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Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary learning: effects of language backgrounds and orthographic type

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Abstract

Two experiments investigated whether exposure to Chinese characters and pinyin would facilitate oral vocabulary learning for Chinese as a first (L1) and second (L2) language learners. In Experiment 1, 48 second Chinese graders studied 15 made-up associations between spoken labels and pictures accompanied either by no orthography, by pinyin, or regular characters in a repeated measures design. Pictures prompted recall of spoken labels without orthography present on tests. Results showed that both regular characters and pinyin boosted recall over no orthography. In Experiment 2, 19 American undergraduates as Chinese foreign language learners learned the same 15 label-picture associations in a similar design. Results showed pinyin facilitation, but no character facilitation. The findings highlight the influence of L1 on the role of orthography in oral vocabulary learning in L2, and have implications for vocabulary instruction in Chinese as L1 and L2 learners.

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Acknowledgements

This research project was supported by grants from Western Kentucky University Office of Research to the first author, Beijing Natural Science Foundation (5172020) and project sponsored by the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (17YJA190009) to the corresponding author. We acknowledge all participating teachers, students, and parents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Houston, Houston, USA

    Jie Zhang

  2. Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Future Education, Beijing Normal University, Xin Jie Kou Wai Street #19, Beijing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Jie Zhang, Hong Li & Yu Chen

  3. Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, USA

    Yang Liu

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  1. Jie Zhang
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  2. Hong Li
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  3. Yang Liu
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  4. Yu Chen
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Correspondence to Hong Li.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 6.

Table 6 All item of pronunciations, pictures, and orthography of three counterbalanced versions of vocabulary words taught to participants in Experiment 1 and Experiment 2
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Zhang, J., Li, H., Liu, Y. et al. Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary learning: effects of language backgrounds and orthographic type. Read Writ 33, 187–206 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-019-09955-6

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