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A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners

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Title: A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners
Language: English
Authors: Ye, Yanyan (ORCID 0000-0001-9476-5319), McBride, Catherine, Yin, Li, Cheang, Leo Man-Lit, Tse, Chun Yu
Source: Journal of Learning Disabilities. Mar-Apr 2022 55(2):154-167.
Availability: SAGE Publications and Hammill Institute on Disabilities. 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Tel: 800-818-7243; Tel: 805-499-9774; Fax: 800-583-2665; e-mail: journals@sagepub.com; Web site: http://sagepub.com
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 14
Publication Date: 2022
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Education Level: Early Childhood Education
Elementary Education
Kindergarten
Primary Education
Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Spelling, Chinese, Kindergarten, Naming, Phonological Awareness, Morphology (Languages), Written Language, Psychomotor Skills, Duplication, Emergent Literacy, Predictor Variables, Vocabulary, Knowledge Level, Ideography, Alphabets, Perceptual Motor Coordination, Visual Perception
Geographic Terms: Hong Kong
Assessment and Survey Identifiers: Raven Progressive Matrices, Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration
DOI: 10.1177/0022219420979959
ISSN: 0022-2194
Abstract: 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.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2022
Accession Number: EJ1327124
Database: ERIC
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  Value: <anid>AN0155214369;led01mar.22;2022Feb15.06:00;v2.2.500</anid> <title id="AN0155214369-1">A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners </title> <p>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.</p> <p>Keywords: spelling; delayed copying; Chinese</p> <p>In the early stage of literacy learning, Chinese children are required to copy newly learned characters tens of times to "memorize" the structure of the characters. [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref1">46</reflink>] found that two kinds of copying skills that developed from copying practices were relatively strong correlates of Chinese spelling ability in kindergarteners. One of them is pure copying, in which children are required to copy unfamiliar print, that is, print that is foreign to the children and effectively represents two-dimensional patterns. The other is delayed copying, in which children need to copy unfamiliar Chinese characters that are briefly presented; in this case, children are asked to reproduce these characters, to the best of their ability, from memory following the presentation.</p> <p>In the current study, we first investigated the roles of both pure and delayed copying skills in Chinese spelling and then evaluated specifically the role of delayed copying by modeling the associations between delayed copying and spelling in Chinese kindergarteners. Importantly, other known cognitive-linguistic correlates of spelling were included in the model as well. Inclusion of these skills helped identify both common and unique correlates between Chinese and alphabetic orthographies. An important issue in this research is the extent to which copying skills are uniquely associated with Chinese spelling beyond other well-tested cognitive-linguistic abilities.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-2">Spelling in Alphabetic Languages</hd> <p>Two cognitive-linguistic skills that are closely related to spelling in alphabetic languages are phonological awareness (PA) and letter knowledge (LK). Researchers believe that these skills are essential for understanding the alphabetic principle (i.e., phoneme-grapheme encoding, for example, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref2">6</reflink>]). Previous studies have provided evidence to support the roles of both PA and LK in spelling across alphabetic languages (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref3">7</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref4">8</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib14" id="ref5">14</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib18" id="ref6">18</reflink>]).</p> <p>Rapid automatized naming (RAN) is another focus of literacy research in alphabetic languages. Performing a RAN task requires accessing phonological output of the required word pronunciations as quickly as possible ([<reflink idref="bib40" id="ref7">40</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib41" id="ref8">41</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib45" id="ref9">45</reflink>]). Other researchers have suggested that RAN serves as an indicator of the efficiency of visual–verbal integration processes or that RAN captures variance in phonological lexical retrieval ([<reflink idref="bib13" id="ref10">13</reflink>]). RAN appears to be a significant predictor of spelling in alphabetic languages (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib12" id="ref11">12</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref12">15</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib29" id="ref13">29</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib33" id="ref14">33</reflink>]).</p> <p>In addition to the above skills, [<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref15">6</reflink>] acknowledged that spellers typically require other cognitive-linguistic skills, such as morphological knowledge and orthographic knowledge to spell. Similarly, [<reflink idref="bib44" id="ref16">44</reflink>] proposed in their Integration of Multiple Patterns (IMP) theory that spelling may involve phonology as well as morphology and other aspects of linguistic structure ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref17">42</reflink>]). These have been supported by several studies that have found both morphological awareness (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib27" id="ref18">27</reflink>]) and orthographic awareness (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib36" id="ref19">36</reflink>]) to be strong correlates of spelling in alphabetic languages.</p> <p>In general, research in alphabetic languages suggests that phonological processing skills are essential for beginning spellers, whereas they are not enough for later stages of spelling development, especially for less transparent orthographies. Morphological and orthographic processing skills are necessary for spelling in alphabetic languages as well ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref20">6</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-3">Literacy-Related Skills and Chinese Spelling</hd> <p>Spelling in Chinese may also require additional skills that have not been widely recognized in alphabetic languages. Chinese is characterized as a morpho-syllabic writing system in which a Chinese character represents a syllable as well as a morpheme. In addition, it has the most complex visual form of all writing systems ([<reflink idref="bib9" id="ref21">9</reflink>]). The smallest component of a Chinese character is a <emph>stroke</emph>, which is defined as a movement of the pen. Chinese characters consist of one to 24 strokes. Strokes arranged in a specific pattern are called <emph>radicals</emph>. There are two kinds of radicals: The phonetic radicals provide sound information for the character, whereas the semantic radicals provide meaning information. However, this radical information is not always reliable, making spelling of Chinese characters more complicated.</p> <p>Research evidence consistently demonstrates that RAN, orthographic awareness, and morphological awareness are among the strongest correlates of spelling in Chinese both in typically developing children ([<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref22">39</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref23">49</reflink>]) and in children with spelling difficulty ([<reflink idref="bib38" id="ref24">38</reflink>]) in Hong Kong. These skills were found to explain a significant amount of variance in Chinese word reading and spelling among children in elementary grade levels ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref25">48</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref26">49</reflink>]). However, more studies on preschool children at the beginning stage of literacy learning are needed to gain a full understanding of Chinese spelling acquisition.</p> <p>Unlike alphabetic languages, the relatively simple phonological structure of the Chinese language may reduce the importance of PA for spelling in Chinese children. However, some researchers have suggested that, given the universality of spelling as a pairing of phonological information with visual information, PA is important for early spelling development in Chinese as well (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib24" id="ref27">24</reflink>]). For example, [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref28">19</reflink>] analyzed children's spelling in Chinese separately for younger and older groups and found that PA was a significant predictor for Chinese spelling in younger children but not in the older group in Hong Kong. Thus, perhaps PA can facilitate spelling in the early stages of learning to spell in Chinese.