A Simple View of Writing in Chinese

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese
Author(s): Pui-sze Yeung, Connie Suk-han Ho, David Wai-ock Chan and Kevin Kien-hoa
Chung
Source: Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 3, Engaging Interventions
(July/August/September 2017), pp. 333-355
Published by: International Literacy Association and Wiley
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A Simple View of Writing in Chinese
ABSTRACT
Pui-sze Yeung
This study examined the Chinese written composition develo
Connie Suk-han Ho
elementary-grade students in relation to the simple view of writi
The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam of nonverbal reasoning ability, component skills of transcripti
quence knowledge, word spelling, and handwriting fluency), o
(definitional skill, oral narrative skills, and syntactic skills), work
David Wai-ock Chan
and Chinese written composition were administered to 249 Chine
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, in grades 1, 3, and 5 in Hong Kong. Hierarchical multiple regre
Shatin showed that transcription skills (word spelling and handwriting f
tactic skills, and working memory were unique predictors of Chin
composition after controlling for nonverbal reasoning ability
Kevin Kien-hoa Chung tion effect of grade and cognitive-linguistic skills contributed
The Education University of Hong Kong, amount of unique variance to Chinese written composition. Th
Tai Po equation modeling results showed that the postulated simple view
in Chinese can be used to theorize the findings on the cogniti
involved in Chinese writing.
ing on writing development in alphabetic languages (Berninger,

