A 'Simple view of Writing' in Chinese: the unique role of transcription skills

Abstract

PURPOSE: The interrelationships among transcription skills, oral language skills, working memory, and Chinese written composition were examined in light of a simple view of writing in Chinese. We also investigated the developmental pattern of different component skills of transcription in Chinese. METHOD: A total of 253 Chinese children in Grade 1, Grade 3 and Grade 5 in Hong Kong were administered measures of general reasoning ability, component skills of transcription (stroke sequence knowledge, orthographic knowledge, word dictation and character copying speed), oral language skills, syntactic skills, working memory and Chinese written composition. RESULTS: Hierarchical multiple regression analysis results showed that word dictation and syntactic skills were significant predictors of Chinese written composition across grades. While the interaction effect between grade and syntactic skills was significant and negative, the interaction effect between grade and word dictation was not significant. No significant between-grade difference was found in the measure of stroke sequence knowledge. Grade 5 participants performed significantly better in measures of word dictation and character copying speed than Grade 3 participants, who in turn performed significantly better than Grade 1 participants in measures of orthographic knowledge, word dictation and character copying speed. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that syntactic skills play less important roles in Chinese written composition development in more advanced grades and highlight the potential importance of transcription skills in Chinese written composition development across elementary grades. The developmental pattern of different component skills of transcription was discussed in light of the characteristics of the Chinese writing system.