The contribution of phonological and morphological awareness in Chinese–English bilingual reading acquisition

The current study examined the contribution of cross-language phonological and morphological awareness to reading acquisition in bilingual children. Participants were 140 children (M _age = 8.26 years) between Grades 1–4 who learned Chinese as their first language and English as their second language. Awareness of phoneme, onset-rime, compound structures and polysemy (i.e. words with multiple meanings) were measured using conceptually comparable tasks in both languages. Oral vocabulary, single word reading, and reading comprehension were also assessed. Path analysis revealed significant direct effects from Chinese rime awareness to both English word reading and reading comprehension. English phoneme awareness also had a significant direct effect on Chinese word reading. There was a significant direct effect from Chinese polyseme identification to English reading comprehension. Awareness of compound structure in one language also had indirect effects on reading outcomes in the other language via within-language compound structure awareness. These finding provided evidence for bi-directional cross-language phonological and morphological transfer in Chinese–English bilingual reading acquisition.     

Development of morphological awareness in Chinese and English

The development of morphological awareness in Chinese and English was investigated in the current study involving 412 Taiwanese and 256 American students in second, fourth, and sixth grades. The results from both Chinese-speaking and English-speaking students indicate that the morphological awareness develops with grade level and is strongly related to reading ability. More proficient readers outperformed less proficient readers when asked to (1) recognize morphological relationships between words, (2) discriminate word parts having the same or different meanings, (3) select the best interpretations of low-frequency derivatives and compounds composed of high-frequency parts, and (4) judge the well-formedness of novel derivatives and compounds. Chinese students' acquisition of derivational morphology seems to lag behind that of compounding rules, which might reflect the nature of Chinese word formation in that there are far fewer derivatives than compounds in Chinese.     

A Comparison of Phonological Awareness,Lexical Compounding,and Homophone Training for Chinese Word Reading in Hong Kong Kindergartners

Research Findings: In this study, 88 kindergartners received special training in lexical compounding, homophone awareness, or phonological awareness or were assigned to a control condition over a period of approximately 2 months, with 20-min lessons administered twice per week. Chinese word reading improved significantly more in the lexical compounding group as compared to the other groups. Vocabulary knowledge also showed a trend toward improvement in this group (p < .08) and improved significantly in the homophone group. Although phonological awareness improved most in the phonological awareness training group, this group showed no reading or vocabulary improvements relative to the other groups. Practice or Policy: The results underscore the importance of morphological awareness training for both word reading and vocabulary knowledge in young Chinese children.     

Using new vocabulary in writing: Exploring how word and learner characteristics relate to the likelihood that writers use newly taught vocabulary

Understanding academic vocabulary is essential to student success in school. Use of academic vocabulary words in writing is considered one of the strongest measures of how well a reader understands a given word. In theory, willingness to use academic vocabulary in writing indicates the complexity of acquiring representations of the word’s orthography, phonology, and semantics based on the word’s characteristics. In addition, a learner’s overall literacy skills should relate to whether they attempt to use words. In the present study, sixth graders (n = 66), seventh graders (n = 60), and eighth graders (n = 41) learned 25 academic vocabulary words in a supplementary academic vocabulary intervention and were then asked to use those words in short persuasive essay drafts. We measured whether these students attempted to use a word (a binary uses outcome) and the number of times a student used a word (a continuous attempts outcome) and used cross-classified random effects models to examine how (a) the orthographic, phonological, and semantic characteristics of words and (b) the students’ literacy-related characteristics related to their uses and attempts. For word characteristics, students were more likely to use and attempt high frequency than low frequency words. For student characteristics, students proficient on the state exam were more likely to use and attempt the words, and students learning English were less likely to attempt the words. Implications for vocabulary intervention and writing instruction are discussed.     

