The present study adapted the "Blueprint of the Reader" in comprehending language by Perfetti [2000, C. M. Brown & P. Hagoort. (Eds.), "The neurocognition of language" (pp. 167-208). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press] as a framework for understanding Chinese language and reading comprehension in a group of 361 secondary Forms 1, 3 and 4…

This study investigated the effect of phonological sensitivity of two comparable groups of grades 4 and 5 Chinese children, one a Putonghua-speaking group ("n" = 77) from Beijing and the other a Cantonese-speaking group ("n" = 80) from Hong Kong on English and Chinese pseudoword reading. It was hypothesized that the Beijing group would process…

The morpho-syllabic Japanese writing system consists of the phonetic scripts of hiragana and katakana, the logographic kanji derived from Chinese characters and the less well researched romaji based on the Roman alphabet. In four experiments we investigated the speed with which Japanese college students read, named, and transcribed romaji as…

Examines the notion inherent in the Interactive Constituency Model of Perfetti and colleagues that in reading 2-character Chinese words phonology is activated at the character level rather than at the word level. Notes that the two lexical decision experiments and the naming experiment uphold the generality of character-level consistency effect of…

Explores 10- to 12-year old spellers' sensitivity to, and knowledge of, derivational morphology with lexical items varying in orthographic and phonological transparency and opacity. Finds some evidence that the depth of segmentation to base morphology and the converse process of derived morphology of words plays a role in the spelling performance…

Offers an introduction to this themed journal issue dealing with the cognitive processing of the Chinese and the Japanese languages. Discusses processing Chinese, processing Japanese, and research needs. (SR)

Introduces this special issue. Discusses the analysis-by-synthesis principle of text-to-speech conversion; some classroom and research issues in designing "usable" computer texts; and the criteria of hypertext. Emphasizes the importance of the contextual aspects of text and hypertext and situated learning. (RS)

Studies the effect on reading comprehension of a computer system. Finds that the adolescent students gained in reading comprehension across both training modes, but the efficacy of DECtalk together with on-line explanations was found with only two prose passages and mainly with above average readers. Discusses results in the context of situated…

Reports results of two experiments on fourth- through seventh-grade below-average readers' sensitivity to Basic Orthographic Syllabic Structure (BOSS) in visual word recognition. Suggests that children are sensitive to the BOSS parsing principle and that this could be used in promoting word knowledge. (RS)

Reports on the second phase of a two-phase, two cohort componential analysis of reading. Finds a good fit for the grade four data, a reasonable fit for grade five, and a less unambiguous fit for grade six. Finds results are generally confirmed with the simultaneous structural analyses of phase one and phase two multisamples. (RS)

Examines if phonological processing in biscriptal Japanese orthography may accompany accurate, rapid visual recognition of single "kanji" characters according to semantic/phonetic constituent elements, and high- and low-frequency "katakana" words. Suggests that visual-phonetic recoding may be possible in accessing difficult kanji characters with…