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Morphological awareness and orthographic awareness link Chinese writing to reading comprehension

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Abstract

Researchers have investigated the association between word writing and word reading in both alphabetic languages and Chinese. The present study extended prior research to investigate the relationship between Chinese word writing (dictation) and reading comprehension in a group of 209 Hong Kong primary school students. Morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, speeded word reading, Chinese word writing and reading comprehension were measured in the present study. The results showed that both morphological awareness and orthographic awareness were significant mediators linking Chinese writing and reading comprehension. More strikingly, when we included the mediating role of speeded word reading in the above model, morphological awareness and orthographic awareness still exhibited significant mediating roles in linking Chinese writing and comprehension. Further analyses showed that morphological awareness and orthographic awareness were equally important in linking writing to reading comprehension in Chinese. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.

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Notes

  1. In the present study, both spelling and character/word writing mean writing at the word/character level. Spelling is used in the context of alphabetic languages or in general, while character/word writing is used in the context of Chinese.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council (HKIED: GRF 18404114). We thank all the children, their parents and teachers, for their participation.

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  1. Department of Psychology, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong, China

    Yingyi Liu

  2. Department of Special Education and Counselling, The Education University of Hong Kong, 10 Lo Ping Road, Tai Po, N.T., Hong Kong, China

    Duo Liu

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Liu, Y., Liu, D. Morphological awareness and orthographic awareness link Chinese writing to reading comprehension. Read Writ 33, 1701–1720 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-10009-0

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