Chinese Reading Research Articles

A Meta-Analysis of the Relation Between Syntactic Skills and Reading Comprehension: A Cross-Linguistic and Developmental Investigation

Theories of reading comprehension have widely predicted a role for syntactic skills, or the ability to understand and manipulate the structure of a sentence. Yet, these theories are based primarily on English, leaving open the question of whether this remains true across typologically different languages such as English versus Chinese. There are substantial differences in the sentence structures of Chinese versus English, making the comparison of the two particularly interesting. We conducted a meta-analysis contrasting the relation between syntactic skills and reading comprehension in first language readers of English versus Chinese. We test the influence of languages as well as the influence of the grade and the metrics on the magnitude of this relation. We identified 59 studies published between 1986 and 2021, generating 234 effect sizes involving 15,212 participants from kindergarten to high school and above. The magnitude of effects was remarkably similar for studies of English (r = .54) and Chinese (r = .54) readers, with similarities at key developmental points and syntactic tasks. There was also some evidence of modulation by grade levels and the nature of syntactic tasks. These findings confirm theory-based predictions of the importance of syntactic skills to reading comprehension. Extending these predictions, demonstrating these effects for both English and Chinese suggests a universal influence of syntactic skills on reading comprehension.

ON CULTURAL LOSSES IN THE RECEPTIVE PROCESS OF THE CHINESE TRANSLATION OF YU.M. POLYAKOV’S NOVEL I PLANNED AN ESCAPE

The paper deals with the issue of cultural losses in the receptive process of Yu. M. Polyakov’s novel I Planned an Escape. Cultural differences and language barriers complicate translator’s work. Although there are many key cultural losses in the receptive process of the Chinese translation of the novel, the translation was generally successful. The reason for the success is the topical relevance, since great works of literature touch on issues that concern all of humanity, issues that know no boundaries. Secondly, the translator’s skill in preserving the idiosyncrasies of the original author while referring the reader to parallels in his native culture, as brilliantly demonstrated by Zhang Jianhua’s translation, can convey the hidden cultural meanings of a foreign-language work of fiction to the masses as much as possible. Thirdly, the Chinese reader, probably, is close to the type of hero who aspires to a happy and wealthy life, who manages to realize his desires, but never becomes truly happy. Everyone, even for a minute, if not for several minutes, has been or is becoming an Escapist.

The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension among early grade Chinese children with reading difficulties: A path analysis

Substantial evidence revealed that morphological awareness could contribute to reading achievement in different alphabetic languages among children with and without reading difficulties. However, as the most spoken non-alphabetic language, there is a paucity of available research on Chinese reading development and impairment. This research focused on evaluating two potential intervening variables through the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. Compounding awareness, homophone awareness, homograph awareness, in addition to reading ability including character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension were assessed in this research. Controls of phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) were also included in the model. Participants were 200 second-grade students with reading difficulties in Chinese mainland . Path analysis revealed that morphological awareness made a direct contribution to reading comprehension beyond all other variables and this relationship was mediated by character recognition and vocabulary knowledge. Furthermore, two indirect pathways showed a significant difference in this study. The distinctive role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension for Chinese children with reading difficulties and the potential reasons for the significant effect difference between the two indirect pathways were discussed at the end of the study.

The political dialectics of transediting: the case of Reference News

ABSTRACT The aim of this article is two-fold. On the one hand, it will discuss the evolution of China’s Reference News within the historical dialectics of Chinese politics. Reference News is a unique newspaper in the world’s news media industry, dedicated solely to transediting international news reports for Chinese readers. A Chinese-style political dialectics is found in the newspaper’s original mandate to truthfully inform the Chinese communist leadership through faithful translation. That dialectics changes, however, with the changes in the status and role of Reference News, shaped and defined by national conditions and international relations, posing challenges to the newspaper that has to strike a balance between dutifully importing Western 1 perspectives and narratives and having to be politically correct and constructive. On the other hand, it aims to examine a number of cases to analyse the ways in which the newspaper employs various transediting strategies that highlight the features of the newspaper within that changing dialectics of China’s politics and Reference News as an example of antithesis.

