TY - JOUR
T1 - The pathway to English word reading in Chinese ESL children
T2 - the role of spelling
AU - Lin, Dan
AU - Liu, Yingyi
AU - Sun, Huilin
AU - Wong, Richard Kwok Shing
AU - Yeung, Susanna Siu sze
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was partially supported by the Grant from Quality Education Fund (2012/0316), Hong Kong SAR, given to the corresponding author. We sincerely thank all the participating schools and children.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - The present longitudinal study investigated the role of spelling as a bridge between various reading-related predictors and English word reading in Chinese children learning English as a Second Language (ESL). One hundred and forty-one 5-year-old kindergarten children from Hong Kong, whose first language (L1) was Cantonese and second language (L2) was English, were administered tests of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, English vocabulary, spelling and English word reading at three time points (T1, T2 and T3) at 3-month intervals over a 6-month period. Nonverbal IQ was included as a control variable. The results showed that phonological awareness, letter knowledge and English vocabulary at T1 all predicted English word reading (T3) through spelling (T2). Further mediation analyses showed that, for phonological awareness and English vocabulary, full mediation effects were found. For letter knowledge, a partial mediation effect was observed. These results suggest that, in Chinese ESL kindergarteners, reading-related predictors foster word reading via spelling, a process that intersects phonology, orthography and semantics. Practical implications of these findings were also discussed.
AB - The present longitudinal study investigated the role of spelling as a bridge between various reading-related predictors and English word reading in Chinese children learning English as a Second Language (ESL). One hundred and forty-one 5-year-old kindergarten children from Hong Kong, whose first language (L1) was Cantonese and second language (L2) was English, were administered tests of phonological awareness, letter knowledge, English vocabulary, spelling and English word reading at three time points (T1, T2 and T3) at 3-month intervals over a 6-month period. Nonverbal IQ was included as a control variable. The results showed that phonological awareness, letter knowledge and English vocabulary at T1 all predicted English word reading (T3) through spelling (T2). Further mediation analyses showed that, for phonological awareness and English vocabulary, full mediation effects were found. For letter knowledge, a partial mediation effect was observed. These results suggest that, in Chinese ESL kindergarteners, reading-related predictors foster word reading via spelling, a process that intersects phonology, orthography and semantics. Practical implications of these findings were also discussed.
KW - English word reading
KW - ESL
KW - Letter
KW - Phonological awareness
KW - Spelling
KW - Vocabulary
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84974807564&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11145-016-9664-6
DO - 10.1007/s11145-016-9664-6
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84974807564
VL - 30
SP - 87
EP - 103
JO - Reading and Writing
JF - Reading and Writing
SN - 0922-4777
IS - 1
ER -
