Cover not available
Part of
Cross-linguistic Transfer in Reading in Multilingual Contexts
Edited by Elena Zaretsky and Mila Schwartz
[Benjamins Current Topics 89] 2016
► pp. 93–120

Concurrent and longitudinal cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and morphological awareness in Chinese-English bilingual children

| University of Toronto, Canada
| University of Toronto, Canada
| University of Toronto, Canada
The present study was designed to examine concurrent and longitudinal cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and morphological awareness at two levels, the construct level and the reading level. We investigated whether phonological awareness and morphological awareness measured in one language are related to the same constructs measured in another language in Chinese-English bilinguals. Moreover, we assessed the cross-linguistic effects of the two constructs on reading concurrently and one year later in Grade 1. Participants of the study included 91 kindergarten and Grade 1 Chinese-English bilingual children. The children were tested twice, approximately one year apart, on a battery of cognitive and literacy measures in both languages. The data were analyzed with comprehensive path models that included phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and word reading in both languages. Our results demonstrate cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness and morphological awareness at the construct level and cross-linguistic transfer of phonological awareness to reading concurrently.
Keywords: Chinese-English bilingual children, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, transfer, word reading
Published online: 3 October 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.89.05luo
References (54)
References
Adams, Marilyn J. (1990). Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Bradley, Lynette & Peter E. Bryant (1983). Categorizing sounds and learning to read: A causal connection. Nature 301(5899): 419–421. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bryant, Peter E., Morag MacLean, Lynette Bradley & John Crossland (1990). Rhyme and alliteration, phoneme detection, and learning to read. Developmental Psychology 26(3): 429–438. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlisle, Joanne F. (1995). Morphological awareness and early reading achievement. In Laurie B. Feldman (ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing, 189–209. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Carlisle, Joanne F. & Diana M. Nomanbhoy (1993). Phonological and morphological awareness in first graders. Applied Psycholinguistics 14(2): 177–195. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carlisle, Joanne F. (2003). Morphology matters in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology 24: 291–322. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chen, Xi, Meiling Hao, Esther Geva, Jin Zhu & Hua Shu (2009). The role of compound awareness in Chinese children’s vocabulary acquisition and character reading. Reading and Writing 22: 615–631. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cheung, Him, Kevin K.H. Chung, Simpson W.L. Wong, Catherine McBride-Chang, Trevor B. Penney & Connie S.-H. Ho (2010). Speech perception, metalinguistic awareness, reading, and vocabulary in Chinese-English bilingual children. Journal of Educational Psychology 102(2): 367–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chow, Bonnie W.-Y. Catherine McBride-Chang & Stephan Burgess (2005). Phonological processing skills and early reading abilities in Hong Kong Chinese kindergarteners learning to read English as a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology 97: 81–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cisero, Cheryl A. & James M. Royer (1995). The development and cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. Contemporary Educational Psychology 20(3): 275–303. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Comeau, Liane, Pierre Cormier, Éric Grandmaison & Diane Lacroix (1999). A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills in children learning to read in a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology 91(1): 29–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deacon, S. Hélène. (2012). Sounds, letters and meanings: The independent influences of phonological, morphological and orthographic skills on early word reading accuracy. Journal of Research in Reading 35(4): 456–475. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Deacon, S. Hélène & John R. Kirby (2004). Morphological awareness: Just ‘more phonological’? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development. Applied Psycholinguistics 25(02): 223–238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dunn, Lloyd M. & Douglas M. Dunn (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary test (3rd edition). Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.Google Scholar
Durgunoğlu, Aydin Y., William E. Nagy & Barbara J. Hancin-Bhatt (1993). Cross-language transfer of phonological awareness. Journal of Educational Psychology 85(3): 453–465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Elementary Education Teaching and Research Center, Beijing Education and Science Institute. (1996). Elementary school Chinese textbooks. Beijing, China: Beijing Publishers.Google Scholar
Gottardo, Alexandra, Penny Chiappe, Bernice Yan, Linda Siegel & Yan Gu (2006). Relationships between first and second language phonological processing skills and reading in Chinese-English speakers living in English-speaking contexts. Educational Psychology 26(3): 367–393. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gottardo, Alexandra, Bernice Yan, Linda Siegel & Lesly Wade-Woolley (2001). Factors related to English reading performance in children with Chinese as a first language: More evidence of cross-language transfer of phonological processing. Journal of Educational Psychology 93(3): 530–542. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ho, Connie S.-H. & Peter Bryant (1997). Phonological skills are important in learning to read Chinese. Developmental Psychology 33(6): 946–951. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hu, Chieh-Fang & Hugh W. Catts (1998). The role of phonological processing in early reading ability: What we can learn from Chinese. Scientific Studies of Reading 2(1): 55–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Katamba, Francis (1993). Morphology. Houndmills, London: MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keung, Yuen-Ching & Connie S.-H. Ho. (2009). Transfer of reading-related cognitive skills in learning to read Chinese (L1) and English (L2) among Chinese elementary school children. Contemporary Educational Psychology 34(2): 103–112. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koda, Keiko (2008). Impacts of prior literacy experience on second-language learning to read. In Keiko Koda & Annette M. Zehler (eds.), Learning to read across languages: Cross-linguistic relationships in first- and second-language literacy development, 68–96. Mahwah, NJ: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kuo, Li-Jen & Richard C. Anderson (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective. Educational Psychologist 41(3): 161–180. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lafrance, Adèle & Alexandra Gottardo (2005). A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills and reading in bilingual children. Applied Psycholinguistics 26(4): 559–578. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Luk, Gigi & Ellen Bialystok (2008). Common and distinct cognitive bases for reading in English- Cantonese bilinguals. Applied Psycholinguistics 29: 269–289. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mahony, Diana, Maria Singson & Virginia Mann (2000). Reading ability and sensitivity to morphological relations. Reading and Writing 12(3): 191–218. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McBride-Chang, Catherine (2004). Children’s literacy development. London: Edward Arnold/Oxford Press.Google Scholar
McBride-Chang, Catherine, Jeung-Ryeul Cho, Hongyun Liu, Richard K. Wagner, Hua Shu, Aibao Zhou, Cecilia S.-M. Cheuk & Andrea Muse (2005). Changing models across cultures: Associations of phonological awareness and morphological structure awareness with vocabulary and word recognition in second graders from Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 92(2): 140–160. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McBride-Chang, Catherine & Connie S.-H. Ho (2000). Naming speed and phonological awareness in Chinese children: Relations to reading skills. Journal of Psychology in Chinese Societies 1(1): 93–108.Google Scholar
McBride-Chang, Catherine, Hua Shu, Aibao Zhou, Chun P. Wat & Richard K. Wagner (2003). Morphological awareness uniquely predicts young children’s Chinese character recognition. Journal of Educational Psychology 95(4): 743–751. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Packard, Jerome L. (2000). The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pan, Jinger, Catherine McBride-Chang, Hua Shu, Yuping Zhang & Hong Li (2011). What is in the naming? A 5-year longitudinal study of early rapid naming and phonological sensitivity in relation to subsequent reading skills in both native Chinese and English as a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology 103(4): 897–908. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pasquarella, Adrian, Xi Chen, Katie Lam, Yang C. Luo & Gloria Ramirez (2011). Cross‐language transfer of morphological awareness in Chinese-English bilinguals. Journal of Research in Reading 34(1): 23–42. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Raven, John C. (1958). Standard progressive matrices: SPM. London, UK: H. K. Lewis.Google Scholar
Rubin, Donald B. (1987). Multiple imputation for nonresponse in surveys. New York: John Wiley & Sons. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schafer, Joseph L. (1997). Analysis of incomplete multivariate data. London, UK: Chapman & Hall. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shu, Hua, Catherine McBride-Chang, Sina Wu & Hongyun Liu (2006). Understanding Chinese developmental dyslexia: Morphological awareness as a core cognitive construct. Journal of Educational Psychology 98(1): 122–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Singson, Maria, Diana Mahony & Virginia Mann (2000). The relation between reading ability and morphological skills: Evidence from derivational suffixes. Reading and Writing 12(3): 219–252. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Siok, Wai-Ting & Paul Fletcher (2001). The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. Developmental Psychology 37(6): 886–899. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stanovich, Keith E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly 21(4): 360–407. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. (1992). Speculations on the causes and consequences of individual differences in early reading acquisition. In Philip. B. Gough, Linnea C. Ehri & Rebecca Treiman (eds.), Reading acquisition, 307–342. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Tabachnick, Barbara G. & Linda S. Fidell (2006). Using multivariate statistics (5th edition). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.Google Scholar
Tong, Xiuli & Catherine McBride-Chang (2010). Chinese-English biscriptal reading: Cognitive component skills across orthographies. Reading and Writing 23: 293–310. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Richard K. & Joseph K. Torgesen (1987). The nature of phonological processing and its causal role in the acquisition of reading skills. Psychological bulletin 101(2): 192–212. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wagner, Richard K., Joseph K. Torgesen & Carol A. Rashotte (1994). Development of reading-related phonological processing abilities: New evidence of bidirectional causality from a latent variable longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology 30(1): 73–87. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(1999). Comprehensive test of phonological processing. Austin, TX: PRO-ED.Google Scholar
Wang, Min, Chengxi Cheng & Shi-Wei Chen (2006). Contribution of morphological awareness to Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology 98(3): 542–553. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Min, Charles A. Perfetti & Ying Liu (2005). Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition: Cross-language and writing system transfer. Cognition 97(1): 67–88. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Ming, Chen Yang & Chengxi Cheng (2009). The contributions of phonology, orthography, and morphology in Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition. Applied Psycholinguistics 30(2): 291–314. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Woodcock, Richard W., Kevin S. McGrew & Nancy Mather (2001). Woodcock-Johnson III tests of achievement. Itasca, IL: Riverside Publishing.Google Scholar
Zhang, Dongbo (2012). Linguistic distance effect on cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics 34(5): 917–942. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhang, Jie, Richard C. Anderson, Hong Li, Qi Dong, Xinchun Wu & Yan Zhang (2010). Cross-language transfer of insight into the structure of compound words. Reading and Writing 23(3): 311–336. DOI logoGoogle Scholar