现代汉语偏正式双音复合词构词探析

采用定量统计法、描写法、实证法、归纳法等研究方法,从形式结构和意义结构两部分对偏正式双音复合词的构词进行探析。从形式结构看,常见的构词类型有"名素+x""动素+x""形素+x"三类,且构词类型相同的词所属词性不一定相同;从意义结构看,语素义与结构义存在对应关系。     

现代汉语倒序词研究

汉语是一种双音节词占优势的语言,构词方式通常采用复合法,语素与语素以并列、支配、主谓等基本结构类型组合成词。顺序不同的两个相同的语素,可构成汉语中特有的倒序词。文章首先分析倒序词在结构、词义、词性、色彩等方面的特点,指出倒序词在丰富汉语词汇和提高语言表达效果方面的重要价值。其次提出应根据语言发展的自然规律,依照必要性、普遍性和明确性三个原则对倒序词加以规范。     

Unraveling Vocabulary Learning: Reader and Item-Level Predictors of Vocabulary Learning Within Comprehension Instruction for Fifth and Sixth Graders

This study explores reader, word, and learning activity characteristics related to vocabulary learning for 202 fifth and sixth graders (N = 118 and 84, respectively) learning 16 words. Three measures of word knowledge were used: multiple-choice definition knowledge, self-report of meaning knowledge, and production of morphologically related words. Results indicate that significant vocabulary learning occurred on each measure and that certain words were easier to learn for certain types of readers. Controlling for other predictors in the model, reader characteristics like morphological awareness, reading comprehension, and language background were significant predictors of vocabulary learning, but not word reading fluency. Also, word characteristics like morphological family size and opaqueness were significant predictors of word difficulty but not number of morphemes or frequency of the word or root-word or affix. Controlling for other predictors in the model, morphological learning activities supported vocabulary learning for all 3 aspects of word knowledge. Implications for theory and instruction are discussed.     

Correlates of Chinese kindergarteners’ word reading and writing: the unique role of copying skills?

Ninety-four Mainland Chinese children in the second and third years of kindergarten (mean age = 65 months, SD = 6.94) were tested on Pinyin letter-name knowledge, invented Pinyin spelling, general copying skills of unfamiliar print (in Korean, Hebrew and Vietnamese, ultimately combined to create a pure copying factor), delayed copying of characters, nonverbal reasoning, vocabulary knowledge, speeded number-naming, syllable deletion, and morphological awareness in order to examine unique correlates of beginning Chinese word reading and writing, which were also tested. With age, kindergarten level, and nonverbal reasoning statistically controlled, morphological awareness, speeded naming, and Pinyin letter-name knowledge uniquely explained Chinese word reading, whereas both the pure copying factor and delayed copying independently explained 11 and 5 % variance in Chinese word writing, respectively. Findings suggest a somewhat independent trajectory of developing word reading and writing skills in very young Chinese children and highlight the potential importance of both print-dependent and print-independent copying skills for the development of early word writing skill in Chinese.     

《旧唐书·玄宗本纪下》疑义考辨

《旧唐书《旧唐书·玄宗本纪下》疑义考辨玄宗本纪》篇幅较长,分上下两卷.此对下卷中存在的差讹,包括夺字、形误、漏句、衍文等予以考辨.以求对中华书局组织的正在修订中的两《唐书》有所裨益.     

英语词汇记忆法浅析

积累大量词汇是英语语言学习的基础,笔者针对中学生记忆单词困难的现状,提出一些行之有效的方法。     

The contribution of morphological awareness to the spelling of morphemes and morphologically complex words in French

The goal of this study was to explore the relationship between morphological awareness and the spelling of morphemes and morphologically complex words among 75 third- and fourth-grade Francophone students of low socio-economic status. To reach this objective, we administered a dictation comprised of morphologically complex words with prefixes, bases, morphogrammes and suffixes. The target items had inconsistent or infrequent spellings, so their spelling required children to apply morphological knowledge. The children also completed three tests that measured morphological awareness. Correlational analyses indicated that a higher level of morphological awareness was significantly associated with the spelling of each type of morpheme. Regression analyses showed that it made a unique contribution only to the spelling of morphogrammes (4 %), suffixes (9 %), and morphologically complex words (5 %) after grade level, word identification, non-verbal intelligence and phonological awareness were partialled out. However, morphological awareness no longer predicted the spelling of morphologically complex words when the spelling of morphemes was entered in the regression model. These findings extending those of previous studies with respect to the role of morphological awareness in the production of morphologically complex written words and contribute to the discussion on the nature of the link between morphological awareness and word spelling.     

