Double dissociations in reading comprehension difficulties among Chinese–English bilinguals and their association with tone awareness

Abstract

Poor comprehenders have reading comprehension difficulties but normal word recognition ability. Here, we report the first study, which investigated (i) the dissociation and (ii) the prevalence of L1-L2 reading comprehension difficulties, and (iii) the levels of key metalinguistic skills in poor comprehenders among Chinese-English bilingual children. From a sample of 124 Chinese-English second graders, we identified 18 poor comprehenders (six Chinese, six English, and six in both Chinese and English). We matched these with six average comprehenders of comparable age and word reading abilities. Multivariate analysis of covariance and univariate F tests revealed that poor Chinese comprehenders and poor English comprehenders had significantly lower levels of Chinese lexical tone awareness than average readers even after controlling for nonverbal intelligence. No significant differences emerged on scores for segmental phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, either in Chinese and English or on English lexical stress sensitivity. These findings were discussed in relation to the universal view of reading, cross language prosodic transfer and the simple view of reading. HighlightsWhat is already known about this topic • First language Chinese word reading difficulty can be dissociable from second language English word reading difficulty among Chinese-English bilingual children. • Some skills in first language, for example, phonological awareness, may underlie second language word reading difficulties in alphabetical orthographies. • First language poor Chinese comprehenders aged eight and nine exhibit poor lexical tone awareness, and first language poor English comprehenders have poor English vocabulary knowledge.

Reading Comprehension Difficulties in Chinese–English Bilingual Children

“…Similar to studies on the overlap of reading difficulty between L1 and L2 English at the word level and reading comprehension level in prior studies (e.g. Catts, Adolf, & Weismer, ; Choi, Tong, & Deacon, ; McBride‐Chang et al ., ), we identified poor comprehenders at age 10 by using an arbitrary cut‐off of the bottom 25% of our sample in either Chinese reading comprehension, English reading comprehension, or both. These three groups were then compared with a control group with average performance in both Chinese and English reading comprehension.…”

“…The discrepancy in the role of segmental level phonological awareness in reading comprehension in both Chinese and English might be due to children's differences in reading ability at the word level in the present study compared with those in previous studies. Children had adequate word reading at earlier ages in the studies conducted by Nation et al (2010) and by Choi et al (2017). In our study, children had difficulty at the word-level reading in both Chinese and English at ages 5-8, although we statistically controlled for their word reading ability at age 9.…”

“…In a recent study, Choi et al . () also reported that poor comprehenders either in Chinese, in English, or in both had equal performance in phonological awareness at the segmental level but poorer performance at the suprasegmental (i.e. lexical tone) level in Chinese–English bilingual second graders, compared with a control group.…”

“…() and by Choi et al . (). In our study, children had difficulty at the word‐level reading in both Chinese and English at ages 5–8, although we statistically controlled for their word reading ability at age 9.…”

“…Nation and colleagues found that poor L1 English comprehenders did not have a particular weakness in segmental phonological awareness as compared with the children in the control group. In a recent study, Choi et al (2017) also reported that poor comprehenders either in Chinese, in English, or in both had equal performance in phonological awareness at the segmental level but poorer performance at the suprasegmental (i.e. lexical tone) level in Chinese-English bilingual second graders, compared with a control group.…”