Writing quality in Chinese children: speed and fluency matter

• Published in: Reading & writing Vol. 25; no. 7; pp. 1499 - 1521
• Main Authors: Yan, Cathy Ming Wai, McBride-Chang, Catherine, Wagner, Richard K., Zhang, Juan, Wong, Anita M. Y., Shu, Hua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.08.2012; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age effects; Asian students; Children; Childrens Writing; China; Chinese languages; Education; Factor Analysis; Fluency; Foreign Countries; Handwriting; Language and Literature; Linguistics; Literacy; Longitudinal Studies; Naming; Neurology; Phonological Awareness; Phonological processing; Psycholinguistics; Scoring; Social Sciences; Student writing; Thinking Skills; Verbal Communication; Vocabulary; Writing Ability; Writing Evaluation; Writing instruction; China; Hong Kong China; Beijing China; New York; United States > US; Phonological awareness; Dictation; Longitudinal study; Writing quality
• ISSN: 0922-4777; 1573-0905
• DOI: 10.1007/s11145-011-9330-y

There were two goals of the present study. The first was to create a scoring scheme by which 9-year-old Chinese children’s writing compositions could be rated to form a total score for writing quality. The second was to examine cognitive correlates of writing quality at age 9 from measures administered at ages 6–9. Age 9 writing compositions were scored using a 7-element rubric; following confirmatory factor analyses, 5 of these elements were retained to represent overall writing quality for subsequent analyses. Measures of vocabulary knowledge, Chinese word dictation, phonological awareness, speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency at ages 6–9 were all significantly associated with the obtained overall writing quality measure even when the statistical effect of age was removed. With vocabulary knowledge, dictation skill, age, gender, and phonological awareness included in a regression equation, 35% of the variance in age 9 writing quality was explained. With the variables of speed of processing, speeded naming, and handwriting fluency additionally included as a block, 12% additional variance in the equation was explained. In addition to gender, overall unique correlates of writing quality were dictation, speed of processing, and handwriting fluency, underscoring the importance of both general automaticity and specific writing fluency for writing quality development in children.