Reading and Writing

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09998-9

Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills,

Chinese word reading, and arithmetic

Xiujie Yang1   · Catherine McBride2 · Connie Suk‑Han Ho3 ·

Kevin Kien Hoa Chung4

© Springer Nature B.V. 2019

Abstract
This 13-month longitudinal study investigated whether different phonological
processing components independently predicted individual differences in Chi-
nese word reading and arithmetic. Three phonological processing skills [phono-
logical awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming (RAN)],
word reading, and arithmetic were assessed among eighty-eight Hong Kong Chi-
nese first graders (Mean age = 79.88  months, SD = 4.71), along with vocabulary
and nonverbal intelligence. These abilities were measured again at second grade
(Mean age = 92.89 months, SD = 5.14). Simple correlations showed that phonologi-
cal awareness and RAN at grade one were significantly associated with word read-
ing and arithmetic both at grade one and at grade two, while phonological memory
at grade one was associated with arithmetic, but not word reading, at both grades.
Among the three phonological skills, RAN at grade one uniquely predicted 4% of
the variance in children’s reading performance and 15% of the variance in arithme-
tic at second grade, beyond autoregressive effects, vocabulary, and nonverbal intel-
ligence (model 3a). In contrast, neither phonological awareness nor phonological
memory significantly predicted children’s later reading and arithmetic performance.
There was also a reciprocal influence of Chinese word reading, rather than arithme-
tic skills, on later RAN performance.

Keywords  Rapid automatized naming · Phonological awareness · Phonological

memory · Chinese reading · Arithmetic

* Catherine McBride
cmcbride@psy.cuhk.edu.hk
1
School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
2
Department of Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong,
China
3
Department of Psychology, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
4
Department of Early Childhood Education and Centre of Child and Family Science, The
Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong

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 X. Yang et al.

Introduction

The present study aimed to understand the longitudinal associations of phono-

logical processing skills with Chinese children’s word reading and arithmetic
performance from first grade to second grade. Researchers have conceptualized
phonological processing as comprising three different kinds of phonological pro-
cessing skills: phonological awareness, phonological recoding in lexical access,
and short-term verbal memory (Hecht, Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 2001;
Torgesen, Wagner, & Rashotte, 1994; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Specifically,
phonological awareness reflects the representation of phonology and manipula-
tion of speech sounds in oral language (Krajewski & Schneider, 2009; Mann &
Liberman, 1984). In contrast, phonological recoding in lexical access, typically
assessed by tasks of rapid automatized naming (RAN), requires lexical access
to phonological information stored in long-term memory (Koponen, Georgiou,
Salmi, Leskinen, & Aro, 2017; Wagner & Torgesen, 1987). Finally, short-term
verbal memory, also called phonological memory, is usually involved in the acti-
vation and temporary storage of sound-based representations in working mem-
ory (Baddeley, 2003; Hecht et  al., 2001; Torgesen, 1996; Torgesen, Wagner, &
Rashotte, 1994).
The effects of the three phonological processing skills on reading (e.g.,
Koponen, Salmi, Eklund, & Aro, 2013; Koponen et al., 2016; Landerl et al., 2019;
Ziegler et al., 2010) and arithmetic (e.g., De Smedt, Taylor, Archibald, & Ansari,
2010; Koponen et  al., 2016; Koponen et  al., 2017; Koponen, Salmi, Eklund, &
Aro, 2013) as well as on their covariance (Cirino, Child, & Macdonald, 2018;
Koponen, Aunola, Ahonen, & Nurmi, 2007; Korpipää et  al., 2017) have been
the focus of several previous studies across cultures. For example, Ziegler et al.
(2010) showed that phonological awareness was the main skill associated with
reading performance of second graders across Finnish, Hungarian, Dutch, Por-
tuguese, and French, whereas the influence of RAN in reading was rather weak
among second graders. In contrast, Landerl et al. (2019) showed that the relations
of phonological awareness to reading was unstable in English, French, German,
Dutch, and Greek, while RAN was a consistent predictor of reading of second
graders across these orthographies. Additionally, Koponen et  al. (2013) demon-
strated that phonological awareness and RAN significantly predicted the fluency
of both calculation and reading among primary school Finnish-speaking chil-
dren. However, Cirino et  al. (2018) found that, among English-speaking young
children, phonological awareness and rapid naming were more important precur-
sors of word reading (accuracy and fluency) than of calculation (accuracy and
fluency). Collectively, the associations of phonological processing and academic
performance are often different across languages and development.
What are the patterns of phonological processing skills vis-à-vis word read-
ing and arithmetic skills particularly among Chinese children? First of all, the
phonological information at the phonetic level is relatively unreliable in the Chi-
nese writing system, and teachers rarely make use of phonological cues to teach
reading among Hong Kong children (McBride, 2016). For arithmetic, Chinese

