What is in the naming? A 5-year longitudinal study of early rapid naming and phonological sensitivity in relation to subsequent reading skills in both native Chinese and English as a second language

Among 262 Chinese children, syllable awareness and rapid automatized naming (RAN) at age 5 years and invented spelling of Pinyin at age 6 years independently predicted subsequent Chinese character recognition and English word reading at ages 8 years and 10 years, even with initial Chinese character reading ability statistically controlled. In addition, reading fluency in Chinese was predicted by RAN but not by phonological sensitivity, whereas Chinese dictation was uniquely predicted by phonological sensitivity but not by RAN. Finally, vocabulary knowledge emerged as a unique developmental predictor of all Chinese literacy skills tested. Findings underscore the importance of both early phonological awareness and RAN for literacy development in Chinese as a first language and English as a second language over time and suggest some differences in patterns of literacy acquisition for Chinese, compared with more regular alphabetic orthographies. Copyright © 2011 American Psychological Association.