This chapter describes the realm of writing systems, scripts, and orthographies focusing on three East-Asian languages – Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. With the operational definitions of basic terms, it identifies the visual resemblances in square blocks as the essential feature underlying commonalities among the three scripts as well as the internal structures of words and linguistic units as the crucial features behind dissimilarities. Next, it describes the scope and breadth of cross-linguistic influences and how models and theories of word processing can be established through cross-linguistic research. The chapter closes with the book’s objectives, intended audiences, and organization.
The Chinese writing system forms the sharpest contrast with the English writing system in terms of its grapheme-phoneme mapping principle. This review paper begins with a description of the characteristics of the Chinese writing and spoken systems, which is followed by the discussion of phonological, morphological, and orthographic processing involved in reading Chinese. We then review the literature central to the question as to how cross-language and cross-script differences and similarities in terms of the three basic processes impact reading English as a second language (L2) by native Chinese readers. We address the question from developmental perspectives targeting both children who are learning to read Chinese and English simultaneously and adult sequential learners of English. The chapter concludes with a discussion of limitations in previous research and future directions.
We examine the visual properties of graphic forms and the role they play in reading within and across writing systems. We argue that writing-system factors determine the complexity of graphic forms, which affects perceptual processes in reading. We review studies we have carried out on graph complexity, including a description of GraphCom, a multidimensional system for quantifying complexity that we applied to 131 orthographies. We suggest that meeting the challenges of complexity leads to increased perceptual skills and report a comparison of the two scripts of Chinese, the most complex among the world’s writing systems. Use of the more complex traditional script is associated with greater perceptual performance compared with the simplified script, lending support to this suggestion.
We discuss the cross-language relationships of phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and vocabulary in the context of English and Chinese and also how these three constructs are related to word reading within and between the two languages. We focused on a series of studies that have examined Chinese and English monolinguals, as well as Chinese-English bilinguals. Research supports the contributions of phonological awareness and morphological awareness to reading in English and Chinese, as well as across the two languages. Findings pertaining to vocabulary, however, have been mixed. The review of research here suggests the need to further investigate the inter-relations among subcomponents of phonological awareness and morphological awareness as well as how different aspects of vocabulary knowledge relate to word reading.
This chapter will review universal and unique cognitive-linguistic precursors to reading acquisition and impairment, such as reading disabilities and dyslexia, in the Chinese language. The chapter will examine research evidence linking phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual skills to reading acquisition among children in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Understanding these cognitive-linguistic constructs and their mechanisms underlying reading acquisition is essential in order to explain reading impairment. Compared to dyslexic children of alphabetic languages, Chinese children with dyslexia present different and often multiple profiles of cognitive-linguistic deficits, the most dominant being RAN, orthographic awareness, and morphological awareness and the less dominant being phonological awareness. In particular, the review will examine the causes, characteristics, uniqueness or idiosyncrasies found in speakers of Chinese, and consequences of dyslexia in children in the three Chinese societies. Such a review will offer insight into and lay foundations for developing effective evidence-based interventions for children with reading impairment both inside and outside of school. Implications for current evidence-based practices in interventions are also discussed.
Languages differ in the semantic structures underlying their linguistic forms. Thus, the learning of a new language entails the development of a semantic system that is specific to the target language. This chapter reviews recent studies that examined three topics related to semantic processing and development among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). They are the factors that may affect the initial understanding of the meanings of unknown words, the acquisition of multiple meanings of polysemous words, and learning of new meanings and new semantic distinctions. The chapter concludes with some discussion of pedagogical implications of this line of research.
Research on Chinese reading provides important insights into the understanding of language-universal and script-specific mechanisms of reading, because Chinese is contrastively different from alphabetic languages. In this chapter, I will first summarize neuroimaging findings of Chinese word reading in adults in comparison to English word reading. Then, I will discuss how the brain adapts to one’s language with learning and development. Then, I will focus on the topic of second language learning, including how one brain processes Chinese and English in bilinguals, how first language influences second language learning, and whether there are different optimal learning methods for different second languages. This chapter will address these important questions based on neuroimaging studies.
