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The Use of Orthographic Analogies in Learning to Read Chinese
Author(s) -
SukHan Ho Connie,
Wong WaiLing,
Chan WingSau
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00457
Subject(s) - psychology , orthographic projection , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive science , artificial intelligence , computer science
Two studies, comprising training in phonological analogy and semantic analogy with pre‐ and post‐training assessments, were conducted to investigate whether young children made orthographic analogies in learning to read a nonalphabetic script, Chinese, as alphabetic readers do. Twenty Chinese first‐graders and 20 third‐graders participated in each of the studies. The results showed that not only the third‐graders, but also the first‐graders made phonological analogies by the phonetic (i.e. the orthographic component in a Chinese character that provides sound cues) and semantic analogies by the radical (i.e. the orthographic component that provides meaning cues). It was, therefore, suggested that the roles and functions of the phonetics and radicals could be taught explicitly in school from an early age to help improve children's reading skills.