What are the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers? Evidence from eye movements

Abstract

This study investigated the characteristics of good Chinese second language readers by observing their eye-movement patterns in reading articles manipulated to highlight different linguistic features. Participants’ linguistic resources were included as covariant variables. Results showed that good readers should be defined as both accurate and fast readers, although the two traits did not correlate with each other. Accurate reading was predicted by good orthographic knowledge, while fast reading was predicted by good lexical knowledge. Longer sentences did not show a significant impact on readers’ performance, which might imply that higher-level processes did not contribute as much as lower- level processes to the construction of good reading capabilities. All results were validated, while text readability was checked across different reading materials. Both reading universals and writing system specific features were found to be effective in explaining Chinese as a second language (CSL) reading processes. The research findings also informed the instruction of CSL reading, as Chinese is a very challenging logographic text.