Chinese Children’s Reading Acquisition Theoretical and Pedagogical Issues

Published research and conference presentations on the Chinese language in the last decade have tended to focus on adult language processing. This book provides a comprehensive resource for the critical discussion of major issues in learning to read Chinese from a child acquisition perspective.
The combined contributions from researchers in Asian studies, linguistics, psycholinguistics, psychology, cognitive psychology, reading, and education inform international comparative studies of literacy by making apparent the features of the Chinese culture, language, writing system, and pedagogy that may facilitate or impede the acquisition of literacy.

I: Theoretical Perspectives on Learning to Read.- 1. Current Issues in Learning to Read Chinese.- 2. Children’s Early Understanding of Writing and Language: The Impact of Characters and Alphabetic Orthographies.- Discussion: Translations and Transitions in Learning to Read31.- II: Role of metalinguistic awareness in Chinese reading.- 3. Phonological Awareness in Chinese Reading.- 4. The Role Of Morphological Awareness in Learning to Read Chinese.- 5. Facets of Metalinguistic Awareness that Contribute to Chinese Literacy.- Discussion: Metalinguistic Awareness as a Critical Construct.- III: Wide reading and the development of Chinese literacy.- 6. Book-Based Programs in Developing Countries.- 7. Shared-Book Reading in China.- 8. Morphological Instruction and Teacher Training.- 9. Children’s Literature in the People’s Republish of China: Its Purposes and Genres.- Discussion: Supprting the Reading Intruction and Learning of Chinese Children.- IV: Factors in Home Literacy.- 10. The Role of Home-Literacy Environment in Learning to Read in Chinese.- 11. Writing Systems and Learning to Read in a Second Language.- Discussion: Variables Associated with Learning to Read in Chinese.- Author Index.