</p> <p>There are both similarities and differences between spelling in alphabetic languages and in Chinese. On one hand, although spelling of Chinese may differ from alphabetic spelling in some ways, the ways in which children combine semantic radicals and phonetics indeed encompass the essential ingredients of spelling in alphabetic languages, including writing a word/character and checking to see that it looks correct ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref29">16</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref30">23</reflink>]). On the other hand, Chinese spelling is a process of transforming spoken language into seemingly arbitrary and complex visual configurations without clear phonological clues. Thus, some researchers have suggested that Chinese literacy learning may require more varied cognitive skills than alphabetic language learning (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref31">10</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref32">37</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref33">46</reflink>]).</p> <p>Taken together, the previous research findings suggest a preliminary model of early Chinese spelling. Although the emphases are different from models in alphabetic languages, this Chinese spelling model includes those skills that are important in alphabetic writing systems. However, although these skills are necessary, they do not fully explain spelling acquisition in Chinese. The uniqueness of the Chinese writing system calls for a more comprehensive model that presents both the universal and unique characteristics of Chinese spelling. In recent years, copying practice and copying skills have drawn Chinese literacy researchers' attention, given their specific roles in Chinese reading and spelling development.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-4">Copying Practice and Copying Skills</hd> <p>Some researchers have proposed that copying practice of characters might benefit Chinese literacy learning ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref34">25</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref35">37</reflink>]). For example, [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref36">37</reflink>] found that copying of Chinese characters was positively correlated with Chinese reading acquisition. In addition to investigating the association between copying practice and Chinese literacy acquisition, it is critical to understand why copying practice benefits Chinese literacy acquisition. [<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref37">37</reflink>] proposed that copying practice of characters might facilitate children's establishment of long-term motor memory for Chinese characters. However, direct copying of real Chinese characters (i.e., character writing) in that particular study ([<reflink idref="bib37" id="ref38">37</reflink>]) likely involved previous experience with print, thus confounding the effect of skills involved in broader copying (copying skills) on Chinese literacy learning ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref39">25</reflink>]). In another study of Hong Kong Chinese second and third graders ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref40">25</reflink>]), skills in copying of stimuli that were not verbally codable (specifically, stimuli from unfamiliar print such as Korean and Hebrew writing for Chinese children) were able to distinguish children with and without dyslexia. We refer to this measure as the pure copying task because children are asked to copy materials of which they have no prior knowledge, such as Korean and Hebrew, to tap their sensitivity to copying two-dimensional markings with which they have no experience and that are not verbally codable. Researchers propose that this task relates to children's visual-motor integration skill and a variety of visual processing skills ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref41">46</reflink>]), implying that traditional Chinese copying practice strengthens children's visual-motor skills, which benefit Chinese literacy development.</p> <p>Other researchers have suggested that the benefits of copying practice encompass more than visual-motor skills. Through long-term copying practices, children appear implicitly to acquire knowledge of stroke patterns and the inner structures of characters, which are aspects of visual-orthographic knowledge ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref42">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref43">17</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref44">46</reflink>]). Visual-orthographic(s) can be conceptualized as the characteristics of Chinese written language that are independent of morphological, phonological, and semantic knowledge ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref45">1</reflink>]). Children who have visual-orthographic knowledge perceive characters in terms of units, or perceptual chunks, corresponding to recurrent patterns of stokes. [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref46">1</reflink>] required children in primary school to reproduce five types of items after they had been briefly presented, namely, familiar simple characters, familiar compound characters, unfamiliar characters in which two familiar components appeared in their typical positions, unfamiliar characters that contained at least one unfamiliar component, and noncharacters comprising two familiar components. Results showed that children's performance in delayed copying of unfamiliar characters with familiar components was similar to their performance in delayed copying of familiar characters, suggesting that Chinese children had some awareness of the inner structures of Chinese characters. In addition, delayed copying of unfamiliar characters revealed the largest effect in discriminating reading ability, and this discrimination worked better for learners at an earlier developmental stage ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref47">1</reflink>]). Thus, delayed copying of unfamiliar characters provides an excellent measure for early literacy learners. This study adopted the concept of delayed copying of unfamiliar characters; we refer to this skill as delayed copying in the rest of the article. Here, <emph>delayed copying</emph> refers to the ability to demonstrate awareness of the inner structure of a character, holding the visual mental representations in mind, while reproducing these through a motor channel ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref48">28</reflink>]). Motor skills, visual-motor integration, analytic strategies, and orthographic knowledge in Chinese are all required during a delayed copying task ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref49">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib21" id="ref50">21</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib20" id="ref51">20</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref52">28</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref53">46</reflink>]). Some researchers have also found that children with better vocabulary knowledge performed better in this task ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref54">1</reflink>]), probably because better vocabulary knowledge helps in better understanding the inner structures of Chinese characters.</p> <p>[<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref55">4</reflink>] developed a task that they referred to as <emph>expressive orthographic coding</emph> to access children's orthographic knowledge. During this task, a single whole nonword was presented on a 3 × 5 card for 1 s and then removed; Children were then given verbal instructions to reproduce in writing one of the following: (a) the entire word (whole word coding), (b) a single letter in a designated position (letter coding), or (c) a letter sequence in a designated position (letter cluster coding). Although this expressive orthographic coding task seems in some ways to be similar to the delayed copying task in this study, the functions of the two tasks are basically different: While the expressive orthographic coding task taps into the orthographic coding of a whole word without word-specific memory, the delayed copying task taps into visual-chunking skill related to visual-orthographic knowledge. Although [<reflink idref="bib4" id="ref56">4</reflink>] stated that the expressive orthographic coding task "tap(s) the ability to reproduce written words or their constituent parts without recourse to word-specific representations with semantic codes" (p. 168), children actually need to remember the whole word to reproduce it. This is true even when they are only required to reproduce one or two letters in a designated position within the word. This is similar to the partial report method in the sensory memory experiment developed by [<reflink idref="bib35" id="ref57">35</reflink>]. Thus, this particular expressive orthographic coding task requires partial report but actually measures the memory of an integrated item. In contrast, the delayed copying task adopted in this study required children to reproduce a whole character while using a partial scoring system, making use of chunking and visual-orthographic knowledge.</p> <p>Despite all of these indications of its special position, whether delayed copying of unfamiliar characters plays a direct role in Chinese spelling has only been examined to a limited extent. [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref58">46</reflink>] tested Mainland Chinese kindergarteners' performance in a delayed copying task with unfamiliar real characters to investigate how it related to Chinese spelling when only statistically controlling for age, IQ, and vocabulary knowledge. They found that performance on this delayed copying task was a unique correlate of Chinese dictation. In another study, [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref59">28</reflink>] used confirmatory factor analysis to explore a model of early Chinese spelling. In their model, delayed copying of unfamiliar characters was considered as a component (along with visual-orthographic judgment) of the construct they referred to as orthographic working memory. From these studies, it was confirmed that delayed copying of unfamiliar characters contributed uniquely to Chinese spelling. However, these studies have not isolated the impact of delayed copying on Chinese spelling beyond other known literacy-related skills. Understanding the extent to which delayed copying is a unique predictor of Chinese spelling may provide a new pathway to understanding the process of Chinese spelling.