Abstract:

Word spacing is an important indicator of word boundary in most alphabetic writing system such as English, as it can not only help readers to successfully segment each word from successive character strings in text but also help readers to word acquisition and recognition. However, there is no clear word boundary information in Chinese reading, it is interesting to investigate whether it can facilitate word recognition or help readers to learn new word when providing word boundary information (i.e. word space) in Chinese reading. We reviewed the effect of word spacing on eye movement control during Chinese reading in adults, children and second language learners of Chinese. Based on the current findings reviewed in this paper, we provided some implications for constructing models of character and word recognition and eye movement control in Chinese reading, as well as prompting Chinese teaching proficiency.

Key words: word segmentation, inter-word space, word acquisition, word recognition