2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
To Speak Chinese: Do Kanji Help or Hurt?
| Project/Area Number |
19K00828
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| Research Institution | Komatsu University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| 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)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | Chinese learning / Hanyu Pinyin / Chinese characters / Japanese learners / textbook |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
A pilot study was carried out over both semesters according to the conditions proposed in the original funding application. A total of 83 students were randomly divided into two groups, 41 to the Control Group (CG) using a textbook with Romanized Chinese examples only, and 42 to the Experimental Group (EG) using the same textbook with Chinese characters added to accompany the pinyin Chinese examples. At the end of the year the year-long academic performance for each student in all courses taken other than Chinese, as measured by GPA, as well as each student's English listening and reading ability, as measured by TOEIC, were collected and assessed. This data confirmed that the CG and EG were statistically similar in terms of the range and distribution of their respective GPA and TOEIC scores.
All written testing over the course of the year required students to read and write pinyin only. The final exam contained four different question types to test a battery of different passive and active skills. Statistical tests were then carried out to assess whether any significant group performance difference(s) could be detected for any of the final exam questions.
Results revealed that no statistical difference in performance existed between the two groups on any question in the final exam, indicating that the presence or absence of Chinese characters did not influence student performance in any way. Neither did English listening or reading ability. The only factor found to correlate with final exam performance was GPA, which showed a very high level of statistical correlation.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
The first-year pilot study progressed smoothly.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic does present challenges to year two, as it has forced teaching for now to migrate from the classroom to an online platform. It has also cancelled or postponed workshops and conferences where we hoped to present preliminary results. We are maintaining the same procedures for dividing students into two groups and using the same textbook and teaching differences for each group. Minimally we also plan to disseminate our preliminary results electronically to interested peers for feedback. Based on year two results and peer feedback, we plan in year three to submit research articles to relevant academic journals in Japan, China and North America.
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| Causes of Carryover |
It proved difficult for all three researchers to spend down to the last yen. We plan to use the 3,150 yen rollover to pay for photocopying.
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