Word Recognition among Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language: Investigating the Relationship between Naming and Knowing

For students whose first language (L1) employs an alphabetic writing system, learning to read Chinese is especially challenging due to the nonalphabetic nature of its orthography. Because Chinese characters represent the spoken language in a largely irregular and unsystematic manner, it is important to establish the extent to which beginning Chinese language learners rely upon their developing spoken language resources when identifying Chinese word meanings. To investigate this relationship between speech and meaning, a word recognition study was conducted whereby 20 beginning learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) were required to pronounce and later identify in English 46 Chinese words. The correlational analysis indicated a significant relationship between being able to pronounce and being able to identify Chinese words. Implications for theory building and pedagogical application are discussed.