Comparing the Effects of Inhibitory Control on Chinese Reading Comprehension Between Learners of Chinese as a First and Second Language

Chinese reading comprehension is vital for both native speakers and Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) learners, including ethnic minority (EM) students from China’s Autonomous Regions. These students, such as Uighur, Kazakh, Mongolian, and Tibetan, often learn Chinese after acquiring their own language and may attend prestigious universities in major cities. Good reading comprehension is essential for their academic success. Executive function (EF), comprising inhibitory control, cognitive flexibility, and working memory, plays a significant role in reading comprehension. Inhibitory control positively impacts primary school students’ second language reading performance. However, its effects on senior secondary school native Chinese and CSL students remain unclear. In the current study involving 107 CSL students and 142 native Chinese students, participants were assessed using Chinese literacy, inhibitory control, and non-verbal intelligence instruments. Surprisingly, no correlation was found between reading and inhibitory control in native students, while a negative relation was observed in CSL students. These findings may offer new insights into inhibitory control’s role in reading comprehension for both Chinese and CSL adolescent learners.