Interword spacing effects on reading Mandarin Chinese as a second language

Yao, Yun

doi:10.1093/wsr/wsr009

Cited by 8 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…We used reading materials from a second-year textbook to test students with three years of learning Chinese as a major. Such materials and participants are very similar to those used by Yao (2011), who demonstrated interword spacing effects.…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 81%

“…More specifically, in King's (1983) study of romanised Chinese reading, interword spacing had no effects on native readers' sentence reading, but it had negative effects with texts. Yao (2011) used two texts of suitable complexity (taken from a second-year textbook) to compare the effects of interword spacing in readers of L2 Chinese who had word-spaced or non-word-spaced L1 writing systems, and who had intermediate or advanced Chinese language proficiency, as measured with a test of vocabulary and grammar. Interword spacing speeded up L2 readers who had a word-spaced L1 orthography, but it slowed down advanced L2 readers who had a non-word-spaced L1 orthography.…”

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Interword spacing speeded up L2 readers who had a word-spaced L1 orthography, but it slowed down advanced L2 readers who had a non-word-spaced L1 orthography. It therefore appears that adding interword spacing can speed up L2 readers whose L1 is word-spaced, if the materials are of suitable complexity (Yao, 2011), but not with simple materials (Bassetti, 2009;Everson, 1986). Interword spacing may even have disruptive effects with simple texts (Everson, 1986) and in native readers of non-word-spaced orthographies (Yao, 2011).…”

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It therefore appears that adding interword spacing can speed up L2 readers whose L1 is word-spaced, if the materials are of suitable complexity (Yao, 2011), but not with simple materials (Bassetti, 2009;Everson, 1986). Interword spacing may even have disruptive effects with simple texts (Everson, 1986) and in native readers of non-word-spaced orthographies (Yao, 2011). However, results are far from clear-cut, and other variables probably play a role, including task and word segmentation criteria.…”

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This task ensures that participants are reading for comprehension without disrupting their reading. In Yao (2011), participants circled the last character read in a text during a period of 90 seconds, then the text was removed and participants answered comprehension questions. The comprehension questions required memorisation of the text (e.g., in what time of the year a certain event took place, or how long it lasted), and participants were not allowed sufficient time for answering (90 seconds for 15 questions summing up to about 800 characters).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language

Bassetti¹,

2016

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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Interword spacing facilitates English native readers but not native readers of Chinese, a writing system that does not mark word boundaries. L1-English readers of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) could then be facilitated if spacing is added between words in Chinese materials. However, previous studies produced inconsistent results. This study tested the hypothesis that interword spacing facilitates L1-English CSL readers. We used an online multiple-choice gap-filling task to test 12 English CSL readers and 12 Chinese natives reading a series of eight texts of suitable difficulty, written with or without interword spacing. The CSL readers read faster with interword spacing than without, while Chinese native readers were not affected. The interword spacing effect was negatively correlated with measures of reading proficiency. It is argued that interword spacing facilitates CSL readers reading materials of sufficient difficulty by facilitating their lexical parsing. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

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Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 81%

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Effects Of Interword Spacing On L1-english Csl Readersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language

Bassetti¹,

2016

International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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Eye movement control in reading: Logographic Chinese versus alphabetic scripts

Tsang

Chen

2012

PsyCh Journal

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Eye tracking is widely used to study the reading process in different languages. Given the unique properties of written Chinese, it is important to identify the similarities and differences in eye-movement controls between readers of Chinese and alphabetic scripts. In this article, we review the data available for comparison in four domains: (a) the perceptual span, (b) parafoveal processing, (c) the basic encoding unit, and (d) computer modeling. Our review indicates that, while some aspects of eye movement control in reading appear to be universal (e.g., the availability of orthographic information in the parafoveal preview), others are more script-specific (e.g., the size of the perceptual span). It is concluded that the study of cross-language differences is important for the development of reading models that are generalizable across readers of different scripts.

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Learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign language: A scoping review

Chan

Woore

Molway

et al. 2022

Review of Education

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Despite the growth of research in learning and teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL), no scoping review of research published in international, anglophone journals has been published so far. A total of 289 journal articles published in 95 journals were identified and used to provide a bibliometric mapping of research in CFL over three decades. Data from the sampled articles reveals a great diversity of focus in CFL research that has been conducted in more than 24 countries. The included articles also reflect an upsurge in research intensity across several key areas of focus, some of which are related to the distinctive linguistic features of the Chinese language. We also report on the research methods employed by the studies in our sample and the characteristics of their participants. Our mapping of the field identifies gaps in the existing literature which may subsequently inform any focused or comprehensive reviews. We conclude by setting out some implications for future CFL research, both in terms of substantive areas of focus and methodological approaches.

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Interword spacing effects on reading Mandarin Chinese as a second language

Cited by 8 publications

References 18 publications

Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language

Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language

Eye movement control in reading: Logographic Chinese versus alphabetic scripts

Learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign language: A scoping review

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