Learning Chinese Characters: The Effects of Age, Presence of Radicals, and Visual Complexity

• In Event: Poster Session 6
  In Poster Session: Bilingualism/English as a Second Language

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how the acquisition of Chinese characters among beginning Chinese readers is affected by visual complexity and the presence of radicals and how such effect changes across grades. Participants included 325 first through third graders in China. 48 pseudo characters were created and used in a character-recognition task to evaluate the acquirability of different types of characters varying in visual complexity and radical presence. Results show that while performance was better in the with-radical condition than in the without-radical condition, that difference was significantly more pronounced in the more-stroke condition than in the fewer-stroke condition, and the relationship remained the same across age groups. Scientific and practical implications of the results will be discussed.

Authors

• Li-Jen Kuo, Northern Illinois University

• Ying Li, Northern Illionis University