Abstract
Language-specific features necessitate certain processes and skills in reading. The visually unmarked between-word boundaries in written Chinese render it critical that readers be able to segment words in the continuous texts. It may pose challenges for second language (L2) readers whose first language (L1) is word-spaced. In light of the lack of understanding of Chinese L2 readers’ word segmentation, the present study investigated 100 L2 learners’ word segmentation performance, the relationships between word segmentation and reading fluency and comprehension, and the differences in the aforementioned relationships among learners with different context-free word recognition abilities. Results demonstrated that L2 learners generally conducted word segmentation well and word segmentation contributed to reading fluency and comprehension beyond context-free word recognition. Word segmentation was the major predictor of reading fluency and comprehension among weak wordlist readers, whereas context-free word recognition made a larger contribution when learners have achieved stronger context-free word recognition ability. The findings suggested the importance of developing word segmentation skills and establishing high quality word representations in Chinese L2 reading instruction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Availability of data and material
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, S Yang. The data are not publicly available due to their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.
References
Álvarez-Cañizo, M., Suárez-Coalla, P., & Cuetos, F. (2018). Reading prosody development in Spanish children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 31, 35–52. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9768-7.
Arcand, M.-S., Dion, E., Lemire-Théberge, L., Guay, M.-H., Barrette, A., Gagnon, V., et al. (2014). Segmenting texts into meaningful word groups: Beginning readers’ prosody and comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18, 208–223. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2013.864658.
Bai, X., Guo, Z., Gu, J., Cao, Y., & Yan, G. (2011). 词切分对日汉双语者汉语阅读影响的眼动研究 [Effect of word segmentation cues on Japanese-Chinese bilinguals’ Chinese reading: Evidence from eye movements]. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 43, 1273–1282. https://doi.org/10.3724/sp.j.1041.2011.01273.
Bai, X., Zhang, T., Tian, L., Liang, F., & Wang, T. (2010). 词切分对美国留学生汉语阅读影响的眼动研究 [Effect of word segmentation on American students reading Chinese: Evidence from eye movements]. Psychological Research, 5, 25–30.
Bassetti, B. (2005). Effects of writing systems on second language awareness: Word awareness in English learners of Chinese as a foreign language. In V. Cook & B. Bassetti (Eds.), Second language writing systems (pp. 335–356). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Bassetti, B., & Lu, M. (2016). Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language. International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching, 54, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1515/iral-2016-0014.
Benjamin, R. G., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2010). Text complexity and oral prosody in young readers. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 388–404. https://doi.org/10.1598/RPQ.45.4.2.
Binder, K. S., Tighe, E., Jiang, Y., Kaftanski, K., Qi, C., & Ardoin, S. P. (2013). Reading expressively and understanding thoroughly: An examination of prosody in adults with low literacy skills. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26, 665–680. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-012-9382-7.
Calet, N., Gutiérrez-Palma, N., & Defior, S. (2015). A cross-sectional study of fluency and reading comprehension in Spanish primary school children. Journal of Research in Reading, 38, 272–285. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12019.
Calet, N., Gutiérrez-Palma, N., & Defior, S. (2017). Effects of fluency training on reading competence in primary school children: The role of prosody. Learning and Instruction, 52, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.learninstruc.2017.04.006.
Chen, H.-C. (1992). Reading comprehension in Chinese: Implication for character reading times. In H.-C. Chen & O. J.-L. Tzeng (Eds.), Language processing in Chinese (pp. 175–205). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Cowie, R., Douglas-Cowie, E., & Wichmann, A. (2002). Prosodic characteristics of skilled reading: Fluency and expressiveness in 8 to 10-year-old readers. Language and Speech, 45, 47–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/00238309020450010301.
DeKeyser, R. M. (2001). Automaticity and automatization. In P. Robinson (Ed.), Cognition and second language instruction (pp. 125–151). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Estes, K., Gluck, S., & Bastos, C. (2015). Flexibility in statistical word segmentation: Finding words in foreign speech. Language Learning and Development, 11, 252–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/15475441.2014.926730.
Fernandes, S., Querido, L., & Verhaeghe, A. (2018). What is the relationship between reading prosody and reading comprehension in European Portuguese? Evidence from grades 2 to 5. Journal of Research in Reading, 41, S102–S129. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12248.
Gao, S., & Jiang, X. (2015). 词边界对第二语言学习者汉语阅读的影响 [The effect of word boundaries on Chinese reading for second language learners]. Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies, 4, 5–17.
Godde, E., Bosse, M., & Bailly, G. (2020). A review of reading prosody acquisition and development. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 33, 399–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09968-1.
