Character, Word, and Reader Attributes Contributing to Concept of Word in Chinese: Mixed-Effects Logit Models

• In Event: 70.067 - Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: 70.067-2 - Literacy: Cognitive and Affective Factors

Abstract

Concept of word is the ability to differentiate words from phrases or nonwords and plays an important role in learning to read Chinese. However, less is known about what factors contribute to concept of word and whether the influence of these factors varies by students with different literacy skills. 164 fifth-grade Chinese-speaking children participated in this study. A word-finding task was developed to measure concept of word. Mixed-effects logit models suggest that students’ wordhood judgment on unfamiliar two-character compounds was driven by semantic transparency, whereas wordhood judgment on two-character nonsense words was driven by character’s productivity and morpheme type. Readers with greater literacy skills were more likely to make correct wordhood judgment based on these word and character attributes.

Authors

• Jing Chen, The Ohio State University - Columbus

• Tzu-Jung Lin, The Ohio State University

• Yu-Min Ku, National Central University