Comprehension Monitoring in Chinese Reading among Chinese Adolescent Readers

Abstract

English and Chinese reading place different requirements in terms of lower-order processing. Research has consistently found evidence that word recognition in English and Chinese reading requires different cognitive processes. However, whether English reading differs from Chinese reading with regard to higher-order processing receives little attention. This study investigated comprehension monitoring, an important higher-order skill, among 126 Chinese adolescent readers using two kinds of information errors (i.e., external and internal information errors), in order to compare results from studies on comprehension monitoring in English. The results showed that the detection of external errors was significantly higher than the detection of internal errors. Proficient Chinese readers performed significantly higher on overall comprehension monitoring task, on monitoring of external errors, and on monitoring of internal errors compared to poor Chinese readers. There was also significant correlation between comprehension monitoring and Chinese reading proficiency. Conclusions and Recommendations: The results of the study suggest that Chinese readers’ comprehension monitoring was similar to comprehension monitoring of native English speakers in English reading, and this may provide some evidence that Chinese and English reading may have similar higher-order processes even though reading in the two languages place different requirements in terms of lower-order processing skills.