</p> <p>In addition, [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref60">17</reflink>] highlighted the potential importance of pure copying in Chinese spelling. However, the relationship between pure copying and delayed copying needs to be clarified. As pure copying requires no prior knowledge of the copying material, it measures "pure" visual-motor skills ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref61">25</reflink>]). Delayed copying, on the other hand, seems to tap a greater variety of skills. In addition to visual-motor and handwriting skills, prior knowledge of the orthographic structure (orthographic awareness) and ability to hold the orthographic representation temporarily (measured with the visual-orthographic judgment task) are all required in the delayed copying task ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref62">28</reflink>]). A study further exploring differences between pure and delayed copying could be helpful for building a comprehensive model of Chinese spelling.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-5">The Present Study</hd> <p>Given that Chinese is a morpho-syllabic writing system ([<reflink idref="bib43" id="ref63">43</reflink>]) and that the spelling models developed in alphabetic writing systems may not be fully applicable for Chinese, research in building a model of Chinese spelling is of significant value for understanding spelling acquisition across orthographies. Copying skills may be one key for considering the universals and specifics of Chinese spelling acquisition ([<reflink idref="bib10" id="ref64">10</reflink>]). The psycholinguistic grain size theory highlights the developmental progression of phonological and orthographic development from large-to-small and small-to-large unit sizes ([<reflink idref="bib50" id="ref65">50</reflink>]). Chinese spelling acquisition also possesses a similar progression pattern ([<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref66">47</reflink>]). As they begin to learn to spell, Chinese children tend to perceive a character as a combination of random strokes without any grouping of these visual forms, which creates a heavy memory burden. As literacy learning increases, learners gradually understand that there are larger functional units (radicals) within a character helping them to remember the character structure more efficiently. This, in turn, facilitates learners in "chunking" when learning to spell new characters ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref67">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref68">30</reflink>]). Thus, the units of spelling are from smaller units (strokes) to larger units (radicals or other "chunks" that help children spell; [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref69">47</reflink>]). Copying skills, which enhance the implicit knowledge of character structure via visualization and visual-motor memory, might be specifically critical for learning to spell Chinese because of a lack of clear phonological cues.</p> <p>The first objective of this study was to identify unique predictors of Chinese spelling from among several related cognitive-linguistic skills and to determine the respective roles of pure copying and delayed copying in beginning spelling in Chinese. We used hierarchical regression analyses to investigate the unique variance of several literacy-related skills (RAN, PA, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, visual-orthographic judgment, visual perception, and motor-related coordination) as well as the two copying skills for Chinese spelling in beginning learners. We first examined the extent to which the unique variance across all these measures contributed to Chinese spelling after statistically controlling for age, IQ, and vocabulary knowledge (Model 1). Second, we examined the additional contribution of pure copying and delayed copying to Chinese spelling beyond all other literacy-related measures (Model 2). Finally, the additional variance of delayed copying (Model 3) and pure copying (Model 4) to Chinese spelling were tested, respectively.</p> <p>The second objective was to investigate how delayed copying interacts with other skills using path analysis to model spelling development. We propose that both pure copying and delayed copying are unique correlates of Chinese spelling in beginning spellers. However, each serves a different role. While pure copying represents "pure" visual-motor integration without prior knowledge ([<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref70">25</reflink>]), delayed copying represents a child's attempts at extracting orthographic representations of Chinese from long-term memory: This includes efficient attention to their configurations, holding the character in working memory, and finally reproducing it, or at least some features of it, using a hand-written copy ([<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref71">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref72">28</reflink>]). Given these integrated processes, delayed copying should be facilitated by orthographic skills, visual analysis/strategies, and visual-motor skills for handwriting. There is potentially a pathway from these skills to Chinese spelling.</p> <p>The lexical quality hypothesis suggests that reading and spelling successfully depend on the synthesis of phonological, semantic, and orthographic information ([<reflink idref="bib31" id="ref73">31</reflink>]). Similarly, the IMP theory proposes that children use various skills/strategies to spell efficiently ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref74">42</reflink>]). Both theories emphasize the importance of different skills and imply that the links among skills are critical. In Chinese spelling, delayed copying may be the connection that coordinates the relations among several skills and links them to Chinese spelling. Delayed copying seems to tap similar skills to those used in the spelling process such that it may be considered as a proxy for a spelling task. During a spelling task, children need to make use of a convergence of sound information, orthographic information, and semantic information. However, in the delayed copying task, sound and semantic information might not be critical. In addition, previous studies on delayed copying and Chinese spelling have shown that, although their correlations were relatively strong (e.g., <emph>r</emph> =.35 in [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref75">46</reflink>]; and <emph>r</emph> =.39 in [<reflink idref="bib47" id="ref76">47</reflink>]), the magnitudes of correlations suggested that they cannot be considered to represent the same construct. Indeed, a measure of delayed copying has been largely absent in most previous Chinese spelling studies (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref77">48</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref78">49</reflink>]). Therefore, it is unknown whether the contribution of delayed copying to Chinese spelling is beyond the effects of other variables known to influence Chinese spelling. Alternatively, if delayed copying results from the coordination ability of practicing some of the skills involved in spelling process, then it may (partially or fully) mediate the relations among pure copying, motor coordination, orthographic knowledge, ability to hold the orthographic representation temporarily (visual-orthographic judgment) in mind, and vocabulary knowledge.</p> <p>Kindergarteners, who have not received formal literacy instruction at school, were targeted in this study. These kindergarteners had already started to learn to read and write; however, they had not been taught explicitly the orthographic structure and had not yet learned radicals within a character. This setting helps us understand Chinese spelling in the very early stage, which has not been investigated in previous Chinese spelling models ([<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref79">48</reflink>], [<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref80">49</reflink>]).</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-6">Method</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0155214369-7">Participants</hd> <p>In the kindergartens of Hong Kong, children are divided into three levels, namely K1, K2, and K3, according to their age. In this study, participants were 294 native Cantonese-speaking K3 kindergartners (mean age = 5.56 years, <emph>SD</emph> = 0.44 years). There were 129 female and 165 male participants from nine kindergartens, covering Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories, the three geographical regions of Hong Kong, varying in socioeconomic status. Kindergartens in Hong Kong typically include formal classes on reading and spelling of simple characters and words in Chinese and English. The procedure was approved by our university ethics board. Informed consent was obtained before testing from participants' parents.