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In:Writing Systems, Reading Processes, and Cross-Linguistic Influences: Reflections from the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Languages
Edited by Hye K. Pae
[Bilingual Processing and Acquisition 7] 2018
► pp. 391–410

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Chapter 19
Cognitive-linguistic skills and reading and writing in Korean Hangul, Chinese Hanja, and English among Korean children

Published online: 10 July 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bpa.7.19cho
Abstract
This study examined the contribution of orthographic awareness (OA), rapid automatized naming of numbers (RAN), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA) in L1 Korean to word reading and writing in L1 Korean Hangul, Chinese Hanja, and L2 English among 98 Korean 5th graders. Korean language and orthography have relatively transparent phonological and morphological structures. Korean children learn Hangul in kindergarten, Hanja in elementary school as an elective subject, and English in Grade 3 as an L2. Results showed that Korean OA accounted for significant variance of Hangul reading; and Korean PA explained English reading and writing and Hangul writing; Korean MA explained writing in Hangul, Hanja, and English; RAN explained English reading only. These results suggest that MA is the meta-linguistic skill that transfers across alphabetic and non-alphabetic languages, whereas PA transfers across alphabetic languages. However, orthographic awareness is language-specific.
Article outline
  • Korean orthography: Hangul and Hanja
  • Phonological awareness
  • RAN
  • Morphological awareness
  • Orthographic awareness
  • Purpose of this study
  • Method
    • Participants
    • Procedure
    • Hangul word reading
    • Hangul word writing
    • Hanja character reading
    • Hanja character writing
    • English word reading
    • English word writing
    • Korean PA
    • Korean RAN of numbers
    • Korean morpheme production
    • Korean orthographic awareness
    • Korean vocabulary
  • Results
  • Discussion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
References (69)
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