In contrast toChinese
2009), research on thewriting
moredevelopment
than is30stillyears
in its in of research and model build
fancy. Nonetheless, significant advancements in the understanding of
the cognitive-linguistic skills involved in Chinese word reading, word
spelling (i.e., dictation), and reading comprehension (e.g., Leong, Tse,
Loh, & Hau, 2008; McBride-Chang, Shu, Zhou, Wat, & Wagner, 2003;
Shu, McBride-Chang, Wu, & Liu, 2006) have laid an important foun
dation for research on Chinese written composition.
Research findings have shown that the cognitive-linguistic skills
important in Chinese word reading and spelling are significantly
different from those in alphabetic languages due to the unique char
acteristics of Chinese orthography (Shu et al., 2006; Tong, McBride
Chang, Shu, & Wong, 2009). Chinese orthography-phonology rules
are less reliable and more complex than the grapheme-phoneme
conversion rules in alphabetic languages. As a result, phonological
awareness, a prominent cognitive-linguistic reading skill in alphabetic
languages, plays a less significant role in learning to read and write in
Chinese (e.g., Tong et al., 2009). Due to the prevalence of homophones
in Chinese and the close relationships among the script, sound, and
meaning of Chinese characters (the basic units of writing), morpho
logical awareness is a strong predictor of Chinese reading ability (Shu
et al., 2006; Tong et al., 2009). The complexity of the orthographic
structure of Chinese characters means that orthographic skills are ex
tremely important cognitive-linguistic skills in learning to read and
write Chinese characters (Tong et al., 2009).
However, research evidence has suggested that the cognitive
linguistic skills important in Chinese language processing at the text
level (i.e., reading comprehension, written composition) bear more
resemblance to those in alphabetic languages. Important cognitive
Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)
linguistic reading comprehension skills in alphabetic languages, such
pp. 333 -355 | doi:10.1002/rrq. 173
© 2016 International Literacy Association. as verbal working memory, syntactic skills, and discourse skills, have
333
been found to be predictive of Chinese reading compre component skills that are acquired in more advanced
hension (Guan, Ye, Wagner, Meng, & Leong, 2014; phases of development (junior high school). Some stud
Leong et al., 2008) and written composition (e.g., Guan ies (Berninger, Cartwright, Yates, Swanson, & Abbott,
et al., 2014; Guan, Ye, Meng, & Leong, 2013; Yeung, Ho, 1994; Berninger et al., 1992; Berninger, Whitaker, Feng,
Chan, & Chung, 2013a, 2013b). Guan, Ye, Wagner, and Swanson, & Abbott, 1996) have shown that different
Meng (2013) found that a five-factor model of the un types of component skills work in tandem at all ages,
derlying dimensions (i.e., complexity, productivity, although their relative contribution to writing may dif
spelling, pronunciation, macroorganization, handwrit fer in different phases.
ing fluency) of first- and fourth-grade English writing Most research on writing development has focused
samples could be generalized to conceptualize the un on English and orthographies that are more transparent
derlying dimensions of Chinese writing samples from and less complex than English (Babayigit & Stainthorp,
fourth- and seventh-grade students, despite the marked 2010, 2011; Maki, Voeten, Vauras, 8t Poskiparta, 2001).
differences between the two writing systems. The au Given that Chinese writing is a nonalphabetic, opaque
thors suggested that individual and developmental dif orthography situated at the opposite end of the spec
ferences in writing are more affected by deeper cognitive trum of orthographic depth, data from studies on
and linguistic factors than by the superficial character Chinese writing development are needed to test the
istics of the orthographies. In contrast to their study, generalizability of the simple view of writing, which
which focused on building a model of the underlying was developed for alphabetic languages.
dimensions of Chinese writing, this study aimed to the
orize a model of the cognitive processes involved in
Chinese writing from the perspective of the simple view Characteristics of the Chinese
of writing (Berninger, Vaughan, et al., 2002).
Writing System
The basic graphic unit of Chinese writing is the charac
ter. Chinese characters are made up of radicals, which
Models of Writing in turn, consist of a configuration of strokes (Leong,
According to the simple view of writing proposed by Cheng, & Lam, 2000). Each character represents a syl
Juel, Griffith, and Gough (1986), spelling and ideation lable and a morpheme. There are at least 10 types of
(i.e., the generation and organization of ideas) are the Chinese character structures (Fu, 1993) and eight basic
principal component skills of writing, just as decoding types of strokes (Law, Ki, Chung, Ko, & Lam, 1998). The
and linguistic comprehension skills are the proximal average number of strokes in the 2,000 most commonly
causes of reading comprehension. Berninger and col used traditional Chinese characters is 11.2 (Hoosain,
leagues (Berninger, 2000; Berninger, Abbott, Abbott, 1991). The order of the strokes used in writing the char
Graham, & Richards, 2002; Berninger et al., 1997; acters follows consensual principles, which are learned
Berninger & Graham, 1998; Berninger, Vaughan, et al„ in schools (Yu, Gong, Qiu, 8c Zhou, 2011). It is necessary
2002) proposed a similar conception of the simple view to learn the character structures, basic stroke forms,
of writing. According to their model, transcription and and stroke sequences to be skillful in Chinese writing
self-regulation executive functions work together to en (Wang, McBride-Chang, & Chan, 2014).
able the goal of text generation within the working Moreover, the Chinese writing system is a deep or
memory environment. Text generation involves both thography, which represents phonology less consistently
idea generation and the transformation of ideas into than alphabetic writing systems. The acquisition of
language representation, which are closely related to Chinese writing skills is further complicated by the
oral language skills. Transcription helps translate these large number of homophones in Chinese (Tong et al.,
language representations into written symbols. Their 2009). Based on the data from the Hong Kong corpus of
model highlights the important roles that transcription primary school Chinese (Leung & Lee, 2002), Hong
skills, oral language skills, and working memory play in Kong children are expected to learn more than 1,000
writing. new Chinese characters in grade 1 and around 500-600
In the developmental model proposed by Berninger, new characters each year in grades 2-5 (F.H.-K. Chung
Mizokawa, and Bragg (1991), the component skills of & Leung, 2008). Given the complexity of the Chinese
writing demonstrate different developmental trajecto writing system, a considerable amount of time and ef
ries. Proficiency in transcription is of the utmost im fort is needed to attain automaticity in Chinese tran
portance in the earliest stages of writing development scription skills.
(grades 1-3), followed by the acquisition of linguistic Most people in Hong Kong speak the Cantonese di
skills at the word, sentence, and discourse levels (grades alect, the formal written representation of which is
4-6). The cognitive skills of planning and revision are rarely used today (Luk & Bialystok, 2008). Other than
334 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)
Mandarin (i.e., Putonghua: the official spoken language 2012; Yeung et al., 2013a, 2013b), which underscores the
in China), the Cantonese dialect "is the most widely effect of the complexity of the Chinese writing system
known and influential variety of Chinese" (Matthews & on the development of Chinese written composition.
Yip, 2011, p. 2). It is estimated that around 130 million Yan et al. (2012) found that the quality of the written
Chinese in Southern China, Hong Kong, Australia, composition of 9-year-old Cantonese-speaking chil
Britain, Canada, and the United States use Cantonese dren in Hong Kong was significantly predicted by their
(Tse, Chan, & Li, 2005). Similar to other children in transcription skills (word spelling and handwriting flu
China, Hong Kong children learn to read and write inency) and speeded naming measured at ages 6-9. In a
Modern Standard Written Chinese (the major writtenfour-year longitudinal study on Cantonese-speaking
form of Chinese). children in Hong Kong, Yeung et al. (2013b) also found
Although there is a high degree of similarity bethat transcription skills (stroke sequence knowledge
tween Mandarin and Modern Standard Written and word spelling) in grade 1 were significant predic
Chinese, Cantonese differs significantly from Modern
tors of written composition quality in grade 4 in the
Standard Written Chinese in terms of vocabulary, contextsyn
of oral vocabulary and syntactic skills. In a
tax, and pragmatics. According to Ouyang (1993), study among fourth graders, Yeung et al.
follow-up
around one third of the vocabulary is different (2013a) examined more advanced linguistic skills (i.e.,
between
Mandarin and Cantonese, and the differencessyntactic are moreand discourse skills) together with transcrip
evident in everyday vocabulary than in the vocabularies
tion skills and verbal working memory.
used in the political, economic, and cultural arenas. As
In a study on the relationship between stroke se
quence
for syntax, there are at least 18 major grammatical dif knowledge and lexical knowledge in kanji
ferences between Mandarin and Cantonese (Ouyang,(Chinese characters in Japanese), Tamaoka and Yamada
1993). Studies have shown that Hong Kong students in that stroke sequence knowledge supported
(2000) found
elementary grades encounter difficulties in kanji
various ar
lexical knowledge only indirectly via radicals.
eas of syntax in written Chinese. These include a clear
These findings suggested that stroke sequence knowl
understanding of the attributes of a sentence, edge mainly
the use of contributed to spelling via its effect on
conjunctions in complex sentences, and the application
radical knowledge. The importance of stroke sequence
of varied and rich sentence patterns to produce differ in Chinese spelling was also evidenced by
knowledge
Law1993).
ent rhetorical effects (Kwan, 2003; Tse & Cheung, et al. (1998). They found that stroke sequence er
In response to the possible effects of the differences
rors werebe one of the most common types of errors in
tween Cantonese and Modern Standard Written Chinese character writing among first graders in Hong
Chinese in learning to read and write in Chinese,
Kong,the and suggested that the stroke sequence rules fa
use of the written form of Chinese is highlighted
cilitatedas the
a mastery of both the motor and cognitive
key learning area in key stages 1 and 2 in the Chinese
skills of Chinese character writing.
writing curriculum in Hong Kong (Education Bureau, In summary, three types of transcription skills—
2012). stroke sequence knowledge (Yeung et al., 2013b), word
spelling (Yan et al., 2012; Yeung et al., 2013a, 2013b),
and handwriting fluency (Yan et al., 2012)—have been
Studies on Learning to Write found to be significant predictors of Chinese written
composition. However, these factors have rarely been
in Chinese
examined in the same study. In addition, most studies
Although researchers have been systematicallyhaveexaminfocused on the development of written composi
tion
ing how children learn to compose in Chinese since theamong students in early elementary grades, and
1960s, most studies have focused on writing little
instruc research has focused on students in the upper ele
tion. There has been a paucity of research examining
mentary grades. Studies of young students learning to
the cognitive-linguistic skills important to Chinese
write in Finnish and Turkish (Babayigit & Stainthorp,
writing. In a comprehensive review of the research on
2010, 2011; Maki et al., 2001) showed that transcription
skills ceased to play an important role in writing devel
Chinese writing in Taiwan, only four of the 86 studies
published between 1979 and 2006 examined theopment
signifi beyond grade 2. However, transcription skills