The present fMRI study examined the neural correlates of semantic and lexical processing in unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals with two lexical decision tasks in both their languages. Results showed that when contrasted the participants’ responses to words with those of pseudo-words, there was no significant difference between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2), suggesting that comparable neural networks are involved in semantic processing during word recognition in unbalanced bilinguals’ two languages. However, when contrasted the neural activation patterns of words and cross strings (i.e., ++++), the weaker L2 elicited stronger activation in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precentral gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule, relative to the dominant L1. This indicates that more resources are engaged in lexical processing in the L2 than in the L1.
The general consensus among writing-systems researchers is that the Japanese writing system (JWS) is remarkably complex (Joyce, 2002a, 2011). This introductory chapter consists of two main parts that, respectively, provide an overview of the multi-script JWS and a selective review of psycholinguistic research on Japanese visual word processing. More specifically, after outlining its historical development, Part 2 focuses on the contemporary JWS and on highlighting the complex conventions that simultaneously underlie how the component scripts are employed together in essentially complementary ways while effectively sanctioning its pervasive levels of orthographic variation. In contrast, the shorter Part 3 reflects on how JWS’s complexity both poses certain challenges and also affords unique opportunities for investigating the complicated interactions involved in word processing.
Previous research investigating second-language processing difficulties experienced by Japanese native speakers is consistent with the notion that these individuals are representing foreign words in terms of their native phonological structure at an abstract underlying level. This issue is illustrated here by an experiment that compared Japanese-English bilinguals and native English speakers on their immediate recall of English pseudo-words. Recall performance was dependent on the number of phonemes within list items for the monolingual participants, but on the number of morae for the Japanese bilinguals, indicating that they were indeed automatically activating “Japanized” abstract representations upon encountering the non-native constructions. It is particularly noteworthy that this appeared to be true regardless of the age at which the bilinguals had learnt English.
This chapter reports on two experiments conducted to investigate the morphological activation of two-kanji compound words using the constituent-morpheme priming paradigm with a series of very-brief masked stimulus onset asynchronicity (SOA) conditions. In contrast to Experiment 1 where the word-formation principle (WFP) conditions all involved Sino-Japanese (SJ) compound word targets, the WFP conditions for Experiment 2 included both SJ and native-Japanese (NJ) WFP targets. The results from both experiments provide evidence for the early contributions of morphological information to the lexical processing of compound words, in terms of advantages for left-to-right processing, for head-morphemes and for lexical-stratum. The results are discussed in the context of the Japanese lemma-unit model (Joyce, 2002a, 2002b).
This study examined the possible effects of learners’ first language (L1) and learning context on the mental structures of second language (L2) polysemous words: the English prepositions at, in, and on. The study found that Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) who had lived in an English-speaking country had developed native-like mental structures of the three prepositions. By contrast, those with little or no experience living in an English-speaking country showed native-like mental structures only for on – the preposition denoting the most concrete notion among the three prepositions. These findings suggest that learners’ L1 may affect their mental representations of L2 prepositions, particularly those denoting abstract notions, but significant L2 exposure can diminish such L1 effects.
There has been a general consensus that readers develop different cognitive mechanisms in response to linguistic properties of languages and writing systems in which they read, and that processing capacities acquired in the first language (L1) may transfer to reading in another language. However, findings from developmental studies are substantially mixed. To address the conflicting results, this study examined an English word recognition trajectory in L1-Japanese secondary school students from Grade 9 to 11 using a longitudinal research design and observing the relative contribution of orthographic and phonological processing to word recognition. Contrary to the developmental trend in L1-English readers, the significant predictor of word recognition was orthographic processing in lower grades and phonological processing in Grade 11, suggesting the different developmental pathway between L1 and L2 word recognition for the readers of multi-script Japanese.
