (b) participants were explicitly instructed to attend to a particular modality (Experiment 6). Results indicate that auditory dominance is a special case of flexible modality dominance, which may stem from automatic pulls on attention. Theoretical implications of these results for understanding the development of attention and cross-modal processing, as well as linguistic and conceptual development, are discussed.     

Presentation Factors in the Learning of Chinese Characters: The order and position of Hanyu pinyin and English translations

The influence of different instructional presentations upon meaning and pronunciation acquisition in character learning was examined. High school students learned to identify a series of characters in terms of their associated pinyin and English translation prompts. Acquisition was shown to proceed more rapidly when the Chinese character was presented before rather than after the prompts. The addition of colour‐coded prompts led to superior learning. Retention over two weeks was greater in the case of characters presented before prompts with colour‐coding. These data are interpreted in terms of split attention, which arises when learners attend to multiple inputs simultaneously, and the beneficial effects of attending to a character prior to its prompts. The presentation of the Chinese character first and then its pinyin and colour‐coded English translation is recommended.     

轻度认知障碍患者早期面孔加工N170的研究

目的研究轻度认知障碍患者面孔早期加工的脑机制。方法被试者分为正常老年对照（NC）组和轻度认知障碍（MCI）组,各16名,均为右利手。刺激包括3种卡通面孔（中性、微笑、愤怒）和3种非面孔,要求被试者进行面孔识别任务,同时记录32导脑电。结果①MCI组及NC组均产生了明显的颞-枕区分布的面孔特异性成分N170;②与NC组相比,MCI组N170潜伏期显著延长、波幅降低。结论MCI患者在面孔表情早期加工阶段即出现异常。     

汉字艺术在广告设计中的价值解析

汉字不但是记录语言的符号,更是中国文化的结晶,它的内蕴本质、独特构成、美学价值、民族意韵在平面广告文字设计中有着重要的指导意义。分析汉字特性在平面广告设计中的作用以及在平面广告设计中的应用,使汉字以强大的生命力和感染力成为平面设计中具有鲜明时代特征、中国特色的视觉符号。     

Pre‐schoolers,print and storybooks: an observational study using eye movement analysis

This study used eye‐gaze analysis to determine the extent to which pre‐school children visually attended to print when looking at two storybooks, to contrast visual attention to print for a print‐salient versus a picture‐salient storybook, and to study individual differences in pre‐schoolers' visual preferences. Results indicated that pre‐school children infrequently attended to print: in a traditional picture‐salient storybook, 2.7% of their fixations focused on print and 2.5% of their time was spent looking in regions of print. The children fixated more frequently on print and spent more time looking in print regions when reading a print‐salient storybook, within which 7% of fixations focused on print and 6% of time was spent in print zones. Effect size estimates showed this difference to be consistent with a very large effect. Little variation in visual attention to print was observed across the ten children, and children's alphabet knowledge was not associated with the variance in children's visual attention to print. Educational implications are discussed.     

编码方式对不同拼音能力聋生汉字音位识别的影响

本研究通过分析编码方式对高、中、低拼音能力聋生汉字声母、单韵母识别的具体作用,深入探究聋生书面汉字音位编码的加工特点。结果发现:指拼是一种视觉语音代码,与拼音字母共同作用于聋生书面汉字的语音解码,但字母编码加工速度更快;聋生识别汉字声母显著好于单韵母,对汉字音位遵循从左至右的序列编码;拼音水平越好,聋生识别汉字语音正确率越高,但达到一定水平后逐渐稳定下来。研究建议未来聋校应科学利用聋人汉字音位编码的加工特点,在拼音教学中重视指拼和字母教学,进一步加强对手指韵母的学习,有针对性地促进聋生的拼音和语言学习。     

Motivation and engagement in the ‘Asian Century’: a comparison of Chinese students in Australia,Hong Kong,and Mainland China

The present study investigated multidimensional motivation and engagement among Chinese middle school students in Australia (N?=?273), Hong Kong (N?=?528), and Mainland China (N?=?2106; randomly selected N?=?528). Findings showed that a multidimensional model of motivation and engagement fit very well for all three groups. Multi-group invariance tests showed that the number of factors, factor loadings, factor correlations and item uniquenesses were invariant across the three groups – as were inter-correlations with a set of cognate correlates (class participation, school enjoyment, positive intentions, academic buoyancy) – hence no differences of ‘kind’. However, differences of ‘degree’ were indicated through significant mean-level effects between groups, with self-reports favouring Australian Chinese students over Hong Kong and (to a lesser extent) Mainland Chinese students. We propose these findings shed important light on Chinese students’ academic motivation and engagement and also on socio-cultural perspectives on motivation and engagement because they assist understanding about effects attributable to context and effects attributable to ethnicity. Given this, the study is a timely contribution to current understanding of the Chinese learner in this, the ‘Asian Century’.     

