The role of syntactic and translation skills on narrative writing among Chinese primary students

Abstract

Multiple cognitive-linguistic factors have been found to contribute to narrative writing in English, and this study aims to investigate whether the same applies to writing in Chinese. Taken into account the special characteristics in grammar of the Chinese language and the differences between oral dialect and written language, the present study assessed a total of 117 Hong Kong primary school children in either Grade Three or Five on their performances in a range of cognitive-linguistic skills (i.e., syntactic skills, oral-written translation, discourse skills, and topic knowledge) and narrative writing in Chinese. Results of regression analyses showed that oral-written translation skill is the unique and significant predictor of writing in general. Besides, syntactic skills are more predictive for the writing performance of junior writers, while topic knowledge is more crucial to the writing by senior writers. More specifically, syntactic and oral-written translation skills predict the grammar of writing; topic knowledge predicts the fluency of writing; and discourse skills contribute significantly to the content of writing. These findings shed light on understanding the basis of writing in Chinese and serve as a foundation for future research on writing development and difficulties.