Effects of working memory and visual search skill on Chinese reading comprehension: examining the simple view of reading

AbstractTo investigate the longitudinal effects of two domain-general cognitive abilities, namely verbal working memory and visual search skill, on Chinese reading comprehension. To evaluate whether decoding and linguistic comprehension mediate such effects. A total of 202 first-grade Chinese-speaking children from mainland China (Mage = 86 months, SD = 4.9 months; 126 boys) completed tasks that measured verbal working memory, visual search, expressive vocabulary, morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition, and word reading fluency. One year later, they completed a passage comprehension task and a nonverbal intelligence test. Structural equation modeling was conducted with decoding and linguistic comprehension being included as latent variables and mediating factors explaining the effects of working memory and visual search. The children with better verbal working memory and visual search skill exhibited better reading comprehension performance. The effect of working memory on reading comprehension was fully mediated by linguistic comprehension (captured by vocabulary and morphological awareness) but not decoding (measured by word reading accuracy and fluency). However, decoding fully mediated the impact of visual search skill. Our findings suggest that the reading comprehension ability of beginning Chinese readers is associated with verbal working memory and visual search ability. These general cognitive abilities influence reading comprehension through distinct pathways. In line with the simple view of reading theory, decoding and linguistic comprehension skills explain such impacts. This research underlines the value of simultaneously examining general cognitive abilities and exploring their interconnectedness with linguistic skills in the context of reading comprehension.

Enhancing students’ classical Chinese reading through a two-year flipped self-regulated learning intervention program

AbstractThis study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of using a flipped classroom (FC) approach to combine self-regulated learning (SRL) instruction and out-of-class eLearning activities in a two-year reading intervention program to facilitate students’ learning of classical Chinese reading. A total of 352 junior secondary students from three Hong Kong secondary schools participated in the study voluntarily. Using a quasi-experimental design, students from each school were assigned to one of the following conditions: SRL instruction plus out-of-class eLearning (EG-I+E), SRL instruction only (EG-I), and control (CG). Both quantitative methods, including reading tests and student questionnaires, and qualitative methods, including teacher and student interviews, were adopted to collect data for the program evaluation. Findings indicate that after implementing the intervention program, EG students perceived significant changes in their classical Chinese lessons to be more SRL-oriented. While all treatment groups significantly improved their performance in the reading post-tests, only EG students significantly improved their strategy use, self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation. Although both EG groups had similar improvements in all outcome measures, teachers and students of EG-I+E opined that the eLearning component of FC facilitated teachers’ implementation of the intervention and students’ strategy learning and motivation. Findings are discussed to shed light on applying SRL instruction and FC in a school subject long dominated by teacher-centered instruction.

Chinese Students Learning English as a Second Language

The way in which different cities teach children to read in Chinese may have an impact on the skills they later utilize to acquire English word reading skills. This study examined the relative contributions of several cognitive–linguistic measures to English word reading for Chinese students learning English as a second language in two Chinese cities, one whose school system teaches Pinyin (Beijing) and one whose school system does not teach Pinyin (Hong Kong). Students in grades 2–3 completed measures on Chinese morphological awareness (MA), Chinese phonological awareness (PA), Pinyin writing, and English word reading. In the Beijing group, it was found that PA (β = 0.334, p < 0.01) and Pinyin (β = 0.257, p < 0.05) were significant predictors of English word reading. In contrast, in the Hong Kong group, only MA (β = 0.263, p < 0.05) was found to be a significant predictor of English word reading. The difference in predictors could be due to the availability of a phonological tool (Pinyin) for the Beijing students when learning Chinese, while the Hong Kong group may have relied more heavily on learning using MA and rote memory techniques. Overall, the results from this study provide data supporting the benefits of having a phonological tool like Pinyin for Chinese children when learning to read in English.

