VariationsinChinesecharacterlearning:Interplayofcharactertypes,

workingmemory &Chineseproficiency

SunAKim

TheHongKongPolytechnicUniversity

VariAMUWorkshop(January7,2016)

1

Introduction

TwoexperimentsonL1andL2adultsChinesecharacterlearning

Variationinlanguagespecificandlearnerrelatedfactors,suchas Charactertypes:Languagespecificfactor Workingmemory(WM):Learnerrelatedfactor Chineseproficiency:Learnerrelatedfactor

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Introduction

Experiment1: L1andL2speakers Simple charactersvariedinvisualdistinctiveness

Experiment2: L2learners Simple &phoneticcompoundcharactersvariedinphoneticconsistency

MeasuredindividualWM&Chineseproficiency

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ChineseCharacters

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ChineseCharacters

Simple vs. Complex

Phonetic Compounds8085% inChinesesemantic()+phonetic()e.g., /ma1/mother +

/you2/oil +

PhoneticOpaqueness

Duetohistoricalsoundchangesandthedialectinfluences:

3739% ofphoneticcompoundcharactershavethesamepronunciationastheirphonetic,whentonesareignored.

26%whenthetoneiscounted. IssuesofRegularity&Consistencyemerge.

ChineseWritingSystem

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Regularity: /you2/ : Regular (same as the phonetic /you2/) /xiu4/ : Irregular (different from the phonetic /you2/)

Consistency:phoneticfamily /huang2/ /huang2/ /huang2/ : Consistent /quan2/ /xian4/ /xian4/ : Semi-Consistent /bei1/ /pai2/ /pi2/ : Inconsistent

ConsistencyasaBetterIndex

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Regularity: /you2/ : Regular (same as the phonetic /you2/) /xiu4/ : Irregular (different from the phonetic /you2/)

Consistency:phoneticfamily /huang2/ /huang2/ /huang2/ : Consistent /quan2/ /xian4/ /xian4/ : Semi-Consistent /bei1/ /pai2/ /pi2/ : Inconsistent

ConsistencyasaBetterIndex ConsistencyisabetterindexthanregularityfordescribingorthographyphonologycorrespondenceknowledgeinChinese (Chenetal.,2003:122):Consistencygivesabetterpredictorofthepronunciation ofChinesecharactersthanregularity.

Successrateofconsistencybasedreading:morethan60%

But,successrateofregularitybasedreading:39%

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RegularityandConsistency

L1Chinesechildren read: Regular>Irregular Consistent >Inconsistent

However,regularityandconsistencyinL2readinghasnotbeenmuchaddressed.

FromTzeng (2002)

PreviousStudies

Recenttwoempiricalinvestigations(Hao&Shu,2005;Lin&Collins,2012)showed1.regularity andconsistency helpL2learnersreadnewcharacters

(; /pang/vs.,,,, /bang/)2.L2learnersutilizetheregularityandconsistencytoreadnewcharacters

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WorkingMemory(WM)

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WorkingMemory(WM)

Limitedspacefortemporarystorageandprocessingofimmediateinformation

Agatewaytolongtermmemory Baddeley&Hitch(1974)sModel:Visuospatial and VerbalDomains

13FromBaddeley(2003:831)

PreviousStudies VerbalWM(phonologicalloop)helpsL1wordlearning:(Gathercole&Baddeley,1993;Baddeley,Gathercole&Papagno,1998;Baddeley2000a;2003) VerbalWM playsanimportantroleinlearningL2wordandgrammar(Service,1992;Cheung,1996;Ellis,1996;Ellis&Sinclair,1996;Martin&Ellis,2012;Williams&Lovatt,2005)

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ComparativeStudies ComparedtoL1Englishspeakers,

L1Chinesespeakers relyonvisuospatialmemory morethanphonologicalmemory(Tavassoli,2001,2002,2003)

outperforminvisuospatialtasks(Demetriouetal.,2005;McBrideChangetal.,2011).

involvemorerighthemispherecorticalregionsrelatedtovisualanalysis.(Tanetal.,2001)

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VisualComplexityofChinese Chinesecharacters:visuallycomplexManystrokesinasquare

( )

Asmalldifferencemakesanothercharacter( vs.; vs.)