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-8">Procedures</hd> <p>Email and fax invitations were first sent to kindergartens in the three geographical regions of Hong Kong; all invitations were followed-up by phone calls to school administrators. Parental consent, including a detailed explanation of the research project, was then obtained from all in the schools that accepted our invitation. The testers were trained research assistants and psychology students. Most testing sessions took place in the corresponding kindergartens during school time, whereas some took place in the participants' homes for various logistic reasons. Prior to each testing session, the entire testing procedure was explained to the participant and their assent was also obtained before testing. Testing sessions took place from May to November 2017.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-9">Measures</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0155214369-10">Nonverbal IQ</hd> <p>Nonverbal IQ of participants was measured using sets A to C of the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices ([<reflink idref="bib32" id="ref81">32</reflink>]). For each item, participants were required to choose, from a total of six choices, a part of a geometric pattern in accordance with the total visual pattern. The total score of the task was 36.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-11">Chinese vocabulary knowledge</hd> <p>Chinese vocabulary knowledge was assessed using a task that combined skills in receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and vocabulary definitions. In the receptive vocabulary section, a word was orally presented and the participants were asked to identify the corresponding object from a set of four pictures. In the expressive vocabulary section, a picture was presented and the participants were asked to name the object or verb depicted in the picture. In the vocabulary definitions task, the participants were asked to provide the definition of a word, including the description and the function. One point was given for each correct answer in the receptive and expressive vocabulary subtasks. In the vocabulary definition subtask, 2 points were given for an accurate definition of the word, 1 point was given for a correct example of usage of the word, and no points were given for irrelevant answers or answers that were too generic. There were a total of 10 items in the receptive vocabulary task, 10 items in the expressive vocabulary task, and five items in the definitions task, summing to a maximum score of 30.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-12">RAN</hd> <p>RAN was measured using a rapid number naming task from [<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref82">11</reflink>]. Eight rows of five numbers printed in black were presented. The same five single-digit numbers were used across rows but the orders of presentation were randomized. Children were required to name these numbers from the top row to the bottom row and from left to right as quickly as possible. Each child was given two naming trials, and the average time across these two trials was measured.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-13">Chinese PA</hd> <p>PA was tested using two subtasks ([<reflink idref="bib11" id="ref83">11</reflink>]). The first task was syllable deletion, in which the participants were given a two- or three-character word and were instructed to repeat the word while deleting one syllable. For example, the experimenter would tell the participant to repeat the word /fo2 ce1 zaam6/ while removing the syllable /fo2/; the participants were credited for the answer /ce1 zaam6/ but not in any other cases. In the next task of onset deletion, a one- to three- syllable word was presented orally to the participant, and the participant was requested to repeat the syllables with the onset of each syllable deleted. For example, for the item /kun1 mek1 paau6/, credit was given for the answer /un1 ek1 aau6/. There are a total of 29 items in the first subtask and 22 items in the second subtask, summing to a maximum score of 51 for this task. Items were divided into sections, each containing seven to 10 items. The entire test was stopped when the participant failed to provide correct answers for half of the total number of items in any section.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-14">Chinese morphological construction</hd> <p>For each item of this task from [<reflink idref="bib26" id="ref84">26</reflink>], a description of an object or a situation was first orally presented to the participants, and the participants were then asked to generate a new name for the described object or situation by combining Chinese morphemes. In each of the first 27 of a total of 48 items, an exemplar was provided, whereas no exemplars were given in the remaining 21 items. An example of the item with the exemplar is the following: "When we see a sun that is red in color, we call it '<emph>red sun</emph>'. Now we would like to name a sun that is yellow in color. What would you call it?" One point was awarded for the answer "<emph>yellow sun.</emph>"</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-15">Orthographic awareness</hd> <p>A character decision task was adopted from [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref85">39</reflink>] to measure orthographic awareness. A total of 70 targets (including real, pseudo-, noncharacters, and visual symbols), divided into 14 rows of five targets, was presented to participants in this task. Examples of the target items were as follows: 卉 (real character),</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>(pseudo-character),</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>(noncharacter), and (</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>visual symbol). Participants were asked to decide whether each target was a real Chinese character orally. Participants were informed that there could be characters that they might not have learned but were still real Chinese characters, and there was at least one character and at most three characters that were not real in each row of five characters. The marking scheme was the same as [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref86">39</reflink>]. One point was given when the children made a correct response, that is, correctly pointed out whether the target was a real character or not. Thus, the maximum possible score was 70.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-16">Visual-orthographic judgment</hd> <p>This task was adopted from [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref87">28</reflink>], which was originally extended for Chinese from [<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref88">3</reflink>]. It measured children's ability to temporarily hold the target stroke patterns in mind and later match them to characters. During the task, a stroke pattern was presented for 3 s. Children were required to choose from among four characters presented which one contained the previously presented stroke pattern. For example, given a previously presented stroke pattern "犭," where is it included across the following four characters: "蛙," "洋," "狗," and "協." Thus, "狗" is the correct answer in this example. There were two practice items and 14 test items. The test was stopped if the children gave five consecutive incorrect responses. One point was given for each correct answer, and the maximum score was 14.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-17">Motor coordination</hd> <p>Motor coordination ability was assessed using the Beery VMI Supplemental Developmental Test of Motor Coordination–Sixth Edition ([<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref89">2</reflink>]). For each item, participants were required to copy a geometric shape within a path that outlined the shape, as much as possible within 5 min. The width of the paths decreased and the complexity of the shapes increased as the test progressed. Three practice items were provided, and participants were requested to complete the items within the paths to begin. Gray dots were present at each end or turning point of the shapes in the first 15 test items as additional guides. The total number of test items was 23. The test was scored in accordance with the guidelines as detailed in the manual.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-18">Pure copying</hd> <p>Participants were requested to copy words in Hebrew and Korean in the pure copying task similar to the task used by [<reflink idref="bib25" id="ref90">25</reflink>]. There were a total of eight items in each orthography; an item in Hebrew contained two to four Hebrew letters (e.g., תעלות‎) and an item in Korean contained one Korean character (e.g., 첫). In the beginning of the task, participants were presented with a printed and a hand-written version of the same exemplar item so as to demonstrate the requirement of the task. Later, the participants were instructed to copy another printed item as practice. The participants were corrected by the experimenters if the practice item deviated from the printed version and would result in point deduction during scoring. In particular, participants were asked to correct the practice item if huge discrepancies were noted between the printed version and the hand-copied version of the item in the distance between components, alignments among components, or the strokes of components. Each component of the items was scored based on its shape and position. Different items contained different numbers of components, so the scoring of each item varied. The total score of the task was 141. In addition, the pure copying task was coded by two well-trained research assistants independently because the two unfamiliar scripts were relatively difficult to discriminate. Their interrater reliability was 99% (<emph>r</emph> =.99, <emph>p</emph> <.001).