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To Speak Chinese: Do Kanji Help or Hurt?

Research Project

Project/Area Number 19K00828
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Section一般
Review Section Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
Research InstitutionKomatsu University

Principal Investigator

SANDERS ROBERT M  公立小松大学, 国際文化交流学部, 教授 (60311552)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 岩田 礼  公立小松大学, 国際文化交流学部, 教授 (10142358)
劉 乃華  公立小松大学, 国際文化交流学部, 教授 (40836590)
Project Period (FY) 2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
Project Status Completed (Fiscal Year 2021)
Budget Amount *help
¥1,430,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥330,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Fiscal Year 2019: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000)
Keywords中国語教育 / 漢字 / ピンイン / Chinese learning / Hanyu Pinyin / Chinese characters / Japanese lerners / Textbook / Chinese Learning / textbook / Japanese learners / Chinese / Pinyin / Characters / Oral Proficiency / Language Pedagogy
Outline of Research at the Start

Our research examines if the added presence of Chinese characters together with Romanization reduces the effectiveness of Romanization alone in the acquisition of Chinese oral-aural proficiency by Japanese learners. It will contribute to a fact-based discussion of this pedagogical issue.

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study investigated whether the learning outcomes of Chinese by first year Japanese university students correlated with how Chinese was presented to them, either in pinyin romanization only or as a combination of pinyin romanization and Chinese characters in parallel. Students were divided into two learning groups, each using a different version of the same textbook. One version presented all vocabulary, dialogues and drills in pinyin romanization only and the other version presented them as a combination of both pinyin romanization and Chinese characters. All grammatical explanations were presented in English.It turned out that the presence or absence of Chinese characters did not correlate with learning outcomes in any statistical way.We then looked to see whether TOEIC listening and reading scores and/or student GPA might correlate with first year Chinese final exam scores. It turned out that GPA is weakly to moderately correlated and that TOEIC weakly correlated at best.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の結果は、大学1年次レベルの日本人の中国語学習において、中国語の漢字表記がピンイン表記以上に学習上の価値を有しない、という強力なエビデンスとなった。大学での中国語学習においては、一般的な、あるいは外国語学習に特化した、学習への取り組み方の改善指導のほうが効果的であると思われる。

Report

(4 results)
  • 2021 Annual Research Report   Final Research Report ( PDF )
  • 2020 Research-status Report
  • 2019 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (1 results)

All 2021

All Presentation (1 results) (of which Invited: 1 results)

  • [Presentation] 探討漢字対初学漢語的小松大学的学生有何影2021

    • Author(s)
      Robert Sanders
    • Organizer
      2020年度日本中国語学会北陸支部例会
    • Related Report
      2020 Research-status Report
    • Invited

URL: 

Published: 2019-04-18   Modified: 2023-01-30  

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