Development of Phonological Awareness in Bilingual Chinese Children

This study investigated the phonological awareness of 219 first, second, and fourth grade Cantonese-speaking children from the south of China, who received immersion Mandarin instruction beginning in the first grade. Children received onset, rime and tone awareness tasks in Cantonese and Mandarin. Children performed better on the Cantonese onset awareness task in grade one, but the difference disappeared in higher grades. However, their performance on the rime and tone awareness tasks was better in Mandarin. These results reflect the phonological structure of the two languages: Mandarin has a more complex onset system, whereas Cantonese has more complex tone and rime systems. Moreover, children’s phonological awareness increased faster in Mandarin, which likely resulted from Mandarin instruction. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that onset-rime awareness is a universal construct, whereas tone awareness is a language-specific construct.     

小学儿童汉语语音意识的发展

运用纵向与横向研究探讨了小学一年级儿童汉语语音意识发展的过程和小学一、三、五年级儿童汉语语音意识的年级差异。结果表明。在汉语语音意识各任务上,刚入学儿童的反应都处于随机的水平,其后声调意识先于其他语音意识而发展,其次为首音-韵脚意识,音位意识发展得最迟。     

Development of Phonological Awareness

Abstract— Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read in alphabetic languages like English. This report summarizes normal development of phonological awareness as it has been revealed through recent multidisciplinary and cross-cultural research. We argue that a consensus on the definition of phonological awareness has emerged, that research has identified a general sequence of phonological awareness development that is universal across languages, and that certain characteristics of spoken and written languages influence the rate of normal development and levels of phonological awareness that are normally achieved.     

配对联想学习能力和语音意识在汉语儿童早期阅读中的作用

本研究以93个学前儿童为研究对象,考察了配对联想学习能力和语音意识在汉字阅读和词汇发展中的作用及其相互关系,其中,配对联想学习分为假词、非词、符号三种形式。结果发现,语音意识是解释汉字阅读的最重要变量,配对联想学习能力对词汇发展具有独特贡献;不会阅读者在假词和非词学习中比初学阅读者差,而在非语言的符号学习中没有差异。     

汉语儿童早期语音意识的发展

本研究采用四类语音意识任务(音节、首音、韵脚、声调)考察了幼儿园小中大班和小学一年级儿童的汉语语音意识发展的年龄特征和发展规律.研究结果表明,学前儿童的汉语语音意识已经开始发展,其中音节意识发展最早,其次是韵脚意识,声调意识和首音意识的发展相对较晚.     

汉语儿童英汉语语音意识和英语单词认读能力的关系

本研究考察了小学儿童语音意识和英语单词认读的关系。一系列相关和回归分析发现,英、汉语语音意识与英语单词认读有密切关系,但这种关系随年级变化而变化,英语语音意识对汉语儿童英语单词认读并不具有稳定的预测力;而且并不总是最有预测力的因素。结果说明,与英语本族语儿童相比,语音意识在汉语儿童的英语单词认读学习中起了不同的作用。     

The Value of Children to Hong Kong Chinese Parents

Married adults (N = 720) between 30 and 60 years old responded to the 12-item Chinese Value of Children Scale (Shek, Lam, Tsoi, & Lam, 1993). Although the respondents generally agreed that children contribute to parents' own personal growth, spousal relations, family happiness, and family wholeness, a majority also perceived that parenthood was associated with increased financial burden and personal sacrifice. In contrast to the heavy emphases on the traditional Chinese values of security and posterity, these Hong Kong Chinese parents did not seem to emphasize such values strongly. Results also showed that the Chinese fathers tended to perceive parenthood as more positive and less burdensome than the Chinese mothers did.     