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Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

has a more transparent base-ten number system compared to most alphabetic

languages; some have referred to this as the “Chinese Number Advantage” (Ng
& Rao, 2010). For example, the direct Chinese translation for “thirty-nine” (三
十九) is three syllables representing numbers: “three (三)-ten (十)-nine (九)”.
Moreover, Chinese children can easily understand that “ten” (十) plus “nine” (九)
equals “nineteen” (十九). Therefore, the syllable awareness that helps in detect-
ing the syllables/numbers might facilitate children in understanding of the numer-
ical relations and likely contributes to Chinese children’s mathematical thinking.
There are at least three reasons for examining different phonological processing
skills in relation to Chinese word reading and mathematics skills. First, such explo-
rations can contribute to the understanding of the specific associations of phonologi-
cal processing to word reading and arithmetic among Chinese children. Second, if
certain phonological processing skills predict subsequent Chinese reading and math-
ematics performances, this suggests that they can be useful as early screening meas-
ures for potential difficulties in either reading or mathematics. Finally, such associa-
tions may suggest that training some of these phonological skills might ultimately
help to improve Chinese early mathematics and reading performances. Given previ-
ous conceptualizations of how verbal and mathematical skills are developmentally
associated (e.g., Zhang et al., 2017; Zhang & Lin, 2015), we also looked bidirection-
ally at word reading and mathematics.
The three phonological skills (i.e. phonological awareness, phonological mem-
ory, and RAN) might be associated with Chinese word reading differently, although
they share a substantial amount of common variance (e.g., Chow, McBride-Chang,
& Burgess, 2005). As children read Chinese multi-character words, the ability to dis-
sect words into syllables and syllables into onsets and rimes can be important (e.g.,
McBride-Chang, Bialystok, Chong, & Li, 2004; Shu, Peng, & McBride-Chang,
2008). Several studies have shown that both syllabic awareness and phoneme aware-
ness explain variability in Chinese word recognition, particularly in preschool and
in the early grades (e.g., Shu et  al., 2008; Wei, Georgiou, & Deng, 2015). How-
ever, most of these results have been demonstrated in mainland China and Taiwan.
In contrast, Hong Kong is quite different in approaches to teaching children how
to read. For example, students are typically not taught pinyin (taught in mainland,
see Lin et  al., 2010) or Zhuyin-Fuhao (taught in Tainwan, see Huang, & Hanley,
1997) as aids to learning Chinese characters. Therefore, studies on the importance
of phonological awareness in explaining variability in reading for Hong Kong Chi-
nese young children tend to obtain mixed results (Ho, Chan, Lee, Tsang, & Luan,
2004; Ho, Chan, Tsang, & Lee, 2002). Although the associations between phono-
logical awareness and Chinese word reading have sometimes been found among
Hong Kong kindergartners (e.g., Chow et al., 2005; McBride-Chang & Ho, 2000),
their relations among Hong Kong primary children still need to be clarified (e.g., Ho
et al., 2002; 2004).
RAN, especially digit RAN, stably and independently explains variability in
Chinese word reading of Hong Kong children (Ho et  al., 2002; Ho & Lai, 1999).
Indeed, the common underlying processes linking RAN and reading, including inte-
grating visual information with stored orthographic codes, retrieving phonological
codes, articulating, and serial processing, make RAN a promising clinical predictor

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 X. Yang et al.

of early reading across cultures (Ho & Lai, 1999; Liao et al., 2015; Liao, Georgiou,
& Parrila, 2008; de Jong & van der Leji, 1999; Landerl & Wimmer, 2008). The
presence of persistent difficulties with RAN among Hong Kong Chinese children
with dyslexia also suggests that RAN is a significant correlate of Chinese word
reading (Ho et al., 2002; 2004). In contrast, verbal short-term memory has not been
always demonstrated to be uniquely associated with word reading in previous stud-
ies. Although Chinese word reading is sometimes associated with phonological
memory, it appears that such associations might be explained largely by the variance
it shares with other phonological tasks (McBride-Chang, 1995; So & Siegel, 1997).
How might these phonological processing skills relate to arithmetic skills in Chi-
nese? Although Zhang and Lin (2018) found that phonological awareness predicted
arithmetic skills of Chinese children at kindergarten, few studies of Chinese primary
school children have investigated the potential influence of phonological memory
and phonological awareness for arithmetic learning. Some studies from other cul-
tures, nevertheless, might help us to understand these relationships of phonologi-
cal processing and arithmetic. Simmons, Singleton, & Horne (2008) reported that
phonological awareness performance of English children at age 5 was a significant
predictor of arithmetic attainment 12 months later. Similar findings were shown by
Krajewski and Schneider (2009) in 6-year-old German children’s arithmetic achieve-
ment. In contrast, Krajewski and Schneider (2009) found that phonological aware-
ness failed to predict children’s mathematics performance at around 9  years old.
Therefore, whether and how phonological awareness might uniquely explain arith-
metic skills in Hong Kong Chinese children is still unclear.
Apart from phonological awareness, when presented with an arithmetic problem,
a child’s ability to retrieve phonological number codes also contributes to the speed
of access to a phonologically based answer from long-term memory (Hecht et al.,
2001). RAN reflects the speed of lexical fact retrieval during arithmetic problem
solving and, therefore, facilitates calculation fluency (Koponen et al., 2016; 2017).
Thus, we expected that RAN would be a significant correlate and predictor of chil-
dren’s arithmetic.
Finally, the effect of phonological memory on the development of arithmetic
skills is also important to consider. Efficient encoding and maintenance of pho-
nological information can enable children to manipulate the maximum amount of
information in arithmetic processes (Bull & Johnson, 1997; Hecht et al., 2001; Pas-
solunghi, Mammarella, & Altoè, 2008; Rasmussen & Bisanz, 2005). Thus, phono-
logical memory was also included in the present study as a correlate and predictor of
subsequent mathematics and word reading skill.
Importantly, the development of young children’s phonological skills, espe-
cially RAN, could be considered as partly a consequence, rather than solely a
cause, of reading and arithmetic. For example, researchers have found that lit-
eracy acquisition influences children’s phonological processing performance
(Peterson et al., 2018; Wagner, Torgesen, Laughon, Simmons, & Rashotte, 1993).
Longitudinal studies also support the bidirectional relationship between RAN
and reading performance of English-speaking first graders (e.g., Compton, 2003).
Given the evidence for reciprocal relations between phonological processing and
reading abilities in English, the present study additionally investigated whether

