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Effectiveness of Different Pinyin Presentation Formats in Learning Chinese Characters: A Cognitive Load Perspective
Author(s) -
Lee Chee Ha,
Kalyuga Slava
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
language learning
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.882
H-Index - 103
eISSN - 1467-9922
pISSN - 0023-8333
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9922.2011.00666.x
Subject(s) - pinyin , perspective (graphical) , cognitive load , vocabulary , psychology , horizontal and vertical , cognition , linguistics , presentation (obstetrics) , chinese characters , computer science , cognitive psychology , artificial intelligence , mathematics , medicine , philosophy , geometry , neuroscience , radiology
This article reports the results of an experiment designed to investigate the effectiveness of pinyin (a phonic transcription system) in learning vocabulary of Chinese as a second language from the perspective of cognitive load theory. In the reported experiment, the learning effects of the vertical and horizontal layouts of characters, pinyin, and English translations were compared. Results indicated a significant advantage of the vertical format that was attributed to the elimination of split attention. It is suggested that the commonly used horizontal layout format for presenting pinyin may impose high levels of cognitive load and hinder the learning of characters at the beginner level.