Contribution of cognitive and linguistic skills to word-reading accuracy and fluency in Chinese

This study examined the contribution of phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, morphological awareness and rapid naming to word-reading accuracy and fluency in Chinese. We tested 1776 children from Grades 1 to 6. The results of path analysis indicated that phonological awareness was a significant predictor of word reading only in beginning readers. Morphological awareness and orthographic knowledge were strong predictors of word reading across reading proficiency levels. Finally, rapid naming uniquely predicted oral reading fluency and its effects increased across reading proficiency levels. These findings suggest that the writing system children learn to read determines the strength of the cognitive and linguistic skills involved in reading acquisition and the time when they exert their influence.