Comparing the effects of inhibitory control on Chinese reading comprehension between learners of Chinese as a first and second language

Abstract

Chinese reading comprehension is one of the most important literacy skills for learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL). Such learning challenges are also faced by ethnic minority (EM) students, a subgroup of CSL learners with alphabetic language backgrounds, studying in mainland China. These EM students, such as Uighur, Kazakh, Mongolian, and Tibetan, mostly come from Autonomous Regions in Mainland China and acquire their own language before they learn Chinese. Some of them, perform well academically, are selected to receive a better education in metropolises such as Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. They will attend the National College Entrance Examination in Chinese by the end of their secondary schooling. Because of this, having good reading comprehension skills is crucial for their academic advancement. Recently, researchers found that executive function (EF), which includes inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, has an important role in reading comprehension; in which inhibitory control is found to have a unique positive effect in primary school students’ second language (L2) reading performance. The better inhibitory control the students have, the better they perform in their L2 reading comprehension. However, while many researchers researching the executive function of primary school students or emergent readers, it remains unclear whether and how inhibitory control affects the Chinese reading comprehension of senior secondary school native Chinese students and CSL students. The present study has three research questions: 1) What is the relation between inhibitory control and Chinese orthographic knowledge as well as morphological awareness of both Chinese and CSL students? 2) What are the multivariate relationships among inhibitory control, Chinese orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness, and how do they contribute to Chinese reading comprehension? 3) Is there any difference between Chinese and CSL students in relation to the inhibitory control and Chinese orthographic knowledge and morphological awareness contributing to Chinese reading comprehension? 107 CSL students and 142 native Chinese students studying in Secondary 4 and 5 were recruited. The participants were assessed by three types of instruments: Chinese literacy, inhibitory control, and non-verbal intelligence. Surprisingly, no correlation was found between reading and inhibitory control in native students whereas a negative relation was observed in CSL students. This finding may provide another explanation of the inhibitory control process of reading comprehension for both Chinese and CSL adolescent learners. It may also reset the role of inhibitory control in the reading comprehension process of second language learners.