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... more
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.
Does the type of reading instruction experienced during the initial years at school have any continuing effect on the ways in which adults read words? The question has arisen in current discussions about computational models of mature... more
Does the type of reading instruction experienced during the initial years at school have any continuing effect on the ways in which adults read words? The question has arisen in current discussions about computational models of mature word-reading processes. We tested predicted continuing effects by comparing matched samples of skilled adult readers of English who had received explicit phonics instruction in childhood and those who had not. In responding to nonwords that can receive alternative legitimate pronunciations, those adults having childhood phonics instruction used more regular grapheme-phoneme correspondences that were context free and used fewer vocabulary-based contextually dependent correspondences than did adults who had no phonics instruction. These differences in regularization of naming responses also extended to some low-frequency words. This apparent cognitive footprint of childhood phonics instruction is a phenomenon requiring consideration when researchers attempt to model adult word reading and when they select participants to test the models.
This study explores the incidence of poor comprehenders, that is, children identified as having reading comprehension difficulties, despite age-appropriate word reading skills. It supports the findings that some children do show poor... more
This study explores the incidence of poor comprehenders, that is, children identified as having reading comprehension difficulties, despite age-appropriate word reading skills. It supports the findings that some children do show poor reading comprehension, despite age-appropriate word reading, as measured with a phonological coding test. However, the proportion of poor comprehenders was smaller than the frequently reported 10–15%, and smaller yet, when average sight word recognition, measured with an orthographic coding test, was also set as a criterion for word reading skill. Compared to average comprehenders, the poor comprehenders’ orthographic coding and daily reading of literary texts were significantly below those of average readers. This study indicates that a lack of reading experience, and likewise, a lack of fluent word reading, may be important factors in understanding 9-year-old poor comprehenders’ difficulties.
The present research factorially examined the effects of homophone density, visual frequency, and phonological frequency (defined here as the cumulative frequency of homophone mates) in Chinese visual word recognition. Stimuli were... more
The present research factorially examined the effects of homophone density, visual frequency, and phonological frequency (defined here as the cumulative frequency of homophone mates) in Chinese visual word recognition. Stimuli were compound characters matched in semantic and phonetic radical neighbourhood density and in average visual frequency of orthographic neighbours. In contrast to a previous study with Chinese by Ziegler, Tan, Perry, and Montant (2000), no facilitative effect of phonological frequency was observed. Unlike previous findings with English readers of inhibitory effects of homophones, a facilitative effect of homophone density was restricted to low visual frequency words and was obtained for Chinese in both lexical decision (Exp. 1) and naming (Exp. 2), similar to Ziegler et al. (2000). Our results suggest that, when there is less possibility of sublexical competition between similar spellings, homophone density effects are facilitatory. This outcome supports theoretical positions regarding the mental representation of homophones that assume a single representation for homophones at the phonological word form level.
Okuma becerisi birçok karmaşık bilişsel işlemin yapılmasını gerektiren bir süreçtir. Bu süreçte okurlar metindeki sözcükleri tanımak zorundadır. Bir sözcüğü okuma sürecinde tanımak, o sözcüğü metin içerisinde anlamlandırmayı gerektirir.... more
Okuma becerisi birçok karmaşık bilişsel işlemin yapılmasını gerektiren bir süreçtir. Bu süreçte okurlar metindeki sözcükleri tanımak zorundadır. Bir sözcüğü okuma sürecinde tanımak, o sözcüğü metin içerisinde anlamlandırmayı gerektirir. Bu nedenle bir okur okumakta olduğu metinde geçen sözcükleri tanımalıdır. Ancak bir okurun söz varlığı yeterince geniş olsa da karşılaştığı her metindeki tüm sözcüklerin anlamını bilmesi mümkün değildir. Bir okur metindeki her sözcüğün anlamını bilmese de ipuçlarından yararlanarak sözcüğün anlamına ulaşmaya çalışır. Bunun için de çok farklı sözcüksel çıkarım stratejilerine başvurabilir. Bu çalışmanın amacı da Türkçe öğrenen yabancı öğrencilerin hangi sözcüksel çıkarım stratejilerine başvurduklarını belirlemektir. Betimsel nitelikli bu araştırmada tarama yöntemi kullanılmış ve araştırmanın çalışma grubunda Türkçe Öğretim Merkezinde öğrenimlerini sürdüren C1 düzeyinde 43 öğrenci yer almıştır. Türkçe öğrenen yabancı öğrencilerin okuma sürecinde bilinmeyen sözcüklerle karşılaşınca başvurdukları çıkarım stratejilerine ilişkin verileri toplamak 14 maddelik 4'lü likert tipi bir sormaca kullanılmış ve veriler SPSS istatistik programına aktarılarak sıklık, yüzdelikler ve aritmetik ortalamaları belirlenmiştir. Araştırmanın sonucuna göre öğrenciler en çok bağlamdan yararlanarak sözcüğün anlamına ulaşmaya çalışmaktadır. Anahtar Sözcükler: Sözcük öğretimi, söz varlığı, sözcüksel çıkarım. Abstract Reading skills are a process that requires the execution of many complex cognitive processes. In this process, readers have to recognize the words in the text. To recognize a word in the reading process requires that the word be understood in the text. For this reason, a reader should know the words in the text that they are reading. However, even though a reader's lexicon is wide enough, it is not possible to know the meaning of all the words in every text it refers to. A reader tries to reach the meaning of the word by taking advantage of the clues, even though it does not know the meaning of every word in the text. For this, very different lexical inference strategies can be applied. The aim of this study is to determine the lexical inference strategies of foreign students learning Turkish. In this descriptive study, scanning method was used. The study group of the study consisted of 43 C1 students studying at the Turkish Teaching Center. A 14-item 4-point Likert-type questionnaire was used to collect data on the inference strategies that foreign students learning Turkish used when they encountered unknown words in the reading process. Obtained data were transferred to statistical program and frequency, percentages and arithmetic mean were determined. According to the result of the research, the students mostly try to reach the meaning of the word by taking advantage of context.
