The relative contributions of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge to deaf and hearing children's reading fluency in Chinese

Background: It is unclear whether phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge are independent predictors of reading fluency for deaf children in different grades. Aims: This study examined the relative contributions of phonological awareness and vocabulary knowledge to Chinese deaf children's reading fluency in grades 3-4 (lower grades; mean age 14.08 years) and 5-6 (higher grades; mean age 15.05 years). Methods and procedures: One hundred and forty-one deaf children and 163 hearing children were enrolled. All children completed assessments of general cognitive ability, onset and tone awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading fluency. Outcomes and results: The results showed that for lower-grade deaf children, the unique effect of onset awareness on reading fluency was not statistically significant, but it was an independent predictor in higher grades; for lower-grade hearing children, onset awareness accounted for variance in reading fluency, but its effect was not significant in higher grades. No significant effect of tone awareness was found in deaf or hearing children. However, vocabulary knowledge significantly explained the variance in reading fluency for all subgroups. Conclusions and implications: The predictive patterns of phonological awareness on reading fluency are complex and depend on many factors, while vocabulary knowledge is an important and consistent predictor for both deaf and hearing children.