Everson Packard Second Language Literacy Development

The Challenge of First and The Challenge of First and Second-Language Literacy Second-Language Literacy Development in ChineseDevelopment in Chinese

Michael Everson

&

Jerry Packard

First-language Literacy First-language Literacy Development in ChineseDevelopment in Chinese

Jerry Packard

East Asian Languages & Cultures

University of Illinois

Why Literacy Development in Why Literacy Development in Chinese Children?Chinese Children?

K-6 is the best time to start!kids show us the wayif it works for kids, it’ll probably work

for adultslet’s not ‘re-invent the wheel’let’s avoid ‘swimming upstream’

Kids take advantage of character Kids take advantage of character structurestructure

the ‘meaning’ of a character is on the

left. 清the ‘sound’ of a character is on the

right. 清when this is pointed out to children,

they learn characters better!

Chinese Character StructureChinese Character Structure

the semantic (left-side) part means ‘water’

meaning = water



the phonetic (right-side) part is pronounced “..qing..”

pronunciation = “…qing…”

meaning = water




when combined, they form a new character, pronounced “..qing..”, that means ‘clear’

meaning = water

pronunciation = “…qing…”




when combined, they form a new character, pronounced “..qing..”, that means ‘clear’

“qing”

‘clear’

Knowing the Knowing the phoneticphonetic helps… helps…

Task – children tested on pronunciation of 60 phonetic-compound characters.

Result – children do better if character is regular (清 vs. 猜 ), and if the phonetic is free rather than bound (清 vs. 妇 ).

Implication – children read better if character pronunciation is more accessible

Reference...

Shu, H., Anderson, R. C., & Wu, N. (2000). Phonetic awareness: knowledge of orthography-phonology relationships in the character acquisition of Chinese children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92, 56-62.

Knowing the Knowing the semanticsemantic helps… helps…

Task – select the proper character Result – children were better able to correctly select

unfamiliar characters when they knew the semantic radical.

Implication – children read better if they know the semantic radical

Reference...

Shu, H. & Anderson, R. (1997). Role of radical awareness in the character and word acquisition of Chinese children. Reading Research Quarterly, 32, 78-89

Knowing Knowing charactercharacter structurestructure helps…helps…

Task – copy characters and generate characters from memory

Result – children were better able to copy and generate characters when trained in character structure.

Implication – children’s Chinese writing develops more quickly if they know character structure

Reference...

Packard, Chen, Li, Wu, Gaffney, Li and Anderson (2006). Explicit instruction in orthographic structure and word morphology helps Chinese children learn to write characters. Reading and Writing 19.5, 457-487.

Knowing Knowing word morphologyword morphology helps…helps…

Task – vocabulary, reading comprehension and other literacy measures

Result – morphological instruction improved children’s performance on literacy measures

Implication – children’s literacy in Chinese develops more quickly if they know word structure

Reference...

Wu, Anderson, Li, Wu, Li, Zhang, Zheng, Zhu, Shu, Jiang, Chen, Wang, Yin, He, Packard and Gaffney. (2009). Morphological Awareness and Chinese Children’s Literacy Development. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13(1), 26–52

What helps kids’ literacy…?What helps kids’ literacy…?

Knowing character meaning and sound– kids given meaning & sound training read better!– kids given meaning & sound training write better!

Knowing character structure– there is a causal connection between insight into

character structure and growth in literacy

Metalinguistic Awareness– Ability to manipulate sounds (phonological awareness)– Ability to manipulate word parts (morphological awareness)

ConcludeConclude

Chinese writing is highly systematic

Exploiting the systematic aspect of characters promotes Chinese literacy development

This may be transferable to adult learners of Chinese

Issues in Second-Language Issues in Second-Language Chinese Literacy Development: Chinese Literacy Development: The Case of Post-Secondary The Case of Post-Secondary LearnersLearners

Michael E. EversonCollege of Education

The University of Iowa

National Chinese Language Conference, 2009

Issues in Learning Issues in Learning ChineseChinese Chinese is a “Category IV” language Students have an imperfect

knowledge of the language that they are trying to learn to read and write

American students’ first language employs an alphabetically-based system, while Chinese does not

Students have limited exposure to “environmental print”

Issues in Learning Issues in Learning ChineseChinese

Student “time on task” for reading and writing is limited

Student (and teacher!) expectations about their progress may be unreasonable

The use of romanization (pinyin)

Research into Chinese as a Research into Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) LiteracyForeign Language (CFL) Literacy

Generally has employed quantitative research methodologies

Has focused on university students of Chinese

Often has reduced numbers of research subjects for higher proficiency levels, and generally larger numbers for lower levels

Has focused to a great extent on character recognition/learning processes and learner strategies

Topics of Interest in CFL Topics of Interest in CFL ResearchResearch

Development of Orthographic Awareness

Orthographic Awareness is defined as the awareness of and ability to use the orthographic structure of Chinese characters (i.e. their semantic and phonetic elements) as aids in word recognition and reading

Some Initial Research Some Initial Research Findings about Orthographic Findings about Orthographic AwarenessAwareness

Develops quickly but at a highly variable rate among beginning learners;

Seems to correlate with character identification and production ability among learners at different proficiency levels;

Proficiency and pedagogical intervention seem to impact upon orthographic awareness;

May not be just “nice to know” information, but a foundation of CFL reading;

Seems to be actively used by advanced learners to solve word identification problems

Research FindingsResearch Findings

Intermediate learners still struggle with vocabulary and other orthographic display issues (such as word groupings not being apparent in Chinese text) though attempt to use phonetic and semantic elements to their advantage

Use of rote memorization techniques seems to be the least productive, longterm memorization strategy for character acquisition.

Research FindingsResearch Findings

Beginning learners can infer the meanings of unfamiliar characters using their knowledge of semantic radicals though the radical must be prominent; inferring pronunciation from the semantic radicals, however, is a more complicated task.

Among beginning learners, there is a strong relationship between knowing how to pronounce a character and knowing what it means.

What Teachers Must Learn What Teachers Must Learn to Considerto Consider

Teachers must understand the learners, their literacy experiences, their cultural backgrounds, and the educational settings in which teaching and learning will occur

SpecificsSpecifics

Students coming from a first language alphabetic literacy background

--The importance of pinyin The importance of teaching the

principles of Chinese orthography Reading as a Language Activity The Role of Practice and Extensive

Reading --The Issue of Authentic Materials

SpecificsSpecifics

The Role of Background Knowledge Reading for Different Purposes Developing Strategic Reading The Role of Writing in the CFL

Curriculum The Use of Technology Student Developmental Level Extended Sequences of Study and

Study Abroad

Questions?Questions?