Abstract
The present study explored the developmental trend of orthographic awareness in Chinese-speaking preschoolers. A total of 184 children between 3 and 5 years of age participated in the study. Two developmental patterns of orthographic awareness were obtained. One pattern was dependent on a traditional Chinese orthographic hierarchy, with a sequence of writing system specificity, radical, whole character, radical combination rules, and stroke. Three-year-olds fully understood the writing-system-specific features of Chinese characters, and could distinguish characters from alphabetic scripts and drawings; the average accuracy was >80 %. Five-year-olds were able to distinguish radicals from numbers, as well as regard non-characters with rotated radicals and missing radicals as illegal; the average accuracy was 87 %. At 5 years of age, children could detect whole character rotated non-characters with an average accuracy of 78 %, but were not proficient in identifying non-characters with absent strokes (the average accuracy was 69 %). The 5-year-old children did not know well about radical combination rules; the average accuracy was 67 %. The other pattern was associated with violation means of non-characters, which could be characterized as progressing from form types, to spatial formats, and finally to combination conventions. Children grasped legal form types of scripts (Chinese characters and radicals) at 3 years of age, with an average accuracy approaching 80 %. Five-year-old children detected illegal spatial characteristics of characters, such as up-down reversal, with an average accuracy of 78 %. However, children were unable to understand radical combination conventions even at 5 years of age; average accuracy was 67 %.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Badian, N. (2001). Phonological and orthographic processing: Their roles in reading prediction. Annals of Dyslexia, 51(1), 177–202. doi:10.1007/s11881-001-0010-5.
Boets, B., Wouters, J., van Wieringen, A., De Smedt, B., & Ghesquière, P. (2008). Modelling relations between sensory processing, speech perception, orthographic and phonological ability, and literacy achievement. Brain and Language, 106(1), 29–40. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2007.12.004.
Cai, Q., & Brysbaert, M. (2010). SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles. PLoS ONE, 5(6), e10729. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0010729.
Chan, L., & Nunes, T. (1998). Children’s understanding of the formal and functional characteristics of written Chinese. Applied Psycholinguistics, 19(01), 115–131. doi:10.1017/S0142716400010614.
Cheung, H., Chan, M., & Chong, K. (2007). Use of orthographic knowledge in reading by Chinese-English bi-scriptal children. Language Learning, 57(3), 469–505. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00423.x.
Chung, K. K. H., Ho, C. S. H., Chan, D. W., Tsang, S. M., & Lee, S. H. (2010). Cognitive profiles of Chinese adolescents with dyslexia. Dyslexia, 16(1), 2–23. doi:10.1002/dys.392.
Conrad, N., Harris, N., & Williams, J. (2013). Individual differences in children’s literacy development: The contribution of orthographic knowledge. Reading and Writing, 26(8), 1223–1239. doi:10.1007/s11145-012-9415-2.
Costa, H. C., Perdry, H., Soria, C., Pulgar, S., Cusin, F., & Dellatolas, G. (2013). Emergent literacy skills, behavior problems and familial antecedents of reading difficulties: A follow-up study of reading achievement from kindergarten to fifth grade. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34(3), 1018–1035. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2012.11.029.
Dickinson, David. K., Anastasopoulos, Louisa., McCabe, Allyssa., Peisner-Feinberg, Ellen. S., & Poe, Michele. D. (2003). The comprehensive language approach to early literacy: The interrelationships among vocabulary, phonological sensitivity, and print knowledge among preschool-aged children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(3), 465–481.
Ding, G. S., Peng, D. L., & Taft, M. (2004). The nature of the mental representation of radicals in Chinese: A priming study. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 30(2), 530–539. doi:10.1037/0278-7393.30.2.530.
Ellemberg, D., Lewis, T. L., Hong Liu, C., & Maurer, D. (1999). Development of spatial and temporal vision during childhood. Vision Research, 39(14), 2325–2333. doi:10.1016/S0042-6989(98)00280-6.
Geva, E., & Willows, D. (1994). Orthographic knowledge is orthographic knowledge is orthographic knowledge. In V. W. Berninger (Ed.), The varieties of orthographic knowledge, 1: Theoretical and developmental issues (pp. 359–380). New York: Kluwer/Plenum.
Ho, C. S. H., & Bryant, P. (1997). Phonological skills are important in learning to read Chinese. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 946–951. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.946.
Ho, C. S. H., Chan, D. W. O., Lee, S. H., Tsang, S. M., & Luan, V. V. H. (2004). Cognitive profiling and preliminary subtyping in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Cognition, 91(1), 43–75. doi:10.1016/s0010-0277(03)00163-x.
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(4), 543–553. doi:10.1037//0012-1649.38.4.543.
Ho, C. S.-H., Yau, P. W.-Y., & Au, A. (2003). Development of orthographic knowledge and its relationship with reading and spelling among Chinese kindergarten and primary school children. In C. McBrideChang & H.-C. Chen (Eds.), Reading development in Chinese children (pp. 51–71). London: Praeger.
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(4), 437.
