An examination of the influence of English dyslexia on Chinese reading

Abstract

In examining the influence of English dyslexia and its associated phonological deficits on Chinese reading in English-Chinese biliterates, functional neuroimaging and reading performance data from 12 English-Chinese biliterate adults with English dyslexia and 12 typically reading English-Chinese biliterate adults were analysed and compared. At a functional neuroanatomical level, the adults with English dyslexia were, relative to the typically reading adults, observed to exhibit a functional overactivation in the left middle frontal gyrus and regions along the dorsal route of the left hemisphere reading network when reading Chinese. It is postulated that the heightened engagement of these areas were initiated to compensate for the readers’ phonological deficits and the higher demands imposed on the integrated processing of phonological, orthographical and semantic information when reading Chinese. At the behavioural level, the adults with English dyslexia were, relative to typically reading adults, observed to exhibit a greater dysfunction in English reading than in Chinese reading. Taken together, these findings suggest that whilst individuals with English dyslexia should not be expected to fully circumvent their phonological deficits when reading Chinese, these deficits likely do not manifest the same degree of dysfunction in Chinese reading as it does in English. Implications of the findings and future directions are discussed.