Learning Chinese Characters Approach Based on the Association between Character Components.

Learning Chinese Characters Approach Based on the Association between Character Components Chung-Ching Wang National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Yu-Lin Chang National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan Hsueh-Chih Chen National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan Ming-Liang Wei National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan Yi-Ling Chung National Cheng Kung Univeristy, Tainan, Taiwan Jon-Fan Hu National Cheng Kung Univeristy, Tainan, Taiwan Abstract: Chinese has been recognized as one of most major languages in the world, and many people are learning Chinese; thus a method for learning Chinese characters is a significant issue. Many studies have developed various approaches to learning Chinese characters to demonstrate to learners how to read Chinese characters. In Chinese, the character components can offer learners with phonological and morphological meanings similar to those of the prefix and suffix in English. Additionally, when the components have strong connections, learners are more capable of readily learning and recognizing the characters containing these components. However, very few studies have discussed or exploited the associations among components for this purpose. In this study, we have developed an effective and systematic approach of learning Chinese characters based on the associations between character components. The purpose of the study is to propose a traditional Chinese component learning metric and present a method for learning only a few components and then developing the ability to read characters made up of those components. Using the characteristics of associations of components can provide an effective and systematic traditional Chinese component learning order by which to learn Chinese traditional characters.