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Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

these reciprocal relations exist in Hong Kong Chinese word reading of children
from the same age.

The present study

The present study examined longitudinal associations of phonological awareness,

phonological memory, and RAN with arithmetic skills and word reading. We also
further investigated whether word reading and mathematics were reciprocally
related to the significant phonological precursor(s) of them over time. Multiple-
digit arithmetic skills and Chinese word reading were assessed when the children
were aged 7 to 8 years old. We chose multiple-digit arithmetic measures because
of a pilot study we conducted showing that Hong Kong first graders had the abil-
ity to add, subtract, multiply, and divide whole numbers. We chose Chinese word
reading as a central and common measure for word recognition. Phonological
awareness was conceptualized as including both syllable awareness and phoneme
awareness (Shu, Peng & McBride-Chang, 2008). Following previous studies, we
assessed phonological memory with a digit span task (Hecht et al., 2001; Mann &
Liberman, 1984). We measured RAN with a digit rapid naming task considering
previous evidence showing that alphanumeric naming tends to be a more promi-
nent predictor of word reading than nonalphanumeric naming (Compton, 2003);
digit RAN has been longitudinally predictive of word reading among young Chi-
nese children in previous studies (e.g., Pan et al., 2011). Vocabulary knowledge
and nonverbal intelligence were also included as control variables because the
contributions of phonological processing to academic performance are difficult
to interpret without considering the effects of general cognitive abilities (e.g., de
Jong & Van der Leij, 1999; Wagner et al., 1993).

Method

Participants

Eighty-eight Hong Kong Chinese children (43 boys) from grade one
(M ± SD = 79.88 ± 4.71  months) were recruited. They were from a longitudinal
twin project on literacy and mathematics development, and each child was ran-
domly selected from each pair. These children were assessed twice longitudinally,
once at first grade and then again 13  months later at second grade. All the par-
ticipants were native Cantonese speakers and they also spoke some Mandarin and
English. Parental consent was obtained before test administration. Family back-
ground, such as parental education, was also collected from their parents or main
guardians. Ethics approval was granted from the Survey and Behavioral Research
Ethics Committee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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 X. Yang et al.

Measures

Chinese word reading, arithmetic problems, and RAN were tested at grade one
and grade two. Since it is possible that other underlying skills, such as vocabulary
knowledge, might also affect academic performance, vocabulary knowledge was
tested at grade one, along with phonological awareness, phonological memory, and
nonverbal IQ.

Chinese word reading

The Word Reading subtest of the Hong Kong Test of Specific Learning Difficul-
ties in Reading and Writing for Primary School Children-Second Edition (Ho et al.,
2000) was used to assess children’s word reading performance. Children were asked
to read aloud 150 Chinese two-character words with  the  order  of  increasing  diffi-
culty. The test was discontinued when the child failed to read 15 words consec-
utively. One mark was given to each word pronounced correctly. The Cronbach’s
alphas for this test at both grade one and grade two were .99.

Arithmetic skills

Based on the Calculation test of the WJ-III: Research Edition (Woodcock, McGrew,
& Mather, 2001), we assessed arithmetic skills with a two operand (e.g., 35 × 4) and
three operand (e.g., 66 × 21-14) multi-digit arithmetic task at grade one and grade
two. Among them, addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems were
included. The score was the total number of correctly solved items within 7  min.
The maximum possible score was 32 points. The Cronbach’s alphas for this test both
time points were .92.