Learning novel words by ear or by eye? An advantage for lexical inferencing in listening versus reading narratives in fourth grade

This study examined the ability to infer the meaning of novel made-up words that appeared in 16 short narrative texts, presented in two modalities—reading and listening. Hebrew-speaking 4th grade students (N = 54) were asked to infer the meanings of the made-up words in both modality conditions. In this cross-group design, students were randomly assigned to one of two order conditions: reading first or listening first. Regardless of condition, participants were better able to infer the meaning of the made-up words in the listening condition than in the reading condition. Individual differences in word reading, vocabulary, and reading comprehension mediated novel word learning but working memory did not. Results are discussed in relation to the challenges faced by 4th grade Hebrew readers in the transition from reading a fully pointed (vowelized) shallow orthography to an unpointed, deep orthography. The ability of 4th grade readers to infer novel words appears to be enhanced when listening to animated narration, and is mediated by extant vocabulary knowledge and higher-order comprehension processes, but also by basic decoding skills.     

Training Orthographic and Sentence Structures Helps Poor Readers in Chinese

We trained 36 12-year-old Chinese students with reading disorders in the analysis, synthesis and integration of orthographic constituents of semantic and phonetic bujians (radicals); and also their writing (spelling and composing) skills. These target students were compared with 37 age-controls in a pre-test and post-test design on a number of reading literacy indicators predicated on the “Blueprint of the Reader”. The tasks were: essay writing; morphological compounding; correction of errors; segmentation; text comprehension; fluency; copying of words, and of texts; writing to dictation; and reading aloud words and text. A promax oblique structure analysis of the performance of the 73 students found the tasks clustered into four components. A two (group) × 11 (tasks) multivariate analysis of covariance with the pre-training tasks as covariates followed by analyses of variance showed that the experimental students outperformed their age-peers in essay writing, morphological compounding, correction of errors, text comprehension and reading text aloud. They were also highly satisfied with their training as shown in a questionnaire survey.     

英汉形容词形态构成特征比较

这里从英语、汉语中的形容词的形态构成特征着眼，对这两种语言中的单字形容词，多字形容词，词缀形容词、成语形容词及英语中的复合形容词的形态构成进行了对比。     

Examining the impact of the ABRACADABRA (ABRA) web-based literacy program on primary school students in Hong Kong

The current paper examined the effects of A Balanced Reading Approach for Children Always Designed to Achieve Best Results for All (ABRA), a web-based literacy programme developed by the the Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) at Concordia University, on primary school children in Hong Kong. The participants were 249 Primary 1 students from two low social economic status schools in Hong Kong and the two schools were well-matched on many demographic characteristics. All participating students were pre-tested in the fall and post-tested in the following spring. After adjusting for pretest differences, the treatment school scored significantly higher than the controls on three of the six outcome measures at post-tests: phoneme-grapheme correspondence (ES = +0.22, p < 0.05), phoneme segmentation (ES = +0.46, p < 0.00), and nonsense word fluency (ES = +0.22, p < 0.06). Both treatment and control students scored similarly on word reading, listening comprehension, and initial sound fluency. The outcomes of the study provides some promising evidence of the effects of ABRA on Chinese primary students in Hong Kong, especially on the enhancement of phonological skills, thus leading to early success in the formative years of learning English as a Second Language (ESL). Practical implications are discussed.     

