The Beautiful and the Ugly: Reading Ability Modulates Word Spacing Effects in Chinese Children

ABSTRACT

There are no salient word spaces in Mandarin Chinese. Thus, it is unclear whether word spacing information differentially affects the reading speed of children with and without reading difficulties (RD). In the present study, native Chinese-speaking children of differential reading abilities were tested with Chinese text in un-spaced versus spaced versions at different time points during training. The results indicated that spaced texts slow down reading speeds in children without RD. In contrast, spaced texts improved reading speeds in children with reading difficulties after some training took place. These findings suggest that the effect of word spacing information on Chinese reading might vary as a function of individual differences in reading abilities. We argue that children with RD can accommodate to the spaced text better than children without RD and that they can take advantage of using bottom-up spacing information to segment and recognize words in text.

KEYWORDS:

• Chinese reading
• reading difficulties
• reading speed
• word spaces

Acknowledgments

This study received the 2010 Best Paper Award for Young Researchers from the Taiwan Academy for Learning Disabilities, and the article was based in part on Yu-Cheng's Lin's thesis submitted to National Cheng Kung University. We are very grateful for the advice and comments of Drs. Jenn-Yeu Chen, Aleck Shih-Wei Chen, Hsin-Chin Chen, and Hsien-Ming Yang. We sincerely thank Chang-Shou Lin and Chin-Yun Wu for their generous and invaluable assistance with the data collection. We also thank Shu-Hui Zhung and Xing-Hua Huang, the principals of Tainan Sheng Xian Elementary School and Tainan Hou Bi Elementary School, respectively.

ORCID

Pei-Ying Lin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3845-0635