Development of Chinese orthographic processing: A cross-cultural perspective

Abstract

This study investigated young Chinese children’s development of orthographic processing and the factors that contribute to development. The investigation was carried out in both China and Canada to examine the effect of language learning contexts on the development of orthographic processing. Participants were ninety-four kindergarten and Grade 1 children in the Mainland of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and ninety-one kindergarten and Grade 1 Canadian–Chinese children in Canada. Children received a battery of measures twice roughly 1 year apart, including Chinese and English orthographic discrimination, radical position awareness, phonological awareness (syllable and phonemic awareness), character reading, and rapid digit naming. Children's home print exposure was measured by a questionnaire at the onset of the study. In both countries, children were able to differentiate between Chinese and English orthographic units at the beginning of kindergarten. Children in China, however, developed more advanced radical position awareness than their counterparts in Canada. Moreover, different factors contributed to individual differences in Chinese orthographic processing in different learning environments. In China, the phonological awareness and character reading measures significantly predicted radical position awareness, whereas in Canada, home print exposure was the most consistent predictor across different testing times. The differences observed between the two groups of children underscore the impact of language learning environment on the development of orthographic processing.