Phonological awareness

Chinese syllable deletion and onset deletion tasks were used to assess children’s
phonological awareness at grade one. The syllable deletion task with one to three
syllables consisted of 4 practice items and 29 testing items. Children were required
to say some syllables aloud, but without saying the deleted one. For example, the
syllables “hut6(活)” “kwe3(這)” “paam1(庵)” without “hut6(活)” is “kwe3(這)”
“paam1­(庵)”. In the onset deletion subtest, 4 practice items and 7 testing items were
included. In this task, children were required to say one to three syllables aloud, but
without saying the onset of each syllable. For example, the one syllable word (caa1)
without the initial sound would be (aa1). The total score was the number of items
children answered correctly. The Cronbach’s α for this test was .96.

Phonological memory

The 16-item backward digit span task was used to assess phonological working
memory at grade one. This task was previously used by Swanson and Kim (2007)
to assess phonological memory. The experimenter orally presented a series of digits

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Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

with each digit per second, and the child was asked to recall them in the backward
sequence. There was one practice item and testing was stopped when the child
answered incorrectly twice on the same difficulty level. One point was given for
each correctly recalled item. The internal reliability of this test was .76.

Rapid automatized naming (RAN)

We assessed Arabic digit-naming at grade one and grade two. This task was devel-
oped based on Denckla and Rudel (1974). In the digit naming test, children were
visually presented with eight rows of five single digits. This task was administered
twice and the average naming time was the final score. The test–retest reliability of
this measure at grade one was .85 and at grade two was .81.

Nonverbal IQ

The short form of the Raven’s Standard Progressive Matrices (sets A, B and C) was
used. There were 2 practice items and 36 test items. One matrix was visually pre-
sented with a portion missing. Children were required to select the item that best
fit the matrix from six choices. The maximum raw score was 36 for this task. The
Cronbach’s α was .82.

Vocabulary knowledge

We assessed Chinese vocabulary knowledge with receptive language, expressive

language, and Chinese word definition skills. All pictures for receptive vocabulary
test and expressive vocabulary test were adapted from the Peabody Picture Vocabu-
lary Test-Third Edition (PPVT-III; Dunn & Dunn, 1997). The adaptation was based
on children’s age, cultural appropriateness, and familiarity with the test items. Dur-
ing the 10-item receptive vocabulary testing, the experimenter said the target word
in Chinese, and asked children to select the corresponding picture from among four
choices. One score was given for each correctly answered item. During the 12-item
expressive vocabulary testing, children were shown a picture and were instructed
to name it. One score was given for each correctly answered item. In the 26-item
Chinese word identification task, children were first orally presented with a word,
and were asked to define the word orally. Zero was scored for no answer or a wrong
answer and a score of 2 was given for a clear definition of the target word. Children
were administered all items of the test. The internal reliability of this test was .91.

Children’s demographics

The parent questionnaire asked about children’s gender, age, and parents’ edu-
cational levels. Mothers’ and fathers’ highest levels of education were indicated,
respectively, on a scale of 1–8 (1 = form 3 or below, 2 = form 3 to form 5, 3 = form
5 to form 7, 4 = associate degree or higher diploma, 5 = bachelor’s degree, 6 = mas-
ter’s degree, 7 = doctoral degree, 8 = other educational information that cannot be
specify). We defined 8 as missing values during our analyses.

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 X. Yang et al.

Procedure

For some assessments, including Chinese word reading, rapid automatized naming,
phonological memory, phonological awareness, and vocabulary knowledge, chil-
dren were tested individually. For the other assessments, including Raven’s Standard
Progressive Matrices subtests and the arithmetic measure, children were tested in
a small group and finished the tasks independently. Test sessions were conducted
in Cantonese by trained experimenters in a random order, and questionnaires were
collected from parents to obtain the parents’ educational and other demographics
information.

Results

Descriptive analyses

The means, standard deviations, ranges, skewness, and kurtosis of the various tasks
are presented in Table 1. All the reliability coefficients of the measures were in the
acceptable range (Cronbach’s α ranged from .76 to .99; Test–retest reliability of
RAN was .81). Table 2 shows the correlations among all the measures in the study.
Phonological memory correlated with arithmetic skills at both time points (rt1 = .25,
rt2 = .23), but was not significantly associated with Chinese word reading. In con-
trast, phonological awareness was associated with both word reading (rt1 = .34,
rt2 = .33) and arithmetic (rt1 = .21, rt2 = .21) at both grades one and two. Moreover,
RAN at grade one was also moderately related with reading (r t1 = − .52, r t2 = − .57)
and arithmetic (r t1 = − .41, r t2 = − .59) at both points. Reading and arithmetic at
grade one were also both moderately associated with subsequent RAN.