cant predictors of Chinese writing (Chang, 2008).
have been found to be consistently predictive of English
Moreover, none of these studies examined thewrittenimpor composition across grades 1-7 (e.g., Abbott,
tance of transcription skills, oral language skills, or
Berninger, & Fayol, 2010). In view of the complexity of
working memory in Chinese writing. the Chinese writing system, this study hypothesized
that transcription skills may still be an important pre
Recently, a number of studies on Chinese writing
have shown that transcription skills are robustdictor
and im of written composition among Chinese students
in et
portant predictors of writing in Chinese (e.g., Yan upper
al„ elementary grades because Chinese children
A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 335
need a longer time to attain automaticity in transcrip Studies have found strong support for the impor
tion skills. Empirical evidence on Chinese students tance of syntactic skills in Chinese writing develop
across elementary grades was collected to test this ment. Yeung et al. (2013a, 2013b) found that syntactic
hypothesis. skills contributed significantly to the unique variance
Although transcription skills have repeatedly been in Chinese written composition concurrently and lon
found to be significant cognitive-linguistic skills in gitudinally among Cantonese-speaking students in
learning to write in Chinese, the findings on the roles of grades 1-4. Guan et al. (2014) found that syntactic pro
the other two component skills in the simple view of cessing made an independent contribution to predict
writing (i.e., oral language skills, working memory) ing Chinese written composition in the context of
have been less consistent. Studies have mainly investi working memory and morphological awareness among
gated oral narrative and syntactic skills as the two ma Mandarin-speaking students in grades 4-6 in Zhejiang
jor types of oral language skills (e.g., Guan et al„ 2014; Province, China. However, Guan, Ye, Meng, and Leong
Guan, Ye, Meng, & Leong, 2013; Yeung et al., 2013a, (2013) showed that syntactic skills predicted Chinese
2013b). The measures for assessing oral narrative skills argumentative writing but not narrative or expository
in the literature include definitional skills (Yan et al., writing among Mandarin-speaking poor compre
2012), oral sentence construction (Yeung et al., 2013b), henders but not among Mandarin-speaking good com
and picture narration (Yeung et al., 2013a). prehenders, in grades 4-6 in northern China. These
Yeung et al. (2013b) found that Hong Kong students' findings suggest that most students in the upper
performance in an oral sentence construction task in elementary grades achieved proficiency in the basic
grade 1 was predictive of their Chinese written composi syntactic skills for narrative and expository writing.
tion performance in grade 2 but not in grade 1 or grade Therefore, syntactic skills ceased to explain the indi
4. In a follow-up study, Yeung et al. (2013a) also observed vidual differences in writing performance among the
that oral narrative skill (assessed by a picture narration students in the upper elementary grades, except for
task) in grade 4 did not contribute to concurrent Chinese those who had relatively weak literacy skills.
written composition performance in the context of other The evidence regarding the significance of working
cognitive-linguistic measures. Similarly, Yan et al. (2012) memory in Chinese reading and writing development is
found that definitional skill was not a unique predictor inconclusive based on the findings of the few published
of written composition performance among Hong Kong studies. Working memory was found to be a significant
children at age 9 with respect to spelling, handwriting predictor of Chinese word reading both concurrently
fluency, phonological awareness, and speeded naming. and longitudinally among kindergartners in Hong
These studies suggested that the relationship between Kong (K.K.H. Chung & McBride-Chang, 2011).
oral narrative skills and writing was not robust among Similarly, Leong et al. (2008) found that verbal working
Hong Kong children, thus echoing the findings on memory had strong effects on pseudoword reading and
the role of oral language skills in Chinese reading reading comprehension in the context of rapid naming
development. and phonological segmentation among 518 Chinese
Although research has shown that morphological students in grades 3-5. Working memory was also
awareness is a consistently strong predictor of Chinese shown to be an important predictor of Chinese reading
reading among Mandarin-speaking and Cantonese comprehension and the strongest predictor of Chinese
speaking children, definitional skill has been shown to written composition performance among Mandarin
be a significant predictor of Chinese reading in some speaking fourth to sixth graders, followed by morpho
studies (e.g., K.K.H. Chung & McBride-Chang, 2011; logical awareness and syntactic skills (Guan et al., 2014).
Shu et al., 2006) but not others (e.g., McBride-Chang However, Guan, Ye, Meng, and Leong (2013) found
et al., 2005). Studies on dialect variation and literacy ac that verbal working memory contributed to individual
quisition in English have found that the relationships differences in written composition only among
between oral language and literacy become weaker as Mandarin-speaking poor text comprehenders, not
the differences between oral language and written among Mandarin-speaking good text comprehenders.
language increase (e.g., Charity, Scarborough, & Moreover, Yeung et al. (2013a) found that working
Griffin, 2004; Craig, Connor, & Washington, 2003; memory did not contribute significantly to the unique
Terry, Connor, Thomas-Tate, & Love, 2010; Terry & variance in Chinese written composition among
Scarborough, 2011). In view of the differences between Cantonese-speaking students in senior elementary
Cantonese and written Chinese in vocabulary and syn grades after controlling for transcription skills, syntac
tax, the relationship between oral narrative skills and tic skills, and oral narrative skills.
written composition is likely to be weaker among In addition to the inconsistent findings regarding
Cantonese-speaking children compared with Mandarin the significance of oral narrative skills and working
speaking children. memory, another limitation of the literature is that only
336 I Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)
one published study has examined all three major types students gradually gain proficiency in transcription
of component skills in the simple view of writing in the skills as they progress through the grades, their work
same study (Yeung et al., 2013a). Moreover, the study ing memory is required to coordinate increasingly
was only conducted among fourth graders. Thus, there complex ideas and syntactic structures.
is a paucity of research on whether the simple view of Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were con
writing (Berninger, Vaughan, et al., 2002) can be gener ducted to examine the significant predictors of Chinese
alized to Chinese writing development and whether the written composition and determine whether the pre
relationships among the three types of component skills dictive relationships between each predictive variable
in the simple view of writing and Chinese written com and Chinese written composition differed across
position are developmentally variant across different grades. Structural equation modeling was also con
elementary grades. This study aimed to address this gap ducted to test a postulated model of a simple view of
in the literature by administering the same measures of writing in Chinese that conceptualized the relation
the three major types of component skills to partici ships among transcription skills, oral language skills,
pants from different elementary grades. working memory, and written composition in Chinese
based on the abovementioned hypotheses. In the model,
transcription skills and working memory were expected
to have significant direct effects on Chinese writing,
Aim of the Study whereas the direct effect of oral language skills on writ
This study had two major aims. First, it aimed to exam ing was expected to be weak, if not absent. Structural
ine how transcription skills, oral language skills, and equation modeling can provide summary evaluations
working memory contribute to Chinese written compo of postulated models that involve a number of linear
sition. Students in grades 1, 3, and 5 were administered equations and supports model comparisons. It also al
measures to assess their transcription skills, oral lan lows researchers to estimate the relationships between
guage skills, working memory, and written composi constructs that are better corrected for construct
tion. Second, the study aimed to theorize a model of the irrelevant variance and random error (Tomarken &
cognitive processes involved in Chinese writing in rela Waller, 2005). Accordingly, the direct effects of the con
tion to the simple view of writing (Berninger, Vaughan, structs of transcription skills, oral language skills, and
et al., 2002). working memory on Chinese writing were examined in
In light of the characteristics of the Chinese writ this study.
ing system, the language environment of Chinese
students in Hong Kong, and the findings of previous
studies, three major hypotheses regarding the relation Method
ships among transcription skills, oral language skills,
working memory, and written composition were pos Participants
tulated. First, it was hypothesized that transcription Two hundred forty-nine Chinese students were re
skills would be strong predictors of Chinese writing cruited from four elementary schools located in
development across all elementary grades because of Kowloon and the New Territories in Hong Kong using
the orthographic complexity of the Chinese writing the convenience sampling method. To test the general
system. Second, the contribution of oral language skills izability of the findings from previous studies (Yeung
to writing development was expected to be relatively et al., 2013a, 2013b), schools that had participated in
weak across grades. Cantonese, the major Chinese dia previous studies were not recruited in this study. Of the
lect spoken in Hong Kong, differs significantly from approximately 500 elementary schools in Hong Kong,
written Chinese in both vocabulary and syntax. Studies formal invitations were sent to 286 government-aided
have shown that the relationship between oral language coeducational elementary schools, excluding private
skills and literacy skills (including reading and writ schools, Direct-Subsidy Scheme schools, single-gender
ing) is weaker among Chinese children in Hong Kong schools, and schools using English as the language of
(e.g., Yan et al., 2012; Yeung et al., 2013a). Therefore, it instruction. The four participating schools were located
was hypothesized that oral language skills would be in four of the 18 districts in Hong Kong. The age, sex,
less important in the writing development of Chinese and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores of the
students in Hong Kong. Third, working memory was participants in each grade are reported in Table 1. The
hypothesized as playing a significant role in all grades. highest educational level attained by more than 70% of
In the lower elementary grades, the lack of automatic mothers and 66% of fathers was secondary school.
ity in transcription skills was found to drain the capac Three of the participating schools used Putonghua (i.e.,
ity of working memory in the composing process Mandarin) and one used Cantonese as the language of
(Berninger, 1999; Swanson & Berninger, 1994). As instruction for Chinese-language lessons. Nonetheless,
TABLE 1
Mean and Standard Deviations (SDs) of the Age, IQ, and Sex of the Participants
All participants Grade 1 Grade 3 Grade 5
(N = 249) (n = 91) (n = 86) (n = 72)
Post hoc
Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F comparison
Age (in months) 107.59 21.34 84.79 5.05 109.26 6.79 135.21 8.00 1,158.13"'
Grade 1 < grade 3
< grade 5
Raven's Standard 104.45 15.05 114.05 12.44 102.58 13.92 94.50 11.92 45.56"" Grade 1 > grade 3
Progressive Matrices > grade 5
scores
Sex Girls: 125 Girls: 45 Girls: 48 Girls: 32

