The Role of Phonological Processing in Early Reading Ability: What We Can Learn From Chinese

Research has demonstrated that there is a strong relation between children's phonological processing skills and their ability to learn to read an alphabetic orthography. It is unclear whether this relation is specific to an alphabetic orthography or whether it extends as well to logographic orthographies such as Chinese. In this study, a group of Chinese 1st graders were administered three measures of phonological processing, including phonological memory, phonological awareness, and phonological retrieval. A visual memory task was also included. Two weeks later, the children were administered 2 reading tasks. One assessed their ability to read familiar and less familiar words printed in the Chinese alphabet. The other assessed their ability to read familiar and less familiar Chinese characters. Results showed that children's performance on the visual memory task was not related to their performance on either of the reading measures. In contrast, performance on the phonological measures was related to per...

[1]  I. S. Brown,et al.  Phonological processes as predictors of specific reading skills in children at risk for reading failure , 1990 .

[2]  J M VANDERPLAS,et al.  The association value of random shapes. , 1959, Journal of experimental psychology.

[3]  Ji-Mei Chang.  Miscue Analysis of Chinese Children's Reading Behavior at the Entry Level. , 1992 .

[4]  Maryanne Wolf,et al.  Naming Speed and Reading: The Contribution of the Cognitive Neurosciences. , 1991 .

[5]  Daisy L. Hung,et al.  Orthographic variations and visual information processing. , 1981 .

[6]  G. C. Orden.  A ROWS is a ROSE: Spelling, sound, and reading , 1987 .

[7]  R. Treiman.  Children's spelling errors on syllable-initial consonant clusters. , 1991 .

[8]  V. Mann,et al.  Children's Memory for Recurring Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Material in Relation to Reading Ability , 1982, Cortex.

[9]  Cheryl M. Yates,et al.  Multiple orthographic codes in reading and writing acquisition , 1991 .

[10]  Li Hai Tan,et al.  Activation of phonological codes before access to character meaning in written Chinese , 1996 .

[11]  A M Liberman,et al.  A specialization for speech perception. , 1989, Science.

[12]  H. Catts,et al.  The relationship between speech-language impairments and reading disabilities. , 1993, Journal of speech and hearing research.

[13]  Anthony F. Jorm,et al.  An invited article: Phonological recoding and reading acquisition , 1983, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[14]  C. Perfetti,et al.  Phonological processes in reading Chinese characters. , 1991 .

[15]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Tracking the Unique Effects of Print Exposure in Children: Associations with Vocabulary, General Knowledge, and Spelling. , 1991 .

[16]  James L. McClelland,et al.  A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. , 1989, Psychological review.

[17]  Chao-Ming Cheng,et al.  Lateralization in the visual perception of Chinese characters and words , 1989, Brain and Language.

[18]  Richard C. Anderson,et al.  Incidental learning of word meanings while reading: a Chinese and American cross-cultural study , 1994 .

[19]  Mark S. Seidenberg.  The time course of phonological code activation in two writing systems , 1985, Cognition.

[20]  R. Wagner,et al.  The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. , 1987 .

[21]  Patricia Greig Bowers,et al.  Comparison of the Effects of IQ Control Methods on Memory and Naming Speed Predictors of Reading Disability. , 1988 .

[22]  J. Hanley,et al.  Phonological awareness and visual skills in learning to read Chinese and English , 1995, Cognition.

[23]  Virginia W. Berninger,et al.  Multiple Orthographic Codes in Reading and Writing , 1991 .

[24]  Rumjahn Hoosain,et al.  Psycholinguistic Implications for Linguistic Relativity: A Case Study of Chinese , 1991 .

[25]  Ovid J. L. Tzeng,et al.  Speech Recoding in Reading Chinese Characters. , 1977 .

[26]  J. Morais,et al.  Metaphonological abilities of Japanese children , 1989 .

[27]  Y Xu,et al.  Depth of phonological recoding in short-term memory , 1991, Memory & cognition.

[28]  Peter Bryant,et al.  Rhyme, language, and children's reading , 1990, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[29]  Veronika Coltheart,et al.  Phonological Recoding in Reading for Meaning by Adults and Children , 1988 .

[30]  V. Mann,et al.  Errors in short-term memory for good and poor readers , 1987, Memory & cognition.

[31]  M. Coltheart.  Lexical access in simple reading tasks , 1978 .

[32]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Assessing Print Exposure and Orthographic Processing Skill in Children: A Quick Measure of Reading Experience. , 1990 .

[33]  John Defrancis.  Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems , 1991 .

[34]  D. Shankweiler,et al.  Memory for item order and phonetic recording in the beginning reader. , 1981, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[35]  Keith E. Stanovich,et al.  Assessing phonological awareness in kindergarten children: Issues of task comparability , 1984 .

[36]  Joseph K. Torgesen,et al.  The Role of Orthographic Processing Skills on Five Different Reading Tasks. , 1992 .

[37]  Robert L. Cheng,et al.  Mandarin phonological structure , 1966, Journal of Linguistics.

[38]  M. Denckla,et al.  Rapid ‘automatized’ naming (R.A.N.): Dyslexia differentiated from other learning disabilities , 1976, Neuropsychologia.

[39]  José Morais,et al.  Phonological awareness: a bridge between language and literacy , 1991 .

[40]  P. Bryant,et al.  Categorizing sounds and learning to read—a causal connection , 1983, Nature.

[41]  C. Perfetti,et al.  Automatic phonetic transfer in bidialectal reading , 1991, Applied Psycholinguistics.

[42]  S. Brady,et al.  Reading ability and short-term memory: The role of phonological processing , 1990 .

[43]  E. Magnusson,et al.  The development of linguistic awareness in language-disordered children , 1993 .

[44]  R Treiman,et al.  Short-term memory errors for spoken syllables are affected by the linguistic structure of the syllables. , 1988, Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.

[45]  K. Stanovich,et al.  Exposure to print and orthographic processing. , 1989 .

[46]  Lila R. Gleitman,et al.  Orthographic Resources Affect Reading Acquisition—If They Are Used , 1985 .

[47]  H. Catts,et al.  Phonological recoding as a universal process? , 1993 .

[48]  L. Siegel.  Phonological processing deficits and reading disabilities. , 1998 .

[49]  H. Catts,et al.  Explaining Speech Production Deficits in Poor Readers , 1990, Journal of learning disabilities.

[50]  Joseph K. Torgesen,et al.  Longitudinal Studies of Phonological Processing and Reading , 1994, Journal of learning disabilities.

[51]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The role of phonological memory in vocabulary acquisition: A study of young children learning new names , 1990 .

[52]  Frank R. Vellutino,et al.  Dyslexia: Theory and Research , 1979 .

[53]  Rumjahn Hoosain,et al.  Visual and auditory functions of Chinese dyslexics. , 1984 .

[54]  Linnea C. Ehri,et al.  Reconceptualizing the Development of Sight Word Reading and Its Relationship to Recoding , 1992 .

[55]  K. Stanovich.  Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. , 1986 .

[56]  H. Wimmer,et al.  The relationship of phonemic awareness to reading acquisition: More consequence than precondition but still important , 1991, Cognition.

[57]  R. Wagner,et al.  The nature of prereaders' phonological processing abilities , 1987 .

[58]  M. Daneman,et al.  Phonological recoding in silent reading , 1991 .