Abstract
The study was to explore the development of Chinese orthographic regularity and the effect of Chinese constructive features on identification of Chinese characters in primary school children. Real characters, pseudo-characters and non-characters with three constructions: left-right, up-down, half-encircled were used as stimuli. Subjects were primary school children from grade 1, 3, 5 and undergraduates who were required to judge whether a stimulus was a legal character or not. The results showed: (1) children’s knowledge of orthographic regularity developed gradually based on their reading experience. The Chinese orthographic awareness appeared in grade 1, but until grade 5 the level was equivalent with that of the undergraduates; (2) the effect of Chinese constructive features on character identification was only in grade 1 which depended on the reading experience of the subjects, the familiarity of materials and so forth; (3) the conclusions about the appearance of orthographic regularity in each grade and its developmental trend among grades was consistent. However, the constructive features played a prominent role in the development of orthographic regularity after its appearance in every grade: the developmental level of the left-right one was superior to those of the up-down and the half-encircled.
| Keywords: | orthographic regularity; constructive features; grade |
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