Simple View of Reading in Chinese: A One-Stage Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling

Abstract

With a one-stage meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) analysis based on 49,416 individuals from 267 independent samples and 210 studies, the current study systematically investigated models including meta-linguistic skills, decoding, language comprehension, and reading comprehension for Chinese population. Findings showed that (1) decoding and language comprehension were moderately related and together explained 52.7% variance of reading comprehension; (2) meta-linguistic skills made significant direct and unique contributions to decoding and showed a strong relation with language comprehension; however, meta-linguistic skills did not make direct contributions to reading comprehension beyond decoding and language comprehension; (3) location (Mainland vs. Hong Kong) did not emerge as a significant moderator in the model; (4) grade level significantly explained the between-study heterogeneity on the relation between decoding and reading comprehension, such that decoding made more contributions to reading comprehension before Grade 2 than after; and (5) the effects of language comprehension on reading comprehension stayed stable with grade, and so did meta-linguistic skills on decoding. These findings, taken together, suggest that the Simple View of Reading can be applied to reading in nonalphabetic languages such as Chinese. For Chinese reading development, Grade 2 may be the transitional grade where the effects of decoding on reading comprehension started to decrease significantly. The null direct effects of meta-linguistics skills on reading comprehension further support the parsimonious structure of Simple View of Reading (decoding and language comprehension) in explaining reading comprehension in Chinese.

Keywords

Chinese reading SVR MASEM

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bauer

D. J.

(2017). A more general model for testing measurement invariance and differential item functioning. Psychological Methods, 22(3), 507–526. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000077

Bauer

R. S.

Benedict

P. K.

(1997). Modern Cantonese phonology (Vol. 102). Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110823707

Bowey

J. A.

(1986). Syntactic awareness and verbal performance from preschool to fifth grade. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 15(4), 285–308. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01067676

Chen

Shu

(2001). Lexical activation during the recognition of Chinese characters: Evidence against early phonological activation. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8(3), 511–518. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03196186

Chen

M. J.

Lau

L. L.

Yung

Y. F.

(1993). Development of component skills in reading Chinese. International Journal of Psychology, 28(4), 481–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207599308246933

Cheung

L. K. H.

(2003). Chinese reading development in some major Chinese societies: An introduction. In McBride-Chang

Chen

H. C.

(Eds.), Reading development in Chinese children (pp. 3–18). Praeger.

Cheung

M. W.-L.

(2015). Metasem: An R package for meta-analysis using structural equation modeling. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1521. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01521

Cheung

M. W.-L.

(2019). Some reflections on combining meta-analysis and structural equation modeling. Research Synthesis Methods, 10(1), 15–22. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1321

Cheung

M. W.-L.

Chan

(2005). Meta-analytic structural equation modeling: A two-stage approach. Psychological Methods, 10(1), 40–64. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.10.1.40

10.

Chik

P. P. M.

C. S. H.

Yeung

P. S.

Wong

Y. K.

Chan

D. W. O.

Chung

K. K. H.

L. Y.

(2012). Contribution of discourse and morphosyntax skills to reading comprehension in Chinese dyslexic and typically developing children. Annals of Dyslexia, 62(1), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-010-0045-6

11.

Chou

T.-L.

(2009). Testing for a cultural influence on reading for meaning in the developing brain: The neural basis of semantic processing in Chinese children. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 3, 27. https://doi.org/10.3389/neuro.09.027.2009

12.

Chow

J. C.

Ekholm

(2018). Do published studies yield larger effect sizes than unpublished studies in education and special education? A meta-review. Educational Psychology Review, 30(3), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-018-9437-7

13.

Christopher

M. E.

Miyake

Keenan

J. M.

Pennington

DeFries

J. C.

Wadsworth

S. J.

Willcutt

Olson

R. K.

(2012). Predicting word reading and comprehension with executive function and speed measures across development: A latent variable analysis. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 141(3), 470–488. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027375

14.

Coltheart

Rastle

Perry

Langdon

Ziegler

(2001). DRC: A dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. Psychological Review, 108(1), 204–256. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.108.1.204

15.

Comeau

Cormier

Grandmaison

É.

Lacroix

(1999). A longitudinal study of phonological processing skills in children learning to read in a second language. Journal of Educational Psychology, 91(1), 29–43. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.91.1.29

16.

Cromley

J. G.

Azevedo

(2007). Testing and refining the direct and inferential mediation model of reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99(2), 311–325. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.99.2.311

17.

Cutting

L. E.

Scarborough

H. S.

(2006). Prediction of reading comprehension: Relative contributions of word recognition, language proficiency, and other cognitive skills can depend on how comprehension is measured. Scientific Studies of Reading, 10(3), 277–299. https://doi.org/10.1207/s1532799xssr1003_5

18.

