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Language Skills in Classical Chinese Text Comprehension

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Abstract

This study used both quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the role of lower- and higher-level language skills in classical Chinese (CC) text comprehension. A CC word and sentence translation test, text comprehension test, and questionnaire were administered to 393 Secondary Four students; and 12 of these were randomly selected to participate in retrospective interviews. The findings revealed that students’ CC reading performance was unsatisfactory with respect to both lower- and text-level comprehension. Among the different factors examined, the most crucial to CC reading comprehension was lower-level reading skill. Owing to students’ weak lower-level reading skills, participants relied heavily on contextual clues when reading in CC. The implications of these findings for understanding factors that contribute to CC reading comprehension, and for planning effective instruction to enhance students’ CC reading competence are discussed.

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Notes

  1. Under the Secondary School Place Allocation system in Hong Kong, secondary schools are categorized into three bands, which admit the highest, middle, and lowest 33.3% of students, respectively. This study involved one school from each band.

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  1. Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T, Hong Kong

    Kit-ling Lau

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Lau, Kl. Language Skills in Classical Chinese Text Comprehension. J Psycholinguist Res 47, 139–157 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10936-017-9520-0

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