#小朋友會認字，為什麼不等於會閱讀？
識字多 ≠ 閱讀力強
小朋友開始閱讀時，面對的情況就像要我們看懂一篇文言文或科研文章一樣困難。家長們若曾考過中文公開試，應該都體會這種感覺，閱讀一篇文章時，明明每個字我們都能單獨讀出，但卻不理解它們合在一起的意思。現在讓我們來感受一下，試試看小朋友閱讀時會遇到甚麼困難：
「人類內耳的毛細胞可以感知空氣壓力波，毛細胞的靜纖毛可以收集振幅和頻率兩種信號，分別對應著聲音的響度和音調。靜纖毛一邊震動一邊引發動作電位，傳遞給聽神經，隨後傳遞給大腦，大腦將這些信息轉化為各種聲音。如果植物沒有眼睛都可以覺察光，那麼是否也能聽到聲音呢？」
要理解這段文字需要有生物學的前設知識，首先要明白「毛細胞」、「空氣壓力波」、「靜纖毛」、「振幅」、「動作電位」等等詞彙的意思。如果不了解這些用語，不管我們對個別的文字有多麼熟悉，我們也很難理解整個段落的意思。
讀得出 ≠ 讀得懂
小朋友初學閱讀時，面臨的情況也一樣，對於他們日常沒有接觸過的詞彙和語境，即使能讀出文字，他們根本不能理解字詞合起來的意思。例如：「我的房間是我的小天地。」 「小」、「天」、「地」都是最基礎的中文字，可是海外小朋友未必就能夠理解「小天地」合起來的意思。又例如：「江」、「湖」是大自然的用語，可是合起來的「江湖」意思卻完全不同。
認字與閱讀是兩種不同的能力
認字只牽涉到基本的「陳述記憶」能力，而閱讀需要的是更高階的能力。例如要流暢地閱讀下面的一段短句：
「他和大家跟着風姐姐落到小湖上，湖面上起了大大小小的圈圈，浮萍跳起舞，小蝦、魚兒都來歡迎他們。」
小朋友需要甚麼能力呢？
✅ 視線追蹤：眼球要能順着文字的方向、閱讀的內容移動
✅ 工作記憶區發展：在閱讀後面的文字時，還能記得前面的文字和句子
✅ 認知、邏輯推理：能猜到「湖面上起了大大小小的圈圈」當中的「圈圈」是「漣漪」
✅ 詞彙量：認識甚麼是「浮萍」、甚麼是「歡迎」
✅ 整合詞組：能夠快速地把文字組合後，理解詞彙意思（如「風姐姐」、「湖面」）
✅ 分拆句子：能夠快速地將長句分拆，幫助理解及加快閱讀（如「湖面上 + 起了 + 大大小小的 + 圈圈」）
✅ 理解語境：明白故事發生的時間、空間、情景、對象等等
以上種種都需要累積一定的閱讀經驗才能逐步發展和提高，小朋友要能夠流暢地閱讀，都要先熟習這些的閱讀技能。
閱讀技能需要時間與經驗累積
因此，年幼的小朋友會認字但還不會自行閱讀很正常，因為他們認字以外的能力都需要時間累積及發展。特別是年齡愈小的小朋友，他們的認知、推理、記憶能力愈欠缺，閱讀經驗也不足夠，所以家長不必太過擔心他們為甚麼還未會自行閱讀，這些能力會隨著他們年齡長大，以及在累積閱讀經驗後慢慢發展起來。
當認字不等於閱讀：年長小朋友的情況
但對於年齡較大的小朋友來說，他們若已能認字但仍然不願意自行閱讀，可能是因為他們認字不夠純熟（每一個字都要回想很久，當想起時也未必還記得前面的文字了）、過往輸入的詞彙量不足夠、不習慣書面語的句式、閱讀經驗少（需要很長時間組合或分拆詞組），導致閱讀有困難。
如何協助提升閱讀能力？
他們需要的是更多的閱讀經驗：
🔑 家長可以和他們指讀大量的圖書，讓他們持續輸入詞彙和書面句式；
🔑 同時訓練閱讀簡單的文句，建立組詞拆句的反射性反應，幫助提升閱讀速度。
總結：認字 ≠ 閱讀的全部
📍 認字數量的多寡固然是閱讀的先決條件，可是，除了認字以外，還有很多其他因素會影響我們的閱讀能力。相反，即使我們偶然在書中遇到不會的新字，其實我們依然能憑閱讀經驗透過推理來閱讀整句文句的意思。
所以為什麼語文老師們總是提醒我們要多看書，成功在海外學中文的過來人也總是會強調學習語文時大量閱讀課外書的重要性。
Why Does Knowing Chinese Characters Not Equal Reading Ability?
