title: Acquisition of Chinese characters: the effects of character properties and individual differences among second language learners.
abstract: In light of the dramatic growth of Chinese learners worldwide and a need for cross-linguistic research on Chinese literacy development, this study drew upon theories of visual complexity effect (Su and Samuels, 2010) and dual-coding processing (Sadoski and Paivio, 2013) and investigated (a) the effects of character properties (i.e., visual complexity and radical presence) on character acquisition and (b) the relationship between individual learner differences in radical awareness and character acquisition. Participants included adolescent English-speaking beginning learners of Chinese in the U.S. Following Kuo et al. (2014), a novel character acquisition task was used to investigate the process of acquiring the meaning of new characters. Results showed that (a) characters with radicals and with less visual complexity were easier to acquire than characters without radicals and with greater visual complexity; and (b) individual differences in radical awareness were associated with the acquisition of all types of characters, but the association was more pronounced with the acquisition of characters with radicals. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Li-Jen
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Kuo
authors.affiliation: Independent Researcher Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Tae-Jin
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Xinyuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Chinese Studies, Department of Modern Languages, Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburg, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Huiwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of East Asian and Middle East Studies, Duke University Durham, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Confucius Institute, University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
authors.forename: Haixia
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A&M University College Station, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Jeong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hyun Park
authors.affiliation: Independent Researcher Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
keywords: Chinese character; character acquisition; learner difference; orthography; second language learning