Numberofbasicstructuralcomponents 441inTraditionalcharacters 367inSimplifiedcharacters

(Zhuang&Deng,2009)16

SummaryofPreviousStudies

VerbalWMinEnglish learningwasmostlyexamined.

VisuospatialWMwasmostlyinvestigatedinL1processing. InvolvingvisuospatialWMinL2ChineselearningusingcomplexWMtasks canprovideacomprehensivepictureofWM.

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CurrentStudy

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ResearchQuestion

Howdothecharactertypes,WM,andChineseproficiencyaffect learningnovelChinesecharactersbyL1andL2speakers?

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Design

Experiment1: L1andL2readers Simple charactersvariedinvisualdistinctiveness

Experiment2: L2learners Simple &phoneticcompoundcharactersvariedinphoneticconsistency

MeasuredindividualWM&Chineseproficiency

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Tasks/Procedure

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ChineseVocabularyTest(onlyforL2)

Visuospatial&VerbalWM

CharacterLearningExperiments(1&2)

Questionnaires

ChineseVocabularyTest

Purpose:tomeasureL2learnersChinesereadingproficiency

60wordstakenfromthetextbooks(40:Beginning/20:Intermediatelevel)

Task:writethepronunciation andthemeaningofthewords

Mean:61(Max=142,SD=27,Range:25129)

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WMTasks ComplexWMTaskswereused VisuospatialWMtask VerbalWMtask

Requiringsimultaneousprocessingandretaining ofthegiveninformation

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VisuospatialWMTask LetterRotationTask

ModifiedVersionofMiyakeetal.(2001)wasusedandimplementedinEPrime

F,J,L,P,orRareused.

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VerbalWMTask

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ReadingSpanTask ChineseVersionforL1Chinese EnglishVersion(Kaneetal.,2004)forL1English

Experiment1

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ParticipantsL1

ChineseL2

BeginningL2

Intermediate#Subjects 74 26 20

ChineseStudentsinHongKong

UniversityStudentsinUS

UniversityStudentsinUS

L1 Mandarin English English

DurationofChineseLearning

Native 510Weeks(5hrs/week)

2Semesters

Age 1832yrsold 1827 182727

Experiment1 Stimuli:18simplecharacters ofverylow

frequencyfrom 3differentlevelsofvisualdistinctiveness Distinctive&Normalsetswerecounterbalanced

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CharacterType

Distinctive Normal Similar

Procedure

Participantsindividuallylearnedcharacters Itemswererandomlypresented Learning3times(3Trials)

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Learning Testing

DataAnalysis

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Accuracy:LogitMixedModels(Jager,2008)(Variables:Trial,CharacterType,LetterRotation,

&ReadingSpan) ComparisonofWMtasksbetweenL1andL2Chinese:IndependentSamplestTest

ExcludedtenL1Chinesewhoansweredthattheyalreadyknewoneormoretargetcharactersoftheexperiment Dataof64subjectsofL1Chinese wereincludedintheend

Results

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L1 L2 BEG L2 INTPredictors Pr(>|z|)(Intercept) < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***

Trial 1 < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***Trial 3 < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***Letter Rot 0.030 *R Span 0.033 * 0.007 **

Visuospatial VerbalWM

CharacterLearningExperiment

WM:L1vs.L2BEGvs.L2INT

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Experiment2

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ParticipantsL2

BeginningL2

Intermediate

Number 43 27

L1 English English

ChineseLearning

510Weeks Morethan1yr

Site US US

Age 1827 182734

Experiment2 Materials: 18charactersdividedinto3differentconsistency

levels Simple&phoneticcompoundcharacters

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Materials

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Type of Phonetic Consistency