DeFrancis

(1984). Digraphia. Word, 35(1), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1984.11435748

19.

Dong

Peng

Sun

S. X.

Wang

(2019). Reading comprehension and metalinguistic knowledge in Chinese readers: A meta-analysis. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 3037. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.03037

20.

Enders

C. K.

(2010). Applied missing data analysis. Guilford Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.004

21.

Florit

Cain

(2011). The Simple View of Reading: Is it valid for different types of alphabetic orthographies? Educational Psychology Review, 23(4), 553–576. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-011-9175-6

22.

Gao

D. G.

Kao

H. S.

(2002). Psycho-geometric analysis of commonly used Chinese characters. In Leong

Gao

(Eds.), Cognitive neuroscience studies of the Chinese language (pp. 195–206). Hong Kong University Press.

23.

Gaskins

I. W.

Satlow

Pressley

Meltzer

(2007). Executive control of reading comprehension in the elementary school. In Lynn

(Ed.), Executive function in education: From theory to practice (pp. 194–215). Guilford Press.

24.

Gersten

Fuchs

L. S.

Williams

J. P.

Baker

(2001). Teaching reading comprehension strategies to students with learning disabilities: A review of research. Review of Educational Research, 71(2), 279–320. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543071002279

25.

Gombert

J. E.

Fayol

(1992). Writing in preliterate children. Learning and Instruction, 2(1), 23–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-4752(92)90003-5

26.

Gottardo

Yan

Siegel

L. S.

Wade-Woolley

(2001). Factors related to English reading performance in children with Chinese as a first language: More evidence of cross-language transfer of phonological processing. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(3), 530–542. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.93.3.530

27.

Gough

P. B.

Tunmer

W. E.

(1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7(1), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/074193258600700104

28.

C. S.

Bryant

(1997). Phonological skills are important in learning to read Chinese. Developmental Psychology, 33(6), 946–951. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.946

29.

C. S.-H.

Law

T. P.-S.

P. M.

(2000). The phonological deficit hypothesis in Chinese developmental dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 13(1–2), 57–79. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1008040922662

30.

C. S.-H.

Leung

M. T.

Cheung

(2011). Early difficulties of Chinese preschoolers at familial risk for dyslexia: Deficits in oral language, phonological processing skills, and print-related skills. Dyslexia, 17(2), 143–164. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.429

31.

C. S.-H.

T. T.

W. K.

(2003). A “radical” approach to reading development in Chinese: The role of semantic radicals and phonetic radicals. Journal of Literacy Research, 35(3), 849–878. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15548430jlr3503_3

32.

C. S.-H.

Zheng

McBride

Hsu

L. S. J.

Waye

M. M. Y.

Kwok

J. C. Y.

(2017). Examining an extended simple view of reading in Chinese: The role of naming efficiency for reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 51, 293–302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2017.08.009

33.

Holm

Dodd

(1996). The effect of first written language on the acquisition of English literacy. Cognition, 59(2), 119–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0277(95)00691-5

34.

Hoover

W. A.

Gough

P. B.

(1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing, 2(2), 127–160. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00401799

35.

L.-T.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118

36.

Jak

Cheung

M. W.-L.

(2020). Meta-analytic structural equation modeling with moderating effects on SEM parameters. Psychological Methods, 25(4), 430–455. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000245

37.

Joshi

R. M.

(2018). Simple View of Reading (SVR) in different orthographies: Seeing the forest with the trees. In Lachman

Weiss

(Eds.), Reading and dyslexia (pp. 71–80). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90805-2_4

38.

Joshi

R. M.

X. R.

Breznitz

Amiel

Yulia

(2015). Validation of the Simple View of Reading in Hebrew—A Semitic language. Scientific Studies of Reading, 19(3), 243–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2015.1010117

39.

Joshi

R. M.

Tao

Aaron

P. G.

Quiroz

(2012). Cognitive component of componential model of reading applied to different orthographies. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45(5), 480–486. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219411432690

40.

Kim

Y. S. G.

(2020). Toward integrative reading science: The direct and indirect effects model of reading. Journal of Learning Disabilities. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219420908239

41.

Kuncel

N. R.

Hezlett

S. A.

(2010). Fact and fiction in cognitive ability testing for admissions and hiring decisions. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19(6), 339–345. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721410389459

42.

Kuo

Anderson

R. C.

(2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41(3), 161–180. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326985ep4103_3

43.

Lau

E. Y. H.

Rao

(2011). Parental involvement and children’s readiness for school in China. Educational Research, 53(1), 95–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2011.552243

44.

Wang

X. C.

Wong

J. M. S.

(2011). Early childhood curriculum reform in China. Chinese Education & Society, 44(6), 5–23. https://doi.org/10.2753/CED1061-1932440601

45.

