A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners

Copying characters presented previously (delayed copying) is an important skill in Chinese literacy acquisition. The relations of delayed copying and a set of literacy-related skills (including vocabulary knowledge, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and orthographic awareness), visual-orthographic judgment, motor coordination, pure copying of foreign scripts, and delayed copying to Chinese spelling were examined among 294 typically developing Hong Kong kindergarteners. With all other variables statistically controlled, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, motor coordination, and delayed copying all uniquely explained Chinese spelling. To further investigate how delayed copying interacts with other skills, path analyses were conducted. The final model showed that vocabulary knowledge, visual-orthographic judgment, and pure copying had indirect effects on spelling through delayed copying. These findings partly support spelling models developed in alphabetic writing systems, but also reflect the uniqueness of Chinese. In addition, results suggest that delayed copying is a unique window into how children learn to write words in Chinese. The potentially critical role of delayed copying in Chinese spelling makes it a potentially good clinical indicator of early spelling proficiency and spelling difficulties.

Investigating models for second language spelling

In spelling research, data is easily quantifiable and offers a possible glimpse into the mind’s cognitive mechanisms. Previous research has focused on two cognitive routes assumed to be used for spelling in differing situations: one route enabling spelling of words from our lexical memory, and another route facilitating sublexically constructed spellings based on a writer’s rules for how phonemes map to graphemes. As the dual-route model emerged from first language alphabetic spelling data, there is a lack of research which synthesizes second language research with first language spelling models. This paper’s analysis of second language spellings suggests that the traditional dual-route model of spelling may not be universally applicable to second language spellers. Instead, the data suggests that consideration of the differences between L1 and L2 writing systems may help identify directions towards developing a comprehensive model of second language spelling.