A comparison of phonological awareness, lexical compounding, and homophone training for Chinese word reading in Hong Kong kindergarteners

In this training study, 88 kindergarteners were trained in one of three groups related to early literacy or a control group. The three training groups were lexical compounding, homophone awareness, phonological awareness or control over two months. Compared with the control group, the lexical compounding training group significantly improved in Chinese word reading ability and (marginally) in vocabulary knowledge. The homophone group improved over the control group in vocabulary knowledge only. Phonological awareness improved the most in the phonological awareness training group, but this was not associated with better reading. Results underscore the importance of morphological awareness training for both word-reading and vocabulary knowledge in this group of young Chinese children.

Early literacy training in Chinese children should include a focus on morphological aspects of language and reading. A focus on phonological awareness for training of literacy skills appears to be less important at least for Hong Kong Chinese children.

Zhou, Y. L., McBride-Chang, C., Fong, C. Y.-C., Wong, T. T.-Y., & Cheung S. K. (in press) A comparison of phonological awareness, lexical compounding, and homophone training for Chinese word reading in Hong Kong kindergarteners. Early Education and Development.