Abstract
Prior research has mostly focused on either basic language or basic cognitive precursors of reading development, but relatively little is known about their relative importance for reading, especially for Chinese beginning readers. The present study examined whether and how basic cognitive processing (executive function, attention, and visual-spatial perception) and basic language processing (phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, and RAN) measured at kindergarten influence Chinese character reading and reading comprehension in the first grade. Results showed that basic language abilities including morphological awareness and rapid automatized naming predicted later Chinese character reading. Only one basic cognitive skill, sustained attention, predicted later reading comprehension. Mediation analysis showed that the overall effects of basic cognitive skills on later character reading and reading comprehension were mediated by basic language skills. These findings supported an integration reading model for early Chinese reading and basic language processing at kindergarten plays an important role in explaining the relation between basic cognitive processing and grade one reading performance.
Highlights
The aim of the current study is to investigate the longitudinal contributions of basic cognitive and basic language factors to early reading
The present study examined whether and how basic cognitive processing and basic language processing measured at kindergarten influence Chinese character reading and reading comprehension in the first grade
Research repeatedly showed that meta-linguistic skills such as phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) are critical for reading in alphabetic languages such as English (e.g., Wagner and Torgesen, 1987) and German (e.g., Brandenburg et al, 2017), while morphological awareness are critical for Chinese reading (Shu et al, 2006; Tong et al, 2009)
Summary
The aim of the current study is to investigate the longitudinal contributions of basic cognitive and basic language factors to early reading. Effects of basic cognitive and basic language skills on word reading and reading comprehension were mostly investigated separately and research rarely focused on early readers in the past decades (e.g., McBride-Chang et al, 2008; Meng et al, 2011). Previous studies showed basic cognitive abilities, including executive function, visual spatial abilities, and perceptual sensitivity, could affect the development of reading performance via basic language processing (Eden et al, 1996; Talcott et al, 1999; Tallal, 2004; Conlon and Sanders, 2011; Franceschini et al, 2012; Olulade et al, 2013; Boros et al, 2016; Chung et al, 2016; Kim, 2017). We will explore the unique contribution of basic cognitive (working memory, inhibition and attention) and basic language skills (phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, and RAN) to Chinese character reading and reading comprehension. Korean, whose morphological structures are like Chinese scripts, was found morphological awareness was very important when acquiring reading abilities (McBride-Chang et al, 2005)
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