Table 1  Descriptive statistics of variables at grade one and grade two

Variables Mean SD Range Skewness Kurtosis

1. T1Arithmetic 5.52 3.97 0–16 .56 .06

2. T1Word reading 54.75 30.43 1–113 .09 − 1.11
3. T1Phonological memory 4.32 1.86 0–11 .76 1.48
4. T1Phonologial awareness 30.31 9.50 16–51 .86 − .35
5. T1RAN (ms) 24.89 7.02 12.87–47.73 .75 .88
6. T1Vocabulary knowledge 26.51 6.18 11–44 .46 .04
7. T1Nonverbal IQ 23.06 6.45 7–35 − .54 − .37
8. T1Parents’ education 7.81 2.83 2–12 − .20 − 1.03
9. T1Age (months) 79.88 4.71 70–93 .15 − .01
10. T2Arithmetic 10.18 3.93 4–24 .80 .53
11. T2Word reading 86.54 26.32 15–132 − .88 .18
12. T2RAN 19.77 5.51 8.82–36.30 .52 .08
13. Gender – .50 1–2 − .05 − 2.05

N = 88. T1 = grade one, T2 = grade two. Test–retest reliability was used for RAN

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 Table 2  Correlations among variables at grade one and grade two
Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

1. T1Arithmetic 1
2. T1Word reading .61*** 1
3. T1Phonological memory .25* .18 1
4. T1Phonologial awareness .21* .34*** .16 1
5. T1RAN − .41*** − .52*** − .33*** − .38*** 1
6. T1Vocabulary knowledge .41*** .45*** .09 .32** − .32** 1
7. T1Nonverbal IQ .41*** .38*** .31** .26* − .27* .46*** 1
Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

8. T1Parents’ education .11 .10 .13 .26* − .34** .19 .28** 1

9. T1Age (months) .38*** .22* .06 − .10 − .16 .30** .21* .07 1
10. T2Arithmetic .56*** .48*** .23* .21* − .59*** .38*** .31** .25* .19 1
11. T2Word reading .56*** .89*** .19 .33** − .57*** .36** .35** .02 .21* .53*** 1
12. T2RAN − .39*** − .55*** − .30** − .39*** .74*** − .27* − .17 − .28** − .06 − .57*** − .57*** 1
13. Gender − .42*** − .24* .08 − .10 .17 − .21* − .18 .00 − .13 − .27* − .24* .21* 1

N = 88. T1 = grade one, T2 = grade two; Male = 1, Female = 2

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 X. Yang et al.

Path analyses explaining reading and arithmetic skills with phonological

precursors

The first purpose of the present study was to investigate which phonological pro-
cessing skill(s) would be associated with reading and arithmetic at grade one and
grade two. To achieve the goal, path analysis was conducted using Mplus (Version
7, Muthén & Muthén, 2012). Vocabulary, nonverbal IQ, and demographic variables
were also included as control variables. As shown in Fig. 1 (model 1), RAN at grade
one was significantly associated with arithmetic and reading, and explained 9% of
the variance in arithmetic performance and 17% of the variance in word reading at
grade one. As shown in Fig. 2 (model 2), RAN at grade one was also moderately
associated with arithmetic and reading, and explained 24% of the variance in arith-
metic performance and 28% of the variance in word reading at grade two.
The second purpose of this study was to identify which phonological processing
skill(s) in first grade would predict reading and arithmetic performance at second
grade with initial word reading and arithmetic skills statistically controlled. Based
on our hypothesis, the first path analysis model (Model 3a) was tested. In this model,
RAN was postulated to have significant effects on word reading and arithmetic
skills, phonological memory was hypothesized to have significant effects on arith-
metic skills, and phonological awareness was hypothesized to be uniquely associated
with word reading. Results showed that Model 3a fit the data well (χ2 (df = 4) = 1.66,
p = 0.80, Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 1.00, Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) = 1.07,
Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.01 (90% CI = [.00, 0.10]),
Standardized Root Mean Residual (SRMR) = 0.01).
As shown in Table 2, phonological awareness at grade one was associated with
arithmetic skills at both grades 1 and 2. Therefore, a model comparison of model

Fig. 1  Model 1 showing contributions of RAN, phonological awareness, and phonological mem-

ory at grade one (T1) to Chinese word reading and arithmetic skills at the same grade (T1). 1 = male,
2 = female. *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

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Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

Fig. 2  Model 2 showing contributions of RAN, phonological awareness, and phonological memory

at grade one (T1) to Chinese word reading and arithmetic skills at grade two (T2). *p < .05. **p < .01.
***p < .001

3a and model 3b was conducted to investigate the association between phonologi-

cal awareness and arithmetic (Fig. 3). Model 3b differed from model 3a in that the
direct path from phonological awareness to arithmetic skills at grade two was added.
Model 3b also fit the data well (χ2 (df = 3) = 0.69, p = 0.87, Comparative Fit Index
(CFI) = 1.00, Non-Normed Fit Index (NNFI) = 1.09, Root Mean Square Error of
Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.01 (90% CI = [.00, 0.09]), SRMR = 0.01). Moreover, a
Chi square test showed that the goodness of fit indices between model 3a and model
3b did not differ (∆χ2 (1, N = 88) = 0.97, p > .25). Because model 3a was simpler,

Fig. 3  Model comparison of model 3a and model 3b showing contributions of RAN, phonological

awareness, and phonological memory at grade one (T1) to Chinese word reading and arithmetic skills
at grade two (T2), after controlling the performance of word reading and arithmetic skills at grade one
(T1). As hypothesized, model 3b is different from model 3a because of the direct path from phonological
awareness to arithmetic skills at grade two (shown as the highlighted dotted line of model 3b). *p < .05.
**p < .01. ***p < .001

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 X. Yang et al.

it was adopted as the preferred model explaining the contributions of phonological

processing skills to reading and arithmetic skills.
As shown in Model 3a, phonological awareness was no longer significantly asso-
ciated with word reading or mathematics performance when statistically controlling
for initial academic performance. Phonological memory also failed to predict either
word reading or arithmetic. Instead, RAN at first grade was the only unique precur-
sor to both arithmetic and word reading performance among the three phonologi-
cal processing skills. More specifically, it explained 4% of the variance in second
grade word reading and explained 15% of the variance in second grade arithmetic
performance.