L2 reading entails a complex cross-linguistic interaction between L1 reading ability and L2 linguistic knowledge. As such, it is seen as a dynamic process of coalescing diverse resources, including cognitive skills, linguistic knowledge, and metalinguistic awareness, in two languages. In this chapter, we explain the nature of morphological awareness as an abstract, yet language-dependent, construct. We then analyze systematic variations in grapheme-morpheme relationships in typologically different languages. Based on the analysis, we propose specific predictions regarding the joint contributions of L1 reading and L2 resources to the development and utilization of L2 morphological awareness. We report a summary of a study addressing the relative contributions of L1 reading ability, L2 morphological awareness and L2 linguistic knowledge to L2 word meaning inference.
This chapter analyzes the development of the Japanese writing system and the use of multiple types of scripts in translated texts in Japanese based on translanguaging. The sociolinguistic concept of translanguaging refers to the strategic use of linguistic repertoires across language boundaries by bilingual language users. In the case of translations of texts into Japanese, various scripts provide numerous communicative and expressive functions which allow users to adapt new concepts, creatively represent ideas, and critically convey their viewpoints. These abilities are often afforded by unconventional use of furigana, or small-sized kana that indicate the proper pronunciation of kanji characters. This study argues that translanguaging occurs not only in oral communications, but also through scripts, and is essential for languages to evolve by incorporating the surrounding sociocultural contexts.
This chapter reviews the development of the Korean script, Hangul, from its birth to linguistic and psycholinguistic implications for word reading. It first discusses the language family and the structure of the Korean oral language. Given that the emergence of the script is unlike most scripts or writing systems, it next overviews the invention background of Hangul. The script encompasses the characteristics of phonemic, syllabic, and alphasyllabic writing systems by means of the systematic union of consonants and vowels as well as the regular phoneme-grapheme correspondence. As these characteristics result in significant consequences in processing texts, the structure of Hangul is surveyed from linguistic aspects, while its orthography is reviewed from psycholinguistic aspects. The chapter ends with a call for moving from the accumulation of empirical evidence to the phase of building theoretical models.
This study investigated cross-linguistic influences of the Korean script’s syllabic format on L2 English word reading. A total of 103 college students participated in two naming experiments in Korea and the U.S. Experiment 1 used Korean graphemes presented in both block (i.e., Hangul printing convention) and left-to-right linear (i.e., English printing convention) formats. Results from Experiment 1 showed that Korean participants were significantly faster in reading Korean graphemes presented in the block format than in the linear format. Experiment 2 utilized English words that appeared to participants as having random spaces but in fact the spaces corresponded to Korean syllabic boundaries (e.g., un der s tan d, 언더스탠드). Results from Experiment 2 revealed that native Korean readers did not show a significant interference effect in reading L2 words that were derived from L1 syllabic boundaries. Findings are interpreted within the context of the Syllabic Autonomy Saliency Hypothesis for Hangul.
There have been conflicting results in the literature regarding the dominant linguistic unit (body-coda units vs. onset-rime units) in reading Korean Hangul. In an attempt to resolve the contradictory views between the phonotactic constraint (support for body-coda) and the universal rime bias (support for onset-rime) in reading, this chapter examines subunit priming effects on rapid word recognition among native Korean readers. Thirty five university students participated in a lexical decision task using Korean words and nonwords as targets. Primes included related and unrelated bodies, rimes, and consonants of disyllabic targets. Results of a linear mixed model showed that both body and rime units played significant roles in response time. Rime primes also affected accuracy of rapid lexical decision. Unlike previous research that showed body primacy, the results indicated that both body and rime units are important in reading Korean.
This study examined the contribution of orthographic awareness (OA), rapid automatized naming of numbers (RAN), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA) in L1 Korean to word reading and writing in L1 Korean Hangul, Chinese Hanja, and L2 English among 98 Korean 5th graders. Korean language and orthography have relatively transparent phonological and morphological structures. Korean children learn Hangul in kindergarten, Hanja in elementary school as an elective subject, and English in Grade 3 as an L2. Results showed that Korean OA accounted for significant variance of Hangul reading; and Korean PA explained English reading and writing and Hangul writing; Korean MA explained writing in Hangul, Hanja, and English; RAN explained English reading only. These results suggest that MA is the meta-linguistic skill that transfers across alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, whereas PA transfers across alphabetic languages. However, orthographic awareness is language-specific.
