Re: Reading depends on writing, in Chinese


"Peter T. Daniels" <grammatim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:42B0204C.68E3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Austin P. So (Hae Jin) wrote:
>>
>> http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/abstract/102/24/8781?etoc
>>
>> PNAS | June 14, 2005 | vol. 102 | no. 24 | 8781-8785
>>
>> Reading depends on writing, in Chinese
>>
>> Li Hai Tan *, John A. Spinks {dagger}, Guinevere F. Eden {ddagger},
>> Charles A. Perfetti § and Wai Ting Siok *, ¶
>
>> Language development entails four fundamental and interactive abilities:
>> listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Over the past four decades, a
>
> No, it doesn't; reading and writing are strictly optional.
>
>> large body of evidence has indicated that reading acquisition is
>> strongly associated with a child's listening skills, particularly the
>> child's sensitivity to phonological structures of spoken language.
>> Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that the close relationship
>> between reading and listening is manifested universally across languages
>> and that behavioral remediation using strategies addressing phonological
>> awareness alleviates reading difficulties in dyslexics. The prevailing
>> view of the central role of phonological awareness in reading
>> development is largely based on studies using Western (alphabetic)
>> languages, which are based on phonology. The Chinese language provides a
>> unique medium for testing this notion, because logographic characters in
>> Chinese are based on meaning rather than phonology. Here we show that
>> the ability to read Chinese is strongly related to a child's writing
>> skills and that the relationship between phonological awareness and
>> Chinese reading is much weaker than that in reports regarding alphabetic
>> languages. We propose that the role of logograph writing in reading
>> development is mediated by two possibly interacting mechanisms. The
>> first is orthographic awareness, which facilitates the development of
>> coherent, effective links among visual symbols, phonology, and
>> semantics; the second involves the establishment of motor programs that
>> lead to the formation of long-term motor memories of Chinese characters.
>> These findings yield a unique insight into how cognitive systems
>> responsible for reading development and reading disability interact, and
>> they challenge the prominent phonological awareness view.
>
> Maybe this is the first time Perfetti (a senior reading scholar) has
> ever looked at Chinese; the rest of the abstract reads like "Chinese
> diffidence" -- "shame" at their "inferior" way of doing things.


Siok, one of the authors of the above article also wrote the following.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=11699761&query_hl=1

========

The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese
reading acquisition.

Siok WT, Fletcher P.

Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Hong Kong, China.
wtsiok@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This study examined the role of phonological awareness and
visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. The subjects were
154 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th graders in Beijing who had learned an alphabetic
script known as Hanyu Pinyin to help read Chinese characters. Children's
performance on tests of various cognitive skills, reading ability, and
pinyin knowledge were examined. Results of hierarchical regression analyses
showed that (a) visual skills predicted reading success at lower grades; (b)
pinyin knowledge and the ability to discriminate homophonic characters
predicted reading success in Grades 2, 3, and 5; and (c) onset-rime
awareness, but not phonemic awareness, predicted Chinese reading. This
suggests that learning to read Chinese progresses from a logographic phase
to an orthographic-phonological phase and that the nature of phonological
awareness predicting reading success is contingent on the characteristics of
the writing system.

==============

Further, another paper by virtually the same group as Austin's post is here

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15343334&query_hl=1

=============

Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture.

Siok WT, Perfetti CA, Jin Z, Tan LH.

Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory, Department of Linguistics, University of
Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by a severe reading problem in
people who have normal intelligence and schooling. Impaired reading of
alphabetic scripts is associated with dysfunction of left temporoparietal
brain regions. These regions perform phonemic analysis and conversion of
written symbols to phonological units of speech (grapheme-to-phoneme
conversion); two central cognitive processes that mediate reading
acquisition. Furthermore, it has been assumed that, in contrast to cultural
diversities, dyslexia in different languages has a universal biological
origin. Here we show using functional magnetic resonance imaging with
reading-impaired Chinese children and associated controls, that functional
disruption of the left middle frontal gyrus is associated with impaired
reading of the Chinese language (a logographic rather than alphabetic
writing system). Reading impairment in Chinese is manifested by two
deficits: one relating to the conversion of graphic form (orthography) to
syllable, and the other concerning orthography-to-semantics mapping. Both of
these processes are critically mediated by the left middle frontal gyrus,
which functions as a centre for fluent Chinese reading that coordinates and
integrates various information about written characters in verbal and
spatial working memory. This finding provides an insight into the
fundamental pathophysiology of dyslexia by suggesting that rather than
having a universal origin, the biological abnormality of impaired reading is
dependent on culture.

=========

It seems the authors rather than pinning the blame on abnormalities in the
brain of affected people, prefer to point to cultural aspects instead. It
would suggest that if you brought up the same impaired person in another
culture, they may not be affected by dyslexia. This seems to be non-sensical
to me.

Dyl.


.

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