Reading Patterns of Children with Learning Difficulties

Hong Kong Special Education Forum

Vol. 7 No. 1 December 2004

 
in Hong Kong

 

Ho Fuk-chuen

 

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Abstract

 

The purpose of this paper is to find out the underlying difficulties of students with learning difficulties in Hong Kong. Based on the dual-route model of reading, words may be read by either a lexical (words are recognized as wholes) or a sub-lexical (words are recognized through grapheme-phoneme correspondence) procedure to read. Castles & Coltheart (1993) and Jimenez (2000) provided evidence for the existence of these two mechanisms in English reading and Spanish reading respectively. They suggested that deficits in one and/or the other mechanism would lead to different patterns of reading disability. Surface dyslexia results from impairment of the lexical procedure with an intact phonological route to reading. Phonological dyslexia results from a highly selective deficit in the grapheme-phoneme transformation mechanism. It was found that surface and phonological dyslexic reading patterns were also found in the Chinese children with learning difficulties.

 

 

本文主要目的是找出存在於有學習困難的學生的一些閱讀困難的模式。本於雙軌閱讀模式理論,讀者可依循義的途徑或聲的途徑來認字。Castles & Coltheart (1993) 及Jimenez (2000) 的研究中,分別顯示英語及西班牙語系中,有部份讀者在運用義的途徑時會有障礙,而聲的途徑則沒有問題,部份讀者的情況則剛好相反。前者稱之為有表層閱讀障礙,後者為有聲層閱讀障礙。本文研究結果亦證明表層及聲層閱讀障礙模式存在於中文讀者之中。

 

Key words:     dual-route model of reading              雙軌閱讀模式

surface dyslexia                               表層閱讀障礙

phonological dyslexia                       聲層閱讀障

lexical procedure                             義的途徑

sub-lexical procedure                        聲的途徑