Influence of Grapheme and Syllable Learning on Handwriting Output of Chinese Characters in Children With Dictation Difficulties

Abstract

Studies on Chinese dictation difficulties have focused on visual processing and phonological processing. In recent decades, attention has shifted to the ability to bind visual and auditory information. However, such studies are scarce and rarely focus on how this ability influences children’s learning and writing of Chinese characters. In this study, a group of children with Chinese dictation difficulties and a control group without such difficulties were instructed to learn rarely used Chinese characters under three learning modes: grapheme learning, syllable learning, and grapheme-syllable learning. Participants’ learning time and writing accuracy were recorded under each learning mode. Findings showed that under the grapheme learning mode, learning time and writing accuracy failed to differ significantly between the two groups. However, under the grapheme-syllable learning mode, the writing accuracy of children with dictation difficulties was significantly lower than controls. These findings, taken together, suggested that for children with dictation difficulties, learning graphemes and syllables at the same time did not improve their writing performance as much as the controls. Under the syllable learning mode, learning time and writing accuracy failed to differ significantly between the two groups. The findings contributed to a better understanding of the Chinese dictation difficulties.

Reliability and validity of Handwriting Test for Preschool Children (HT-PRE): A new tool to assess the handwriting ability of preschool children aged 5–6 years old in Mainland China

“…As highlighted by Tan, Hoosain, and Soik, the configurable properties of stroke patterns in Chinese characters do not offer any clue as to where to begin and which stroke to follow when writing a character [23]. Writing in Chinese involves complex geometric figuration and stroke arrangements within a squared-area [24,25]. Proficient writing of Chinese characters is more difficult than English, as the Chinese language places greater demands on the ability to visually discriminate between fine differences in the form and position of strokes, as well as the ability for spatial organization in order to ensure that characters are written legibly, with the appropriate positioning of strokes and proportioning of radicals [26,27].…”