Effectiveness of applying a character-based teaching method to improve the proficiency of primary chinese as a second language

Learning Chinese as a second language (CSL) is difficult because visual characters of Chinese are complicated, and phonetic writing systems are different. The study aimed to develop a learning strategy for overcoming the difficulty in learning Chinese characters for CSL learners by implementing a combination of a character-based learning method and dual code theory of learning a second language with innovative memory based on cognitive psychology. The study targeted primary CSL learners among eighth-grade students of Grace Christian College, Philippines and analyzed the results of different teaching methods. The study investigated three research questions for different teaching methods, including a serial position effect, the effectiveness of learning Chinese characters (reading and writing), and the learning results of vocabulary. After a learning experience of 2 months, the result indicated that the character and vocabulary performance of students who received the character-based teaching method was superior to those who received the word-based teaching method. In addition, the effectiveness of learning Chinese characters among the primary CSL learners was consistent with the theory of the serial position effect.