Bidirectional analysis of RAN and academic performance

In our model testing, we found that RAN best explained word reading and arith-
metic skills longitudinally. We further tested the extent to which word reading and
arithmetic skills would also predict future RAN, and whether reading and arithmetic
skills would predict each other longitudinally. To answer these questions, we tested
the reciprocal relations among RAN, arithmetic, and word reading. We did not
include phonological awareness and memory because no significant relations were
found among them and academic performance in previous analyses. RAN, arithme-
tic, and word reading at each grade were regressed on nonverbal IQ, age, gender,
vocabulary and parents’ education at grade one. Correlations among RAN, arith-
metic, and word reading were estimated. The model was just-identified with zero
degrees of freedom. Following McBride-Chang and Kail (2002), all nonsignificant
paths and correlations were removed to produce a simpler model (see Fig. 4), which
showed a good fit to the data [χ2/df = 0.85 (χ2 = 22.22, df = 26, p = .68), CFI = 1.00,
TLI = 1.02, RMSEA = .00 (90% CI = [.00, .07]), SRMR = .06]. Results showed that
children’s RAN at grade one significantly predicted their performance on reading
and arithmetic in second grade. In addition, children’s reading performance at grade
one, rather than arithmetic skills, predicted subsequent RAN performance. Finally,
word reading and arithmetic were associated at grade one, but they did not predict
one another at time 2.

Discussion

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the longitudinal relations of pho-
nological processing skills with word reading and arithmetic performance for young
Chinese children from first grade to second grade. This research was among the first
attempts to establish the influences of three phonological processing skills (i.e., pho-
nological awareness, rapid automatized naming, and phonological memory) that
might be shared by early Chinese reading and arithmetic. Zero-order correlations
showed that phonological awareness and RAN were significantly associated with
word reading and arithmetic, both at grade one and at grade two. In contrast, phono-
logical memory was significantly associated with arithmetic, but not word reading.

13
Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

Fig. 4  Model 4 showing the standardized path estimates of the cross-lagged model of RAN, word read-
ing and arithmetic after statistically controlling age, nonverbal IQ, gender, education, and vocabulary.
VOC = vocabulary. Solid lines refer to significant paths. The correlations among covariates are not
depicted for simplification. ***p < .001; ** p < .01

At grade one, when vocabulary, nonverbal intelligence, age and gender were statisti-
cally controlled, only RAN, from among these phonological skills, explained signifi-
cant variance in both word reading and arithmetic skills, respectively. Longitudinal
analyses indicated that word reading and arithmetic skills at grade two were also
only significantly predicted by rapid automatized naming, rather than by phonologi-
cal awareness and memory, when initial academic performance was statistically con-
trolled. Furthermore, bidirectional analyses showed that word reading, rather than
arithmetic skills at grade one, predicted later RAN performance in primary school
children.

Phonological processing skills and word reading in young children

RAN was the single unique predictor of early word reading longitudinally when
other phonological processing components and general cognitive skills were con-
sidered. Several studies including children speaking English or Mandarin have also
found that RAN explained unique variance in reading after statistically controlling
phonological awareness (e.g., Kirby, Parrila, & Pfeiffer, 2003; Li, Shu, McBride-
Chang, Liu, & Peng, 2012), phonological memory (Hansen & Bowey, 1994) and/
or vocabulary (e.g., Pan et al., 2011). Compared to phonological awareness (Manis,
Seidenberg, & Doi, 1999), RAN involves direct associations between print and

