How many Chinese characters can my child recognize?
I never counted how many Chinese characters my three children recognize. The resaons are as follow.
1. They may recognize the character by itself but have no idea what it means. Therefore, it can only be counted as recognition but not comprehension of the word.
2. They may not recognize the word by itself but can use context clues to figure out the word in a passage or in a story.Cognitively speaking, this stage is higher than recognition. If I must count the words that they recognize, I should count every word in the phrase or in the sentence.
3. If they can recognize and understand the meaning of certain words but can't locate these words in passages or stories, I would not count them.
4. If they are able to read a short passage or rhyme fluently but are unable to recognize certain words if these words are taken out or are out of order, I wouldn't count them , either.
