Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese

Journal article


Li, Luan, Wang, Hua-Chen, Castles, Anne, Hsieh, Miao-Ling and Marinus, Eva. (2018). Phonetic radicals, not phonological coding systems, support orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese. Cognition. 176, pp. 184-194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.025
AuthorsLi, Luan, Wang, Hua-Chen, Castles, Anne, Hsieh, Miao-Ling and Marinus, Eva
Abstract

According to the self-teaching hypothesis (Share, 1995), phonological decoding is fundamental to acquiring orthographic representations of novel written words. However, phonological decoding is not straightforward in non-alphabetic scripts such as Chinese, where words are presented as characters. Here, we present the first study investigating the role of phonological decoding in orthographic learning in Chinese. We examined two possible types of phonological decoding: the use of phonetic radicals, an internal phonological aid, and the use of Zhuyin, an external phonological coding system. Seventy-three Grade 2 children were taught the pronunciations and meanings of twelve novel compound characters over four days. They were then exposed to the written characters in short stories, and were assessed on their reading accuracy and on their subsequent orthographic learning via orthographic choice and spelling tasks. The novel characters were assigned three different types of pronunciation in relation to its phonetic radical – (1) a pronunciation that is identical to the phonetic radical in isolation; (2) a common alternative pronunciation associated with the phonetic radical when it appears in other characters; and (3) a pronunciation that is unrelated to the phonetic radical. The presence of Zhuyin was also manipulated. The children read the novel characters more accurately when phonological cues from the phonetic radicals were available and in the presence of Zhuyin. However, only the phonetic radicals facilitated orthographic learning. The findings provide the first empirical evidence of orthographic learning via self-teaching in Chinese, and reveal how phonological decoding functions to support learning in non-alphabetic writing systems.

KeywordsPhonological decoding ; Orthographic learning; Phonetic radical ; Chinese ; Zhuyin
Year01 Jan 2018
JournalCognition
Journal citation176, pp. 184-194
PublisherElsevier B.V. (Netherlands)
ISSN0010-0277
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.02.025
Web address (URL)https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027718300611?via%3Dihub
Research or scholarlyResearch
Page range184-194
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All rights reserved
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Controlled
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online21 Mar 2018
Publication process dates
Accepted26 Feb 2018
Deposited22 Jul 2024
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© 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Place of publicationNetherlands
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