Manuscript received September 3, 2024; revised October 14, 2024; accepted November 18, 2024; published February 14, 2025
Abstract—With increasing demands on online reading programs, it is necessary to develop an online assessment tool to monitor the word reading progress. We aimed to design such an online dynamic measure in Chinese based on the language-specific feature of orthographic representation to reveal the true relationship between reading and writing relationship. A cross-sectionally design from grade 3 to 5 in Chinese primary school students was conducted. Data were collected and analyzed using a mediation model to show that the online measure of lexical specificity and word reading were mediated by orthographic awareness with a developmental trend. The results suggested that orthographic specificity uniquely contributes to explaining word reading variance, with its impact more pronounced in lower graders. Our findings implied that the online computer-assisted dynamic assessment could be used to measure the children’s orthography for lower graders in the Chinese learning context. We established such a first lexical-specificity measure for online learning curves across grades. For future research, we should suggest a longitudinal follow-up should be adapted for static and dynamic performance of word reading in Chinese children.
Keywords—dynamic assessment, orthographic specificity, Chinese character, word reading development
Cite: Connie Qun Guan, Wanying Zu, Lingyun Han, Wenlin Zhu, Xi Chen, and Zhigang Wang, "Develop a Web-Based Dynamic Assessment of Orthography Specificity as the Benchmark in Chinese Reading," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 280-292, 2025.