Kim, Y.-S., & Petscher, Y. (2011). Relations of emergent literacy skill development with conventional literacy skill development in Korean. Reading and Writing, 24(6), 635–656. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9240-4.
Levy, B. A., Gong, Z., Hessels, S., Evans, M. A., & Jared, D. (2006). Understanding print: Early reading development and the contributions of home literacy experiences. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 93(1), 63–93. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2005.07.003.
Li, H., & Rao, N. (2000). Parental influences on Chinese literacy development: A comparison of preschoolers in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Singapore. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 24(1), 82–90. doi:10.1080/016502500383502.
Li, H., Shu, H., McBride-Chang, C., Liu, H., & Peng, H. (2012). Chinese children’s character recognition: Visuo-orthographic, phonological processing and morphological skills. Journal of Research in Reading, 35(3), 287–307. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2010.01460.x.
Lonigan, C. J., Burgess, S. R., & Anthony, J. L. (2000). Development of emergent literacy and early reading skillsin preschool children: evidence from a latent-variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 36, 596–613.
Luo, Y. C., Chen, X., Deacon, S. H., Zhang, J., & Yin, L. (2012). The role of visual processing in learning to read Chinese characters. Scientific Studies of Reading, 17(1), 22–40. doi:10.1080/10888438.2012.689790.
Luo, Y. C., Chen, X., Hélène Deacon, S., & Li, H. (2011). Development of Chinese orthographic processing: A cross-cultural perspective. Writing Systems Research, 3(1), 69–86. doi:10.1093/wsr/wsr008.
McBride-Chang, C., Chow, B. Y., Zhong, Y., Burgess, S., & Hayward, W. (2005). Chinese character acquisition and visual skills in two Chinese scripts. Reading and Writing, 18(2), 99–128. doi:10.1007/s11145-004-7343-5.
McBride-Chang, C., & Kail, R. V. (2002). Cross-cultural similarities in the predictors of reading acquisition. Child Development, 73(5), 1392–1407. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00479.
Mondloch, C. J., Geldart, S., Maurer, D., & de Schonen, S. (2003). Developmental changes in the processing of hierarchical shapes continue into adolescence. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 84(1), 20–40. doi:10.1016/s0022-0965(02)00161-3.
Phillips, B. M., Lonigan, C. J., & Wyatt, M. A. (2009). Predictive validity of the Get Ready to Read! Screener. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 42(2), 133–147. doi:10.1177/0022219408326209.
Pullen, P. C., & Justice, L. M. (2003). Enhancing phonological awareness, print awareness, and oral language skills in preschool children. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(2), 87–98. doi:10.1177/10534512030390020401.
Shu, H., Chen, X., Anderson, R. C., Wu, N. N., & Xuan, Y. (2003). Properties of school Chinese: Implications for learning to read. Child Development, 74(1), 27–47. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00519.
Siok, W. T., & Fletcher, P. (2001). The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 37(6), 886–899. doi:10.1037//0012-1649.37.6.886.
Taft, M., & Zhu, X. P. (1997). Submorphemic processing in reading Chinese. Journal of Experimental Psychology-Learning Memory and Cognition, 23(3), 761–775. doi:10.1037//0278-7393.23.3.761.
Tan, L. H., Liu, H. L., Perfetti, C. A., Spinks, J. A., Fox, P. T., & Gao, J. H. (2001). The neural system underlying Chinese logograph reading. Neuroimage, 13(5), 836–846.
Teale, W. H., & Sulzby, E. (Eds.). (1986). Emergent literacy: Writing and reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
Tong, X. L., & McBride-Chang, C. (2010). Developmental models of learning to read Chinese words. Developmental Psychology, 46(6), 1662–1676. doi:10.1037/a0020611.
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(5), 426–452. doi:10.1080/10888430903162910.
Wei, T.-Q., Bi, H.-Y., Chen, B.-G., Liu, Y., Weng, X.-C., et al. (2014). Developmental changes in the role of different metalinguistic awareness skills in Chinese reading acquisition from preschool to third grade. PLoS ONE, 9(5), e96240. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0096240.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69(3), 848–872. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.1998.tb06247.x.
Yeung, P.-S., Ho, C. S.-H., Chik, P. P.-M., Lo, L.-Y., Luan, H., Chan, D. W.-O., & Chung, K. K.-H. (2011). Reading and spelling Chinese among beginning readers: what skills make a difference? Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(4), 285–313. doi:10.1080/10888438.2010.482149.
Zhang, Q., Guo, C.-Y., Ding, J.-H., & Wang, Z.-Y. (2006). Concreteness effects in the processing of Chinese words. Brain and Language, 96(1), 59–68. doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2005.04.004.
Zhang, J., & McBride-Chang, C. (2011). Diversity in Chinese literacy acquisition. Writing Systems Research, 3(1), 87–102. doi:10.1093/wsr/wsr011.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Natural Science Foundation of China (31371044) and the Knowledge Innovation Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KSCX2-EW-J-8).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Qian, Y., Song, YW., Zhao, J. et al. The developmental trend of orthographic awareness in Chinese preschoolers. Read Writ 28, 571–586 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9538-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-014-9538-8