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14. Differences in Chinese Character Identification Between Skilled and Less Skilled Young Readers
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
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14 DifferencesinChineseCharacter IdentificationBetweenSkilledand LessSkilledYoungReaders JudyHuei-YuWangandJohnT.Guthrie Achievement differences i n reading English are related to the accurate an d rapid identification o f words (Cunningham&c Stanovich , 1998 ; Daneman, 1991). Research show s that the phonological process is central to identif y a wor d an d play s a significant rol e in accounting the differences betwee n good an d poo r reader s (Guthri e & Tyler , 1976 ; Jorm & Share , 1983 ; Perfetti, Finger , & Hogaboam , 1978) . Thi s result s fro m th e fac t tha t English is an alphabeti c writing system , in which readers must firs t lear n the spelling-to-sound rules and then the meaning unit of a word (se e details in Ehri , 1994) . Unlike English , Chines e i s a logographi c writin g syste m that use s graphi c symbol s t o represen t mainl y unit s o f meanin g o r morphemes (Hoosain , 1991) . Th e identificatio n o f Chines e character s seems t o b e dominate d b y graphic-morphem e correspondences . Recen t research o n Chines e readin g ha s claime d tha t phonolog y play s a n important rol e i n the lexica l processin g o f Chines e character s fo r adul t readers (Perfett i & Tan , 1998 ; Perfetti & Zhang , 1995 ; Tan, Hoosain, & Siok, 1996) . However, whethe r th e rol e o f phonolog y play s i n determinin g individual difference s i n Chinese character identificatio n ha s not yet bee n investigated. Thi s motivate d th e curren t stud y i n investigatin g whethe r the variatio n betwee n skille d an d less-skille d youn g Chines e reader s pertains to character identification an d whether phonological process plays an influentia l role . We will first outlin e the lexical processing o f Chines e 264JUD YHUEI-YUWANGANDJOHNT.GUTHRIE characters a s show n b y previou s studies , an d the n repor t th e empirica l results o f thre e experiment s i n relation t o ou r questions . Graphic, phonological , an d semanti c informatio n i n a Chines e character i s fundamenta l t o it s identification . Peng , Guo , an d Zhan g (1985) stated that graphic information o f Chinese characters was the most efficient indicato r i n the judgment tas k fo r bot h th e young chil d an d th e adult. Th e youn g chil d coul d perfor m mor e accuratel y an d faste r i f th e graphic information wa s not separated from th e phonological information . Chen, Yung , an d N g (1988 ) use d th e visua l searc h paradig m i n tw o experiments t o investigat e th e recognitio n o f som e feature s i n Chines e characters an d monosyllabi c Englis h words , an d th e differentia l effect s of semanti c an d phonemi c cuein g i n identifyin g Chines e character s an d English words . The y showe d tha t graphemi c an d semanti c cue s wer e quickly identifie d an d ha d a close r relationshi p t o Chinese , wherea s phonemic feature s dominate d th e perceptual proces s o f English . Current studie s sho w tha t phonolog y i s involve d 'a t lexicality ' i n identifying Chines e character s an d word s (Cheng , 1992 ; Cheng & Shih , 1988; Hue, 1992 ; Perfetti & Tan , 1998 ; Perfetti & Zhang , 1991 , 1995; Tzeng & Hung , 1980 ; Tzeng, Hung, &c Wang, 1977) . The general findin g is tha t phonologica l processin g o f Chines e character s i s rapi d an d automatic an d thi s process i s different fro m th e prelexical assemblin g o f phonology in English word identification (Perfetti , Bell, & Delaney , 1988) . As examples, Tan , Hoosain , an d Sio k (1996 ) showe d tha t homophoni c masks facilitate d th e identification o f target characters relativ e to contro l masks, wherea s semanti c mask s di d no t hav e suc h effects . Further , associatively relate d mask s (th e strengt...