双语儿童语音意识与词汇认读关系的研究

通过平行语音和词汇加工任务。对64名双语儿童英汉两种语言语音意识和词汇认读能力进行了双向测查。结果表明：双语儿童在两种语言不同语音意识和词汇认读之间存在跨语言的多重相关;在对其英语和汉语词汇认读能力的预测中,汉语音节辨认和英语音素识别均为重要的指标,表明语音意识对词汇认读能力具有跨语言的双向预测作用。     

幼儿期汉语语音意识和英语语音意识的发展

本研究选取3~5岁儿童为被试,从语音单位和操作水平两个维度研究幼儿期汉语语音意识和英语语音意识的发展。在汉语语音意识的发展上,音节意识先于押韵、首音和声调意识而发展起来,3岁儿童已经具备了一定的音节意识,并在3岁到4岁之间迅速发展。在英语语音意识的发展上,幼儿期的音节意识和末位音位意识先于押韵与首音意识而发展起来,从3到5岁表现出清晰的发展次序。首音意识在幼儿期没有发展。从任务的操作水平看,无论是汉语还是英语语音意识,幼儿在辨别任务上的成绩显著低于分析和综合任务。     

Moving Beyond Phonological Awareness: The Role of Phonological Awareness Skills in Arabic Reading Development

In the current research we investigate the role of early phonological awareness skills on reading development in diglossic Arabic. Two-hundred and six Arabic speaking first graders, composed of 25 at-linguistic risk pupils (LR group) and 181 normally developing readers, representing the found heterogeneity in the classroom participated in this study. For this purpose, phonological training program was developed where we followed the pupils’ development in both phonological awareness skills and reading development in second grade. As indicated by the study results, higher achievements in phonological awareness measures was noted among HG group in first grade. After Training, significant improvement in phonological awareness was noted among both groups, where LR group was able to close the gaps in phonological awareness skills with HG group. When examining the relationship between phonological awareness and reading performance, moderate positive correlation was found within HG group whereas strong positive relationship was encountered with the LR group. Despite the progress in phonological awareness skills and its strong relationship with reading, LR group showed lower reading performance when compared to HG group. The study results are discussed in relation to its scientific and didactic implications on Arabic reading acquisition.     

中国香港双语儿童初步阅读能力与语音、文字加工关系的研究

采用音节检测、短时言语记忆、快速命名等语音加工任务和汉字、字母、数字等方向加工任务,探讨语音和文字加工在儿童初步阅读中的作用,116名6岁左右的香港双语儿童参加了测试。结果表明：语音加工能力是跨语言的比较稳定的因素,是预测汉语和英语阅读的较好指标;文字加工具有特异性．即汉字方向加工只能预测汉语阅读,字母方向加工则预测英语阅读。     

语音辨析训练对方言儿童语音意识和阅读能力发展的作用

本研究通过汉语拼音和128个汉字的特别语音辨析或常规教学对40名普通话儿童和40名福州话-普通话双语儿童进行了声母、韵母和声调方面的训练并且观测其对词汇阅读能力的影响.两类被试各分为两组,每组20人, 一组接受特别训练,另一组接受常规教学式训练,为期24天,每天30分钟.结果显示,两种不同训练对两类被试产生不同效应:两种不同训练对普通话被试没有显著的效果差异,而对方言被试却有显著差异.特别训练对方言被试的语音意识和词汇阅读水平有显著的促进作用,常规训练没有这种促进作用.文章对这种训练效应产生的机制进行了讨论.     

语音意识、快速命名与中文阅读

本研究考察了语音意识、快速命名与中文阅读的关系．一系列回归分析发现．语音意识对中文读字、中文默字和快速阅读理解的解释量大于快速命名。快速命名先进入方程时对一分钟读字有更大的解释量。控制发音速度对一分钟读字的影响后,快速命名和语音意识对一分钟读字的解释量减小。这些结果说明．与语音意识相比,快速命名对中文阅读有独立的、微弱的影响。文章讨论了语音意识和快速命名与中文阅读的关系,并根据实验结果分析了快速命名的认知结构。     

A Comparison of Phonological Awareness Skills in Early French Immersion and English Children

This 2-year study examined the effects of early second language exposure on phonological awareness skills. Syllable, onset-rime and phoneme awareness skills of 72 anglophone children attending English or French immersion programs in primary and grade 1 were investigated. Three-way mixed ANOVAS revealed the following effects and interactions. In terms of grade effect, grade 1 students performed significantly better than primary students on phoneme and onset-rime tasks. A stimulus language effect was observed for the three levels of phonological awareness. All children performed better on English tasks than on French ones. Interaction effects of stimulus language by program were revealed for phoneme as well as syllable tasks. Posthoc analyses revealed that French students performed better on English phoneme and syllable tasks than on French, while English students performed better than French immersion students on French syllable tasks. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between reading and phoneme and onset-rime phonological awareness tasks regardless of program of instruction (English, French immersion) or language of reading test (English, French). Syllable awareness was only significantly correlated with the French non-word reading task for the French immersion students.     

