Decoding and language comprehension skills have been found to be the core components of reading comprehension across many writing systems. The present study examined the contributions of vocabulary and some discourse-level skills to reading comprehension in Chinese in addition to that of decoding. One hundred and seventeen Chinese second and third graders in Hong Kong were tested on decoding, vocabulary, discourse-level skills, and verbal working memory. Results of multiple regression analyses showed that the discourse-level skills contributed an additional 5% of variance to reading comprehension over decoding, vocabulary, and other control variables, and all factors accounted for a total of 70% variance in reading comprehension. Further path analysis showed that all the direct paths of word reading, vocabulary, text-structure knowledge, and topic knowledge to reading comprehension were significant. Vocabulary also contributed to reading comprehension through indirect paths to discourse-level knowledge. The present findings support the simple view of reading with elaborations on the language comprehension component, namely, (a) vocabulary is a foundational language skill for text comprehension through its role on discourse-level knowledge, and (b) some discourse-level knowledge also plays an important role in passage comprehension. Copyright © 2018 Cambridge University Press.

Children are expected to read and write Chinese character before they reach their formal schooling in Hong Kong. The 4 to 6 years old children, *non-Chinese speaking (NCS) and native Chinese speaking children are given similar Chinese writing exercise in the preschools. Nevertheless NCS children are still affected by the differences between their mother language and Chinese. NCS children are more likely to encounter difficulties in writing and reading Chinese. According to the past research reports, the NCS students in Hong Kong who enter a mainstream primary school (Chinese medium instruction), their levels of literacy in Chinese tends to remain at a low level, and they are unable to keep up with local Chinese classmates. The aim of the study is to focus on how NCS children who are 5 to 6 years old learn Chinese characters in a realist classroom setting. The study will be conducted in three Chinese preschools in Hong Kong and investigate the teaching and learning of Chinese characters in five classroom settings using with a phenomenographic approach.

This study set out to use phenomenography as a theoretical framework to investigate teaching in classrooms, focusing on how the same object of learning was enacted differently in different teaching activities. We observed in person teaching activities intended to teach children to recognize Chinese characters (i.e. the object of learning) in Hong Kong preschools. Classroom observational data such as the delivery of the teaching activities and the conversation between teacher and children were used as the main data source. Three categories of teaching activities were identified from the data, which correspondingly reflected three ways of seeing the recognition of characters: (A) recognition as matching items, (B) recognition as imitating behaviors, and (C) recognition as constructing meanings. The results of this study were useful for fostering the professional learning of preschool teachers in practical ways. As teacher educators, we were particularly interested in the learning of teachers; thereby in the study we chose to investigate teaching from the perspective of learning to teach. We assumed that the ways teachers acted in enacting the object of learning reflected how they saw the object of learning. We hope to foster more discussion and in turn contribute to the methodology of phenomenography.

Current literature suggests mixed findings regarding the relationship between visual spatial skill and Chinese reading ability. In this longitudinal study, 106 kindergarteners in Hong Kong were tested on visual spatial skill and Chinese character reading ability in their first, second, and third years of kindergarten (K1, K2, and K3) with 12-month intervals between the three testing points. Cross-lagged path analysis showed a bidirectional relationship between visual spatial skill and Chinese character reading ability from K1 to K2. Children's visual spatial skill in K1 predicted their reading ability in K2 (B = 0.35, SE = 0.17, p < .05, β = .17), and their reading ability in K1 explained the unique variance of visual spatial skill measured in K2 (B = 0.29, SE = 0.12, p < .05, β = .25). In total, it explained 19.4% (p < .01) and 35.8% (p < .001) variance of visual spatial skill at T2 and reading ability at T2. However, the bidirectional relationship diminished between K2 and K3. The results demonstrate the developmental course of the relationship between visual spatial skill and reading ability as well as the reciprocal facilitation of the two skills in the beginning phase of reading development but not later phases.
[Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc.]

This study set out to use phenomenography as a theoretical framework to investigate teaching in classrooms, focusing on how the same content is enacted differently in different teaching activities. We observed teaching activities intended to teach children to recognize Chinese characters in preschools and collected data about the delivery of the teaching activities. A total of 3 categories of teaching activities were identified from the data, which correspondingly reflected 3 ways of seeing the recognition of characters: (A) recognition as matching items, (B) recognition as imitating behaviors, and (C) recognition as constructing meanings. Our results were useful for fostering the professional learning of teachers in practical ways as well as holding the potential to further advance the methodology of phenomenography.
[Copyright © 2016 Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research.]

識字是閱讀和寫作的基礎，如果識字量不夠，閱讀的材料受限制，也無法用文字表達自己的思想，所以在小學語文教學中，識字教學佔重要的一環。 根據研究顯示，一個人如果能認識3000個常用漢字，那麼他便可以了解一般雜誌上90%的語料，所以小學階段，學生也要至少認識2000-3000個漢字。香港的小學課程綱要建議，每一年級都有一定的識字量：小一是460，小二是500，小三是530，小四是590，小五是260，小六也是260，累積是2600字。本來識字量循序漸進是合理的，但卻出現兩個問題，第一：3000個識字量要分佈在六年才能完成，似乎太慢了；第二，低年級的學生一、二兩個年級加起來的識字量不足1000個，這便影響他們閱讀和寫作的發展。因此，加快學生的識字量是本港和國內外學者研究的題材。 1991年四川以字族文識字的教學法作實驗研究，這種識字方法，是採取集中識字的特點，同時結合學生的學習心理而設計的一種新的教學方法。目的是加快學生的識字量，讓學生能提早獨立閱讀和提前寫作。本論文旨在對字族文識字的系統，方法和教材作簡要介紹，同時也報告以此方法用於香港本地的一個實驗個案。從研究結果看這種識字教學法的特點、優劣點和面對的問題。研究的工具是：採用平行測驗原理測試學生的表現，同時也採用問卷調查，來顯示這個教學的成效。

自上一世紀60年代開始，自主學習已經成為全球教育界及心理學界所共同關注的熱點問題。80年代以後，自主學習的研究更見廣泛和深入，教育領域的方方面面均受其影響。在課程論方面，培養學生自主學習能力被作為一項重要的課程目標；在教學論方面，自主學習被視為一種重要的教學方法；在學習論方面，自主學習被看成一種有效的學習方式。總之，自主學習被教育的各分支學科視為對學生畢生發展有著重要意義，是實現教育效率和效果的捷徑。但值得注意的是，“自主學習”為專題的學術著作出現。因此，作為一個語文教育工作者，我們很有必要在語文教學中落實自主學習的理念。至於閱讀教學，它是語文教學其中一個組成部分，地位異常重要。所以，本文嘗試從(1)自主學習的重要性、(2)自主學習與語文教學的關係、(3)自主學習對閱讀教學的意義等等維度，探討自主學習在香港小學語文閱讀教學中先行實施的理據，以及闡明其重要性。