Cognitive pitfalls and pedagogical breakthroughs in teaching cognate disyllabic synonyms to central Asian students

This study examines 28 pairs of cognate disyllabic synonyms from Developing Chinese: Intermediate Comprehensive I, establishing a three-level classification system of within-level, cross-level, and cross-band distinctions based on the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education. A questionnaire administered to 51 Central Asian students reveals that (1) cross-level synonym discrimination forms a cognitive pitfall (accuracy rate of only 59.15%), markedly lower than within-level (75.98%) and cross-band (74.59%) items. The main causes are conflicts across multiple dimensions (grammatical properties affective connotation situational constraints) and the mismatch of instrumental strategies (60.78% dependence on dictionaries). (2) Core difficulties lie in collocational differences (52.94%) and distinctions in affective connotation (52.94%), while a passive learning mode exacerbates pragmatic challenges. In response, the study proposes a three-dimensional pedagogical reconstruction framework: creating contrastive scenarios through dynamic contextual training, establishing a graded annotation system, and promoting explicit development of metacognitive strategies.