Development of Family Therapy in Hong Kong

This paper provides an insight into the development and growth of family therapy in Hong Kong. Family therapy was introduced in Hong Kong in the early 1980s and is now gaining ground. The authors give a historical account of the development of family therapy in Hong Kong, and report on its progress and achievement for the past three decades there. The field has gone through several stages of development. The 1980s were marked by an importation of Western family therapy models, during which overseas expertise was tapped to promote family therapy. The 1990s were characterized by a blossoming of different schools of family therapy on the local scene. Most schools established their own practice centers, and training packages were tailor-made for local use. The 2000s were an important era of family therapy development in Hong Kong. The field has nurtured a new generation of leaders (both academics and front-line practitioners and trainers) who play an essential role in advancing its development. The paper concludes by identifying problems in clinical practice, professional training, and research and knowledge development, and proposes ways of overcoming these difficulties.     

Intimacy and Psychosocial Adjustment in Hong Kong Chinese Adolescents

This study examined the association between 8 aspects of friend intimacy and 3 measures of psychosocial adjustment (self-esteem, deviant behavior, and purpose in life) among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. The respondents were 289 students between 16 and 19 years of age from a cross-sectional study in Hong Kong. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed (a) friend intimacy was positively associated with self-esteem and purpose in life, and (b) friend intimacy was negatively correlated with deviant behavior. Results indicated that friend intimacy is an important variable that affects some aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, results of multiple regression analyses indicated that different measures of friend intimacy are related to deviant behavior and purpose in life. Therefore, it is crucial to study the relationship between different aspects of friend intimacy and different aspects of psychosocial adjustment among adolescents.     

Reasons for Living Among Chinese Adolescents in Hong Kong

Two hundred and seventy-nine secondary school students in Hong Kong responded to the Chinese version of the Reasons for Living Inventory. The importance of these reasons could be adequately described by five dimensions interpreted as Positive Values and Self-Efficacy, Optimism, Family Concerns, Concerns for Social Disapproval, and Suicidal Fears. These dimensions corresponded closely to the original subscales of the inventory. Implications of the importance of gender and age group differences in endorsing coping beliefs, rather than fears, in time of crisis are discussed.     

Intimacy and psychosocial adjustment in Hong Kong Chinese adolescents

This study examined the association between 8 aspects of friend intimacy and 3 measures of psychosocial adjustment (self-esteem, deviant behavior, and purpose in life) among Hong Kong Chinese adolescents. The respondents were 289 students between 16 and 19 years of age from a cross-sectional study in Hong Kong. Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed (a) friend intimacy was positively associated with self-esteem and purpose in life, and (b) friend intimacy was negatively correlated with deviant behavior. Results indicated that friend intimacy is an important variable that affects some aspects of psychosocial adjustment. Moreover, results of multiple regression analyses indicated that different measures of friend intimacy are related to deviant behavior and purpose in life. Therefore, it is crucial to study the relationship between different aspects of friend intimacy and different aspects of psychosocial adjustment among adolescents.     

"语音意识与语音智力同质说"初证

以128名小学一、三年级的学生为被试,以英语语音意识测验和言语智力测验为工具,采用因素分析的技术,初步探讨了“语音意识与语音智力同质说”的合法性问题。结果表明:(1)围绕小学一、三年级的英语语音意识和言语智力测验数据而进行的探索性因素分析,都抽取了唯一的公因子;(2)围绕小学一、三年级的英语语音意识和言语智力测验数据而进行的验证性因素分析也发现,小学一、三年级的语音智力结构模型,都具有出色的拟合度。这些结果都说明:“语音意识与语音智力同质说”具有合法性。