Knowing Many Characters ≠ Strong Reading Skills
When children begin reading, the experience can be as difficult as us trying to understand a piece of classical Chinese or a scientific paper. Parents who have taken Chinese public exams can probably relate—when reading an article, we might be able to read every individual word, yet still not understand the meaning when they are put together.
Let’s try to experience the kind of difficulties children face while reading. Consider this:
“The hair cells in the human inner ear can detect air pressure waves. Their stereocilia can collect two types of signals—amplitude and frequency—which correspond to volume and pitch. As the stereocilia vibrate, they generate action potentials, which are transmitted to the auditory nerve and then to the brain, where these signals are interpreted as various sounds. If plants can sense light without eyes, could they also hear sounds?”
To understand this paragraph, one needs prior knowledge of biology—understanding terms like “hair cells,” “air pressure waves,” “stereocilia,” “amplitude,” “action potential,” etc. Without knowing these terms, it’s difficult to grasp the meaning of the entire passage, no matter how familiar we are with the individual characters.
Reading Aloud ≠ Reading Comprehension
The same applies to children learning to read. When they encounter unfamiliar vocabulary or contexts, they might be able to pronounce the words, but still fail to grasp their meaning as a whole.
For example: “My room is my little world.”
Words like “little,” “sky,” and “earth” are among the most basic Chinese characters, but overseas children might not understand what “little world” means when combined.
Similarly, “river” and “lake” are natural features, but together the phrase “jianghu” (rivers and lakes) carries a completely different meaning in Chinese culture.
Recognizing Characters and Reading Are Two Different Skills
Recognizing characters mainly involves declarative memory. Reading, on the other hand, requires higher-level cognitive skills. For example, to fluently read this short passage:
“He and everyone followed Sister Wind down to the small lake. Circles of all sizes formed on the lake’s surface. Duckweed danced. Shrimps and fish came to greet them.”
Children need the following abilities:
✅ Eye-tracking: Eyes must follow the direction and content of the text.
✅ Working memory: Remembering earlier parts of the sentence while reading the latter parts.
✅ Cognitive reasoning: Understanding that “circles forming on the lake” refers to “ripples.”
✅ Vocabulary: Knowing words like “duckweed” and “greet.”
✅ Phrase integration: Quickly combining characters into meaningful phrases (e.g., “Sister Wind,” “lake surface”).
✅ Sentence segmentation: Breaking down long sentences to aid comprehension and reading speed (e.g., “On the lake surface + formed + big and small + circles”).
✅ Context comprehension: Grasping the time, place, scene, and people involved in the story.
These skills develop gradually through consistent reading experience. For young children, it’s completely normal to recognize characters but not yet read independently, as these additional abilities take time and practice to develop.
Reading Development Takes Time and Experience
Younger children typically lack cognitive, reasoning, and memory skills, and have limited reading experience. Therefore, parents shouldn’t worry if they can’t read independently yet—these abilities will grow with age and exposure to reading.
When Older Children Can Recognize Characters But Still Don’t Read
For older children who already recognize characters but still avoid reading, it may be because:
- Their recognition is not fluent (they take too long to recall each character and forget the earlier parts of the sentence);
- They have insufficient vocabulary input in the past;
- They are not familiar with formal written sentence structures;
- They lack reading experience (making it hard to combine or segment phrases efficiently).
How to Help Strengthen Reading Skills
What they need is more reading experience.
🔑 Parents can read books with them, pointing to the words to provide continuous input of vocabulary and sentence patterns.
🔑 They can also practice reading simple sentences to develop reflexive phrase-building and sentence-segmentation skills, which improve reading speed.
Conclusion: Character Recognition Is Only the Starting Point
📍 While the number of characters a child knows is a prerequisite for reading, many other factors affect reading ability. Conversely, when encountering unfamiliar characters in a book, experienced readers can still infer meaning from context.
This is why language teachers constantly emphasize the importance of extensive reading. Successful learners of Chinese abroad also frequently highlight the value of reading a wide range of extracurricular books when learning a language.