Article

Environmental Print: Research on Hong Kong Children’s Understanding of Chinese Words

Author

Liu Pui Lee

Information

pp. 49~66 / 2011 Vol.5 No.2

Abstract

This research explores the understanding of Chinese words (commonly used in normalsurroundings) by Hong Kong children aged between 4 and 6 in their surrounding. Childrenwere interviewed and were given thirteen objects which they come across in their daily lives.They were then invited to identify these objects, think of some related words and name theirfunctions. Findings show that there is no significant difference in scores on Chinese wordsunderstanding of boys and girls. This indicates that children aged between 4 and 6 in HongKong can identify Chinese words in their daily lives and understand their meanings. Many oftheir parents (72%) and teachers (48%) have taught them these words before. However, notmany children (42%) are really willing to guess the meanings and pronunciations of wordsthey do not know. This shows that even children have the ability to read many words, thoughtheir awareness of language is not very strong. This may hinder development of their readingability in the future. On the basis of the major results, this study makes some suggestions onthe basis of conclusions of the study.

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