Grabe, W. (2009). Reading in a second language: Moving from theory to practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Groen, M. A., Veenendaal, N. J., & Verhoeven, L. (2019). The role of prosody in reading comprehension: Evidence from poor comprehenders. Journal of Research in Reading, 42, 37–57. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12133.
Haskins, T., & Aleccia, V. (2014). Toward a reliable measure of prosody: An investigation of rater consistency. International Journal of Education and Social Science, 1, 102–112.
Kim, Y. G., Quinn, J. M., & Petscher, Y. (2020). Reading prosody unpacked: A longitudinal investigation of its dimensionality and relation with word reading and listening comprehension for children in primary grades. Journal of Educational Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000480.
Klauda, S. L., & Guthrie, J. T. (2008). Relationships of three components of reading fluency to reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 310–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.100.2.310.
Koda, K. (2007). Reading and language learning: Cross-linguistic constraints on second language reading development. Language Learning, 57, 1–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00411.x.
Kuhn, M. R., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2018). Prosody, pacing, and situational fluency. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 62, 363–368. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaal.867.
Kuhn, M. R., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Meisinger, E. B. (2010). Aligning theory and assessment of reading fluency: Automaticity, prosody, and definitions of fluency. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 230–251. https://doi.org/10.1598/RPQ.45.2.4.
LaBerge, D., & Samuels, S. J. (1974). Toward a theory of automatic information processing in reading. Cognitive Psychology, 6, 293–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(74)90015-2.
Lai, S. A., Benjamin, G. R., Schwanenflugel, P. J., & Kuhn, M. R. (2014). The longitudinal relationship between reading fluency and reading comprehension skills in second-grade children. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 30, 116–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/10573569.2013.789785.
Lee-Thompson, L. C. (2008). An investigation of reading strategies applied by American learners of Chinese as a foreign language. Foreign Language Annals, 41, 702–721. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03326.x.
Li, X., & Pollatsek, A. (2020). An integrated model of word processing and eye-movement control during Chinese reading. Psychological Review. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000248.
Li, X., Rayner, K., & Cave, K. R. (2009). On the segmentation of Chinese words during reading. Cognitive Psychology, 58, 525–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2009.02.003.
Liu, P., Li, W., Lin, N., & Li, X. (2013). Do Chinese readers follow the national standard rules for word segmentation during reading? PLos One, 8, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal/pone.0055440.
Lochrin, M., Arciuli, J., & Sharma, M. (2015). Assessing the relationship between prosody and reading outcomes in children using the PEPS-C. Scientific Studies of Reading, 19, 72–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2014.976341.
Ma, G., Li, X., & Rayner, K. (2014). Word segmentation of overlapping ambiguous strings during Chinese reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 40, 1046–1059. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035389.
Miller, J., & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2008). A longitudinal study of the development of reading prosody as a dimension of oral reading fluency in early elementary school children. Reading Research Quarterly, 43, 336–354. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.43.4.2.
Mirault, J., Snell, J., & Grainger, J. (2019). Reading without spaces revisited: The role of word identification and sentence-level constraints. Acta Psychologica, 195, 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2019.03.001.
Modern Chinese corpus word list (n.d.). Retrieved from www.cncorpus.org
Modern Chinese frequency dictionary (1986). Beijing, China: Beijing Language Institute Press.
National Office of Teaching Chinese as a Second Language. (1992). 汉语水平词汇与汉字等级大纲 [Vocabulary and character proficiency guideline]. Beijing: Beijing Language Institute Press.
Nishida, H. (2013). The influence of chunking on reading comprehension: Investigating the acquisition of chunking skill. Journal of Asia TEFL, 10, 163–183.
Paige, D. D., Rasinski, T. V., & Magpuri-Lavell, T. (2012). Is fluent, expressive reading important for high school readers? Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56, 67–76. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.00103.
Pey, K. C., Min, L. H., & Wah, L. K. (2014). Relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension among ESL students. GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies, 14, 19–32. https://doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2014-1403-02.
Rasinski, T. V., Reutzel, D. R., Chard, D., & Linan-Thompson, S. (2011). Reading fluency. In M. L. Kamil, P. D. Pearson, E. Birr Moje, & P. P. Afflerbach (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume IV (pp. 286–319). New York, NY: Routledge.
Ravid, D., & Mashraki, Y. E. (2007). Prosodic reading, reading comprehension and morphological skills in Hebrew-speaking fourth graders. Journal of Research in Reading, 30, 140–156. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2007.00340.x.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Hamilton, M., Kuhn, M., Wisenbaker, J., & Stahl, S. (2004). Becoming a fluent reader: Reading skill and prosodic features in the oral reading of young readers. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96, 119–129. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.96.1.119.