Boys: 124 Boys: 46 Boys: 38 Boys: 40
Note. Analyses of variance were conducted for age and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores,
'"p < .001.
the majority of the participants spoke Cantonese at written compositions without spelling or grammatical
home and in their daily lives. errors (Tse, Loh, Cheung, & Kwan, 2005). According to
In Hong Kong, the teaching of handwriting skills is the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study,
heavily emphasized in the curriculum and in daily the international ranking of Hong Kong grade 4 stu
teaching. Handwriting is one of the core components of dents' reading proficiency rose from 14th in 2001 to
the domain of writing in the curriculum guide for first in 2011 (Tse, Lam, Loh, & Cheung, 2012). However,
Chinese language in key stage 1 (grades 1-3) and key Hong Kong students continued to rank low internation
stage 2 (grades 4-6; Education Bureau, 2012). Because ally in terms of reading interest (39th), motivation to
the basic graphic unit in Chinese is a character, charac ward reading (45th), reading confidence (44th), and
ter writing is the focus of handwriting instruction in feeling engaged in reading lessons (42nd) in 2011.
Hong Kong. Traditional Chinese classroom instruction Although Hong Kong primary school teachers reported
on writing relies heavily on rote memorization and that they used a wide range of pedagogic approaches in
drilling. Students usually learn to write by observing reading lessons, 96% of the teachers used textbooks as
the teacher's stroke-by-stroke production of each char the key resource, and Hong Kong teachers engaged in
acter on the blackboard and by copying the characters less teaching of reading strategies than their counter
repeatedly until the process is internalized as a motor parts in Singapore and Russia (Tse et al„ 2012).
skill (Packard et al„ 2006). It is common practice to
have at least one dictation lesson per week (Chiang,
2002). Measures
Other learning foci across the elementary grades Standardized measures of cognitive-linguistic skills
are text structure and organization, and the use of and literacy skills in Chinese are lacking in Hong Kong.
Modern Standard Written Chinese (Education Bureau, The Cantonese version of the Peabody Picture
2012). Students learn to write narrative texts from grade Vocabulary Test-Third Edition (Bialystok, McBride
1 and all through the elementary grades, whereas ex Chang, & Luk, 2005), which has been used in previous
pository writing is usually introduced in grade 3 or af studies (e.g., Luk & Bialystok, 2008), was found to be
ter. The whole-language (listening, speaking, reading mainly suitable for younger students, in grades 1 and 2,
comprehension, and writing) approach is popular in in the pilot study in our previous studies (e.g., Yeung
Hong Kong classrooms, and most schools have eight to et al„ 2013b). One of the most widely used standardized
10 lessons on Chinese-language instruction each week. tests is the Hong Kong Test of Specific Learning
Many elementary schools arrange for their students to Difficulties in Reading and Writing for Primary School
complete two lessons involving written composition Students-second edition (HKT-P(II); Ho et al„ 2007).
tasks at least once every two weeks. However, most The HKT-P(II) is mainly used as a diagnostic test for
schools offer few lessons on writing instruction (gener assessing developmental dyslexia among Hong Kong
ally around one lesson every two weeks). primary school students. The word-spelling task used
Although the writing curriculum aims to cultivate in this study was modeled on the Chinese word dicta
students' interest in writing for educational purposes, tion subtest in the HKT-P(II). Pilot studies were con
researchers have noted that the main reason students in ducted on all of the measures used in the study. The
Hong Kong focus on their writing lessons is to obtain items in the finalized measures were revised and re
good grades, which can only be achieved by producing fined based on the findings from the pilot studies.
Nonverbal Reasoning Ability of Primary School Chinese (Leung & Lee, 2002). The
The participants' nonverbal reasoning was measured by participants were asked to copy the text as fast and
the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices. This test legibly as possible onto an A4-sized sheet of paper
consists of five sets of 12 items, with each item compris with preprinted grids. Performance in this task was
ing a visual matrix with a missing part. The partici measured by the number of characters that the par
pants were provided with six to eight choices from ticipants copied correctly from the texts within 1.5
minutes.
which to select the best part to complete the visual ma
trix. The calculation of the participants' scores followed
the norms established by the Hong Kong Education Oral Language Skills
Department in 1986. Definitional Skill
The participants' definitional skill was modeled on the
Transcription Skills vocabulary definition task used in the study by Yan
Stroke Sequence Knowledge et al. (2012). In addition to assessing vocabulary knowl
This task was adapted from the stroke order task used edge, the test assessed the participants' oral expressive
by Yeung et al. (2013b) to assess the participants' per skills, particularly their ability to use decontextualized
formance in producing legitimate stroke sequences. language skills to express the meaning of a word
The eight major stroke types and six major stroke se (Kurland & Snow, 1997). The stimuli in this task were
quences found in Chinese characters were used as stim made up of 11 two-character words of three different
uli in the task. In each test item, the participants were classes: noun, verb, and adjective. Of the 278 high
presented with a pair of Chinese characters (one printed frequency two-character words chosen from popular
Chinese character in black and an incomplete version textbooks for students in grades 1-6 in Hong Kong and
of the same printed Chinese character printed in black the Hong Kong Corpus of Primary School Chinese
and gray). For the incomplete characters, gray strokes (Leung & Lee, 2002), 15 items were selected by experi
were used to represent the unfinished parts. The par enced teachers and researchers for a pilot study. The
stimulus items in the final measure were chosen based
ticipants were asked to fill in the subsequent strokes in
the unfinished parts of the characters. The test items on the findings of the pilot study. In each trial, each
covered 16 major stroke sequence rules in Chinese cal participant was presented with a stimulus word orally
ligraphy. There were 35 test items, and 1 point was given without print and was asked to orally define the stimu
for the correct answer to each item. The Cronbach's a lus word. Each participant was provided with the in
coefficient for this task was .80. structions together with a demonstration and one
practice trial before the presentation of the test items.
Word Spelling An answer for each trial was awarded 0, 1, or 2 points
The participants' word-spelling skills were assessed depending
by on the appropriateness of the answer given.
a word dictation task. The stimuli consisted of 14 two For example, for the stimulus word MM (apple), the
answer (a fruit that is red
character Chinese words selected from popular Chinese
and/or green in color) was given 2
textbooks for grades 1-6 in Hong Kong. The design of
the task was modeled on the Chinese word dictation fruit) was given 1 point, and (edible) was
subtest in the HKT-P(II) (Ho et al., 2007). For each trial,given a mark of 0. The maximum score for this task
was 22. The internal consistency reliability of this task
the target word was first read alone by the experimenter
was .78.
in isolation, then in a simple sentence, and finally in
isolation. The participants were asked to write down
Oral Narrative Skills
the target word. One point was given for each correctly
written character, and the maximum possible score wasA modified version of the narrative writing task used by
28. The internal consistency reliability of this task
Berninger, Nagy, and Beers (2011) was used to assess
was .84. the participants' text generation ability apart from the
mechanics of writing. The participants were given the
Handwriting Fluency topic, "One day at school, a funny thing happened...,"
The participants' handwriting fluency was assessedandbywere asked to choose a funny thing that happened
a text-copying speed task adapted from the Chineseand then add sentences to complete the story. The par
ticipants' responses were digitally recorded and later
Handwriting Speed Test (Tseng & Hsueh, 1997). Tseng
and Hsueh reported that the task had a test-retesttranscribed
reli and rated according to the same criteria as
those used for the writing samples. Samples of the par
ability of .98. The stimulus in this task was a passage
ticipants' responses in the task are included in
made up of 314 frequently used characters in junior
primary grades according to the Hong Kong Corpus Appendix A.
Syntactic Skills given for a syntactically correct and meaningful sen
For a pure measure of syntactic knowledge, it is prefera tence with one segment misplaced. The maximum score
ble to use a task that does not involve print (e.g., the oral for each seven-segment item was 3, with 2 points given
cloze task). The oral cloze task developed by So and Siegel for a syntactically correct and meaningful sentence with
(1997) was adapted in a four-year longitudinal study on one segment misplaced and 1 point for a syntactically
Chinese reading and writing development (Yeung et al., correct and meaningful sentence with two segments
2011). The study showed that the task was more suitable misplaced. The maximum score for this task was 16. The
for participants in early elementary grades and may not internal consistency reliability of the task was .76.
be able to effectively assess the syntactic skills of students
in middle and upper elementary grades. In the oral cloze Working Memory
task (So & Siegel, 1997), the participants only need to The participants' verbal working memory was assessed
identify one missing word in a simple sentence context in by the sentence memory task used by Yeung et al.
each trial. However, the use of nonprint tasks (including (2013a). The task consisted of five sets of unrelated
the oral cloze task) that require the participants to hold declarative sentences, two sets of two sentences, two
the information in their working memory limits their sets of three sentences, and one set of four sentences.
applicability in testing the complex sentences, Ba and Bei Each sentence was made up of five to eight Chinese syl
sentences, and multimodifier (multiadverbial and multi
lables. All instructions and materials were presented to
attributive) sentences that are commonly used in elemen each participant individually via an MP3 player. Before
tary grades. Accordingly, the word order knowledge task the test items were administered, each participant was
used by Yeung et al. (2013a, 2013b) was adapted to mea presented with the instructions and then given a dem
sure the participants' knowledge of the acceptable word onstration and two practice trials. These were repeated
order in simple and complex sentences in written until the participant understood the task completely.
Chinese. The design of this task was similar to the syntax After listening to each set of sentences, the participants
construction task used by Guan and colleagues (Guan were required to answer a comprehension question
et al., 2014; Guan, Ye, Meng, & Leong, 2013), in which the related to the stimulus sentences and recall the last
participants were asked to recombine the words con word in each sentence of the set in any order. One point
tained in scrambled sentences made up of mostly two was given for each correct response to the comprehen
character words.
sion question and 1 point for each correctly recalled
The task comprised 10 items made up of five items word of the stimulus sentences. The maximum score
with four segments, three items with five segments, one for this task was 19. The internal consistency reliability
item with six segments, and one item with seven seg of this task was .75.
ments. The pilot study results showed that the seven
segment items were too difficult for first graders. Thus,
the first graders in this study were not assessed on these Written Composition
items. In each trial, the participants were asked to ar A task modeled on the narrative writing task used by
range the randomized sentence segments to form a syn Yeung et al. (2013a, 2013b) was used to assess the par
tactically correct sentence by writing a number ticipants' written composition skills. The four compo
representing the order of each sentence segment in the nents of the marking criteria were content, vocabulary,
corresponding space provided, as in the following sentence structure, and organization. Spelling accuracy
example item: was not included as a marking criterion, and spelling
errors were not penalized. The content was scored on a
ofJrVK (drinking MS (you mm scale of 0-5, ranging from very poor—mostly irrelevant
soft drinks) want) (juice) (or)
information to very good—relevant, detailed, and cre
Answer: (2) (1) (4) (3) ative. Vocabulary was scored on a scale of 0-5, ranging
Answer: (Do you want soft drinks or juice for from very poor—inappropriate choice of vocabulary to
drinking?) very good—rich and sophisticated choice of vocabulary.
