Teaching Chinese literacy in Hong Kong: a narrative synthesis of research

Abstract

Chinese orthography is morphosyllabic and its script differs in unique ways from other alphabetic, phonemic syllabic and morphemic scripts. Hence the teaching of Chinese literacy is challenging and requires considerable practice on the part of learners.

This thesis reviews the methods which have been used to teach Chinese literacy during preschool years.

By searching the electronic databases, we classify various articles into different types, introducing “importance of learning early literacy”, “key elements of learning Chinese literacy”, “school-based teaching methods of Chinese literacy” and “home-based teaching method of Chinese literacy”.

The study analyzes that core components of learning Chinese literacy are “oral language”, “morphological awareness”, “orthographic skills,” “learning the sound, semantics and shape of the character” and “providing meaningful literacy experience”.

Also the study finds three main types of school-based teaching methods, namely “bottom-up teaching method”, “whole to part teaching method” and “integrated teaching method”, of which “integrated teaching method” is the most appropriate one in enhancing Chinese literacy learning.

For home-based method, the study finds that “dialogic reading with morphologic training” and “games of learning the characters by components” are the appropriate ways to provide early literacy learning at home.

The study concludes that systematical learning sequence is needed in learning Chinese literacy. But it is difficult to implement a systematical sequence of learning Chinese in an integrated curriculum model. Educators need to find out an appropriate way to implement a systematical sequence of learning Chinese in an integrated curriculum model.