13
 X. Yang et al.

sounds (e.g., digits and their names), and is more sensitive to orthographic aspects
in Chinese words (Ho et al., 2002). Moreover, RAN was also moderately associated
with phonological memory (− .33) and phonological awareness (− .38) in the pre-
sent study, stronger than the nonsignificant association between phonological mem-
ory and phonological awareness. Perhaps, then, RAN may have captured common
variance across phonological memory and phonological awareness among Chinese
children.
Longitudinal path analyses showed that phonological awareness was not a strong
predictor of Hong Kong Chinese word reading among primary children in this study.
This finding contrasts with results from several earlier studies in English (Durand,
Hulme, Larkin, & Snowling, 2005) and Chinese (e.g., McBride-Chang et al., 2005).
Indeed, phonological awareness training has not been demonstrated to facilitate
Chinese word reading among Hong Kong kindergarten children (Zhou, McBride-
Chang, Fong, Wong, & Cheung, 2012). This is possibly because there is no pho-
nological coding system used to teach Chinese reading in Hong Kong and there are
rarely any phonological coding aids (such as pinyin in Mainland China) for Hong
Kong Chinese children to learn to read in their native tongue (McBride-Chang et al.,
2012). Therefore, word reading accuracy and phonological awareness are not always
strongly related among Hong Kong Chinese children (Liu & McBride-Chang, 2010;
McBride-Chang et al., 2005; Zhou et al., 2012).
Consistent with our predictions, after RAN and phonological awareness were sta-
tistically controlled, phonological memory was not a unique predictor of Chinese
word reading. This is in line with findings from English-speaking children dem-
onstrating that phonological memory was no longer a unique predictor of reading
after rapid naming and phonological awareness were statistically controlled (Durand
et al., 2005). Researchers have proposed that phonological memory might be needed
to temporarily store the product of decoding before blending the phonemes into a
word (Liu et  al., 2010; Wagner and Torgesen, 1987). Yet Chinese characters have
relatively simple phonological structures, and therefore children rarely need a large
memory capacity to learn these characters in general (Liu et al., 2010). Indeed, two
previous studies of Hong Kong Chinese children also found that phonological work-
ing memory failed to distinguish children’s reading skills (Liu et al., 2010; Stokes,
Wong, Fletcher, & Leonard, 2006). Therefore, phonological memory may not be a
particularly good marker among phonological skills to predict subsequent Chinese
word reading ability.

Phonological processing skills and arithmetic ability in young children

Phonological processing skills had different associations with arithmetic skill in the
present study. RAN was concurrently and longitudinally associated with arithmetic
skill in these young Chinese children. This might be because RAN reflects lexical
access for retrieval of phonological representations from long-term memory (e.g.
Wagner et al., 1993), and arithmetic calculation requires quick retrieval of arithmetic
facts stored as phonological representations in long-term memory (De Smedt et al.,
2010). As a result, the close relationship between RAN and arithmetic fluency was

13
Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

expected and was found in young Chinese children of the current study. Neuroim-
aging studies have also showed that both RAN (Cummine, Szepesvari, Chouinard,
Hanif, & Georgiou, 2014) and arithmetic skills (Dehaene, Piazza, Pinel, & Cohen,
2003; Dehaene, Spelke, Pinel, Stanescu, & Tsivkin, 1999) make use of the left
tempo-parietal cortex, such as the left angular gyrus. Perhaps this partly explains
the unique predictive value of RAN in the present study. Additionally, given that we
assessed arithmetic skills via calculation fluency, RAN may have been especially
sensitive here because our arithmetic measure was a timed task.
Phonological awareness was associated with arithmetic calculation both at grade
one and grade two. However, its predictive effect on arithmetic skills disappeared
when the other phonological variables were statistically controlled; this finding was
unexpected in the current study. De Smedt et  al. (2010) demonstrated that phono-
logical awareness was uniquely related to performance on arithmetic problems with
a small but not a large problem size among primary school children, because chil-
dren appeared to use a fact retrieval strategy when solving small size problems that
involved phonological awareness. Yet phonological awareness no longer influenced
arithmetic involving large numbers. In the present study, Hong Kong young primary
school children were asked to solve arithmetic problems with multiple-digit oper-
ands. They are likely to utilize procedural strategies rather than the fact retrieval
strategy to do so. This might explain why phonological awareness was not involved
in the process. Nevertheless, children’s problem-solving strategies employed during
arithmetic problem solving, such as large-scale addition and subtraction, should be
examined in future studies.
Unexpectedly, we failed to find a unique longitudinal effect of phonological
memory on future arithmetic performance of young Chinese children. According
to Baddeley (2003), phonological memory is indeed required when individuals are
faced with tasks requiring heavy cognitive workload. Our arithmetic assessment was
performed with a paper and pencil. Given this method, children might have written
down the intermediate results as an aid to memory before obtaining the final answer.
As a result, they may not have had a strong need to maintain much temporary infor-
mation in mind. In addition, this might also be partly attributable to the fact that the
base-ten concept in Chinese counting facilitates Chinese children in dealing with
arithmetic problems particularly efficiently. For example, in solving the problem of
“10 + 5=”. Chinese children can easily get the result “15” (/shi2 wu3/), because 15
is the direct combined pronunciation of 10 (/shi2/) and 5 (/wu3/) (Fuson & Kwon,
1992). The cognitive workload for Chinese numbers is, thus, likely to be lower than
that in English during computation. Therefore, when solving arithmetic problems,
phonological memory might be less critical to Chinese children compared to its role
in English-speaking children, at least in the age and grade level we examined in the
present study.

