This longitudinal study examined the relationship between pedagogical continuity in literacy education and early literacy development by comparing Chinese children in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. Stratified random sampling was used to select 24 preschool and Primary 1 classes in four communities catering to middle-class families in each city. The 24 teachers were interviewed about their teaching methods and views on pedagogical continuity in individual sessions. Further, their teaching activities were videotaped over a period of a week. Their students (n = 758) completed a Chinese literacy attainment test at the beginning and at the end of the same academic year. Analyses indicated that Hong Kong students outperformed their Shenzhen counterparts in Chinese literacy attainment, at both preschool and primary levels, concurrently and longitudinally. This suggests that the holistic approach followed in Hong Kong might have a more positive impact on childrens literacy development than the approach followed in Shenzhen. Implications of the findings for early childhood curriculum reform are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2010.515944 ]

This study aimed to establish the validity of the Language Development Rating Scale and the Attitudes toward Reading and Voluntary Reading Behaviour Rating Scale in Morrow's Checklist for Assessing Early Literacy Development for use with preschool children in Hong Kong. The sample comprised 2619 preschool children aged three-five years who were currently enrolled in preschool levels K1-K3 in Hong Kong. Analysis showed that the two scales had strong construct validity and internal consistency, and that both fit well to the Rasch model. Nevertheless, findings of the Rasch analysis suggested that the level of the Language Development Scale did not align well with the language proficiency of kindergarten children in the sample who were more proficient than the proficiency levels demanded by the items in the scale. The results suggested such further refinement such as the inclusion of more advanced items may be necessary for valid local applications.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430.2011.536641]

Measures of Chinese character recognition, vocabulary, and interest in reading were administered to 92 second grade children in Hong Kong, while questionnaires on parental literacy practices were administered to their parents. In a hierarchical regression equation, maternal education, children's age and vocabulary skill predicted 18% of the variance in reading, while home literacy practices and children's literacy self-efficacy predicted an additional unique 19% of the variance in Chinese reading skill. Results underscore the importance of some early home literacy practices for reading achievement, even among children who are already receiving formal literacy instruction.
[Copyright of Early Education & Development is the property of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15566935eed1601_1 ]

This study followed 88 children in Beijing and Hong Kong for three years to investigate the relationships between the early teaching of literacy skills and later literacy outcomes. The children were administered the Preschool and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale at the age of five years, and three years later. Their parents and teachers reported on their involvement in literacy teaching, the home/classroom literacy environment and their beliefs about language learning. Findings showed that the Hong Kong cohort significantly surpassed their Beijing counterparts in literacy attainments at age five and age eight. After controlling for age, site, maternal education and teacher qualification, formal literacy activities in early childhood significantly contributed to literacy attainment at primary school, whereas informal literacy experiences did not. Results suggest that the complicated nature of Chinese orthography may make early instruction particularly valuable in Chinese literacy acquisition. The psycholinguistic, pedagogical and sociocontextual accounts and implications of these findings are discussed.
[Copyright of Early Child Development and Care is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03004430600789365]

This study considered curricular and instructional influences on early Chinese literacy attainment in Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore. The participants included 198 pre‐school children, their teachers and parents. Children were administered the Pre‐school and Primary Chinese Literacy Scale at the age of either two or three years, and again one year later. Teachers were asked to report on their beliefs and practices related to literacy education, and classroom observations were conducted to determine the extent to which directives issued by the Beijing, Hong Kong and Singapore governments were implemented. Investigation showed that there were marked differences across the societies in curriculum guidelines and approaches to literacy teaching. Results indicated that by the age of four, pre‐schoolers in Hong Kong and Singapore had significantly better Chinese literacy attainment than those in Beijing. Although age was the best predictor of attainment, location, teachers' qualifications and classroom experience also significantly contributed to children’s literacy attainment.
[Copyright of International Journal of Early Years Education is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09669760500295870]

A Chinese script is represented by Chinese characters and each character is a square-shaped configuration with condensed strokes. Children in Hong Kong are explicitly taught to write at a very young age. They are guided to draw vertical and horizontal lines at age three, and are required to write simple characters with few strokes at age four. When children are ready for formal schooling at age six, many of them can write around 50-60 characters. Typical writing lessons consist of penmanship drills and assigned character copying tasks, but in some preschools teachers have begun to change the writing curriculum and make a distinction between emergent literacy and conventional literacy. Early writings are marked by scribbles, drawings and invented spellings, and these are regarded as signs of active exploration for children to understand the writing system. The present study introduces the learning experience of a four-year-old girl who was encouraged by her teacher and parents to be an emergent writer. Her writings went through several stages of development within a year, and her spontaneous experiments with writing in the initial stage contributed significantly to her becoming a fairly independent and confident writer.
[Copyright of Early Years: An International Journal of Research and Development is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09575140801945304]