The role of pinyin in Chinese character reading : a comparison between native Mandarin speakers and Mandarin language learners

Abstract

 This study aims at investigating the relationship between pinyin written form and Chinese characters during word recognition since limited studies have focused on the role of pinyin in Chinese character reading. A modified-Stroop test-was used to investigate whether Chinese language-ability priming-order (showing Chinese characters or pinyin written forms first) and prime-target-relatedness (orthographically-similar, phonologically-similar and unrelated) affected-the color judgement reaction time. Twenty-one-Native-Mandarin speakers and eight-Mandarin-Language-learners-made a semantic-judgement on the prime (characters or pinyin) and color judgement on-the-target (vice-versa) whereby-the prime-target pairs were either orthographically similar, phonologically similar or unrelated. Results-showed that Native Mandarin speakers responded slower to orthographically similar Chinese character target-while Mandarin Language learners showed no significant differences. On the other hand, Mandarin-Language-learners reacted slower under phonologically similar pinyin written form target while Native Mandarin speakers did not. This-revealed-that-Native Mandarin speakers tended to retrieve pinyin meaning via character orthography route which-the-connection was unilaterally connected. Mandarin Language learners might read Chinese characters via-phonological route by activating the pinyin written form. Tentative evidence suggested that character orthographic-level might be activated during pinyin reading which indicated the possibility of bidirectional connection between pinyin written form and character orthographic level. This suggested the route to retrieve word meaning differs according to Chinese language ability.