Note. The word order of the question in Chinese is different from that The sentence structure was scored on a scale of 0-5,
in English. There is no change of word order as in English, and serial
verb constructions are frequently used in Chinese.
ranging from very poor—incomplete/incorrect sentence
structure to very good—a wide range of sentence struc
Two practice trials were given. All of the words ap ture and appropriate use of subordinate clauses and
pearing in the task were read aloud to the students to complex sentences. Organization was scored on a scale
minimize the effect of word recognition ability on their of 0-5, ranging from very poor—discourse is not orga
performance. The score for each four-segment item with nized to very good—discourse is well organized, coher
no segments displaced was 1. The maximum score for ent, and thoughtful, with a logical and analytical
each item with five or six segments was 2, with 1 point progression of ideas. The raters were asked to score each
component independently, and the correlations be Results
tween the four components of the marking criteria
ranged from .69 to .80. Twenty-two percent of the Descriptive Analyses
scripts transcribed were independently marked by two Table 2 presents the means and standard deviations
well-trained research assistants who were experienced of the measures in each grade. One-sample f-tests
Chinese-language teachers. The inter-rater reliability were conducted for each measure, which showed that
was 85%. The instructions and samples of the students' the performance of the participants was significantly
responses in the task are provided in Appendix B. different from the minimum scores (ts > 28.63,
ps < .001) and the maximum scores (fs < -25.66,
Procedures ps < .001) on all measures. No floor or ceiling effects
were observed.
The data were collected in the second half of the aca
A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA)
demic year for the participants in each grade. All of the
tasks were administered by trained experimenters inwasac conducted to examine the group differences be
tween
tivity rooms or classrooms in the participating primary
the participants in different grades (grade 1, 3,
and 5). In the MANCOVA models, the measures were
schools. Tasks on nonverbal reasoning ability, stroke se
quence knowledge, word spelling, handwriting fluency entered as the dependent variables, with grade (grade 1
vs. grade 3 vs. grade 5) as the independent variable, and
skills, syntactic skills, and written composition were ar
age and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores as
ranged as group tests. The participants in each grade
covariates. The results showed that the main effect of
were tested separately, and there were 20-30 students in
grade was statistically significant, Wilks's A = .62, F(16,
each group for the group tests. Each group session lasted
440) = 7.49, p<. 001.
approximately 40 minutes, and short breaks were given
between the tasks to avoid overtaxing the participants.
Across-Grade Comparison
Definitional skill, oral narrative skills, and working
memory tasks were conducted individually. The of durathe Measures
tion of the individual sessions was approximatelyA30 series of analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) were
conducted to examine the differences in perfor
minutes. All of the group tasks and individual tasks
were completed in one or two days depending on the mance
cir in the cognitive-linguistic measures among
cumstances of the schools. the participants in different grades. In the ANCOVA,
TABLE 2
Means, Standard Deviations (SDs), Analysis of Variance, and Analysis of Covariance Results for Measures in the
Present Study
All participants Grade 1 Grade 3 Grade 5
Post hoc
Measure Mean SD Maximum Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD F comparison
Stroke sequence 17.65 5.37 35 17.66 5.85 18.18 5.11 16.99 5.01 1.83
knowledge
Word spelling 13.65 5.96 28 9.77 4.91 15.18 5.00 16.84 5.59 9.54'" Grade 1 < grade 3;
grade 1 < grade 5
Handwriting 13.04 7.14 6.81 3.36 13.96 4.61 20.04 6.23 13.74™ Grade 1 < grade 3
fluency < grade 5
Definitional skill 10.99 4.48 22 7.75 3.19 11.68 4.06 14.49 3.32 8.13'" Grade 1 < grade 3
< grade 5
Oral narrative 5.61 2.78 20 4.19 2.26 6.56 2.82 6.31 2.62 7.96"' Grade 1 < grade 3
skills
Syntactic skills 9.45 4.01 16 6.18 2.97 10.56 3.00 12.34 3.22 21.35"" Grade 1 < grade 3
< grade 5
Working memory 8.50 3.89 19 6.16 3.60 9.02 3.14 10.96 3.35 6.89" Grade 1 < grade 3
< grade 5
Written 7.89 3.92 20 4.88 2.82 9.75 3.25 9.53 3.51 23.44" Grade 1 < grade 3;
composition grade 1 < grade 5'
Note. Analyses of covariance were conducted for all of the measures, grade was entered as the independent variable, and age and Raven's Standard
Progressive Matrices scores were entered as covariates.
'p< .06. "p< -01. ***p< .001.
grade (grade 1 vs. grade 3 vs. grade 5) was entered as and Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores were
the independent variable, and age and Raven's entered into the first step as the control variables, and
Standard Progressive Matrices scores were entered all of the cognitive-linguistic skills were entered into
as covariates (see Table 2 for the results). Post hoc the second step. The results of the first set of hierarchi
comparisons showed that the grade 5 participants cal multiple regression analyses are shown in Table 4.
performed better in the handwriting fluency, defini The variables accounted for 55% of the variance in
tional skill, syntactic skills, and working memory written composition performance. The age and Raven's
measures than the grade 3 participants, who in turn Standard Progressive Matrices scores accounted for
performed better than the grade 1 participants 29% of the variance in written composition among all
(Fs > 6.89, ps < .01). For the word-spelling and writ participants, AF(2, 246) = 51.11, p < .001. All of the
ten composition tasks, no significant differences cognitive-linguistic skills together accounted for an ad
were found between the participants in grade 3 and ditional 26% of the variance in written composition
grade 5, although the participants in both grades among all participants, AF(7, 239) = 19.98, p < .001.
performed significantly better than the participants Word spelling, syntactic skills, and working memory
in grade 1 (Fs > 9.54, ps < .001). No significant were unique predictors of written composition among
between-grade differences were found in the stroke all of the participants.
sequence knowledge task. The second set of hierarchical multiple regression
analyses was conducted to further examine possible
Correlation differences in the pattern of contribution of the
Table 3 presents the correlations between all of the mea
cognitive-linguistic skills to written composition
among the participants in different grades. The age and
sures used in the study. Written composition was sig
Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores were en
nificantly correlated with all of the cognitive-linguistic
tered into the first step, and the two dummy codes for
measures (rs > .21, ps < .001).
grade were entered into the second step. All of the
cognitive-linguistic skills were entered into the third
Hierarchical Multiple Regression step. The interaction effects of grade and each cognitive
Analyses on Written Composition linguistic skill were entered into the fourth step. The
results of the second set of hierarchical multiple regres
Three sets of hierarchical multiple regression analyses
were conducted. Written composition performance sion analyses are shown in Table 5.
was the dependent variable in all of the analyses. The The variables accounted for 60% of the variance in
written composition. The age and Raven's Standard
first set was conducted to examine the unique contri
bution of each cognitive-linguistic skill (stroke Progressive
se Matrices scores accounted for 29% of the
variance
quence knowledge, word spelling, handwriting fluency, in written composition, AF(2, 246) = 51.11,
p < .001; grade accounted for 12% of the variance in writ
definitional skill, oral narrative skills, syntactic skills,
and working memory) to written composition. The age ten composition, AF(2, 244) = 25.70, p < .001. All of the
TABLE 3
Correlations Among All Variables in This Study
Variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1. Age (in months) —
2. -.55
Raven's
—
Standard Pr
3. -.02
Stroke .29 sequence
—
kno
4. Word -.05
.46 .29
spelling
—
5. .71 -.29
Handwriting .17 .63 —
fluency
6. Definitional skill .58 -.08 .14 .57 .53 —
7. Oral narrative skills .33 -.08 .11 .39 .39 .50 —
8. .59
-.08
Syntactic .23 .71 .63 .70
skills .45 —
9. Working memory .46 -.03 .12 .52 .44 .57 .35 .63 —
10. .49
-.07
Written .21 .66 composition
.56 .54 .40 .68 .56 —
Note. Correlations of magnitude .14 are significant at p <.05.
TABLE 4
analyses was conducted in which age was not entered
Standardized Betas for Regression Equations Predicting into the equation to avoid redundancy because age and
Written Composition From Cognitive-Linguistic Measuresgrade are correlated. Similar patterns of results were ob
After Controls for Differences in Age and IQ tained. The results of this third set of hierarchical multi
Standard
ple regression analyses are shown in Appendix C.
Final step predictor A R2 8 error S P
Step 1
A Simple View Model of Writing
Control variables .29 in Chinese
Age (in months) 0.02 0.02 0.10 To test a simple view model of Chinese writing develop
ment in elementary grades, the associations between
IQ 0.01 0.02 0.05
the variables were investigated by running structural
Step 2 equation modeling using Mplus version 7.3. The latent
.26
endogenous construct of written composition was sub
Cognitive-linguistic
measures served by the four components of writing performance:
content, vocabulary, sentence structure, and organiza
Stroke sequence 0.02 0.04 0.02
knowledge tion. With respect to the exogenous constructs, tran
scription skills was subserved by stroke sequence
Word spelling 0.18 0.04 0.28"
knowledge, word spelling, and handwriting fluency;
Handwriting fluency 0.04 0.04 0.08 oral language skills was subserved by definitional skill,
oral narrative skills, and syntactic skills; and working
Definitional skill -0.01 0.06 -0.02
memory was subserved by the comprehension subcom
Oral narrative skills 0.10 0.07 0.07 ponent of the task and the recall subcomponent of the
Syntactic skills 0.24 0.08 0.25" task. Model 1 served as the baseline model. Working
memory and the transcription and oral language skills
Working memory 0.16 0.06 0.16"
constructs were postulated to be correlated. The overall
R2 .55 fit of model 1 was good, x2(48, 246) = 71.79, p = .015,
comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.99, and root mean
df 239
square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.045. Most
Note. IQwas assessed by Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores. of the posited measures demonstrated high factor load
"p < .01. *"p < .001.
ings on the posited construct. One major exception was
stroke sequence knowledge, which had a relatively low
cognitive-linguistic skills together accounted for an factor loading on the transcription skills construct.
additional 18% of the variance in written composition, Only the postulated direct path from transcription
AF(7,237) = 15.67, p < .001. None of the interaction effects skills to written composition was significant. The direct
of grade and cognitive-linguistic skill contributed signif paths from working memory to written composition
icantly to the unique variance in written composition, and from oral language skills to written composition
AFs < 0.75, ps > .47. A third set of hierarchical regression were not statistically significant.
TABLE 5
Standardized Betas for Regression Equations Predicting Written Composition From Cognitive-Linguistic Measures
and Interaction Effects (Grade x Cognitive-Linguistic measures) After Controls for Differences in Age and IQ
Final step predictor AR2 P A R2 P A/?2 P A R2 P AR2 P A R2 P A R2 P
Step 1
Control variables .29" .29" 29... 29... 29... .29" .29"
Age (in months) 0.23 0.23 0.22 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.23
IQ 0.09 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.09 0.09 0.08
Step 2
Grade .12" .12" .12" .12" .12" .12" .12"
Grade (contrast 1) -0.16 -0.15 -0.16 -0.15 -0.14 -0.15 -0.17
Grade (contrast 2) -0.28" -0.28" -0.25" -0.27" -0.28" -0.29" -0.30"
(continued)
TABLE 5
Standardized Betas for Regression Equations Predicting Written Composition From Cognitive-Linguistic Measures and
Interaction Effects (Grade x Cognitive-Linguistic measures) After Controls for Differences in Age and IQ (continued)
Final step predictor AR2 p AR2 p A/?2 p AR2 P AR2 p AR2 P AR2
Step 3
Cognitive-linguistic measures .18"' .18 " .18"' .18"' .18'" .18"' .18"
-0.05
Stroke sequence knowledge 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Word spelling 0.25'" 0.25' 0.24'" 0.25'" 0.25"' 0.25'" 0.25'"
Handwriting fluency 0.10 0.11 0.20 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.11
Definitional skill 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.01 0.01
Oral narrative skills 0.02 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01
Syntactic skills 0.22" 0.21" 0.20" 0.21" 0.21" 0.16 0.21"
Working memory 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17
Step A
Interaction terms .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
Grade (contrast 1) * 0.04

