Wright, C orcid.org/0000-0003-3962-7903 and Wang, J (2023) The role of visual processing in learning Mandarin characters. Journal of the European Second Language Association, 7 (1). pp. 31-45. ISSN 2399-9101
Abstract
This study explored whether beginner-level learners use radicals to learn written Chinese characters in making form-meaning paired-associate mappings, one of the key components in written character acquisition and word learning (Chan et al., 2020; Kintsch, 1988). Eyegaze patterns during new word-learning was measured to indicate visual focus, along with visual working memory (VWM) capacity, hitherto unexamined at beginner-level for Chinese (Chen et al., 2018; Godfroid, 2019). The experiment compared ease of recall across three groups of characters with different semantic radicals (nominal and verbal) and different visual salience. Greater visual salience rather than semantic class was predicted to foster ease of recall (Bax, 2013; Godfroid, 2019). Thirty-five adult Anglophone ab-initio learners of Chinese took part, recruited after five weeks at a language institute in China. Participants completed a computer-based self-paced character learning test and a VWM shape recall test. They then took a randomized character recall test; eyegaze patterns measured fixations on target radical areas during learning and testing phases. During testing, nominal recall was significantly the fastest and most accurate of the three types (p < .001). There were no significant correlations for accuracy of recall with VWM or eyegaze patterns. These findings, although tentative, suggest that some linguistic element of noun-learning comes “for free” (e.g., Gentner, 1982) even at beginner-level level. The study has timely implications for theoretical and pedagogical understanding of Chinese word learning processes, given the rapidly expanding area of Mandarin Chinese language learning in both taught and self-study app-based contexts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Chinese characters, radicals, beginner-level learners, eyetracking, visual working memory |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of Languages Cultures & Societies (Leeds) > Linguistics & Phonetics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 30 Jun 2023 10:39 |
Last Modified: | 19 Oct 2023 14:20 |
Published Version: | https://euroslajournal.org/articles/10.22599/jesla... |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | White Rose University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.22599/jesla.92 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:201058 |
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