ABSTRACT
This study explored the diversities of early language experiences and their relations to word-knowledge development among collegiate Chinese-as-a-heritage-language (CHL) learners. In total, 195 collegiate CHL students completed a comprehensive language background survey and a series of word-knowledge measures for categories including Chinese oral vocabulary knowledge, Chinese print vocabulary knowledge, Chinese morphological awareness, and Chinese lexical inference ability. The results showed that the participants varied considerably in their early oral and print experiences but all indices of early language experiences were interrelated. More importantly, the study clearly demonstrated the positive effects of print language experiences on CHL word-knowledge development. Cluster analysis indicated that the CHL students in this study can be classified into two clustered groups based on their prior print experiences. Furthermore, it appears that variations in print experiences lead to differences in participants’ word-level skills, including vocabulary knowledge and word meaning inference. A final set of analyses identified specific literacy-related factors at home and in CHL community programs to show the differences of print experience profiles.
本研究探讨了大学程度的汉语继承语学习者早期语言经历的多样性及其和词汇知识发展的关系。195名汉语继承语学习者完成了一份综合性的语言背景调查问卷和一系列词汇知识（包括汉语口语词汇知识、汉语读写词汇知识、汉语词素意识和汉语词义推理能力）测试。结果发现，参与研究的继承语学习者的口语和读写经历有很大差异，但是早期语言经历的变量之间又相互关联。更重要的是，本研究验证了读写经历对词汇知识发展的积极作用。聚类分析显示本研究中的继承语学习者可以依据读写经历这一变量分成两组，同时读写经历的不同也可以引起继承语学习者的词汇能力（包括词汇知识和词义推理）的差异。最后一组分析找出了具体的家庭和继承语社区项目的读写相关因素，以此呈现读写经历的不同。