Stroke sequence knowledge

Stroke sequence knowledge

Word spelling
Grade (contrast 2) x 0.00

Word spelling
Grade (contrast 1) * -0.05

Handwriting fluency
Grade (contrast 2) x -0.09

Handwriting fluency

Definitional skill

Definitional skill

Oral narrative skills

Oral narrative skills

Syntactic skills

Syntactic skills

Working memory

Working memory
R2 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60
df 235 235 235 235 235 235 235

Note. IQ was assessed by Raven's Standard Prog
participants in other grades were assigned a co
grades were assigned a code of 0.
*p< .05. "p< .01. "*p< .001.
To examine the unique contribution of the transcrip
tion skills, oral language skills, and working memory 2.62 0.30 2.22
X dlff
constructs to written composition, models 2-5 (see 343.80
Table 6) were postulated. The direct paths from transcrip

tion skills, oral language skills, and working memory to
written composition were removed in models 2-4, re
spectively. In model 5, the transcription skills, oral lan
0.045 0.046 0.044 0.046 0.170
guage skills, and working memory constructs were Root mean
postulated not to be correlated. The overall fit of model 5 square er or of ap roximation
was not good, x2(51. 246) = 415.59, p = .000, CFI = 0.79,

and RMSEA = .170. The overall fit of models 2-4 was very
good, x2s < 72.09, ps > .018, CFIs > 0.98, and 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.99 0.79
RMSEAs < 0.044. Model 3 (see Figure 1) fit the data better fit index
than the other models. Comparative
The multiple regression analysis results suggested

P
that syntactic skills were the only measure of oral lan .015 .011 .018 .012 .000
guage skills that was predictive of written composition.

df 48 49 49 49 51
To test whether the syntactic skills contributed indepen
dently and directly to written composition apart from the
other measures of oral language skills, models 6 and 7, Z2
71.79 74.41 72.09 74.01 415.59
which were based on models 3 and 1, respectively, were
postulated. Model 6 differed from model 3 in only three
ways: (1) Syntactic skills were postulated as an indepen
dent measure apart from oral language skills; (2) a direct 0.91" 0.99" 0.90'" 0.92"'
skil s <-> working memory
path from syntactic skills to written composition was pos
Oral language
tulated; and (3) syntactic skills were postulated to be cor
related with transcription skills, working memory, and
oral language skills. The overall fit of model 6 was good,
X2(46,246) = 62.01,p = .058, CFI = 0.99, and RMSEA = .038.
0.77™ 0.82'" 0.77"' 0.78'"
Of the postulated direct paths from syntactic skills, tran memory
scription skills, and working memory to written composi Transcription

skil s <-» working
tion, only the postulated direct paths from transcription
skills and working memory were significant. The direct
path from syntactic skills to written composition was not
statistically significant. 0.91" 0.92" 0.91"* 0.91™
Similarly, model 7 differed from model 1 in three Transcription skil s <-» oral language skil s
ways: (1) Syntactic skills were postulated as an indepen Paths
dent measure apart from oral language skills; (2) a direct
path from syntactic skills to written composition was 0.47 0.29' 0.23'
written -0.93
postulated; and (3) syntactic skills were postulated to be Working memory
correlated with transcription skills, working memory, composition
and oral language skills. The overall fit of model 7 was

good, x2 (45, 246) = 61.34, p = .053, CFI = 0.99, and
RMSEA = .038. Of the postulated direct paths from syn 1.70' 0.38 0.40'"
-0.31
tactic skills, transcription skills, oral language skills, skil s -> written
composition
and working memory to written composition, only the Oral language
postulated direct path from transcription skills was sig

nificant. The other postulated direct paths to written
composition were not statistically significant.
0.72' 0.57"' 0.44' 0.52"'
Transcription composition
skil s -»writ en
Discussion
Overall, the hierarchical multiple regression analysis re
Model 2 4
sults suggested that the significant predictors of Chinese TABLE 6 StandrizedPathCoeficntsforMdelsPrdictngWritenCompsiton
1 3 5
'p < .06. *p < .05. *"p < .0 1.
A Simple View of Writng in Chines | 345
FIGURE 1 ASimpleViewofWritnginChines *p < .05. *"p < .0 1.
writing did not differ among the participants in grades concurrently in the same study. The findings of this
1, 3, and 5. Consistent with the hypotheses proposed in study showed that only word spelling and handwriting
this study, transcription skills and working memory fluency were significant predictors of Chinese written
were significant predictors of Chinese writing across el composition. In general, the predictive power of word
ementary grades, whereas the relationship between oral spelling with respect to written composition was stron
language skills and Chinese writing was relatively weak. ger than that of handwriting fluency. These findings
Studies on English-speaking students have also shown suggest that word spelling plays an important role in
that the relationships among transcription skills, oral Chinese writing development across elementary grades.
language skills, and writing are relatively stable across Interestingly, these findings are similar to the pat
elementary grades (Abbott et al., 2010; Berninger & terns of findings on English-speaking students in Abbott
Abbott, 2010). These studies suggest that students in el et al.'s (2010) study. In their study, spelling was a consis
ementary grades continue to develop their cognitive tent longitudinal predictor of written composition from
linguistic skills related to writing, which may contribute grades 1-7, whereas handwriting fluency was a weak but
to learning to write. The findings of this study suggest significant longitudinal predictor of written composi
that instructions that can enhance transcription skills tion from grades 3 and 4. In contrast, the role of spelling
are likely to benefit the development of students' compo in writing development has been found to be much
sition skills across elementary grades. weaker in more transparent orthographies (e.g., Turkish;
Babayigit & Stainthorp, 2010, 2011). Compared with
A Simple View of Writing in Chinese other alphabetic writing systems (e.g., Finnish, Turkish),
English is considered an opaque orthography, as is the
The results of the structural equation modeling analysis
Chinese writing system. Because of the complexity of
suggested that the simple view of writing (Berninger,
the Chinese writing system, students learning to write in
Vaughan, et al., 2002) is a useful framework for exam
Chinese need more time to acquire handwriting accu
ining writing development among developing writers in
racy. It is expected that handwriting fluency only plays a
Chinese, a nonalphabetic language. The simple view
more significant role in more advanced grades.
model of writing in Chinese (model 3), in which tran
scription skills and working memory were postulated to
have direct effects on writing, fit the data best. These
Working Memory
results highlighted the importance of transcription
Working memory was found to be a significant predic
skills and working memory in Chinese writing develop
tor of Chinese written composition, although its effect
ment. In other words, the major components of the sim
was not as strong as that of transcription skills. The
ple view of writing in Chinese are transcription skills
finding that the contribution of working memory to
and working memory.
Chinese writing development was relatively stable dur
The significance of transcription skills in children's
ing the elementary grades is consistent with the find
written composition development has long been noted in
ings of Berninger et al. (1999), which are based on
the literature on writing in English (e.g., Graham,
studies of students in grades 1-3 (Berninger et al., 1992),
Berninger, Abbott, Abbott, & Whitaker, 1997; Juel, 1988;
Kent, Wanzek, Petscher, Al Otaiba, & Kim, 2014; Puranik
grades 4-6 (Berninger et al., 1994), and junior high stu
dents (Berninger et al., 1996). Working memory con
& Al Otaiba, 2012). In recent years, a transcription compo
tributed 8% of the variance in compositional quality
nent has been incorporated into the revised version of the
among the students in grades 1-3 (Berninger et al.,
classic model of writing by Hayes (2012). A possible reason
1992) and grades 4-6 (Berninger et al., 1994).
for the apparent importance of transcription in English
Working memory has been postulated as central to
and Chinese is that both orthographies are relatively
the writing process in the simple view of writing
opaque compared with other alphabetic languages. This
(Berninger, Vaughan, et al., 2002) and as responsible for
may explain why the simple view of writing (Berninger,
the coordination and integration of these subprocesses
Vaughan, et al., 2002), which was primarily developed for
(e.g., Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1987). However, the re
English writing, can serve as a useful framework for un
search on the significance of working memory in Chinese
derstanding Chinese writing development.
writing has been inconsistent (Guan et al., 2014; Guan,
Ye, Meng, & Leong, 2013a; Yeung et al., 2013a). In fact,
Transcription Skills working memory failed to contribute significantly to the
The significant contribution of transcription skills to unique variance in writing in the study by Babayigit and
Chinese written composition was consistent with the Stainthorp (2011), who examined writing development
findings in the literature (Yan et al., 2012; Yeung et al., among Turkish children using the simple view of writing
2013a, 2013b). As mentioned previously, the three types framework (Berninger, 2000). The relatively weak unique
of transcription skills have seldom been examined contribution of working memory to writing in the
context of other cognitive-linguistic skills may be be major Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong, differs
cause working memory is involved in most cognitive significantly from written Chinese in both vocabulary
processes. Therefore, the effects of working memory on and syntax, the relationships between oral language
writing become weaker because of the relationships be skills and literacy skills (including reading and writing)
tween memory and other important cognitive-linguistic are likely to be weaker among children in Hong Kong.
skills in writing in the model. The results of the struc This explanation not only accounts for the writing
tural equation modeling analysis in this study supported development of Chinese children in Hong Kong but also
this suggestion. The effect of working memory on writ has implications for the writing development of the ma
ing was completely mediated by its relationships with jority of Chinese children, who speak a regional dialect
transcription skills and oral language skills (model 1). at home. There are more than 200 regional dialects in
Although the contribution of working memory to China (F.H.-K. Chung & Leung, 2008). Given the perva
writing has been found to be stable in the elementary siveness of the Chinese regional dialects, the patterns of
grades, some researchers have suggested that the nature findings from studies of children who speak a nonstan
of its contribution changes over the course of writing dard dialect should be considered in models of writing
development (Swanson & Berninger, 1994). Working in Chinese.
memory has been found to be correlated with spelling
and compositional fluency in grades 1-3 but not to con
tribute to the unique variance in compositional quality
Conclusion
(Berninger et al„ 1992). It is possible that working mem
ory is heavily taxed by transcription skills, which re In this study, a simple view of writing in Chinese was
quire access to briefly stored information retrieved examined based on the framework of the simple view of
from long-term memory, before automatization in tran writing in English (Berninger, Vaughan, et al„ 2002b).
scription skills has been achieved. The findings show that transcription skills and working
memory play significant roles in Chinese writing. The
Oral Language Skills hypothesized predominant role of transcription skills
With respect to oral language skills, the findings were in Chinese writing throughout the elementary grades
consistent with the proposed hypothesis. Syntactic was confirmed. The model highlighted the prominence
skills were the only oral language skills measure that of transcription skills and the relatively weak role of
significantly predicted written composition. No signifi oral language skills in Chinese writing among
cant interaction effect of grade and oral language skills Cantonese-speaking students in Hong Kong. Although
was found. This finding is consistent with previous the multiple regression results showed that syntactic
studies on Chinese writing (e.g., Yan et al„ 2012; Yeung skills (a measure of oral language skills) was a signifi
et al., 2013a), in which neither definitional skill nor pic cant predictor of Chinese writing across grades, the
ture narration skills contributed a significant amount structural equation modeling results showed that the
of variance in writing in the context of other cognitive direct path from the construct of oral language skills to
linguistic skills. This contrasts with the findings of Chinese writing was not significant in the preferred
studies on children learning to write in English (e.g., model (i.e., model 3; see Figure 1).
Olinghouse & Leaird, 2009) and other alphabetic lan In view of the clear link between the component
guages (Babayigit & Stainthorp, 2010, 2011), in which skills of transcription and working memory and Chinese
definitional skill was shown to play an important role writing, the teaching of handwriting skills is heavily em
in children's writing development. phasized in the curricula and daily teaching in Hong
In this study, the weak relationships among defini Kong. It is common practice to have at least one dicta
tional skill, oral narrative skills, and written composi tion lesson each week (Chiang, 2002). Although contin
tion in Chinese highlighted the uniqueness of literacy ued efforts to help students develop their transcription
acquisition among Cantonese-speaking Chinese stu skills are needed, instructional attention to other areas
dents. In previous studies on Chinese reading compre of writing, such as syntactic skills and the use of effective
hension (e.g., Yeung et al., 2011), the relationships writing strategies, may need to be enhanced.
between oral language skills and reading comprehen In an extensive meta-analysis of the writing inter
sion among Chinese children in Hong Kong have been vention literature, Graham and Perin (2007) found that
found to be relatively weak. According to the research sentence combining instruction (e.g., Saddler &
on dialect variation in English, the relationships be Graham, 2005), which is related to syntactic skills en
tween oral language and literacy skills are likely to be hancement, and strategy instruction (e.g., Graham,
weaker when there are significant discrepancies be 2006) were effective in enhancing the writing quality of
tween oral language and written language (e.g., Charity elementary-grade students. An extensive body of litera
et al., 2004; Terry et al., 2010). Because Cantonese, the ture has examined Chinese writing interventions
among Mandarin-speaking (i.e., Putonghua-speaking) NOTES
populations (e.g., Chang, 2008). However, few interven This project was funded by the Research Grants Council, Early Career
tion studies on Chinese writing in Hong Kong have Scheme, project code HKU 757013H. The authors would like to thank
the teachers, parents, and students of the four participating schools.
been published in recent years (e.g., Leong, Tse, Loh, &
Ho, 2014; Tse, Loh, et al., 2005). In view of the unique
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PUI-SZE YEUNG is an associate professor in the Faculty of
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Education at The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam; e-mail
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variation to early reading skills. In S.A. Brady, D. Braze, & C.A.Department at The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam;
Fowler (Eds.), Explaining individual differences in reading:e-mail shhoc@hku.hk.
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Tong, X., McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., & Wong, A.M.-Y. (2009).of Hong Kong, Shatin; e-mail davidchan@cuhk.edu.hk.
Morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and spelling er
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KEVIN KIEN-HOA CHUNG is a professor in and the head of
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the Department of Early Childhood Education and the director
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of the Centre of Child and Family Science at The Education
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Studies, 3,49-55. socioemotional development.
A Simple View of Writing in Chinese I 351
PPENDIX A
"Why is ours different from the others?"