Intersecting language and society: a prototypical study of Cinderella story translations in China

The stories of Cinderella, highlighting the theme of kindness, are classic children’s literature worldwide. In China, the translation of the Cinderella stories has been listed in the Chinese textbook series launched in 2004, exerting a profound influence on generations of Chinese readers. This study investigates how Huiguniang, the Chinese counterpart of the character Cinderella, has become a household name among Chinese children. By examining the changes, correlations, and shifts of their prototypical features under the framework of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification in the three Chinese translations of the Cinderella stories and the ancient Chinese folklore The tale of Ye Xian, the study examines how factors such as external stability, internal dynamic trade-offs, and the iterative nature and empowerment of translation have popularized and canonized Huiguniang in China. The study further extends its focus within the broader context of discourse studies, embracing the intersections of language and society, as it brings to light the intricate dynamics of translation, empowerment, and cultural reception.

Bilingual translations of intensifiers in Dong-A Ilbo's news about China: A corpus-based discourse analysis approach.

Drawing on the framework of Ideological Square Model, this paper carries out a corpus-based analysis of the ways in which group relations and the image of China are re-shaped in the English translation (ET) and the Chinese translation (CT) of Korean news discourse about China with intensifiers as an entry of inquiry. The results show that (1) There is a statistically significant difference regarding faithfulness between the ET and the CT of intensifiers (χ2 = 38.11>3.84, p<0.05), with the ET having more translation shifts. Additionally, the Chi-square test of a 3x3 contingency table (T = 49.77>5.99, P<0.05) indicates that there is a difference between the distribution of translation shifts at the 3 levels between ET and CT. (2) The ET of Korean news about China aligns more closely with van Dijk's ideological square model, while CT violates. It is argued that South Korean media have ideological factors to consider when it comes to Chinese readers accepting CT. (3) There is an alteration of the ideological square model in the target texts. The results indicate that in the translation of a target language, the translation propensity for relevant topics of the target country in which the language is spoken obeys the rules of "Us", the ingroup, but not "them", the outgroup.

The Transformation of Hamartiology in Early Christianity: On Augustine’s Interpretation of Romans 5:12

Starting with Augustine’s controversial translation and interpretation of Romans 5:12, this paper compares Augustine’s and the apostle Paul’s different understandings of “sin”: Paul understands “sin” from the apocalyptic eschatological perspective, and regards “sin” as a cosmic power; Augustine, on the contrary, gradually understood sin as an ontological sin in the discussion of the concept of “original sin”. Through the development and transformation from Paul’s theory of sin to Augustine’s theory of sin, this paper further discusses the interactive relationship between the development of early Christian thought and its social and cultural contexts and tries to outline the path of interweaving biblical text and theological thought in history, particularly to teach how Chinese readers should interact with scriptures in the Chinese context.

Supplemental Material for Efficient Word Segmentation Is Preserved in Older Adult Readers: Evidence From Eye Movements During Chinese Reading

Supplemental Material for Efficient Word Segmentation Is Preserved in Older Adult Readers: Evidence From Eye Movements During Chinese Reading

Different roles of initial and final character positional probabilities on incidental word learning during Chinese reading

Different roles of initial and final character positional probabilities on incidental word learning during Chinese reading

