Association Between Young Chinese Children’s Early Writing Skills and the Chinese Preschool Classroom Writing Environment

This study describes the early writing environments of 16 preschool classrooms in China and 155 Chinese preschoolers' early writing skills as assessed through name writing, word dictation, and early composing tasks. The classroom early writing environment consists of children's accessibility to writing materials, and teachers' writing instruction. Preschool writing samples were coded for children's ability to generate both oral (e.g. number of words and ideas) and written language (e.g. recognizable Chinese characters). Confirmatory factor analyses and hierarchical linear modeling were conducted to investigate the structure of Chinese preschoolers' writing skill and to examine its association with classroom writing environment. Research Findings: Results showed that Chinese preschool children could independently generate a variety of writing samples without adult support. Early Chinese writing skills represent two factors, namely (a) the ability to transcribe recognizable characters (transcription skill), and (b) the ability to generate meaningful ideas (composing skill). Teachers' writing instruction was significantly associated with children's writing skill, although the frequency was low. Practice or Policy: The findings revealed the evident complexities of Chinese orthography, while suggesting a universal impact of teachers' scaffolding to young children's early writing. The study prepared an evidence base for future classroom-based early literacy intervention programs.