An Example of a High-Scoring One of my groupmates said, "You made
Response in the Oral Narrative What should we do? It's all your fault!" I was
Skills Task and cried, luckily the teacher came by
me solve the problem. I was really unlucky.
*r-5e, stfefim&BE-rnnmnm, was quite an embarrassing day, it was a
interesting day.
£BE/Mmm, m:r w A brief explanation for the scores awa
response on each dimension is as follows:
RrIW ° «S&i»E-<B*l*SI*8to-fflll$PW&
• Content (3 points): The responses are r
ffi* . - e the topic. There is a detailed descripti
t£p£ , fg§g: r^B^j
incidents/activities involved. Î^
• Vocabulary (3 points): The responses d
rich choice of vocabulary. There is an a
- 81
usage of simple vocabulary, and the
demonstrate some appropriate uses of
° j mmtfmm • < m cated vocabulary.
iemmm&mm, imwtm&ftzmm, %'&mm • Sentence structure (3 points): The res
good and demonstrate some appropria
ras* . ^.atfe^gtBf^Dig.îfcDLj^jfe complex sentence structures (e.g.,
, m&&mmmwLvs& .m.xnm connectives).
aiH]^§ifiDDi-#K?©%«mtmrnm^WL
• Organization (2 points): The structure
IS: rT,
A^!j course is simple. The organization is s
loose and not coherent.
° mmik
flggtttiteF- h . {h itk. ttw&wwm&m-mii
âef-H -
An Example of a Low-Scoring
The punctuation in the response is only a suggestion Response in the Oral Narrative
to facilitate understanding. Sentences with correct use of
Skills Task
connectives are underlined. Examples of sophisticated
use of vocabulary are in bold type.
An English translation of the original response is as
follows:
An English translation of the original response is as
That day was the science experiment follows:
day of my school.
The teacher divided us into small groups, One day,and I was
when in at
I arrived a school, something interesting
group with all boys. I was frightened and thought to my
happened. There was a...a grasshopper near the
self, "All groupmates are boys, what I should
window. do?" Well, I
think I have no way but to try my best. The experiment
was to make a parachute for an egg. "Oh, The scores
eggs!awarded
My favor to the response on each dimen
sion are briefly
ite food!" I thought. One of my groupmates heard and explained as follows:
laughed. Why was he laughing? "This is for the experi
• Content (0 points): The response includes infor
ment, not for you to eat," he said. He said it so loudly
mation that is not relevant to the topic.
that everyone heard and all of them laughed at me. I felt
embarrassed. Then when we were doing • Vocabulary (1 point): The response is made up of
the experiment,
limited vocabulary
the teacher asked us to tie a rope on a plastic bag. After and some inappropriate
that, we had to place adhesive tape and a choices
ring ofonvocabulary.
it. "It is
very simple, of course I know how to make that," I
• Sentence structure (1 point): The response is made
thought. Then we began the experiment. I used scissors
up of simple sentence structures.
to make some holes, many holes, and put the ropes into
• Organization
the holes, using adhesive tape to fix their position.(0points):
It was The discourse is not orga
nized, and
quite pretty. When we finished, the teacher no structure
asked us to is evident with the limited
open the parachute. Then I put the eggideas.
into the device.
PPENDIX B
The details of the design of the written composition task

±SS5E2SS'RaiT-ii(fi)ife0A(t«ij3R)fi!
and the instructions used are as follows: The partici
pants were given the topic, "Today is my birthday," and
Punctuation marks missing in the original text are
asked to compose an essay on the topic. The participants
double-underlined. Sentences with correct use of con
were instructed to ask the experimenters to write down
nectives
the words that the participants did not know how to and complex sentence structures are under
lined.
write in their answer books for their reference. A num Examples of rich and sophisticated uses of
ber of experimenters were stationed in each group vocabulary
test are in bold type. Inappropriate characters
are in
venue. The participants were asked to raise their hand if italics, and suggestions for changes to the inap
propriate
they did not know how to write a word, and the experi
characters are in brackets. Missing characters
are marked with a A, and the suggestions for characters
menter would then go to where the participant was
to add are in brackets. Extra characters are deleted with
seated. The participant would then tell the experimenter
in a low voice the word that the participant woulda like
strikethrough.
to
inquire about. To identify which words were provided An English translation of the original response is as
follows:
by the experimenter, the experimenter used a ballpoint
pen to write down the requested words in the partici Today is my birthday. I don't know why when I went to
pant's answer book. The participant could then copy the
school, all classmates treated me like "I was transparent."
words provided into their answer book in pencil. I felt sad. But in the end there was a surprise and I felt
In Yan et al.'s (2012) study, students were givenhappy.
10
minutes to complete the written composition. No time When I arrived at school, my classmates ignored me
like I was transparent, even my best friend ignored me.
limit was set in the written composition task to allow
the students to write as much as they would like. All Therefore,
of I went to the classroom sadly.
the students completed the task within 35 minutes. The After lunch, my classmate suddenly turned off the
lights. They wished me happy birthday and brought me
marking criteria of this task in Yeung et al.'s (2013a,
a birthday cake. They also bought me many presents. I
2013b) studies were adapted and refined by a team of
felt happy and touched, and I cried.
experienced Chinese-language teachers to make the When I went home, my parents also held a birthday
marking criteria applicable to writing samples from party for me. Of course, I told my mother about the
students in grades 1-6. The four components of the
birthday party that my classmates held for me.
marking criteria were content, vocabulary, sentence Today is my birthday. I had a great day. I hope every
structure, and organization. day is my birthday, I can have presents and cakes every
day, and I can make a wish every day! I was very satis
fied and happy today! I wonder, what would my next
birthday be like? Will it be happy, sad, sorrowful or a
An Example of a High-Scoring big surprise? I wish my next birthday will come soon.
Essay in the Written The scores awarded to the response on each dimen
Composition Task sion are briefly explained as follows:
• Content (4 points): The response is relevant and