Korean has a unique status compared to other alphabetic orthographies in terms of its phonology-orthography mapping and visual-orthographic configuration. In this chapter we reviewed recent literature on the neural bases of reading in Korean L1 to understand whether and how the characteristics of Korean orthography are reflected in the brain network. We then reviewed recent neuroimaging literature concerning the L1 effect on L2 reading with Korean L1. Evidence suggests that when reading English L2, native Korean readers engage the brain network similar to the Korean L1 network (i.e., assimilation). In contrast, when reading Chinese L2, the brain network involved is significantly different from the Korean L1 network (i.e., accommodation). The L2 brain network seems to be shaped by L1 experience. The chapter concluded with a discussion of future research directions.
This study examined how native speakers of Korean extracted letter-feature information from mutilated texts (i.e., top-half and bottom-half), compared to native speakers of Chinese and English. Hypothesized were (1) the upper-part saliency and (2) L1 script effects on L2 reading. A computer-based naming test was administered. Results showed eminent upper-part effects possibly due to more ascenders being at the top than descenders at the bottom of the English letters, but the magnitude of the effects was different among the three groups. Overall, the Korean group seemed to rely more on letter-constituent information drawn from letter features, while the Chinese participants are likely to rely on gestalt information of the word. The results were interpreted with L1 script effects and typology relatedness.
This closing chapter briefly summarizes research findings on the processes of word reading in three East-Asian orthographies (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and calls for theoretical and practical attention related to word reading among speakers of these unique languages. Based on the analyses of and reflections on studies of the three orthographies, we first summarize what we know about word reading with respect to reading universals, reading particulars, and cross-language transfer. We then articulate theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical considerations to advance to the next phase of reading sciences in these three orthographies.
This chapter describes the realm of writing systems, scripts, and orthographies focusing on three East-Asian languages – Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. With the operational definitions of basic terms, it identifies the visual resemblances in square blocks as the essential feature underlying commonalities among the three scripts as well as the internal structures of words and linguistic units as the crucial features behind dissimilarities. Next, it describes the scope and breadth of cross-linguistic influences and how models and theories of word processing can be established through cross-linguistic research. The chapter closes with the book’s objectives, intended audiences, and organization.
The Chinese writing system forms the sharpest contrast with the English writing system in terms of its grapheme-phoneme mapping principle. This review paper begins with a description of the characteristics of the Chinese writing and spoken systems, which is followed by the discussion of phonological, morphological, and orthographic processing involved in reading Chinese. We then review the literature central to the question as to how cross-language and cross-script differences and similarities in terms of the three basic processes impact reading English as a second language (L2) by native Chinese readers. We address the question from developmental perspectives targeting both children who are learning to read Chinese and English simultaneously and adult sequential learners of English. The chapter concludes with a discussion of limitations in previous research and future directions.
We examine the visual properties of graphic forms and the role they play in reading within and across writing systems. We argue that writing-system factors determine the complexity of graphic forms, which affects perceptual processes in reading. We review studies we have carried out on graph complexity, including a description of GraphCom, a multidimensional system for quantifying complexity that we applied to 131 orthographies. We suggest that meeting the challenges of complexity leads to increased perceptual skills and report a comparison of the two scripts of Chinese, the most complex among the world’s writing systems. Use of the more complex traditional script is associated with greater perceptual performance compared with the simplified script, lending support to this suggestion.
We discuss the cross-language relationships of phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and vocabulary in the context of English and Chinese and also how these three constructs are related to word reading within and between the two languages. We focused on a series of studies that have examined Chinese and English monolinguals, as well as Chinese-English bilinguals. Research supports the contributions of phonological awareness and morphological awareness to reading in English and Chinese, as well as across the two languages. Findings pertaining to vocabulary, however, have been mixed. The review of research here suggests the need to further investigate the inter-relations among subcomponents of phonological awareness and morphological awareness as well as how different aspects of vocabulary knowledge relate to word reading.