Longitudinal associations of RAN, reading, and arithmetic

Across all three phonological processing skills, RAN significantly explained the
most variance in both arithmetic and word reading, respectively, consistent with

13
 X. Yang et al.

previous studies of alphabetic languages (Hecht et al., 2001; Koponen et al., 2007;
Korpipää et al., 2017; Swanson & Kim, 2007). Why was RAN such a powerful indi-
cator? According to Geary’s (1993) explanation, the common factor in RAN that
influences reading and arithmetic is lexical access. Specifically, for reading, RAN is
responsible of storing and retrieving phonological representations in word reading;
for arithmetic, RAN influences the speed of retrieval phonological-coded number
facts. Indeed, number fact deficits might be associated with domain-general difficul-
ties with lexical access (Landerl, Fussenegger, Moll, & Willburger, 2009). Consist-
ent with this idea, RAN performance was found to be a domain-general deficit in
primary school children with dyslexia and dyscalculia (Georgiou, Tziraki, Manolit-
sis, & Fella, 2013; Koponen et al., 2016; Swanson, Jerman, & Zheng, 2008). Over-
all, among young Chinese primary school students, the retrieval processes necessary
for fluent arithmetic and reading rely at least partly on the phonological process.
Nonetheless, because the present study did not examine the common variations
of reading and arithmetic as in studies by Korpipää et  al. (2017), the question of
whether RAN is the most important underlying phonological process shared by
arithmetic and Chinese reading still requires further investigation.
We also found that RAN (digit-naming) was uniquely predicted by word read-
ing skill but not by arithmetic skills at grade 2. Researchers have obtained vary-
ing results in this bidirectional association of RAN and word reading in previous
work (e.g., Protopapas, Altani, & Georgiou, 2013; Pan et al., 2019; Wei et al., 2015),
with younger children tending to show this association with word reading and older
children failing to show such an association. Results likely can be at least partly
explained by the importance of automaticity as one aspect of RAN (e.g., Proto-
papas et  al., 2013). The bidirectional association between RAN and word reading
in the present study would likely cease in older Chinese students (e.g., Pan et  al.,
2019). However, the processes of RAN and word recognition both share some skills
in common, including automatic retrieval of stimuli that are orally identified. This
commonality probably explains their bidirectional association. In contrast, the lack
of bidirectional association for arithmetic vis-à-vis RAN with development suggests
that the processes involved in RAN and the arithmetic skills measured in the present
study were too divergent to share much common variance over time. We utilized
multiple-operands and multiple-digit arithmetic problems in our measurement of
arithmetic. Solving arithmetic problems might be a relatively separate process at this
point in development.
Although the present study is helpful for understanding the importance of pho-
nological processing for word reading and computational skills in Chinese, there are
some aspects of these findings that should be explored in future work. First, our
measures of phonological processing were limited. For example, we only assessed
digit RAN and digit span to indicate phonological recoding in lexical access and
phonological memory, respectively. Future work might consider examining the
associations of phonological processing constructs, rather than single tasks (e.g.,
McBride-Chang, 1996; Wagner et  al., 1993; Wei et  al., 2015). Second, the pre-
sent study took place only over a single year. Clearly, the developmental associa-
tions among these variables might differ depending upon both age and grade level
(McDougall, Hulme, Ellis, & Monk, 1994; Pan et al., 2011; Wei et al., 2015). Future

13
Longitudinal associations of phonological processing skills…

studies should examine these associations over a longer developmental period.

Third, we assessed reading with an accuracy measure, while we assessed arithmetic
with a fluency measure. The selection of measures might influence the reciprocal
relations of RAN with reading and arithmetic performance, since researchers have
found that RAN is more strongly associated with the fluency compared to the accu-
racy of reading (Wei et al., 2015). Moreover, RAN has also demonstrated a tighter
relation with the fluency as compared to the accuracy of arithmetic (Koponen et al.,
2017). Finally, it is possible that phonological skills influence arithmetic perfor-
mance via other numeracy knowledge, such as counting skills (Koponen et al., 2013;
Passolunghi, Vercelloni, & Schadee, 2007). The mechanisms by which phonological
processing skills contribute to arithmetic skills among Chinese children still requires
further investigation.

Educational implications

Despite these limitations, the current findings have important implications for
future educational practice. This study suggests that interventions aimed to improve
young Chinese children’s reading and arithmetic might consider incorporating RAN
results. The aspect of RAN that is most important in this respect is still not abso-
lutely clear, but fluency or efficiency of operations is likely part of the importance of
RAN. Parents and teachers may involve different kinds of fluency activities in daily
games and activities related to both arithmetic and word reading across classrooms.
Researchers should also consider other aspects of RAN that might be particularly
useful for the development of both academic skills. Perhaps aspects of phonological
access and orthographic knowledge can also be taught more explicitly to this grade
level of children. With these results, we also recommend a short and easy tool for
identifying those who might be at-risk for arithmetic or word reading difficulties
very early. Educational and school psychologists might be quite interested in RAN
as a simple tool for identifying young children who may need extra help in either
reading, mathematics, or both.

Acknowledgements  This research was supported by the Collaborative Research Fund from the Hong
Kong Special Administrative Region Research Grants Council, University Grants Committee (C4054-
17W) to Catherine McBride, Connie Suk-Han Ho, Kevin Kien Hoa Chung, and colleagues.

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