Abstract: Using a paper-pencil test,this study investigated into second, forth and sixth grade.students'pronunciation of phonogram characters with different familiarities.The results showed that children performed significantly better on regular characters than on irregular and sound component unknown characters,Children used the phonological cues of characters more frequently when pronouncing unfamiliar characters,and the children of higher and lower ability performed differently.The analysis of the types of pronouncing errors showed that,compared with lower graders,the ratio of unsystematic errors in pronunciation by higher graders decreased,while their ratio of sound-component and analogy errors increased.

Key words: children, Chinese characters, pronunciation, phonological cues