Understanding the relationship between executive function and reading in Cantonese-English bilingual children

Abstract

The present study explored whether executive function contributes uniquely to word reading and reading comprehension in Cantonese-English bilingual children. A group of 110 Grade 3 Hong Kong Cantonese-English bilingual children was tested on non-verbal intelligence, working memory, executive function and both Chinese and English vocabulary, phonological awareness, word reading and reading comprehension. We found that executive function explains significant variance in bilingual Chinese and English word reading but not for Chinese and English reading comprehension, after controlling for general abilities, vocabulary, phonological awareness and working memory. These findings highlight the role of executive function in bilingual word reading processing and offer support to the complementary view on central processing hypothesis and script dependent hypothesis. Additionally, these findings shed new light into the issue on how word reading and reading comprehension are highly related yet separable.