Koh

Geva

Joshi

R. M.

Chen

(2020). The componential model of reading in bilingual learners. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000459

46.

W.-S.

C. S.-H.

(2011). Lexical tone awareness among Chinese children with developmental dyslexia. Journal of Child Language, 38(4), 793–808. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000910000346

47.

Chen

Sheng

Chen

Richardson

Lyytinen

(2020). A computer-based Pinyin intervention for disadvantaged children in China: Effects on Pinyin skills, phonological awareness, and character reading. Dyslexia. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/dys.1654

48.

Lipsey

M. W.

Wilson

D. B.

(2001). Applied social research methods series. Practical meta-analysis (49th ed.). Sage.

49.

MacCallum

R. C.

Browne

M. W.

Sugawara

H. M.

(1996). Power analysis and determination of sample size for covariance structure modeling. Psychological Methods, 1(2), 130–149. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.1.2.130

50.

McArdle

J. J.

McDonald

R. P.

(1984). Some algebraic properties of the reticular action model for moment structures. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 37(Pt. 2), 234–251. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8317.1984.tb00802.x

51.

McBride-Chang

Chen

H.-C.

(2003). Reading development in Chinese children. Westport, CT: Praeger.

52.

McBride

Wang

Cheang

L. M.-L.

(2018). Dyslexia in Chinese. Current Developmental Disorders Reports, 5(4), 217–225. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40474-018-0149-y

53.

McBride-Chang

Cho

J.-R.

Liu

Wagner

R. K.

Shu

Zhou

Cheuk

C. S. M.

Muse

(2005). Changing models across cultures: Associations of phonological awareness and morphological structure awareness with vocabulary and word recognition in second graders from Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 92(2), 140–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2005.03.009

54.

McBride-Chang

Shu

Zhou

Wat

C. P.

Wagner

R. K.

(2003). Morphological awareness uniquely predicts young children’s Chinese character recognition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 95(4), 743–751. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.95.4.743

55.

Meltzer

(2010). Promoting executive function in the classroom. Guilford Press.

56.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

57.

F. F.

Wei

(2020). Delving into the minds of Chinese parents: What beliefs motivate their learning-related practices? Child Development Perspectives, 14(1), 61–67. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12358

58.

Peng

Barnes

Wang

Swanson

H. L.

Dardick

Tao

(2018). A meta-analysis on the relation between reading and working memory. Psychological Bulletin, 144(1), 48–76. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000124

59.

Peng

Wang

Tao

Sun

(2017). The deficit profiles of Chinese children with reading difficulties: A meta-analysis. Educational Psychology Review, 29(3), 513–564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-016-9366-2

60.

Perfetti

C. A.

Liu

Tan

L. H.

(2005). The lexical constituency model: Some implications of research on Chinese for general theories of reading. Psychological Review, 112(1), 43–59. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.112.1.43

61.

Pomerantz

E. M.

F. F.-Y.

Cheung

C. S.-S.

(2014). Raising happy children who succeed in school: Lessons from China and the United States. Child Development Perspectives, 8(2), 71–76. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12063

62.

Quinn

J. M.

Wagner

R. K.

(2018). Using meta-analytic structural equation modeling to study developmental change in relations between language and literacy. Child Development, 89(6), 1956–1969. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13049

63.

Quinn

J. M.

Wagner

R. K.

Petscher

Lopez

(2015). Developmental relations between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension: A latent change score modeling study. Child Development, 86(1), 159–175. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12292

64.

Seidenberg

M. S.

(2005). Connectionist models of word reading. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14(5), 238–242. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00372.x

65.

Seidenberg

M. S.

McClelland

J. L.

(1989). A distributed, developmental model of word recognition and naming. Psychological Review, 96(4), 523–568. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.96.4.523

66.

Shu

(2003). Chinese writing system and learning to read. International Journal of Psychology, 38(5), 274–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207590344000060

67.

Shu

Anderson

R. C.

(2000). Phonetic awareness: Knowledge of orthography-phonology relationships in the character acquisition of Chinese children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92(1), 56–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.92.1.56

68.

Shu

Chen

Anderson

R. C.

Xuan

(2003). Properties of school Chinese: Implications for learning to read. Child Development, 74(1), 27–47. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8624.00519

69.

Shu

McBride-Chang

Liu

(2006). Understanding Chinese developmental dyslexia: Morphological awareness as a core cognitive construct. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98(1), 122–133. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.122

70.

Shu

Peng

McBride-Chang

(2008). Phonological awareness in young Chinese children. Developmental Science, 11(1), 171–181. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00654.x

71.

Siok

W. T.

Fletcher

(2001). The role of phonological awareness and visual-orthographic skills in Chinese reading acquisition. Developmental Psychology, 37(6), 886–899. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.37.6.886

72.