This chapter will review universal and unique cognitive-linguistic precursors to reading acquisition and impairment, such as reading disabilities and dyslexia, in the Chinese language. The chapter will examine research evidence linking phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and visual skills to reading acquisition among children in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Understanding these cognitive-linguistic constructs and their mechanisms underlying reading acquisition is essential in order to explain reading impairment. Compared to dyslexic children of alphabetic languages, Chinese children with dyslexia present different and often multiple profiles of cognitive-linguistic deficits, the most dominant being RAN, orthographic awareness, and morphological awareness and the less dominant being phonological awareness. In particular, the review will examine the causes, characteristics, uniqueness or idiosyncrasies found in speakers of Chinese, and consequences of dyslexia in children in the three Chinese societies. Such a review will offer insight into and lay foundations for developing effective evidence-based interventions for children with reading impairment both inside and outside of school. Implications for current evidence-based practices in interventions are also discussed.
Languages differ in the semantic structures underlying their linguistic forms. Thus, the learning of a new language entails the development of a semantic system that is specific to the target language. This chapter reviews recent studies that examined three topics related to semantic processing and development among learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). They are the factors that may affect the initial understanding of the meanings of unknown words, the acquisition of multiple meanings of polysemous words, and learning of new meanings and new semantic distinctions. The chapter concludes with some discussion of pedagogical implications of this line of research.
Research on Chinese reading provides important insights into the understanding of language-universal and script-specific mechanisms of reading, because Chinese is contrastively different from alphabetic languages. In this chapter, I will first summarize neuroimaging findings of Chinese word reading in adults in comparison to English word reading. Then, I will discuss how the brain adapts to one’s language with learning and development. Then, I will focus on the topic of second language learning, including how one brain processes Chinese and English in bilinguals, how first language influences second language learning, and whether there are different optimal learning methods for different second languages. This chapter will address these important questions based on neuroimaging studies.
The present fMRI study examined the neural correlates of semantic and lexical processing in unbalanced Chinese-English bilinguals with two lexical decision tasks in both their languages. Results showed that when contrasted the participants’ responses to words with those of pseudo-words, there was no significant difference between the first language (L1) and the second language (L2), suggesting that comparable neural networks are involved in semantic processing during word recognition in unbalanced bilinguals’ two languages. However, when contrasted the neural activation patterns of words and cross strings (i.e., ++++), the weaker L2 elicited stronger activation in the left middle occipital gyrus, the left precentral gyrus, and the right superior parietal lobule, relative to the dominant L1. This indicates that more resources are engaged in lexical processing in the L2 than in the L1.
The general consensus among writing-systems researchers is that the Japanese writing system (JWS) is remarkably complex (Joyce, 2002a, 2011). This introductory chapter consists of two main parts that, respectively, provide an overview of the multi-script JWS and a selective review of psycholinguistic research on Japanese visual word processing. More specifically, after outlining its historical development, Part 2 focuses on the contemporary JWS and on highlighting the complex conventions that simultaneously underlie how the component scripts are employed together in essentially complementary ways while effectively sanctioning its pervasive levels of orthographic variation. In contrast, the shorter Part 3 reflects on how JWS’s complexity both poses certain challenges and also affords unique opportunities for investigating the complicated interactions involved in word processing.
Previous research investigating second-language processing difficulties experienced by Japanese native speakers is consistent with the notion that these individuals are representing foreign words in terms of their native phonological structure at an abstract underlying level. This issue is illustrated here by an experiment that compared Japanese-English bilinguals and native English speakers on their immediate recall of English pseudo-words. Recall performance was dependent on the number of phonemes within list items for the monolingual participants, but on the number of morae for the Japanese bilinguals, indicating that they were indeed automatically activating “Japanized” abstract representations upon encountering the non-native constructions. It is particularly noteworthy that this appeared to be true regardless of the age at which the bilinguals had learnt English.
