ERIC Number: EJ1214194
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2019-Jun
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0142-7237
EISSN: N/A
Poor Oral Discourse Skills Are the Key Cognitive-Linguistic Weakness of Chinese Poor Comprehenders: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study
Fong, Cathy Yui-Chi; Ho, Connie Suk Han
First Language, v39 n3 p281-297 Jun 2019
Prior research on reading difficulties has mainly focused on word decoding problems. However, there exists another group of children -- poor comprehenders (PCs) -- who have normal word decoding abilities but difficulties in reading comprehension. Less is known about PCs especially in non-alphabetic languages such as Chinese. This study identified three groups -- poor decoders, PCs, and average readers -- among 103 Chinese children at the end of first grade. Children's performances in reading and cognitive-linguistic measures, both concurrently at first grade and retrospectively at kindergarten levels two and three, were then compared among the three groups. This study is the first to demonstrate the distinct cognitive profiles of poor decoders and PCs in Chinese. The key cognitive-linguistic weaknesses of Chinese PCs were found to be in oral discourse skills and working memory. The retrospective data further revealed their oral discourse weakness as early as in preschool years at age 5. Practically, the necessity of developing assessment and intervention tools that focus on oral discourse skills for Chinese PCs is highlighted.
Descriptors: Oral Language, Reading Difficulties, Decoding (Reading), Psycholinguistics, Chinese, Reading Comprehension, Elementary School Students, Grade 1, Kindergarten, Comparative Analysis, Short Term Memory, Preschool Children, Intervention, Foreign Countries, Reading Tests, Grammar, Vocabulary Development, Identification, Correlation, Longitudinal Studies
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Early Childhood Education; Grade 1; Primary Education; Kindergarten
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Hong Kong
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A