Diversity in Chinese Literacy Acquisition

Abstract

In this article, we highlight the fact that Chinese literacy acquisition can be a very different experience across societies because of the diversity of Chinese learning environments. There are at least three ways in which this diversity can be documented. First, Chinese families often speak different languages or dialects, and the language spoken at home may differ from the one used for educational instruction at school. Such languages may sensitize or desensitize children to different aspects of language crucial to reading, such as phonological awareness. Second, some Chinese societies use traditional script, whereas others use simplified script for teaching Chinese. There are likely relative benefits and difficulties to using each. For example, compared to simplified script, the traditional script is relatively difficult to learn to write, but it may be easier to learn to recognize. Finally, educational approaches to literacy, including age of instruction, whether or not a phonological coding system is used as an aid to Chinese word recognition, and even when English literacy skills are additionally taught, differ across Chinese societies. Because of these potential sources of variability across Chinese learning environments, Chinese literacy development warrants extensive research at multiple levels.