Word Reading in L1 and L2 Learners of Chinese: Similarities and Differences in the Functioning of Component Processes

Abstract

This study examined the similarities and differences in the functioning of component processes underlying first language (L1) and second language (L2) word reading in Chinese. Fourth‐grade Chinese children in Singapore were divided into L1 and L2 reader groups based on whether they used Mandarin or English as their home language. Both groups were administered a battery of tasks that assessed their orthographic processing skill (OP), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), oral vocabulary knowledge, as well as the ability to decode characters and multi‐character compound words. Separate Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses showed that in the L1 group, over and above all other variables, both OP and MA, as opposed to PA, were significant predictors of word reading, whereas in the L2 group, OP and PA, as opposed to MA, predicted word reading. Multiple‐group SEM analysis further revealed that the effects of OP and MA were significantly larger in the L1 than in the L2 group, whereas a converse pattern was found for PA. These findings are discussed in light of the linguistic and language‐to‐print mapping properties of Chinese as well as the influence of L1 and L2 learners’ differential experience on how they learn to read in Chinese.

Transfer facilitation effects of morphological awareness on multicharacter word reading in Chinese as a foreign language

“…Notably, our findings differed from the morphological insensitivity identified by D. Zhang (2017) and Zhou and McBride (2013) in child English-Chinese bilingual learners. D. Zhang (2017) found that orthographic and phonological skills were significant predictors of Chinese word reading in the English-speaking child learners of Chinese in Singapore and observed a positive effect of MA on word reading in native Chinese children only, not in English-speaking children.…”

“…As to the language-specific facet of Chinese MA, three frequently cited measures are homophone awareness, lexical compounding awareness, and semantic radical awareness (as cited in Wang, Cheng, & Chen, 2006). Homophone awareness refers to the ability to differentiate different morphemes in homophones (see D. Zhang, 2017). For example, in both 商业 and 商品,, the first character 商 has the same sound /shāng/ and the same meaning "related to business", whereas in 商量, 商, /shāng/ means "to discuss".…”

“…Lexical compounding awareness is often operationalized as the ability to construct new compound words for novel objects or concepts based on previously learned morphemes. In D. Zhang's (2017) study, children of native Chinese and English-Chinese bilingual backgrounds were asked in Chinese "Which is the best name for candies packed in a box that is made out of bronze: 铜糖盒 'bronze candy box', 铜盒糖 'bronze box candy', 糖盒铜 'candy box bronze', or 盒铜糖 'box bronze candy'?" (Answer: 铜盒糖"bronze box candy").…”

“…To our knowledge, there have been only a few studies examining the relationship between MA and reading single-character or multicharacter words in Chinese as an additional language. These studies examined the potential influence of first language literacy learning impact on the utility of MA in Chinese word reading by either comparing second language learner groups that vary in their first language orthographies (e.g., Tong et al, 2016) or comparing the relationship between MA and Chinese word reading between native Chinese and non-native Chinese learner groups (e.g., D. Zhang, 2017;Zhou & McBride, 2013). Tong et al (2016) conducted a study to validate the Dynamic Interactive Model of non-native Chinese character processing and compared the performance of English-, Korean-, and Japanese-speaking adult learners of Chinese in a picture-character mapping task.…”

“…Notably, the child participants in the studies by D. Zhang (2017) as well as Zhou and McBride (2013) were still developing biliteracy skills in two or multiple languages and were exposed to rich Chinese oral and print exposure with Chinese as one of the subjects in school education. The findings might not be generalizable to adult learners of Chinese in a foreign language context, who have well-developed literacy competence in their first language, yet limited linguistic knowledge and print exposure in Chinese (e.g., H. Zhang & Koda, 2018).…”