新加坡華族兒童的家庭華語讀寫環境與詞彙知識和閱讀能力

Singaporean Chinese Children's Home Literacy Environment and Its Influence on Chinese Lexical Knowledge and Reading Ability

本文考察了新加坡華族兒童家庭讀寫環境及其對兒童華語詞彙知識和閱讀理解能力的影響。218 名新加坡小學三年級華族學生參與了華語能力測試和家庭華語讀寫環境的問卷調查，調查內容涉及家庭閱讀資源、父母與子女的分享閱讀頻率、兒童自主閱讀頻率等。問卷調查結果表明，在華語地位日漸式微的新加坡雙語社會，家庭華語閱讀資源不足，兒童的華語閱讀活動有限，同時華族家長對華語閱讀活動和與子女進行華語分享閱讀活動等缺乏熱情。回歸分析顯示，家庭華語讀寫環境對兒童的華語詞素辨析能力和詞彙知識有顯著預測力，並可能通過這兩項知識間接影響兒童的閱讀理解能力，證明了家庭在語言接觸或雙語環境下母語維護中的重要作用。

This paper examines Singaporean Chinese children’s home literacy environment and the relationship of various environment factors with children’s Chinese lexical knowledge and reading comprehension ability. Two hundred and eighteen grade 3 students participated in a home environment survey that covered availability of Chinese reading resources, parents’ reading practice, child-independent reading, and parent-child shared reading. They were also tested on Chinese morpheme discrimination skill, receptive vocabulary knowledge, and reading comprehension ability.Children’s responses indicated that on average, Chinese reading materials at home were limited; their independent home activities related to Chinesereading were not very frequent; and their parents were not very inclined to Chinese reading-related activities, either by themselves or with their children. Regression analysis showed that home environment as a whole significantly predicted children’s morpheme discrimination skill and receptive vocabulary but not reading comprehension. It was inferred that home environment might have an indirect effect on Chinese reading comprehension via lexical knowledge among Chinese children in Singapore.