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Correlates of early English and Chinese reading among bilingual preschool children
Author
Chin, Chern Far
Supervisor
O'Brien, Beth A.
Poon, Kenneth K.
Abstract
This study examined whether there are differences in the contribution of pre-literacy skills (i.e., phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and vocabulary knowledge) of Mandarin-English bilingual preschool children to their early reading of two orthographically very different languages – Chinese and English.
Eighty-nine senior kindergarten children in Singapore were administered a battery of tests in Mandarin and English, which included phonological awareness (phonological deletion, sound matching, and tone matching), rapid automatized naming (digit and letter naming), vocabulary knowledge (picture selection), and character/word reading, respectively, in addition to a non-verbal intelligence task. The relative contribution of the reading correlates to reading in each language was investigated with multiple regression analyses. Cross-linguistic relationships between reading correlates and reading in the other language were also examined using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for the effects of intralingual reading correlates.
Rapid automatic naming of letters and digits was the strongest predictor to reading in both English and Mandarin but the role of phonological awareness in reading each language was more varied. Entered as a composite score, phonological awareness explained significant and unique variance in English word reading but failed to predict Chinese character reading. When phonological awareness was analyzed as its component tasks, syllabic awareness (syllable deletion) did not make a significant contribution to word reading whereas, phonemic awareness, operationalized as phoneme deletion, continued to exert unique influence on word reading. On the other hand, character reading was predicted uniquely by syllable deletion, but not by phoneme deletion and tone matching. Vocabulary knowledge also played a differential role in reading English and Chinese. It failed to account for significant variance in reading English but was a unique predictor of character reading. Further analysis showed a possible indirect contribution of vocabulary knowledge to English reading through phonological awareness. Interlingually, some facilitation of Chinese phonological awareness on English word reading occurred.
Similar to monolinguals in each language, the present findings demonstrated that overall, reading English was more associated with phonological processing whereas character reading could be more related to orthographic and semantic processing. This also implies that young bilinguals at the beginning of reading acquisition do not adopt the same set of strategies in reading two orthographies. Instead, they adopt two different sets of strategies tailored to the requirements of each language. Furthermore, bilingual children make use of acquired proficiency and reading resources in one language to help them read in the other language.
Eighty-nine senior kindergarten children in Singapore were administered a battery of tests in Mandarin and English, which included phonological awareness (phonological deletion, sound matching, and tone matching), rapid automatized naming (digit and letter naming), vocabulary knowledge (picture selection), and character/word reading, respectively, in addition to a non-verbal intelligence task. The relative contribution of the reading correlates to reading in each language was investigated with multiple regression analyses. Cross-linguistic relationships between reading correlates and reading in the other language were also examined using hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for the effects of intralingual reading correlates.
Rapid automatic naming of letters and digits was the strongest predictor to reading in both English and Mandarin but the role of phonological awareness in reading each language was more varied. Entered as a composite score, phonological awareness explained significant and unique variance in English word reading but failed to predict Chinese character reading. When phonological awareness was analyzed as its component tasks, syllabic awareness (syllable deletion) did not make a significant contribution to word reading whereas, phonemic awareness, operationalized as phoneme deletion, continued to exert unique influence on word reading. On the other hand, character reading was predicted uniquely by syllable deletion, but not by phoneme deletion and tone matching. Vocabulary knowledge also played a differential role in reading English and Chinese. It failed to account for significant variance in reading English but was a unique predictor of character reading. Further analysis showed a possible indirect contribution of vocabulary knowledge to English reading through phonological awareness. Interlingually, some facilitation of Chinese phonological awareness on English word reading occurred.
Similar to monolinguals in each language, the present findings demonstrated that overall, reading English was more associated with phonological processing whereas character reading could be more related to orthographic and semantic processing. This also implies that young bilinguals at the beginning of reading acquisition do not adopt the same set of strategies in reading two orthographies. Instead, they adopt two different sets of strategies tailored to the requirements of each language. Furthermore, bilingual children make use of acquired proficiency and reading resources in one language to help them read in the other language.
Date Issued
2016
Call Number
LB1139.5.R43 Chi
Date Submitted
2016