</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-19">Chinese delayed copying</hd> <p>In this task, a Chinese character was first presented on a screen to the participant for a span of 5 s. Participants were instructed to memorize the Chinese character and were asked to write the character on paper immediately after the character disappeared from the screen. The general idea of this task was from previous work (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref91">1</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib30" id="ref92">30</reflink>]), but the scoring scheme was different from theirs. For example, [<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref93">1</reflink>] only counted the correct responses as the score of this task (1 point for correct, 0 points for an incorrect response). Our scoring system focused on partial information. Characters had been selected purposely to be difficult for the children at this age. The purpose of the present task was not to count the correct/incorrect responses as done previously. Rather, we were measuring participants' visual-orthographic knowledge, which is the knowledge of the structure of Chinese characters. Each character was scored based on the components (logographemes) within the characters. A logographeme consists of several strokes (some of them can be radicals or single characters). For example, the item <侫> has three logographemes: <亻>, <亡>, and <女>. Thus, it carries 3 points. As the items were arranged in order of increasing difficulty and complexity, the number of logographemes in each character changed across items. There were a total of 15 items, and the maximum score was 41.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-20">Chinese dictation</hd> <p>A total of 15 Chinese words, each comprised of two characters, were included in the Chinese dictation task. The words were selected from Chinese textbooks designed for local kindergartens and junior primary schools, and are frequently used in daily lives. They included words such as "雨傘 (umbrella)" and "牛奶 (milk)." Children were encouraged to write down as many strokes as they could when they could not spell the entire character correctly. One point was given if the character was spelled correctly, and 0 points were given for characters that were left blank or that contained any mistakes. As each item contained two characters and each character carried 1 point, the maximum points attainable in this task was 30.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-21">Results</hd> <p></p> <hd id="AN0155214369-22">Descriptive Analyses</hd> <p>Table 1 presents the mean values, standard deviations, ranges, and reliability coefficients computed for the various tasks in this study.</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>Table 1. Reliabilities, Mean Values, Standard Deviations, and Ranges for Measures in the Present Study.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup><col align="left" /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /></colgroup><thead><tr><th align="left">Variable</th><th align="center">Reliability</th><th align="center"><italic>M</italic> (<italic>SD</italic>)</th><th align="center">Range</th><th align="center">Maximum possible</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Age</td><td align="center">—</td><td>66.9 (5.5)</td><td>56.0–90.0</td><td align="center">—</td></tr><tr><td>IQ</td><td>.82</td><td>17.0 (5.4)</td><td>5.0–32.0</td><td>36.0</td></tr><tr><td>Vocabulary knowledge</td><td>.73</td><td>16.4 (4.1)</td><td>3.0–27.0</td><td>30.0</td></tr><tr><td>Rapid automatized naming</td><td align="center">—</td><td>39.1 (18.1)</td><td>17.0–235.3</td><td align="center">—</td></tr><tr><td>Phonological awareness</td><td>.96</td><td>19.0 (11.6)</td><td>0.0–51.0</td><td>51.0</td></tr><tr><td>Morphological awareness</td><td>.97</td><td>9.8 (6.1)</td><td>0.0–36.0</td><td>48.0</td></tr><tr><td>Orthographic awareness</td><td>.88</td><td>43.2 (6.1)</td><td>22.0–68.0</td><td>70.0</td></tr><tr><td>Visual-orthographic judgment</td><td>.76</td><td>9.1 (3.1)</td><td>0.0–14.0</td><td>14.0</td></tr><tr><td>Motor coordination</td><td>.74</td><td>13.9 (2.9)</td><td>4.0–21.0</td><td>23.0</td></tr><tr><td>Pure copying</td><td>.85</td><td>112.2 (11.5)</td><td>82.0–140.0</td><td>141.0</td></tr><tr><td>Delayed copying</td><td>.72</td><td>12.3 (6.5)</td><td>0.0–38.0</td><td>41.0</td></tr><tr><td>Spelling (dictation)</td><td>.83</td><td>6.1 (4.5)</td><td>0.0–24.0</td><td>30.0</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>1 <emph>Note.</emph> The unit of rapid automatized naming is seconds.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-23">Correlations</hd> <p>Table 2 shows the partial correlations controlling for age and IQ among all other measures in this study. Most literacy-related measures were significantly correlated with total scores for the Chinese word dictation task (<emph>r</emph>s >.24, <emph>p</emph>s <.001). Among the literacy-related measures, vocabulary knowledge, RAN, PA, morphological awareness, and orthographic awareness were moderately to highly correlated with one another (<emph>r</emph>s >.24, <emph>p</emph>s <.001). Pure copying was significantly related to other measures (<emph>r</emph>s >.13, <emph>p</emph>s <.05), except morphological awareness and orthographic awareness. The correlations among delayed copying and other measures were moderate to high (<emph>r</emph>s >.18, <emph>p</emph>s <.01).</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>Table 2. Partial Correlations Among All Variables With Age and IQ Controlled in This Study.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup><col align="left" /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /></colgroup><thead><tr><th align="left">Variable</th><th align="center">1</th><th align="center">2</th><th align="center">3</th><th align="center">4</th><th align="center">5</th><th align="center">6</th><th align="center">7</th><th align="center">8</th><th align="center">9</th><th align="center">10</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1. Vocabulary knowledge</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>2. Rapid automatized naming</td><td>−.26</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>3. Phonological awareness</td><td>.33</td><td>−.34</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>4. Morphological awareness</td><td>.52</td><td>−.24</td><td>.58</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>5. Orthographic awareness</td><td>.28</td><td>−.24</td><td>.31</td><td>.31</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>6. Visual-orthographic judgment</td><td>.34</td><td>−.35</td><td>.34</td><td>.24</td><td>.16</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>7. Motor coordination</td><td>.00</td><td>−.08</td><td>.10</td><td>.03</td><td>−.12</td><td>.06</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>8. Pure copying</td><td>.13</td><td>−.16</td><td>.13</td><td>.11</td><td>.05</td><td>.15</td><td>.45</td><td align="center">—</td><td /><td /></tr><tr><td>9. Delayed copying</td><td>.25</td><td>−.25</td><td>.30</td><td>.26</td><td>.18</td><td>.26</td><td>.23</td><td>.33</td><td align="center">—</td><td /></tr><tr><td>10. Spelling (dictation)</td><td>.35</td><td>−.37</td><td>.47</td><td>.47</td><td>.31</td><td>.28</td><td>.24</td><td>.31</td><td>.56</td><td align="center">—</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>2 <emph>Note</emph>. For all variables, <emph>N</emph> = 294, correlations of magnitude ≥.12 are statistically significant at <emph>p</emph> <.05.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-24">Multiple Regressions Explaining Two Copying Skills and Chinese Spelling</hd> <p>Because of the high correlations among variables, variable multicollinearity was checked before the following regression analyses. The variance inflation factors (VIFs) were all below 10, indicating that the multicollinearity was not serious.</p> <p>Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to test how rapid naming, Chinese PA, Chinese morphological awareness, orthographic awareness (using a character decision task), Chinese vocabulary knowledge, visual-orthographic judgment, motor coordination, pure copying, and delayed copying skills contributed to Chinese spelling development (see Table 3). In each regression equation, age, IQ scores, and vocabulary knowledge were entered in the first step as control variables. In the first set of analyses, all measures, including rapid naming, PA, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, orthographic awareness, visual-orthographic judgment, motor coordination, delayed copying, and pure copying, were entered into the equation in the last step. Results indicated that all measures together accounted for 61.1% of the variance in Chinese spelling scores. After statistically controlling for age, IQ, and vocabulary knowledge, all other measures accounted for 29.3% additional variance in Chinese spelling scores, <emph>∆F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib8" id="ref94">8</reflink>, 282) = 26.56, <emph>p</emph> <.001 (Model 1). In particular, with all other variables included, both copying skills together explained an additional 9.0%, <emph>∆F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib2" id="ref95">2</reflink>, 282) = 32.042, <emph>p</emph> <.001, of the variance in Chinese spelling (Model 2). Furthermore, delayed copying itself accounted for 7.6%, <emph>∆F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref96">1</reflink>, 282) = 55.20, <emph>p</emph> <.001, of additional variance in Chinese spelling scores after controlling all other measures (Model 3). Pure copying explained an additional 1.3% of the variance, <emph>∆F</emph>(<reflink idref="bib1" id="ref97">1</reflink>, 283) = 8.09, <emph>p</emph> <.05, before delayed copying was entered into the equation (Model 3) but was not significant after delayed copying entered into the model (Model 4).