mm. Aj M+ttm
has a clear focus. There is a detailed description of
'L>!
the incidents/activities involved.
• Vocabulary (4 points): The response demonstrates

±eS@?T° appropriate use of rich and sophisticated choices
of vocabulary. The student is able to write in
Chinese throughout the response.
• Sentence structure (4 points): The response is good
and demonstrates appropriate use of complete
sentences. Complex sentence structures (e.g., the
#|#§njgi use of connectives, metaphor) can also be found
in the response.
• Organization (4 points): The discourse is well orga
nized and coherent, with a clear progression of ideas.
An Example of a Low-Scoring sentence segment labeled "*2" is incomplete. Suggestions
for changes to the sentence segment with syntactic errors
Essay in the Written are in brackets.
Composition Task An English translation of the original version (with incor

rect sentence structures and vocabulary revised) is as follows:
Today I told my classmates that today is my birthday.

I said, "Give XX, XX and XX." Time flies. I asked many
friends to come to my birthday party. In the evening, my
friends arrived, I played with her. I said, "What about we
go to the park after eating? We can go to different parks."
My friends left but I thought today was the happiest day.
When I slept, I dreamed of my friends. They ate a deli
mi-. r^B'tm±j m&mA&Tmwfflmjm cious birthday cake with me and everyone wished me
=m - happy birthday. They sent me different presents, such as
pens, notebooks. All the presents are beautiful. I felt
thankful to them. This day is a very happy day for me.
Someone gave me the most beautiful present, which is a
piece of clothes and a pencil case. I felt happy. I hope my
next birthday would also be a happy one. I felt happier
because everyone celebrated with me. I felt happy and joy
ful. Today is a happy day. I feel happy, I am really happy!
The scores
Names are represented by "XX." The punctuation in awarded to the response in each dimen
sion are briefly explained as follows:
the response is only a suggestion to facilitate understand
ing. Punctuation marks missing in the original text are (1 point): The response includes informa
• Content
double-underlined. Inappropriate characters are italicized,
tion that is not relevant, the reponse is slightly off
and suggestions for changes to the inappropriate charac
topic, and the expression is vague.
ters are in brackets. Use of Cantonese vocabulary that is
• Vocabulary (1 point): The response is made up of
inappropriate in written Chinese is marked with a *, and
limited vocabulary and some misuse of words and
the appropriate vocabulary is in brackets. Missing charac
includes phrases written in Cantonese.
ters are marked with a A, and the suggestions for charac
ters to add are in brackets. Extra characters are deleted • Sentence structure (0points): The response is made
with a strikethrough. The sentence segments with syntac up of incomplete sentence structures with many
tic errors are italicized and underlined. The sentence seg syntactic errors.
ment labeled is syntactically incorrect in written • Organization (0 points): The discourse is not
Chinese but syntactically correct in Cantonese. The organized and lacks logic.
PPENDIX C
Standardized Betas for the Regression Equations Predicting Written Composition From Cognitive-Linguistic
Measures and Interaction Effects (Grade x Cognitive-linguistic measures) After Controlling for Differences in I
Final step
predictor A R2 p A/?2 p A R2 p AR! P A R2 P A R2 P A R2 P
Step 1
Control variables .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
IQ 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.07 0.06 0.06
Step 2
Grade .40"' .40'" .40'" .40'" .40'" .40'" .40'"
Grade (contrast 1) -0.28'" -0.27"' -0.27" -0.26" -0.25"' -0.26'" -0.28"
Grade (contrast 2) -0.16" -0.16' -0.14' -0.16" -0.16' -0.18" -0.18"
Step 3
Cognitive-linguistic .19'" .19'" .19'" .19" .19" .19'" .19'"
measures
(continue
354 i Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)
Standardized Betas for the Regression Equations Predicting Written Composition From Cognitive-Linguistic
Measures and Interaction Effects (Grade x Cognitive-linguistic measures) After Controlling for Differences in IQ
(continued)
Final step
predictor AR2 P A R2 P AR2 P AR2 P AR2 P AR2 P AR2 P
Stroke sequence -0.04 0.02 0.02 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02

knowledge
Word spelling 0.25'" 0.27" 0.24" 0.25" 0.25'" 0.25"' 0.25'"
Handwriting 0.10 0.12 0.22 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.12

fluency
Definitional skill 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.01 0.02 0.02
Oral narrative 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.02

skills
Syntactic skills 0.21" 0.20" 0.20" 0.21" 0.21" 0.17 0.20"
Working memory 0.17" 0.17" 0.18" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17
Step 4
Interaction terms .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00
Grade (contrast 1) 0.03

x Stroke sequence
knowledge
* Stroke sequence
knowledge
Grade (contrast 1) -0.01
* Word spelling
x Word spelling
x Handwriting
fluency

x Handwriting
fluency
x Definitional skill

x Definitional skill

x Oral narrative
skills

x Oral narrative
skills

x Syntactic skills

x Syntactic skills
x Working memory

x Working memory
R2 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60
df 236 236 236 236 236 236 236
Note. IQwas assessed by Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices scores. Grade (contrast 1): Participants in grade 1 were assigned a code of 1, and
participants in other grades were assigned a code of 0. Grade (contrast 2): Participants in grade 5 were assigned a code of 1, and participants in other
grades were assigned a code of 0.
•p < .05. "p < .01. "*p < .001.

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese

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A Simple View of Writing in Chinese

ing on writing development in alphabetic languages (Berninger,

334 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 335

336 I Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 337

Sex Girls: 125 Girls: 45 Girls: 48 Girls: 32

338 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 339

340 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 341

1. Age (in months) —

6. Definitional skill .58 -.08 .14 .57 .53 —

7. Oral narrative skills .33 -.08 .11 .39 .39 .50 —

Note. Correlations of magnitude .14 are significant at p <.05.

342 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

Control variables .29" .29" 29... 29... 29... .29" .29"

IQ 0.09 0.08 0.08 0.08 0.09 0.09 0.08

Grade .12" .12" .12" .12" .12" .12" .12"

Grade (contrast 1) -0.16 -0.15 -0.16 -0.15 -0.14 -0.15 -0.17

Grade (contrast 2) -0.28" -0.28" -0.25" -0.27" -0.28" -0.29" -0.30"

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 343

Word spelling 0.25'" 0.25' 0.24'" 0.25'" 0.25"' 0.25'" 0.25'"

Handwriting fluency 0.10 0.11 0.20 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.11

Definitional skill 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.00 0.01 0.01

Syntactic skills 0.22" 0.21" 0.20" 0.21" 0.21" 0.16 0.21"

Working memory 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17" 0.17

Interaction terms .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00 .00

Grade (contrast 1) * 0.04

Grade (contrast 2) * 0.06

Grade (contrast 1) * 0.00

Grade (contrast 2) x 0.00

Grade (contrast 1) * -0.05

Grade (contrast 2) x -0.09

Grade (contrast 1) x -0.01

Grade (contrast 2) x -0.03

Grade (contrast 1) * 0.05

Grade (contrast 2) * -0.03

Grade (contrast 1) * 0.05

Grade (contrast 2) * 0.03

Grade (contrast 1) * -0.01

Grade (contrast 2) * 0.02

R2 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60 .60

df 235 235 235 235 235 235 235

344 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

Table 6) were postulated. The direct paths from transcrip

was not good, x2(51. 246) = 415.59, p = .000, CFI = 0.79,

The multiple regression analysis results suggested

guage skills that was predictive of written composition.

scription skills, and working memory to written composi Transcription

and oral language skills. The overall fit of model 7 was

postulated direct path from transcription skills was sig

A Simple View of Writng in Chines | 345

346 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese | 347

348 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese I 349

350 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

Shu, H., McBride-Chang, C.,Wu,S.,&Liu, H. (2006). Understanding

A Simple View of Writing in Chinese I 351

"Why is ours different from the others?"

352 | Reading Research Quarterly, 52(3)

The details of the design of the written composition task

• Content (4 points): The response is relevant and