This chapter reports on two experiments conducted to investigate the morphological activation of two-kanji compound words using the constituent-morpheme priming paradigm with a series of very-brief masked stimulus onset asynchronicity (SOA) conditions. In contrast to Experiment 1 where the word-formation principle (WFP) conditions all involved Sino-Japanese (SJ) compound word targets, the WFP conditions for Experiment 2 included both SJ and native-Japanese (NJ) WFP targets. The results from both experiments provide evidence for the early contributions of morphological information to the lexical processing of compound words, in terms of advantages for left-to-right processing, for head-morphemes and for lexical-stratum. The results are discussed in the context of the Japanese lemma-unit model (Joyce, 2002a, 2002b).
This study examined the possible effects of learners’ first language (L1) and learning context on the mental structures of second language (L2) polysemous words: the English prepositions at, in, and on. The study found that Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) who had lived in an English-speaking country had developed native-like mental structures of the three prepositions. By contrast, those with little or no experience living in an English-speaking country showed native-like mental structures only for on – the preposition denoting the most concrete notion among the three prepositions. These findings suggest that learners’ L1 may affect their mental representations of L2 prepositions, particularly those denoting abstract notions, but significant L2 exposure can diminish such L1 effects.
There has been a general consensus that readers develop different cognitive mechanisms in response to linguistic properties of languages and writing systems in which they read, and that processing capacities acquired in the first language (L1) may transfer to reading in another language. However, findings from developmental studies are substantially mixed. To address the conflicting results, this study examined an English word recognition trajectory in L1-Japanese secondary school students from Grade 9 to 11 using a longitudinal research design and observing the relative contribution of orthographic and phonological processing to word recognition. Contrary to the developmental trend in L1-English readers, the significant predictor of word recognition was orthographic processing in lower grades and phonological processing in Grade 11, suggesting the different developmental pathway between L1 and L2 word recognition for the readers of multi-script Japanese.
L2 reading entails a complex cross-linguistic interaction between L1 reading ability and L2 linguistic knowledge. As such, it is seen as a dynamic process of coalescing diverse resources, including cognitive skills, linguistic knowledge, and metalinguistic awareness, in two languages. In this chapter, we explain the nature of morphological awareness as an abstract, yet language-dependent, construct. We then analyze systematic variations in grapheme-morpheme relationships in typologically different languages. Based on the analysis, we propose specific predictions regarding the joint contributions of L1 reading and L2 resources to the development and utilization of L2 morphological awareness. We report a summary of a study addressing the relative contributions of L1 reading ability, L2 morphological awareness and L2 linguistic knowledge to L2 word meaning inference.
This chapter analyzes the development of the Japanese writing system and the use of multiple types of scripts in translated texts in Japanese based on translanguaging. The sociolinguistic concept of translanguaging refers to the strategic use of linguistic repertoires across language boundaries by bilingual language users. In the case of translations of texts into Japanese, various scripts provide numerous communicative and expressive functions which allow users to adapt new concepts, creatively represent ideas, and critically convey their viewpoints. These abilities are often afforded by unconventional use of furigana, or small-sized kana that indicate the proper pronunciation of kanji characters. This study argues that translanguaging occurs not only in oral communications, but also through scripts, and is essential for languages to evolve by incorporating the surrounding sociocultural contexts.
This chapter reviews the development of the Korean script, Hangul, from its birth to linguistic and psycholinguistic implications for word reading. It first discusses the language family and the structure of the Korean oral language. Given that the emergence of the script is unlike most scripts or writing systems, it next overviews the invention background of Hangul. The script encompasses the characteristics of phonemic, syllabic, and alphasyllabic writing systems by means of the systematic union of consonants and vowels as well as the regular phoneme-grapheme correspondence. As these characteristics result in significant consequences in processing texts, the structure of Hangul is surveyed from linguistic aspects, while its orthography is reviewed from psycholinguistic aspects. The chapter ends with a call for moving from the accumulation of empirical evidence to the phase of building theoretical models.
