Is processing of symbols and words influenced by writing system? Evidence from Chinese, Korean, English, and Greek

Abstract

We examined cross-linguistic effects in the relationship between serial and discrete versions of digit naming and word reading. In total, 113 Mandarin-speaking Chinese children, 100 Korean children, 112 English-speaking Canadian children, and 108 Greek children in Grade 3 were administered tasks of serial and discrete naming of words and digits. Interrelations among tasks indicated that the link between rapid naming and reading is largely determined by the format of the tasks across orthographies. Multigroup path analyses with discrete and serial word reading as dependent variables revealed commonalities as well as significant differences between writing systems. The path coefficient from discrete digits to discrete words was greater for the more transparent orthographies, consistent with more efficient sight-word processing. The effect of discrete word reading on serial word reading was stronger in alphabetic languages, where there was also a suppressive effect of discrete digit naming. However, the effect of serial digit naming on serial word reading did not differ among the four language groups. This pattern of relationships challenges a universal account of reading fluency acquisition while upholding a universal role of rapid serial naming, further distinguishing between multi-element interword and intraword processing.

Tracking the serial advantage in the naming rate of multiple over isolated stimulus displays

“…Properties (length and frequency) of the words used in each type of content Note. The same or some of this information has been previously reported in Altani et al (2017a), and in Protopapas et al (2018. Printed frequency (adult) 5.6 0.5 5.2 6.3 5.1 0.7 3.9 6.5 5.0 0.6 3.7 6.0 5.6 0.5 5.…”

“…The same English and Greek datasets (or subsamples) have been used in previous studies(Altani et al, 2017a(Altani et al, , 2018(Altani et al, , 2019Protopapas et al, 2018) to address different research questions with different analyses.…”

Using Serial and Discrete Digit Naming to Unravel Word Reading Processes

“…This might also explain previous findings in van den Boer and de Jong (2015) showing that serial naming was a better predictor of single word reading compared to discrete naming among Grade 2 readers (see Supplementary Table S4 ): Their use of words varying in length and frequency may have increased the demand for sequential within-word processing among the younger children they studied. Similarly, evidence from Greek (see Supplementary Table S4 ; Protopapas et al, 2018 ) showing that serial naming predicts discrete word reading among the younger Grades 1 and 3 readers might be due to the fact that two-syllable words were used in that study, presumably resulting in at least some sequential within-word processing requirements (see also Altani et al, 2017a , for related discussion).…”

Cognitive Precursors of Reading: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

“…Araújo and colleagues (Araújo & Faísca, 2019;Araújo et al, 2015) did not find evidence for significant differences in the RAN-reading relationship between alphabetic and non-alphabetic orthographies. Cross-linguistic study designs directly comparing the concurrent RAN-reading relation in Chinese with English as well as Korean (Altani et al, 2017) and Finnish (Georgiou, Aro, Liao, & Parrila, 2015;Georgiou, Parrila, & Papadopoulos, 2008) also found no remarkable differences between orthographies, but note that sample size in these studies was relatively small. Japanese is interesting because the precursors of syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji can be directly compared.…”