Reading Comprehension of Chinese-Speaking Children With Hearing Loss: The Roles of Metalinguistic Awareness and Vocabulary Knowledge

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to explore the contributions of phonological awareness (PA) and morphological awareness (MA) to the reading comprehension skills of Chinese-speaking children with hearing loss (HL) and examine the possible mediation effect of vocabulary knowledge on the relationships of PA and MA with their reading comprehension. Method: The participants were 28 Chinese-speaking children with HL, who were followed from Grade 1 through Grade 2. They were administered a series of tests that measured their PA and MA at the beginning of Grade 1, vocabulary knowledge at the end of Grade 1, and reading comprehension at the end of Grade 2. Results: MA significantly accounted for additional variance in reading comprehension beyond the effect of PA but not vice versa. Both PA and MA contributed uniquely to vocabulary knowledge, which completely mediated the relationships of PA and MA with reading comprehension. Conclusions: PA and MA are both essential to the development of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in Chinese-speaking children with HL; however, MA seems to be more important than PA in their reading comprehension. PA and MA significantly affect children's reading comprehension through their influence on vocabulary knowledge. This study has replicated previous evidence on the importance of PA, MA, and vocabulary knowledge in the reading comprehension of children with typical hearing, and has extended its significance to children with HL. In addition, the findings have the potential to inform educational practitioners regarding the importance of teaching essential reading skills to Chinese-speaking children with HL.

Morphological awareness and DHH students’ reading-related abilities: A meta-analysis of correlations

“…銅牌 /tóngpái/ (bronze medal), for example, is a nominal compound with 銅(bronze) being the modifier and 牌(medal) the head. These characteristics perhaps explain it well that studies on Chinese MA and reading, including those on DHH students, often showed a salient focus on homophone and compound awareness (e.g., Chan, 2023;Ching & Nunes, 2015;Sun et al, 2022;D. Zhang, 2017a).…”

“…Additionally, three dissertations were identified, including AlMusawi (2014), Chen (2005), and Falk (2017). The supplemental search on Google Scholar additionally located two articles (Bharadwaj & Barlow, 2020;Chan, 2023), one dissertation (Squires, 2021), and one conference presentation (Bastien et al, 2006). Falk (2017), one of the dissertations, was found to have been published as a co-authored article (i.e., Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…It is particularly noteworthy that many of the included studies, in addition to examining how MA correlated or predicted reading abilities, also included a "classic" focus on comparing the level of MA and reading performance in DHH and age-matched hearing students. More important, many of them also purposefully compared the two groups on the pattern of correlations between MA and reading, sometimes with other variables such as cognition (e.g., working memory), PA, and grammatical knowledge also included (e.g., AlMusawi, 2014;Bharadwaj & Barlow, 2020;Chan, 2023;López-Higes et al, 2015;Spires, 2021), to explore how reading and its underlying processes may show qualitative similarities and/or quantitative differences between the two groups (refer to Paul, 2012;Paul &Lee, 2010 andPaul et al, 2013 for discussions on the QSH). 4 These are all very notable strengths in the research on MA and reading in DHH students, even though, as discussed later, there is still much to expand the current literature.…”