This study investigated cross-linguistic influences of the Korean script’s syllabic format on L2 English word reading. A total of 103 college students participated in two naming experiments in Korea and the U.S. Experiment 1 used Korean graphemes presented in both block (i.e., Hangul printing convention) and left-to-right linear (i.e., English printing convention) formats. Results from Experiment 1 showed that Korean participants were significantly faster in reading Korean graphemes presented in the block format than in the linear format. Experiment 2 utilized English words that appeared to participants as having random spaces but in fact the spaces corresponded to Korean syllabic boundaries (e.g., un der s tan d, 언더스탠드). Results from Experiment 2 revealed that native Korean readers did not show a significant interference effect in reading L2 words that were derived from L1 syllabic boundaries. Findings are interpreted within the context of the Syllabic Autonomy Saliency Hypothesis for Hangul.
There have been conflicting results in the literature regarding the dominant linguistic unit (body-coda units vs. onset-rime units) in reading Korean Hangul. In an attempt to resolve the contradictory views between the phonotactic constraint (support for body-coda) and the universal rime bias (support for onset-rime) in reading, this chapter examines subunit priming effects on rapid word recognition among native Korean readers. Thirty five university students participated in a lexical decision task using Korean words and nonwords as targets. Primes included related and unrelated bodies, rimes, and consonants of disyllabic targets. Results of a linear mixed model showed that both body and rime units played significant roles in response time. Rime primes also affected accuracy of rapid lexical decision. Unlike previous research that showed body primacy, the results indicated that both body and rime units are important in reading Korean.
This study examined the contribution of orthographic awareness (OA), rapid automatized naming of numbers (RAN), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA) in L1 Korean to word reading and writing in L1 Korean Hangul, Chinese Hanja, and L2 English among 98 Korean 5th graders. Korean language and orthography have relatively transparent phonological and morphological structures. Korean children learn Hangul in kindergarten, Hanja in elementary school as an elective subject, and English in Grade 3 as an L2. Results showed that Korean OA accounted for significant variance of Hangul reading; and Korean PA explained English reading and writing and Hangul writing; Korean MA explained writing in Hangul, Hanja, and English; RAN explained English reading only. These results suggest that MA is the meta-linguistic skill that transfers across alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, whereas PA transfers across alphabetic languages. However, orthographic awareness is language-specific.
Korean has a unique status compared to other alphabetic orthographies in terms of its phonology-orthography mapping and visual-orthographic configuration. In this chapter we reviewed recent literature on the neural bases of reading in Korean L1 to understand whether and how the characteristics of Korean orthography are reflected in the brain network. We then reviewed recent neuroimaging literature concerning the L1 effect on L2 reading with Korean L1. Evidence suggests that when reading English L2, native Korean readers engage the brain network similar to the Korean L1 network (i.e., assimilation). In contrast, when reading Chinese L2, the brain network involved is significantly different from the Korean L1 network (i.e., accommodation). The L2 brain network seems to be shaped by L1 experience. The chapter concluded with a discussion of future research directions.
This study examined how native speakers of Korean extracted letter-feature information from mutilated texts (i.e., top-half and bottom-half), compared to native speakers of Chinese and English. Hypothesized were (1) the upper-part saliency and (2) L1 script effects on L2 reading. A computer-based naming test was administered. Results showed eminent upper-part effects possibly due to more ascenders being at the top than descenders at the bottom of the English letters, but the magnitude of the effects was different among the three groups. Overall, the Korean group seemed to rely more on letter-constituent information drawn from letter features, while the Chinese participants are likely to rely on gestalt information of the word. The results were interpreted with L1 script effects and typology relatedness.
This closing chapter briefly summarizes research findings on the processes of word reading in three East-Asian orthographies (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean) and calls for theoretical and practical attention related to word reading among speakers of these unique languages. Based on the analyses of and reflections on studies of the three orthographies, we first summarize what we know about word reading with respect to reading universals, reading particulars, and cross-language transfer. We then articulate theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical considerations to advance to the next phase of reading sciences in these three orthographies.