LEARNING TO READ CHINESE BEYOND THE LOGOGRAPHIC PHASE

THIS STUDY investigated the role of phonetics for children learning to read Chinese. Participants were 45 Chinese first graders and 45 secon d graders recruited in Hong Kong. The study revealed that children nam e phonologically regular Chinese characters more accurately than irreg ular ones, and phonetic-related errors were the most dominant type in reading Chinese characters and words. There were statistically signifi cant correlations among Chinese pseudocharacter reading, Chinese real character reading: and rhyme detection for the first graders. These fi ndings suggested that Chinese first and second graders do rely on phon etics for sound cues in naming Chinese characters, and phonological aw areness seemed to be important in learning these script-sound regulari ties in Chinese. It therefore appeared that beyond the logographic pha se, there was also a phonological phase in learning to read Chinese.