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Speech Prosody and Reading Comprehension in Chinese–English Bilingual Children: The Mediating Role of Syntactic Awareness.
- Source :
-
Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research . Jul2023, Vol. 66 Issue 7, p2362-2375. 14p. 1 Diagram, 3 Charts. - Publication Year :
- 2023
-
Abstract
- Purpose: Although children’s prosodic sensitivity links with their reading com- prehension, the factors affecting this link remain unclear. By simultaneously measuring first language (L1) Chinese and second language (L2) English pro- sodic sensitivity and reading comprehension, this study examined the mediating role of syntactic awareness on prosody–reading comprehension among Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual children. Method: A group of 227 Hong Kong Chinese–English bilingual fourth graders completed L1 and L2 prosodic sensitivity (Cantonese lexical tone awareness and English prosodic sensitivity), syntactic awareness, and reading comprehen- sion and control measures of cognitive (nonverbal IQ, short-term memory, and working memory), metalinguistic (phonological awareness and morphological awareness), linguistic (vocabulary knowledge), and word reading skills. Results: The within-language analyses showed a partial mediation effect of Chinese syntactic awareness on the relation between Cantonese lexical tone awareness and Chinese reading comprehension, but a full mediation effect of English syntactic awareness on the relation between English prosodic sensitivity and English reading comprehension. The cross-language analyses revealed a significant direct effect of Cantonese lexical tone awareness on English reading comprehension and a significant indirect effect of English prosodic sensitivity on Chinese reading comprehension via Chinese syntactic awareness. Conclusion: These findings suggest that, despite the language-independent mediating role of syntactic awareness in bridging prosody and reading compre- hension, the degree of this mediation is shaped by language-specific prosody and its relations with other linguistic structures, including semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *MEMORY
*PHONOLOGICAL awareness
*ENGLISH language
*MUSICAL pitch
*REGRESSION analysis
*SPEECH evaluation
*COGNITION
*COMPARATIVE grammar
*MULTILINGUALISM in children
*NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL tests
*DESCRIPTIVE statistics
*VOCABULARY
*QUESTIONNAIRES
*RESEARCH funding
*MUSICAL perception
*READING
*INTELLIGENCE tests
PHYSIOLOGICAL aspects of speech
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 10924388
- Volume :
- 66
- Issue :
- 7
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 164881404
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1044/2023_JSLHR-22-00026