综合版画的精神诉求与载体特征

综合版画是现代版画艺术中的一种独立版种形式,在中国的发展历史只有几十年时间,却在技法造型、图式理念及媒介手段的综合应用方面突破传统版种的边界限定,不断改变着中国创作版画的视觉形态。版画注重制作方法,印版是艺术家表达精神诉求的物质载体。综合版画在制作技术上通过不断试验创新获得新的视觉经验,达到表现手段自由应用目的,并在实践中产生不同于其它版种作品的痕迹趣味,形成综合版画材质本身特有的痕迹语言特征。综合版画将物性痕迹造型语言与精神理念相互融合,形成综合版画独特的趣味性审美表达。     

谈对外与对内汉语拼音教学的差异

对内和对外汉语拼音教学在学习者、教学目标、教学模式等方面存在巨大差异.《汉语拼音方案》的外汉教学过程中,普遍存在着策略上和技巧上的盲点与误区.《汉语拼音方案》中的隐蔽性机制在对外汉语教学中应当进行特殊的处理和阐述.     

Teaching With Televised Stories: A Story-Focused Narrative Preview Supports Learning in Young Children

Researchers examined the effects of previewing on preschoolers’ comprehension of narrative and educational content in a television program. Children (3–5 years, N = 107) watched an educational math episode in one of three conditions: no-preview control, education-focused expository preview, or story-focused narrative preview. A main effect of previewing was found, controlling for age, character familiarity, prior knowledge, and visual attention. Specifically, the narrative preview enhanced both narrative comprehension (including central, incidental, and inferential content) and educational comprehension (including direct learning and transfer), compared to a no-preview control. Conversely, the expository preview had no effect on comprehension. Findings are interpreted with respect to story schema and relevant cognitive theories of learning from media. Implications for educational media production are discussed.     

Concordance of visual and manipulative responsiveness to novel and familiar stimuli: a function of test procedures or of prior experience?

Concordance of differential visual and manipulative responsiveness to novel stimuli at 6 months of age was found when differential attractiveness and familiarity of the stimuli were controlled. This finding corroborates the findings of an earlier study in which the same object was used as the familiarization object for all subjects. The data indicate that concordance at 6 months of age is not an artifact of the test procedure. A hypothesis suggested by the comparison of these findings with others in the literature is that the opportunity to manipulate a wide variety of objects in the natural environment may contribute to the concordance of visual and manipulative responsiveness to novel stimuli at this age.     

Sensitivity to auditory and visual stimuli during early reading development

An investigation was conducted into the visual and auditory temporal processing profiles of two groups of 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children: pre‐alphabetic children, who showed no alphabetic ability (failing to read any non‐words in a test), and those who demonstrated some alphabetic ability. This alphabetic group showed higher scores in reading and spelling attainment than the pre‐alphabetic group. They were also faster than the pre‐alphabetic group in reacting to the onset and offset of auditory and visual stimuli. However, when age was used as a covariate, only reaction times (RTs) to the offsets of visual stimuli were found to be faster in the alphabetic than the pre‐alphabetic group. This suggests that responses to the offset of visual stimuli are becoming more rapid during the same developmental period when alphabetic ability is beginning to be acquired. Within the alphabetic group, after accounting for age, visual and auditory onset RTs were strongly correlated, whereas within the pre‐alphabetic group there were high correlations between visual and auditory offset RTs. It is therefore suggested that a strong association between RTs to visual and auditory onsets may be beneficial during early alphabetic acquisition, when phoneme–grapheme associations are established. Multiple regression analyses showed visual offset RT as the only variable to account for a significant amount of variance in spelling attainment after age was taken into account, which may relate to Frith's (1985) contention that spelling is important in driving early alphabetic ability.     

Short-term memory for visual and auditory stimuli in pigeons

Separate groups of pigeons were trained to perform symbolic delayed matching to sample with auditory and visual sample stimuli. For animals in the auditory group, ambient tones that varied in frequency served as sample stimuli; for animals in the visual group, ambient red and green lights served as sample stimuli. In both cases, the sample stimuli were mapped onto the yellow and blue comparison stimuli presented on left and right pecking keys. In Experiments 1 and 2, it was found that visual and auditory delayed matching were affected in the same ways by several temporal variables: delay, length of exposure to the sample stimulus, and intertrial interval. In Experiments 3, 4A, and 4B, a houselight presented during the delay interval strongly interfered with retention in both visual and auditory groups, but white noise presented during the delay had little effect in either group. These results seem to be more in line with a prospective memory model, in which visual and auditory sample stimuli are coded into the same instructional memories, than with a model based on concepts of retrospective memory and modality specificity.