高中语文思辨性阅读教学策略探究

高中语文思辨性阅读教学策略探究

Reception of A.P. Chekhov's play “The Cherry Orchard” in China

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov is a well-known Russian writer and playwright in China. During his life, he created many works that are familiar to the Chinese readers. It is generally recognized that Chekhov's plays open a new page in the history of drama and theater. The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov's last work, is considered one of his most mature dramatic works and today has a debatable character in literary criticism, its interpretations are offered to the audience on the theater stage all over the world, including in China. This article aims to trace the evolution of the reception of the named work in Chinese critical thought, as well as to reflect the history of the productions of The Cherry Orchard in the theater of China. The subject of this work is the reception of the play "The Cherry Orchard" in Chinese literary criticism, the study of the history of its translation and staging in various historical periods in China. The main research methods used are descriptive and historical. The author of the study tries to characterize the main features of the perception of the work and productions of The Cherry Orchard in China, which are determined by the change in the socio-historical conditions of the state. Critical and literary works of Chinese researchers of A.P. Chekhov's work are used as material for analysis. In this regard, the present study seems to be relevant, since the author develops a scientific discussion around the Chekhov work under consideration. The theoretical novelty of the article lies in the fact that the works of Chinese literary critics are introduced into scientific circulation, devoted to the problems of reception of the images of the play, its plot and ideological originality, and analyzes the performances of "The Cherry Orchard" by Chinese directors.

A Study of Modern Poetry Translation under the Perspective of Discourse Function: T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land in Multiple Translations as an Example

From the discourse function perspective of Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics, this paper compares and analyzes two Chinese translations of The Waste Land by Zhao Luorui and Zha Liangzheng (Mudan), exploring how the different translations creatively interpret and reconstruct the original text in accordance with the cultural context and aesthetic preferences of the target language. It further investigates how this reconstruction impacts and shapes the target readers' understanding and acceptance process. The study reveals that the translators' distinct orientations in translation strategies lead to significant differences in the translations regarding expressive effects and readers' experiences. Zhao's translation effectively maintains the discourse structure and linguistic style of the original text through a conservative and traditional translation approach. Conversely, Mudan's translation notably enhances the readability and acceptability of the translation with a flexible and innovative translation style. Overall, the latter translation is better suited to the aesthetic habits and cultural background of Chinese readers.

Processing multiconstituent units: Preview effects during reading of Chinese words, idioms, and phrases.

Arguably, the most contentious debate in the field of eye movement control in reading has centered on whether words are lexically processed serially or in parallel during reading. Chinese is character-based and unspaced, meaning the issue of how lexical processing is operationalized across potentially ambiguous, multicharacter strings is not straightforward. We investigated Chinese readers' processing of frequently occurring multiconstituent units (MCUs), that is, linguistic units composed of more than a single word, that might be represented lexically as a single representation. In Experiment 1, we manipulated the linguistic category of a two-constituent Chinese string (word, MCU, or phrase) and the preview of its second constituent (identical or pseudocharacter) using the boundary paradigm with the boundary located before the two-constituent string. A robust preview effect was obtained when the second constituent, alongside the first, formed a word or MCU, but not a phrase, suggesting that frequently occurring MCUs are lexicalized and processed parafoveally as single units during reading. In Experiment 2, we further manipulated the phrase type of a two-constituent but three-character Chinese string (idiom with a one-character modifier and a two-character noun, or matched phrase) and the preview of the second constituent noun (identity or pseudocharacter). A greater preview effect was obtained for idioms than phrases, indicating that idioms are processed to a greater extent in the parafovea than matched phrases. Together, the results of these two experiments suggest that lexical identification processes in Chinese can be operationalized over linguistic units that are larger than an individual word. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Research on the Application of Cooperative Learning in Chinese Reading Teaching in Junior Middle School

Research on the Application of Cooperative Learning in Chinese Reading Teaching in Junior Middle School

ПРИНЦИПЫ ОБУЧЕНИЯ ЧТЕНИЮ НА КИТАЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ НА ОСНОВЕ КОММУНИКАТИВНО-КОГНИТИВНОГО ПОДХОДА

The paper is focused on the role of reading in the formation and development of foreign language communicative competence of students, describes the communicative-cognitive approach to Chinese reading and analyzes the basic principles of this approach.

The Construction of Ecological Concepts in the Advanced Chinese Reading and Writing Course from a Multimodal Discourse Perspective

The Construction of Ecological Concepts in the Advanced Chinese Reading and Writing Course from a Multimodal Discourse Perspective

Reconstructing Chinese Reading Teaching Philosophy in Compulsory Education from the Perspective of Core Competencies

Reconstructing Chinese Reading Teaching Philosophy in Compulsory Education from the Perspective of Core Competencies