Lexical prosody beyond first-language boundary : Chinese lexical tone sensitivity predicts English reading comprehension

Choi, William and Tong, Xiuli and Cain, Katherine Elizabeth (2016) Lexical prosody beyond first-language boundary : Chinese lexical tone sensitivity predicts English reading comprehension. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 148. pp. 70-86. ISSN 0022-0965

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Abstract

This 1-year longitudinal study examined the role of Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity in predicting English reading comprehension, and the pathways underlying their relation. Multiple measures of Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity, English lexical stress sensitivity, Cantonese segmental phonological awareness, general auditory sensitivity, English word reading and English reading comprehension were administered to 133 Cantonese-English unbalanced bilingual second graders. Structural equation modeling analysis identified transfer of Cantonese lexical tone sensitivity to English reading comprehension. This transfer was realized through a direct pathway via English stress sensitivity and also an indirect pathway via English word reading. These results suggest that prosodic sensitivity is an important factor influencing English reading comprehension and that it needs to be incorporated into theoretical accounts of reading comprehension across languages.

Item Type:

Journal Article

Journal or Publication Title:

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

Additional Information:

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 148, 2016 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2016.04.002

Subjects:

?? lexical prosodycantonese lexical toneenglish lexical stressreading comprehensionlexical quality hypothesisbilingualism ??

Departments:

Faculty of Science and Technology > Psychology

ID Code:

79045

Deposited By:

ep_importer_pure

Deposited On:

12 Apr 2016 08:56

Refereed?:

Yes