Consistent Semi-consistent Inconsistent

/nie4/ /nie4/ /nie4/ /chu4/ /du1/ /du1/ /tuo3/ /luo4/ /sui1/

/gang1//gang1//gang1/ /yan3/ /an1/ /an1/ /li4/ /jue3/ /zhui4/

Procedure

Participantsindividually learnedcharacters Itemswererandomly presented Learning3times(3Trials)

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Learning Testing

DataAnalysis

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LogitMixedModels(Jager,2008):Findingthebestfitmodel

Dependentvariables:AccuracyIndependentvariables:Trial,CharacterType,LetterRotation,ReadingSpan,VocabularyTest

Results(Accuracy)

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0.50

0.36

0.19

0.80

0.72

0.47

0.930.89

0.67

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

0.60

0.70

0.80

0.90

1.00

Consistent Semiconsistent

Inconsistent Consistent Semiconsistent

Inconsistent Consistent Semiconsistent

Inconsistent

Trial1 Trial2 Trial3

Prop

ortio

nCo

rrect

Results

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Predictors Estimate z-value Pr(>|z|)(Intercept) 0.77 1.47 0.14Trial 1 -1.56 -5.98 < 0.01 ***Trial 3 0.95 3.29 0.01 **Vocab Knowledge 0.01 1.31 0.19Consistent 0.04 0.07 0.94Inconsistent -1.39 -2.37 0.02 *Trial 1: Vocab Knowledge -0.01 -1.42 0.16Trial 3: Vocab Knowledge 0.01 1.17 0.24Consistent: Vocab Knowledge 0.001 2.34 0.02 *Inconsistent: Vocab Knowledge 0.01 0.20 0.84Accuracy~1+Trial*VocabKnowledge+FamilyType*VocabKnowledge+(1|Item)+(1|Subject)

Results

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Consistent Semi-consistent Inconsistent

/gang1//gang1//gang1/ /yan3/ /an1/ /an1/ /li4/ /jue3/ /zhui4/

Maineffect:Trialand Inconsistenttype Interactioneffects:betweenVocabKnowledgeand

Consistency L2learnerswithhighervocabknowledgecouldlearn

betterandrespondfastertheconsistentfamily

Summary

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Experiment1

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L1 L2 BEG L2 INTPredictors Pr(>|z|)(Intercept) < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***

Trial 1 < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***Trial 3 < .001 *** < .001 *** < .001 ***Letter Rot 0.030 *R Span 0.033 * 0.007 **

Visuospatial VerbalWM

Simple CharacterLearning

Experiment2

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Consistent Semi-consistent Inconsistent

/gang1//gang1//gang1/ /yan3/ /an1/ /an1/ /li4/ /jue3/ /zhui4/

PhoneticCompoundLearning: Interactioneffects:betweenVocabKnowledgeandConsistency L2learnerswithhighervocabknowledgecouldlearnbetterandrespondfastertheconsistentfamily

Implications

Forsimple characters,learningdependsonrotememorization.

Forlearningphoneticcompoundcharacters,learnerswhoknowthephoneticprincipleinChinesereadinghaveanadvantageinlearningandreading.

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PedagogicalImplications

InExperiment2,intermediatelearnershavebenefitsinlearningconsistent characters,comparedtobeginninglearners.

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PedagogicalImplications

Intermediatelearnershaveimplicitknowledgeabouttheconsistencyrules.

ExplicitinstructiononphoneticconsistencyruleintheChinesescriptwouldbehelpfulforthelearners.

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PedagogicalImplications

Analyzed2729charactersin5000wordsintheNewHSK(2010)

Summarizedthepronunciationrulesamonghighlyconsistent phoneticfamilies

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ConsistentFamilies

49FromKim&Shin(2015b)

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SemiConsistentFamilies

FromKim&Shin(2015b)

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SemiConsistentFamilies

FromKim&Shin(2015b)

Thankyou!

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