Schwanenflugel, P. J., Westmoreland, M. R., & Benjamin, R. G. (2015). Reading fluency skill and the prosodic marking of linguistic focus. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 28, 9–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-013-9456-1.
Segalowitz, N. S. (2003). Automaticity and second language learning. In C. Doughty & M. Long (Eds.), The handbook of second language acquisition (pp. 382–408). Oxford: Blackwell.
Segalowitz, N. S., & Segalowitz, S. J. (1993). Skilled performance, practice, and the differentiation of speed-up from automatization effects: Evidence from second language word recognition. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14, 369–385. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0142716400010845.
Shen, H. H. (2008). An analysis of word decision strategies among learners of Chinese. Foreign Language Annals, 41, 501–524. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1944-9720.2008.tb03309.x.
Shen, H. H., & Jiang, X. (2013). Character reading fluency, word segmentation accuracy, and reading comprehension in L2 Chinese. Reading in a Foreign Language, 25, 1–25.
Shen, D.-L., Liversedge, S. P., Tian, J., Zang, C.-L., Cui, L., Bai, X.-J., et al. (2012). Eye movements of second language learners when reading spaced and unspaced Chinese text. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 18, 192–202. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027485.
Standards Press of China (1992). 信息处理用现代汉语分词规范 [Contemporary Chinese language word segmentation specification for information processing] (National Standards GR/T. No. 13715-92).
Valencia, S. W., Smith, A. T., Reece, A. M., Li, M., Wixson, K. K., & Newman, H. (2010). Oral reading fluency assessment: Issues of construct, criterion, and consequential validity. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 270–291. https://doi.org/10.1598/RPQ.45.3.1.
Valle, A., Binder, K. S., Walsh, C. B., Nemier, C., & Bangs, K. E. (2013). Eye movements, prosody, and word frequency among average- and high-skilled second-grade readers. School Psychology Review, 42, 171–190. https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2013.12087483.
Veenendaal, N. J., Groen, M. A., & Verhoeven, L. (2014). The role of speech prosody and text reading prosody in children’s reading comprehension. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 84, 521–536. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12036.
Veldre, A., Drieghe, D., & Andrews, S. (2017). Spelling ability selectively predicts the magnitude of disruption in unspaced text reading. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 43, 1612–1628. https://doi.org/10.1037/xhp0000425.
Webman-Shafran, R. (2018). Implicit prosody and parsing in silent reading. Journal of Research in Reading, 41, 546–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12124.
Yamashita, J., & Ichigawa, S. (2010). Examining reading fluency in a foreign language: Effects of text segmentation on L2 readers. Reading in a Foreign Language, 22, 263–283. https://doi.org/10.18999/stulc.23.1.189.
Yang, W., & Jiang, L. (2012). 不同水平留学生汉语切分歧义识别实验研究[Segmentation ambiguity in Chinese words by elementary and intermediate learners of Chinese: An experimental study]. Language Teaching and Linguistics Studies, 3, 10–17.
Yao, Y. (2011). Interword spacing effects on reading Mandarin Chinese as a second language. Writing Systems Research, 3, 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1093/wsr009.
Yen, M.-H., Radach, R., Tzeng, O., & Tsai, J.-L. (2012). Usage of statistical cues for word boundary in reading Chinese sentences. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 25, 1007–1029. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9321-z.
Yildirim, K., Rasinski, T., & Kaya, D. (2018). Fluency and comprehension of narrative texts in Turkish students in grades 4 through 8. Education, 47, 348–357. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2018.1449880.
Yu, S., Duan, H., Zhu, X., & Sun, B. (2002). 北京大学现代汉语语料库基本加工规范 [The basic processing of contemporary Chinese corpus at Peking University specification]. Journal of Chinese Information Processing, 16, 49–64.
Yu, S., Zhu, X., & Duan, H. (2000). 大规模现代汉语标注语料库的加工规范 [The guideline for segmentation and part-of-speech tagging on very large scale corpus of contemporary Chinese]. Journal of Chinese Information Processing, 14, 58–64.
Zang, C., Wang, Y., Bai, X., Yan, G., Drieghe, D., & Liversedge, S. P. (2016). The use of probabilistic lexicality cues for word segmentation in Chinese reading. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 548–560. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1061030.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
The author contributed to the study conception and design. The author performed material preparation, data collection, and analysis, as well as wrote the draft. The author reviewed and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of interest
Not applicable.
Code availability
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, S. Investigating word segmentation of Chinese second language learners. Read Writ 34, 1273–1293 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10113-6
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-020-10113-6