</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>Table 3. Hierarchical Regression Predicting Chinese Spelling From All Variables.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup><col align="left" /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /></colgroup><thead><tr><th align="left" rowspan="2">Step</th><th align="center" rowspan="2">Variable</th><th align="center" colspan="2">Spelling (word dictation)</th></tr><tr><th align="center"><italic>R</italic><sup>2</sup></th><th align="center">Δ<italic>R</italic><sup>2</sup></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Step 1</td><td>Age, IQ, vocabulary knowledge</td><td>.32</td><td>.32<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">Model 1</td></tr><tr><td> Step 2</td><td>Rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, visual-orthographic judgment, orthographic awareness, motor coordination, pure copying, delayed copying</td><td>.61</td><td>.29<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">Model 2</td></tr><tr><td> Step 2</td><td>Rapid automatized naming, morphological awareness, phonological awareness, visual-orthographic judgment, orthographic awareness, motor coordination</td><td>.52</td><td>.20<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td> Step 3</td><td>Pure copying, delayed copying</td><td>.61</td><td>.09<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">Model 3</td></tr><tr><td> Step 3</td><td>Pure copying</td><td>.53</td><td>.01<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">**</xref></td></tr><tr><td> Step 4</td><td>Delayed copying</td><td>.61</td><td>.08<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td colspan="4">Model 4</td></tr><tr><td> Step 3</td><td>Delayed copying</td><td>.61</td><td>.09<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn3">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td> Step 4</td><td>Pure copying</td><td>.61</td><td>.00</td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>3 <emph>p</emph> <.05. **<emph>p</emph> <.01. ***<emph>p</emph> <.001.</p> <p>The coefficients of the final step predictors, listed in Table 4, indicate that RAN, PA, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, motor coordination, and delayed copying each made a significant contribution to Chinese word dictation (spelling) in the context of all other measures.</p> <p>Graph</p> <p>Table 4. Standardized Betas for Regression Equations Predicting Chinese Spelling.</p> <p> <ephtml> <table><colgroup><col align="left" /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /><col align="char" char="." /></colgroup><thead><tr><th align="left" rowspan="2">Final step predictors</th><th align="center" colspan="3">Chinese word dictation (spelling)</th></tr><tr><th align="center"><italic>B</italic></th><th align="center"><italic>SE B</italic></th><th align="center">β</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Age (in months)</td><td>0.00</td><td>0.04</td><td>0.01</td></tr><tr><td>IQ</td><td>0.04</td><td>0.04</td><td>0.05</td></tr><tr><td>Vocabulary knowledge</td><td>0.04</td><td>0.06</td><td>0.04</td></tr><tr><td>Rapid automatized naming</td><td>−0.03</td><td>0.01</td><td>−0.11<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">**</xref></td></tr><tr><td>Phonological awareness</td><td>0.05</td><td>0.02</td><td>0.14<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">*</xref></td></tr><tr><td>Morphological awareness</td><td>0.14</td><td>0.04</td><td>0.19<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">***</xref></td></tr><tr><td>Orthographic awareness</td><td>0.07</td><td>0.03</td><td>0.09<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">*</xref></td></tr><tr><td>Visual-orthographic judgment</td><td>0.01</td><td>0.07</td><td>0.00</td></tr><tr><td>Motor coordination</td><td>0.15</td><td>0.07</td><td>0.10<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">*</xref></td></tr><tr><td>Pure copying</td><td>0.03</td><td>0.02</td><td>0.07</td></tr><tr><td>Delayed copying</td><td>0.25</td><td>0.03</td><td>0.36<xref ref-type="table-fn" rid="tfn4">***</xref></td></tr></tbody></table> </ephtml> </p> <p>4 <emph>p</emph> <.05. **<emph>p</emph> <.01. ***<emph>p</emph> <.001.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-25">Path Analysis Model</hd> <p>A path analysis model was conducted using the <emph>lavaan</emph> package in R, a system for structural equation modeling, to investigate the interrelations among the variables. To select the best model, the first step was to establish a baseline model in which all possible paths drawing from previous theories were included (theory-driven). This baseline model is more saturated, which is supposed to provide the best fit to the data because it represents the complete covariance matrix and is in line with previous theories. In this study, an alternative model based on the previous multiple regression analyses (data-driven) was also tested against the baseline model to determine whether it had acceptable fit to the data. As the alternative model is less saturated and simpler than the baseline model, we planned to accept it as the preferred model if it had an equal model fit to the baseline model.</p> <p>In the baseline model (see Figure 1, Model A), all literacy-related skills (vocabulary knowledge, orthographic awareness, PA, rapid naming, morphological awareness, visual-orthographic judgment), motor coordination, and two copying skills (pure copying and delayed copying) were all postulated to have significant effects on spelling based on the theoretical background overviewed in the introduction. In addition, we postulated paths from vocabulary knowledge and orthographic awareness to delayed copying, as well as from motor coordination to pure copying. The overall fit of Model A was good, χ<sups>2</sups>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref98">3</reflink>, _I_N_i_ = 294) = 7.04, <emph>p</emph> >.05, nonnormed fit index (NNFI) = 0.94, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99, standardized root mean square residual (SRMR) = 0.02, root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.07. The alternative model (see Figure 2, Model B) was postulated based on the multiple regression results. Orthographic awareness, PA, rapid naming, morphological awareness, motor coordination, and delayed copying were all postulated to have significant effects on spelling. Vocabulary knowledge, orthographic awareness, visual-orthographic judgment, pure copying, and motor coordination were postulated to have a significant effect on delayed copying. All paths postulated were significant. Model B fits the data well, χ<sups>2</sups>(<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref99">6</reflink>, _I_N_i_ = 294) = 11.28, <emph>p</emph> >.05, NNFI = 0.96, CFI = 0.99, SRMR = 0.02, RMSEA = 0.06. The overall fit of Model B was as good as that of Model A, Δχ<sups>2</sups>(<reflink idref="bib3" id="ref100">3</reflink>, _I_N_i_ = 294) = 4.23, <emph>p</emph> =.24. Because Model B fit the data as well as that of Model A and is simpler than Model A, it was the preferred model conceptualizing the interrelations among the variables in the study.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 1. Model A of spelling in Chinese. Note. Dashed lines indicated insignificant path loadings.* p <.05. ** p <.01. *** p <.001.</p> <p>Graph: Figure 2. Model B of spelling in Chinese.* p <.05. ** p <.01. *** p <.001.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-26">Discussion</hd> <p>This study examined the critical correlates of learning to spell, or dictation, in Chinese. Our new model of Chinese spelling in part reflects the special characteristics of Chinese character and Chinese literacy learning. From a clinical perspective, the delayed copying task may be a particularly effective indicator of early spelling difficulties as well.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-27">Important Correlates of Learning to Spell Chinese</hd> <p>The first aim of this study was to investigate critical correlates of Chinese spelling. The results of both the multiple regression analyses and path analyses showed that RAN, PA, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, motor coordination, and delayed copying were all unique contributors to Chinese spelling performance among Hong Kong kindergartners after statistically controlling for other cognitive-linguistic related skills.</p> <p>In general, the model of Chinese spelling developed in this study is somewhat in line with the models of spelling for alphabetic scripts ([<reflink idref="bib6" id="ref101">6</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib7" id="ref102">7</reflink>]) and previous findings on spelling among Chinese children. For example, one important contributor to spelling in alphabetic scripts, PA ([<reflink idref="bib5" id="ref103">5</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref104">15</reflink>]), was also a significant contributor to Chinese spelling in early spellers in this study. Some previous work has noted that Chinese literacy learning, particularly in Hong Kong, relies little on phonological information ([<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref105">49</reflink>]). However, previous research in Chinese has also demonstrated that phonological skills were not reliable in older children but relatively reliable in younger children ([<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref106">19</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref107">39</reflink>]). In addition, studies of Chinese children's spelling suggest that children make use of both phonetics and semantic radicals from the early stages of learning to spell ([<reflink idref="bib16" id="ref108">16</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref109">23</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib34" id="ref110">34</reflink>]). The current results suggest that age (especially in children in late kindergarten and early primary school) should be taken into account when explaining findings concerning correlates of spelling. This is consistent with the IMP theory, which suggests that the importance of different skills may change according to children's ages ([<reflink idref="bib42" id="ref111">42</reflink>]).