The number of Chinese children living in poverty has risen steadily in Hong Kong, China. However, little is known on the longitudinal effects of family socioeconomic status (SES) on cognitive-linguistic skills, word reading and writing in children from low-SES backgrounds. This study examines differences in cognitive-linguistic skills and word reading and writing across kindergarteners from the low- and middle-SES groups. It also investigates the direct link between SES and children's concurrent Chinese literacy skills and how cognitive-linguistic skills mediate the longitudinal associations between SES and word reading and writing. One hundred and nine children were assessed at Kindergarten K2 (Time 1) and reassessed at Kindergarten K3 (Time 2). Children were administered the measures of vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, executive functioning, Chinese word reading, and Chinese word dictation at both time points. Results revealed that low-SES children performed less well on Chinese word reading and dictation than their middle-SES peers at both time points. Moreover, hierarchical regression and mediation analyses suggested that SES had a direct relation with Chinese word reading at Time 1 after controlling for age and cognitive-linguistic skills, and an indirect link with Chinese word dictation at Time 2 which was fully mediated by phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at Time 1. The results highlight that SES may exert an impact on children's early Chinese reading and writing and suggest the benefit of improving phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge of low-SES children. Copyright ©Springer Netherlands.

Objectives: It has been supported by various literatures that there is a relation between holistic processing and Chinese character recognition. The present study examined the relation between holistic processing of Chinese characters and literacy ability of Hong Kong preschoolers, in order to explore whether the extent of holistic processing is associated with writing or reading experience. Methods: Participants were 59 local preschoolers (37 boys, 22 girls). The literacy ability of participants was assessed by The Hong Kong Reading Ability Screening Test for Preschool Children (RAST-K); while holistic processing of Chinese characters was measured by adopting the procedures from Hsiao & Cottrell (2009) in a complete composite paradigm (Gauthier & Bukach, 2007). Results: In line with the previous research findings, preschoolers also showed holistic processing in perceiving Chinese characters. Specifically, K2 students were significantly more holistic than K3 students. Such discrepancy may relate to writing experience instead of reading experience since a negative correlation between holistic processing and writing ability was significantly observed. Conclusion: This study had a theoretical contribution on the study of Chinese writing difficulties among preschoolers. Educators and parents may help enhancing the writing ability of preschoolers by leading them to perceive the characters separately, i.e. weakening the holistic processing of Chinese characters. All rights reserved.

閱讀與寫作都和文本有關，可通過文類教學聯結從閱讀到寫作的教學。實用文是教材與評估中的主要文類之一，本研究採用「閱讀促進寫作」文類教學法進行實用文的讀寫教學實踐。此教學法以系統功能語言學為基礎，形成從閱讀到寫作的完整教學設計，已證實在英文寫作教學領域有正面效果，但在中文教學及閱讀的應用仍處於發展階段。本研究進一步設計相應的閱讀理解評量表，以香港非華語學生為對象，通過前、後測及訪談等研究工具，收集量化及質性數據。研究結果顯示，「閱讀促進寫作」教學法能提升中文第二語言學習者的閱讀表現達5.9倍，寫作表現進步達1.4倍，且實驗班的讀寫進步幅度均顯著優於對照班，證明此教學法能大幅提升讀寫表現，可進一步推廣及融入於課程設計。Reading and writing are key components of literacy education, while genre pedagogy can be implemented to connect the teaching from reading to writing. Practical text is one of the main genre in teaching materials and assessment. Relevant pedagogy and research should be conducted to provide second language learners the knowledge about genre, context, and function of language about practical writing. Based on the theories of systemic functional linguistics, the “reading to learn, learning to write” (RLLW) pedagogy has demonstrated positive effect of improving English learners’ reading and writing competency. For further development of genre pedagogy in different languages, there is a need to investigate the effect and feasibility of applying RLLW in teaching languages other than English. This article reports on its effect on Chinese as second language education through mixed-method case study research. It proved that RLLW can improve non-Chinese speaking students’ reading performance by 5.9 times and writing performance by 1.4 times higher than pre-test, while both significantly better than the control group. Research findings proved the positive effect of RLLW pedagogy and its potential to be implemented in curriculum. Copyright © 2018 香港中文大學.

寫作教學是語文教學重要的一環，香港教育署課程發展議會編訂 (1991) 的《小學中國語文科課程綱要》中的總目標的第二點是：「培養學生寫作的能力，使能運於語體文來表情達意。」教育署雖然十分重視寫作課程，但香港許多小學生卻覺得寮作是一年苦差使。一聽到要作文，便流露厭煩的神色。學生對寫作沒有興趣，只是敷衍成篇，交差了事。於是全班的作文都是千篇一律，全無新意。教師也以改作文為痛苦的事。為了要改變這種情況，香港有些小學進行了寫作教學的改革，名為全語文寫作教學。全語文寫作教學參考自全語文取向 (Whole Language approach) 的精神，是以學生為中心的一種教學法，它的信念是：文字是用來溝通的，因此要注意教材的實用性，同時也注重聽、說、讀和寫的配合。全語文寫作教學在香港八所小學進行的情況是這樣的： 1. 小一下學期便開始篇章寫作； 2. 老師不會給寫作提綱； 3. 學生可以自行決定用甚麼形式寫作、例如：詩歌、故事也可以；學生也可以自行決定用甚麼體裁，例如：說明文、議論文或記敘文都可以。 4. 教師鼓勵學生盡量表達自己所想寫的東西，不會寫的字，可以用圖畫和符號暫時代替，然後老師再在上面寫上正確的字。 5. 老師所給的作文題目，是「母題」，學生可以根據母題再訂一個子題；例如老師所給的題目：縮小了，學生可以寫；假如我縮小了，地球縮小了，怎樣使xx縮小，xx縮小的利弊，.......等等，學生可以根據自己的意願訂自己想寫的題目，然後寫作。 這些小學每年都進行8-10篇全語文寫作。本文的目的是：介紹係語文寫作教學的理念和推行的過程，參與的學生、教師和校長的意見，一方面可讓教育同工可以參考，另一方面是藉以吸收其他語文教育工作者的回祇，使該項寫作教學計畫更完善。

踏入新世紀，香港中國語文課程進行了重要改革，其中一個改革重點是加強文學學習，但是在過去語文和文學分家的課程規劃下，已經熟習語文教學的教師不期然對文學教學產生「教甚麼、怎麼教」的疑惑。怎麼教小學生讀詩？小學生在欣賞詩、寫詩的能力嗎？這些疑慮都需要通過實踐經驗才可以獲得釋放。 本論文主要報告一個在小學三年級和五年級進行的兒童詩讀寫教學試驗。教學試驗在二零零三年六月前完成，採用質性分析方法來分析六個學生的學習個案，從中探討教學試驗的成效。個案分析結果顯示了學生經過詩歌學習活動後，對詩歌保持或產生正面的鹿度，能領悟詩的特質，開始發展對詩的意識，賞讀詩歌的能力在加強，並能從讀詩的活動中領略寫詩的技巧，能用形象的手法來寫個人對身邊人或物的感受。教師和學生的訪談更指出試驗的教學模式發揮了以下的成效：學生喜歡用通過試教的模式來學習，對讀詩寫詩的興趣濃厚；部分學生寫詩比寫文好；程度差的學生從讀詩寫詩獲得成功感；個別家長表示支持；教師對語文教學有更新的體會。