| Increasing evidences in the past decades have supported the importance of metalinguistic awareness(phonological awareness,morphological awareness and orthographic awareness)and RAN to children's reading.However,how these linguistic cognitive skills influence Chinese and English spelling and whether these skills can transfer between Chinese children's Chinese and English spelling remain to be further studied.Moreover,previous studies have found that Chinese children make various errors in the process of Chinese and English spelling,so it is of great theoretical and practical significance to reveal their Chinese and English spelling patterns.Therefore,this study attempted to explore the effects of metalinguistic awareness and RAN on Chinese children's Chinese and English spelling and the transferability of these skills between Chinese and English spelling.In this study,103 fifth and sixth graders were assessed with phonological awareness,morphological awareness,orthographic awareness,rapid automatized naming and and spelling both in Chinese and English.Results showed that(1)besides age,Chinese morpheme production added unique variance to Chinese character spelling;(2)English spelling was predicted uniquely and significantly by inflectional morphology,orthographic awareness and compounding morphology;(3)English metalinguistic awareness and RAN collectively had significant cross-linguistic predictive effects on Chinese character spelling;(4)Chinese metalinguistic awareness and RAN collectively showed indirect cross-linguistic contributions to English spelling.Generally speaking,this study has revealed the pattern of the influence of metalinguistic awareness and RAN on Chinese and English spelling and their cross-linguistic similarities and differences.Morphological awareness contributes equally to Chinese and English spelling for Chinese children,while orthographic awareness plays a unique role in English spelling.The study also reveals the cross-language transfer of metalinguistic awareness and RAN on Chinese and English spelling.The findings of the study provide important references for Chinese-English bilingual spelling instruction at the stage of basic education.First of all,language teachers should strengthen Chinesechildren's Chinese and English morphological awareness training and improve their ability to analyze morphemes so as to promote Chinese and English spelling.Additionally,teachers should actively cultivate Chinese children's English orthographic awareness,which can lay an important foundation for English spelling.Finally,language teachers should be aware of the similarities and differences between Chinese and English spelling patterns and also realize that improvement of linguistic skills in one language will facilitate spelling in another. |
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