</p> <p>Consistent with previous evidence found in Hong Kong elementary students ([<reflink idref="bib49" id="ref112">49</reflink>]), RAN was a strong correlate of Chinese spelling in the current study as in alphabetic writing systems ([<reflink idref="bib15" id="ref113">15</reflink>]). Considering the features of early spelling acquisition in Chinese, RAN appears to be a strong correlate of Chinese spelling because it has been suggested to reflect the arbitrary relationships between visual symbols and sound (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib22" id="ref114">22</reflink>]).</p> <p>Orthographic awareness has consistently been a focus in Chinese literacy research (e.g., [<reflink idref="bib39" id="ref115">39</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib48" id="ref116">48</reflink>]). It is defined as children's understanding of the conventional rules of how graphemes (e.g., letters in English or radicals in Chinese) are structured in a word (in English) or in a character (in Chinese; [<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref117">23</reflink>]). Orthographic information is important in Chinese because Chinese characters contain more visual information (i.e., complicated stroke patterns, radicals, and positions of radicals) than do English words. This study extends to its interaction with other variables, providing new insights on examining its roles in Chinese spelling.</p> <p>Morphological awareness is another focus in Chinese spelling research. Lexical compounding, which is measured using a morphological construction task, is relatively strongly associated with Chinese literacy learning ([<reflink idref="bib23" id="ref118">23</reflink>]). However, in the multiple regression model, morphological awareness itself did not contribute significantly to spelling after we statistically controlled for all other variables. One possible explanation for our results is that both vocabulary knowledge and morphological construction here are recruiting some aspects of semantic knowledge ([<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref119">28</reflink>]), and they constrain each other in the process of spelling.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-28">Copying Skills and Chinese Spelling</hd> <p>In this study, we propose that copying skills might be a key building block in Chinese spelling. There are at least three reasons for this. First, copying may facilitate children to develop fine motor skills and visual-motor integration rapidly during an early stage of spelling acquisition (pure copying skill). Second, motor programs established in copying may lead to the building of orthographic long-term memory in Chinese characters. Third, copying might be particularly beneficial to the development of an analytic strategy, orthographic awareness, and ability to hold orthographic representations in memory, all of which are critical in the process of Chinese spelling.</p> <p>Two kinds of copying skills—pure and delayed copying—were included. They are different from the above-mentioned traditional cognitive-linguistic skills but are considered here as potentially important parts of Chinese character learning. As learning the Chinese characters through copying has long been a dominant teaching approach for young children in Chinese literacy learning, some researchers believe that through the copying practice learners acquire the writing skills that can be automatically activated across various situations ([<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref120">46</reflink>]). [<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref121">17</reflink>] also proposed that because of the orthographic complexity of Chinese, children need to be sensitive to Chinese character structure and understanding of the function of semantic radicals in early learning to spell (visual-orthographic knowledge); handwriting practice enhances this sensitivity. In this way, spelling performance is improved. Several studies have now demonstrated the critical role of copying and other handwriting skills for Chinese spelling ([<reflink idref="bib17" id="ref122">17</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib19" id="ref123">19</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib28" id="ref124">28</reflink>]; [<reflink idref="bib46" id="ref125">46</reflink>]). On the other hand, our delayed copying task is also an effective method to test spellers' visual-orthographic knowledge, and the performance in this task may be an early critical predictor for spelling performance. This study again highlighted the importance of delayed copying, which presumably makes use of visual-orthographic skills, as the strongest correlate of Chinese spelling among early spellers. Also, in line with our hypothesis, delayed copying appears to connect orthographic awareness and spelling. In addition, we found that vocabulary knowledge had an indirect effect on Chinese spelling via delayed copying, suggesting that delayed copying possibly plays a role in the connections between vocabulary knowledge and Chinese spelling. However, more future research is needed to establish these associations precisely. Overall, the present evidence highlights a special role of delayed copying for Chinese spelling.</p> <p>Why does delayed copying of unfamiliar real characters relate to Chinese spelling? On one hand, to efficiently copy a character, children need to use strategies to chunk some of the strokes together because a finite memory capacity precludes them from just memorizing all the strokes. On the other hand, children with better chunking abilities have some knowledge about the inner structures of Chinese characters (orthographic knowledge and special arrangement of radicals, etc.). In addition, it is likely that visual-motor skills that are critical in a pure copying task are fundamental during the delayed copying task as well. The delayed copying task looks like the copying practice that learners have in writing class; however, it is adjusted to measure knowledge/skills in spelling because learners can no longer see the character during spelling/writing, and they presumably need multiple strategies to complete the task. In addition, the characters presented are designed to be unfamiliar to the children to capture how much orthographic information the children can recognize and make use of in the task. The complicated visual-orthographic features of Chinese may make it a particularly sensitive measure for Chinese literacy.</p> <p>In this study, the role of pure copying for Chinese spelling was diminished after statistically controlling delayed copying in Chinese spelling. This result is reasonable because pure copying of unfamiliar scripts does not tap into the most important knowledge required for spelling, namely, visual-orthographic knowledge. However, we can see from the final path analysis model that it had an indirect effect on spelling via delayed copying. Indeed, it is likely that visual-motor integration may be closely related to spelling, but it takes effect mainly through delayed copying. This study not only provides evidence in line with previous findings demonstrating that copying is uniquely associated with spelling in young Chinese children, but also suggests some new mechanisms by which delayed copying skill may affect the relations of Chinese spelling and other cognitive-linguistic skills.</p> <hd id="AN0155214369-29">Limitations, Implications, and Future Directions</hd> <p>This study yielded some unique findings. First, given our relatively comprehensive battery of cognitive-linguistic tasks included in this study, these results give us a clearer understanding of how these skills are related to Chinese spelling. Second, we found that delayed copying may represent an important pathway between traditional literacy-related skills and Chinese spelling. Theoretically, these patterns in normal developing children provide useful evidence for understanding children with spelling difficulties in Chinese. Practically, as delayed copying is a unique correlate of early Chinese spelling acquisition, this task is likely to serve as a helpful measure for predicting spelling difficulties in subsequent development. Future longitudinal studies and studies comparing children with and without spelling difficulties on delayed copying skill will be important to conduct to reaffirm the potential importance of delayed copying for the detection of early spelling difficulties.</p> <p>As a relatively new task (skill), the design of this study limited us in understanding of the precise nature of delayed copying. However, this study provides us a clearer vision of how it might work in Chinese spelling. Future studies should focus more on exploring the underlying mechanisms of delayed copying and how it may relate to spelling in Chinese and other writing systems.</p> <ref id="AN0155214369-30"> <title> References </title> <blist> <bibl id="bib1" idref="ref42" type="bt">1</bibl> <bibtext> Anderson R. 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Psychological Bulletin, 131(1), 3–29. