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Memorisation strategies and the adolescent learner of Mandarin as a foreign language

Memorisation strategies and the adolescent learner of Mandarin as a foreign language
Memorisation strategies and the adolescent learner of Mandarin as a foreign language
A combination of powerful political and economic factors has led to increasing interest in learning languages such as Mandarin Chinese and those of the Indian sub-continent. A particular challenge for those from an alphabet-based background can be learning the different script. Whilst there has been considerable research into the strategies adult students use to learn English and other European languages, less is known about learning Mandarin Chinese, and more specifically about the strategies beginner students use to tackle memorising the characters. This paper reports on a study of students aged between 11 and 15 years learning Chinese as a foreign language in an inner London school. Drawing on the results of a ‘think-aloud’ activity carried out with 10 students, a questionnaire was administered to 190 students to indicate their strategy use. The findings show that as well as using ‘generic’ strategies, common to learning any language, students develop Mandarin-specific strategies. Principal axis factor analysis suggests that the beginner-students sift through their prior knowledge to identify a ‘tag’ to memorising the characters. A focus on the shapes in the character as a whole as well as on its individual components constitutes a necessary starting point for this process. The effort involved can, however, leave little cognitive space for the deployment of time-consuming but higher level strategies. The article ends by addressing some pedagogical implications.
0898-5898
1-13
Grenfell, Michael
3f1954ca-ee82-46df-bd31-0b6c9c390ab1
Harris, Vee
318b5ed0-3ee5-49bd-b162-f3d594f5557f
Grenfell, Michael
3f1954ca-ee82-46df-bd31-0b6c9c390ab1
Harris, Vee
318b5ed0-3ee5-49bd-b162-f3d594f5557f

Grenfell, Michael and Harris, Vee (2015) Memorisation strategies and the adolescent learner of Mandarin as a foreign language. Linguistics and Education, 31, 1-13. (doi:10.1016/j.linged.2015.04.002).

Record type: Article

Abstract

A combination of powerful political and economic factors has led to increasing interest in learning languages such as Mandarin Chinese and those of the Indian sub-continent. A particular challenge for those from an alphabet-based background can be learning the different script. Whilst there has been considerable research into the strategies adult students use to learn English and other European languages, less is known about learning Mandarin Chinese, and more specifically about the strategies beginner students use to tackle memorising the characters. This paper reports on a study of students aged between 11 and 15 years learning Chinese as a foreign language in an inner London school. Drawing on the results of a ‘think-aloud’ activity carried out with 10 students, a questionnaire was administered to 190 students to indicate their strategy use. The findings show that as well as using ‘generic’ strategies, common to learning any language, students develop Mandarin-specific strategies. Principal axis factor analysis suggests that the beginner-students sift through their prior knowledge to identify a ‘tag’ to memorising the characters. A focus on the shapes in the character as a whole as well as on its individual components constitutes a necessary starting point for this process. The effort involved can, however, leave little cognitive space for the deployment of time-consuming but higher level strategies. The article ends by addressing some pedagogical implications.

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e-pub ahead of print date: 16 May 2015
Published date: September 2015

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 390683
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/390683
ISSN: 0898-5898
PURE UUID: 5fa30970-9205-4a35-9a66-368fb17f1c91
ORCID for Michael Grenfell: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2038-0317

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Date deposited: 18 Jan 2017 15:20
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 02:42

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Author: Michael Grenfell ORCID iD
Author: Vee Harris

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