Siegel

L. S.

(1997). Learning to read Chinese: Semantic, syntactic, phonological and working memory skills in normally achieving and poor Chinese readers. Reading and Writing, 9(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007963513853

73.

Song

Georgiou

G. K.

Hua

(2016). How well do phonological awareness and rapid automatized naming correlate with Chinese reading accuracy and fluency? A meta-analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 20(2), 99–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2015.1088543

74.

Taft

Zhu

Peng

(1999). Positional specificity of radicals in Chinese character recognition. Journal of Memory and Language, 40(4), 498–519. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1998.2625

75.

Tong

McBride

(2017). Unpacking the relation between morphological awareness and Chinese word reading: Levels of morphological awareness and vocabulary. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 48, 167–178.

76.

Tunmer

W. E.

Herriman

M. L.

Nesdale

A. R.

(1988). Metalinguistic abilities and beginning reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 23(2), 134–158. https://doi.org/10.2307/747799

77.

Viswesvaran

Ones

D. S.

(1995). Theory testing: Combing psychometric meta-analysis and structural equations modeling. Personnel Psychology, 48(4), 865–885. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1995.tb01784.x

78.

Wang

M. D.

Bilger

R. C.

(1973). Consonant confusions in noise: A study of perceptual features. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 54(5), 1248–1266. https://doi.org/10.1121/1.1914417

79.

Wei

T. Q.

H. Y.

Chen

B. G.

Liu

Weng

X. C.

Wydell

T. N.

(2014). Developmental changes in the role of different metalinguistic awareness skills in Chinese reading acquisition from preschool to third grade. PLoS One, 9(5), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0096240

80.

Welling

D. R.

(2010). Hearing and language development. In Capone Singleton

Shulman

B. B.

(Eds.), Language development: Foundations, processes, and clinical applications (pp. 95–134). Jones & Bartlett Learning.

81.

Wrulich

Brunner

Stadler

Schalke

Keller

Martin

(2014). Forty years on: Childhood intelligence predicts health in middle adulthood. Health Psychology, 33(3), 292–296. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030727

82.

Anderson

R. C.

Zhang

Zheng

Zhu

Shu

Jiang

Chen

Wang

Yin

Packard

Gaffney

J. S.

(2009). Morphological awareness and Chinese children’s literacy development: An intervention study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13(1), 26–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888430802631734

83.

Yan

Pan

Bélanger

N. N.

Shu

(2015). Chinese deaf readers have early access to parafoveal semantics. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 41, 254–261. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000035

84.

Yang

L.-Y.

Guo

J.-P.

Richman

L. C.

Schmidt

F. L.

Gerken

K. C.

Ding

(2013). Visual skills and Chinese reading acquisition: A meta-analysis of correlation evidence. Educational Psychology Review, 25(1), 115–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-013-9217-3

85.

Yeung

P.-S.

C. S.-H.

Chan

D. W.-O.

Chung

K. K.-H.

(2016). A componential model of reading in Chinese. Learning and Individual Differences, 45, 11–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2015.11.007

86.

Yeung

P.-S.

C. S.-H.

Chan

D. W.-O.

Chung

K. K.-H.

Wong

Y.-K.

(2013). A model of reading comprehension in Chinese elementary school children. Learning and Individual Differences, 25, 55–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2013.03.004

87.

Zhang

McBride-Chang

Tong

Wong

A. M. Y.

Shu

Fong

C. Y. C.

(2012). Reading with meaning: The contributions of meaning-related variables at the word and subword levels to early Chinese reading comprehension. Reading and Writing, 25(9), 2183–2203. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9353-4

88.

Zhang

Tardif

Shu

Liu

McBride-Chang

Liang

Zhang

(2013). Phonological skills and vocabulary knowledge mediate socioeconomic status effects in predicting reading outcomes for Chinese children. Developmental Psychology, 49(4), 665–671. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0028612

89.

Zhao

Sun

Xie

Feng

Chen

(2019). The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension among Chinese children: Evidence from multiple mediation models. Learning and Individual Differences, 72, 59–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2019.04.005

90.

Zhou

Shu

Miller

Yan

(2018). Reliance on orthography and phonology in reading of Chinese: A developmental study. Journal of Research in Reading, 41, 370–391. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12111

91.

Zhou

Marslen-Wilson

(1999). Phonology, orthography, and semantic activation in reading Chinese. Journal of Memory and Language, 41(4), 579–606. https://doi.org/10.1006/jmla.1999.2663

92.

Zhou

Marslen-Wilson

(2000). The relative time course of semantic and phonological activation in reading Chinese. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 26(5), 1245–1265. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.26.5.1245

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.72 MB

0.04 MB