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.1.3</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <ref id="AN0155214369-31"> <title> Footnotes </title> <blist> <bibtext> The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> This research was supported by the General Research Fund sponsored by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong SAR (Project No. 14654116) to C.M.</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext> Yanyan Ye</bibtext> </blist> <blist> <bibtext>Graph https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9476-5319</bibtext> </blist> </ref> <aug> <p>By Yanyan Ye; Catherine McBride; Li Yin; Leo Man-Lit Cheang and Chun Yu Tse</p> <p>Reported by Author; Author; Author; Author; Author</p> </aug> <nolink nlid="nl1" bibid="bib46" firstref="ref1"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl2" bibid="bib14" firstref="ref5"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl3" bibid="bib18" firstref="ref6"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl4" bibid="bib40" firstref="ref7"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl5" bibid="bib41" firstref="ref8"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl6" bibid="bib45" firstref="ref9"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl7" bibid="bib13" firstref="ref10"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl8" bibid="bib12" firstref="ref11"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl9" bibid="bib15" firstref="ref12"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl10" bibid="bib29" firstref="ref13"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl11" bibid="bib33" firstref="ref14"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl12" bibid="bib44" firstref="ref16"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl13" bibid="bib42" firstref="ref17"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl14" bibid="bib27" firstref="ref18"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl15" bibid="bib36" firstref="ref19"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl16" bibid="bib39" firstref="ref22"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl17" bibid="bib49" firstref="ref23"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl18" bibid="bib38" firstref="ref24"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl19" bibid="bib48" firstref="ref25"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl20" bibid="bib24" firstref="ref27"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl21" bibid="bib19" firstref="ref28"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl22" bibid="bib16" firstref="ref29"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl23" bibid="bib23" firstref="ref30"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl24" bibid="bib10" firstref="ref31"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl25" bibid="bib37" firstref="ref32"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl26" bibid="bib25" firstref="ref34"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl27" bibid="bib17" firstref="ref43"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl28" bibid="bib28" firstref="ref48"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl29" bibid="bib21" firstref="ref50"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl30" bibid="bib20" firstref="ref51"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl31" bibid="bib35" firstref="ref57"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl32" bibid="bib43" firstref="ref63"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl33" bibid="bib50" firstref="ref65"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl34" bibid="bib47" firstref="ref66"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl35" bibid="bib30" firstref="ref68"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl36" bibid="bib31" firstref="ref73"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl37" bibid="bib32" firstref="ref81"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl38" bibid="bib11" firstref="ref82"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl39" bibid="bib26" firstref="ref84"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl40" bibid="bib34" firstref="ref110"></nolink> <nolink nlid="nl41" bibid="bib22" firstref="ref114"></nolink>
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  Data: A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners
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  Label: Descriptors
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  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Foreign+Countries%22">Foreign Countries</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Spelling%22">Spelling</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Chinese%22">Chinese</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Kindergarten%22">Kindergarten</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Naming%22">Naming</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Phonological+Awareness%22">Phonological Awareness</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Morphology+%28Languages%29%22">Morphology (Languages)</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Written+Language%22">Written Language</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychomotor+Skills%22">Psychomotor Skills</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Duplication%22">Duplication</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Emergent+Literacy%22">Emergent Literacy</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Predictor+Variables%22">Predictor Variables</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Vocabulary%22">Vocabulary</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Knowledge+Level%22">Knowledge Level</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Ideography%22">Ideography</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Alphabets%22">Alphabets</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Perceptual+Motor+Coordination%22">Perceptual Motor Coordination</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Visual+Perception%22">Visual Perception</searchLink>
– Name: Subject
  Label: Geographic Terms
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Hong+Kong%22">Hong Kong</searchLink>
– Name: SubjectThesaurus
  Label: Assessment and Survey Identifiers
  Group: Su
  Data: <searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Raven+Progressive+Matrices%22">Raven Progressive Matrices</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="SU" term="%22Beery+Developmental+Test+of+Visual+Motor+Integration%22">Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration</searchLink>
– Name: DOI
  Label: DOI
  Group: ID
  Data: 10.1177/0022219420979959
– Name: ISSN
  Label: ISSN
  Group: ISSN
  Data: 0022-2194
– Name: Abstract
  Label: Abstract
  Group: Ab
  Data: 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.
– Name: AbstractInfo
  Label: Abstractor
  Group: Ab
  Data: As Provided
– Name: DateEntry
  Label: Entry Date
  Group: Date
  Data: 2022
– Name: AN
  Label: Accession Number
  Group: ID
  Data: EJ1327124
PLink https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=eric&AN=EJ1327124
RecordInfo BibRecord:
  BibEntity:
    Identifiers:
      – Type: doi
        Value: 10.1177/0022219420979959
    Languages:
      – Text: English
    PhysicalDescription:
      Pagination:
        PageCount: 14
        StartPage: 154
    Subjects:
      – SubjectFull: Foreign Countries
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Spelling
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Chinese
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Kindergarten
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Naming
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Phonological Awareness
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Morphology (Languages)
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Written Language
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Psychomotor Skills
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Duplication
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Emergent Literacy
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Predictor Variables
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Vocabulary
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Knowledge Level
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Ideography
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Alphabets
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Perceptual Motor Coordination
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Visual Perception
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Hong Kong
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Raven Progressive Matrices
        Type: general
      – SubjectFull: Beery Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration
        Type: general
    Titles:
      – TitleFull: A Model of Chinese Spelling Development in Hong Kong Kindergarteners
        Type: main
  BibRelationships:
    HasContributorRelationships:
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Ye, Yanyan
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: McBride, Catherine
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Yin, Li
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Cheang, Leo Man-Lit
      – PersonEntity:
          Name:
            NameFull: Tse, Chun Yu
    IsPartOfRelationships:
      – BibEntity:
          Dates:
            – D: 01
              M: 01
              Type: published
              Y: 2022
          Identifiers:
            – Type: issn-print
              Value: 0022-2194
          Numbering:
            – Type: volume
              Value: 55
            – Type: issue
              Value: 2
          Titles:
            – TitleFull: Journal of Learning Disabilities
              Type: main
ResultId 1