Radical Awareness and Chinese Character Recognition in Chinese as a Heritage Language: Comparison between Two Textbooks

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to understand the role of radical awareness in Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) Learners’ character recognition. In addition, this study also compared the character learning pedagogies in two different textbooks. The Textbook 2 group (Immediate Character Introduction) who had the opportunity to learn the radicals earlier than the Textbook 1 group (Delayed Character Introduction) established radical awareness at an earlier stage and as a result performed better in character writing. Radical awareness has been proved to have a mediation effect between the type of textbook and character writing. These findings provide important implications for selecting CHL textbook and designing CHL coursework. Specifically, it is crucial for CHL instructors to consider the timing of introducing radicals and establishing radical awareness to assist character recognition.