To space or not space? Interword spacing effects on Chinese children's reading materials

Abstract

This study investigated different Chinese on-screen text layouts to see if they improved the reading speed and comprehension of Taiwanese children. A number of different experimental treatments were used. These were: interword spacing (unspaced, semi-spaced and fully-spaced), text difficulty (easy and difficult) and text direction (vertical and horizontal). The experiment involved 84 children aged between 10 and 11 years old. In the experiment the children were asked to read articles. The time they took to read these articles was recorded. The children also partook in comprehension tests to determine how much they had understood about the articles they had read. The results showed that horizontal text was read more quickly than vertical text and was better comprehended. The results also showed that fully-spaced difficult text was read more quickly than semi-spaced difficult text, and unspaced difficult text was also better comprehended.

Abstract

Practitioner Summary: This experiment was conducted to explore the affects of interword spacing, text direction and text difficulty on the reading speeds and comprehension of on-screen traditional Chinese characters by Taiwanese children. It found that fully-spaced, horizontal text was the quickest and most comprehendible to read, regardless of text difficulty.

Keywords:

• text layout
• interword spacing
• text direction
• text difficulty
• children's reading materials

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Julian Bowerman for his helpful comments and support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This experiment was kindly supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan [grant number MOST103-2410-H-415-047].