The Anatomy of the Role of Morphological Awareness in Chinese Character Learning: The Mediation of Vocabulary and Semantic Radical Knowledge and the Moderation of Morpheme Family Size

In the present study, the mediating roles of syllable awareness, orthographic knowledge, and vocabulary skills and the moderating role of morpheme family size in the association between morphological awareness and Chinese character reading were investigated with 176 second-grade Hong Kong Chinese children. In the path analyses, the results indicated significant partial mediating effects of semantic radical function knowledge and vocabulary skills but not of syllable awareness and pseudocharacter identification. A significant moderating effect of morpheme family size was also observed. Children with relatively poor compounding structure awareness performed much more poorly in reading Chinese characters that had a small family size. The mediating and moderating effects documented in the present study can help us understand the mechanism involved in the relationship between morphological awareness and Chinese character reading and provide evidence as a basis for modifying current instruction strategies for improving Chinese children’s reading performance.     

Lexical characteristics of Spanish and English words and the development of phonological awareness skills in Spanish-speaking language-minority children

The lexical restructuring model (LRM) is a theory that attempts to explain the developmental origins of phonological awareness (PA). According to the LRM, various characteristics of words should be related to the extent to which words are segmentally represented in the lexicon. Segmental representations of words allow children to access the parts of words needed to complete PA tasks. This study examined the relations between various lexical characteristics of Spanish and English words and the PA skills of Spanish-speaking language-minority children. Participants came from two independent samples of Spanish-speaking preschool children (Sample 1 N = 553, Sample 2 N = 600). For children in both samples, only phonotactic probability was related to children’s likelihood to respond correctly to Spanish PA items. Age of acquisition and word frequency were related to children’s likelihood to respond correctly to English PA items for children in both samples. Phonological neighborhood density and phonotactic probability were also related to children’s likelihood to respond correctly to English PA items; however, these effects were sample-specific. Children’s Spanish vocabulary knowledge moderated the effects of Spanish age of acquisition and word frequency on responses to Spanish PA items. Children’s English vocabulary knowledge moderated the effects of English phonological neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on responses to English PA items. These findings have implications for the development of PA assessments to be used with language-minority children.     

The ABC’s of Chinese: maternal mediation of Pinyin for Chinese children’s early literacy skills

In the present study, maternal Pinyin mediation and its relations with young Chinese children??s word reading and word writing development were explored. At time 1, 43 Mainland Chinese children and their mothers were videotaped on a task in which children were asked to write 12 words in Pinyin (a phonological coding system used in Mainland China as an aid to reading Chinese characters) with help from their mothers. The videotapes were later coded on a scale (adapted from Aram & Levin, 2001) of mothers?? writing facilitation techniques. Scores on this scale of maternal mediation of Pinyin uniquely explained children??s reading of Chinese words, but not writing of Chinese words, after statistically controlling for maternal education and age, and children??s non-verbal IQ, age, and phonological awareness. At time 2, 22 of the children from time 1 were further tested on Chinese word reading and word reading task 1?year later. After controlling for children??s age and non-verbal IQ, maternal Pinyin mediation uniquely explained 6% of the variance in children??s word writing and 7% of the variance in children??s word reading performance at time 2. Results underscore the potential importance of the maternal scaffolding role for reading acquisition both theoretically and practically in a domain not previously explored (i.e., use of a common coding system (Pinyin) for learning to read, rather than word reading itself).     

Examining the independent contribution of prosodic sensitivity to word reading and spelling in early readers

This study was designed to examine the independent contribution of prosodic sensitivity—the rhythmic patterning of speech—to word reading and spelling in a sample of early readers. Ninety-three English-speaking children aged 5–6 years old (M = 69.28 months, SD = 3.67) were assessed for their prosodic sensitivity, vocabulary knowledge, phonological, and morphological awareness (predictor variables) along with their word reading and spelling (criterion variables). Bivariate (zero-order) correlation analyses revealed that prosodic sensitivity was significantly associated with all other variables in this study. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that after controlling for individual differences in vocabulary, phonological, and morphological awareness, prosodic sensitivity was still able to explain unique variance in word reading, but was unable to make an independent contribution to spelling. The findings suggest that prosodic sensitivity gives added value to our understanding of children’s reading development.