Prosody matters: the cross-linguistic relationship between Chinese tone sensitivity and English word reading in Chinese-English bilingual children

Abstract

Prosodic sensitivity is the ability to distinguish phonetic distinctions related to pitch, such as Chinese lexical tone and English lexical stress. Recent evidence shows that there is a cross-linguistic relationship between prosodic sensitivity and English word reading for Chinese-English bilinguals. The present study tests two theoretical hypotheses proposed to explain these findings. A group of 188 Chinese-English bilingual children of 7 to 8 years of age completed multiple measures of Chinese tone sensitivity, English stress sensitivity, and segmental phonological awareness in Chinese and English, as well as measures of English vocabulary and English word reading. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that Chinese tone sensitivity significantly predicted English stress sensitivity, and that English stress sensitivity, in turn, significantly predicted English word reading, even after taking into account Chinese and English segmental phonological awareness and vocabulary. In contrast, the relationship between Chinese tone sensitivity and English word reading did not appear to be mediated through either Chinese or English segmental phonological awareness. Together, these results accord with the prosody hypothesis, suggesting that English stress sensitivity mediates the relation between Chinese tone sensitivity and English word reading for Chinese-English bilingual children.