非華語學童認讀漢字研究

Abstract

The research is intended to conduct a recognition test of Chinese characters on the children of 12 kindergartens in Hong Kong. Its objective is twofold: firstly, to explore the difference in the recognition of Chinese Characters between Chinese children and non∼Chinese speaking children. secondly, the influence of teaching medium on the number of Chinese Characters recognized by non∼Chinese speaking children. The research findings have indicated that non∼Chinese speaking children in the 12 kindergartens have from 150∼840 minutes of weekly contacts with the objective∼language (Cantonese). There is great variation in the recognition test among the non∼Chinese speaking children of the same class. From statistical point of view, no significant difference of recognition of Chinese Characters between boys and girls of non∼Chinese speaking children has been detected. However, significant difference in the recognition test of Chinese characters exists between non∼Chinese speaking children and native Chinese children. No difference in the number of Chinese Characters recognized by the children of three kindergartens using Cantonese as teaching medium and those of a kindergarten using more English in teaching exists. However, when the same three kindergarten are compared with a kindergarten using English as the sole teaching medium, difference in the number of Chinese Characters recognized by the children does exists. The findings of the research further reveals that non∼Chinese speaking children's ability to recognize Chinese characters that they have written is poorer than the Chinese children's. Moreover, they do not necessarily recognize or the Chinese Characters written earlier by themselves. Teachers should pay more attention on this.