CFL learners’ real-time processing of Chinese radicals: an eye-tracking study

• YiHsuan Wood ^[1] ; Jeffrey J. Green ^[1] ; Ellen Knell ^[1] ; Yu Liu ^[1]
  1. [1] Brigham Young University

     Brigham Young University

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Language awareness, ISSN 0965-8416, Vol. 34, Nº. 2, 2025, págs. 520-539
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1080/09658416.2024.2447700
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen
  • English

    This study used eye-tracking to investigate the real-time processing of phonetic and semantic radicals (components of Chinese characters that give clues to their pronunciation and meaning) by intermediate-level university Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners. Additionally, the study examined how knowledge and awareness of radicals affect real-time character processing. Real-time radical processing involves identifying radicals and understanding their phonetic or semantic roles, while real-time character processing includes recognizing radicals and instantly comprehending entire characters’ meanings and pronunciations. This study’s first task focuses on radical processing, where CFL learners use radical knowledge to interpret multiple characters simultaneously. The second task extends this to identifying each character’s meaning and pronunciation through their radical knowledge. Results showed that both semantic and phonetic radicals were important, but CFL learners had a preference for phonetic radicals. Although awareness of the function of radicals on its own did not have a strong effect, knowledge of specific radicals did, with knowledge of semantic radicals having a stronger effect on online processing and knowledge of phonetic radicals having a stronger effect on offline recognition. These results align with previous eye-tracking research on Chinese first language (L1) speakers, suggesting that explicit radical instruction could improve character decoding for intermediate CFL learners.

  • 中文

    本研究通过眼动追踪技术, 探讨了中级水平的汉语二语学习者对汉字声旁和形旁(声旁提供字音线索, 形旁提供字义线索) 的实时处理过程。此外, 研究还考察了偏旁知识和意识如何影响对汉字的实时处理。实时偏旁处理包括识别偏旁并理解其对通达字音或字义中的作用, 而实时汉字处理则包括识别偏旁并即时理解整个汉字的字义和字音。本研究的第一个任务关注偏旁处理, 汉语二语学习者利用偏旁知识同时识別多个汉字。第二个任务则扩展到通过偏旁知识识别每个汉字的字义及字音。结果表明, 形旁和声旁都很重要, 但学习者更倾向于依赖声旁。尽管对偏旁功能的意识本身对汉字识别并没有显著影响, 但特定偏旁的知识却起到了作用, 其中关于形旁的知识对在线处理汉字有更强的影响, 而声旁的知识对离线识别汉字的影响更大。这些结果与先前针对中文母语者的眼动研究一致, 表明对中级汉语二语学习者进行偏旁教学, 有助于提高其汉字识别能力。.

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