Poor readers of Chinese and English: Overlap, stability, and longitudinal correlates

Poor readers of Chinese and English: Overlap, stability, and longitudinal correlates

• McBride-Chang, Catherine Dept. of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Shu, Hua Beijing Normal University
• Chan, Wai Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Wong, Terry University of Hong Kong
• Wong, Anita M. Y. University of Hong Kong
• Zhang, Yuping Beijing Normal University
• Pan, Jinger Beijing Normal University
• Chan, Paul Chinese University of Hong Kong

Scientific Studies of Reading, 17(1), 57-70, 2013

Lawrence Erlbaum Associates

2013

• F Learning & Teaching
  • FE Medium of Instruction, Language of Teaching, Bi-& Multilingual Education, Problems of Bilingualism, Code-mixing & Code-switching

• Hong Kong
• Beijing

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

We tested the overlap in the bottom 25% of scorers (termed "poor readers") in word reading in Chinese and English, respectively, among statistically representative groups of 8-year-olds from Hong Kong and Beijing in order to determine the chances of being a poor reader in English given that one was already a poor reader in Chinese. The overlap in the status of poor reader was 32% in Hong Kong and 40% in Beijing. For the Beijing sample only, we also examined longitudinal correlates of children who were poor readers of Chinese only, of English only, or poor readers in both, relative to controls at age 8. Poor readers of either Chinese or English scored the same on phonological awareness relative to controls, and poor readers of Chinese were lower than those who were poor readers of English on morphological awareness. Those children who were poor in both scored significantly lower in phonological awareness and morphological awareness, as well as slower in rapid automatized naming, over time, relative to the other groups. Results suggest that it is possible to be poor in reading of either Chinese or English or both and that the cognitive correlates of such difficulties may differ by orthography.
[Copyright of Scientific Studies of Reading is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2012.689787]

• English

Journal Articles

• 10888438

• 10.1080/10888438.2012.689787

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/en/bibs/aee5f890

2014-10-28