Orthographic facilitation in oral vocabulary learning: effects of language backgrounds and orthographic type

Two experiments investigated whether exposure to Chinese characters and pinyin would facilitate oral vocabulary learning for Chinese as a first (L1) and second (L2) language learners. In Experiment 1, 48 second Chinese graders studied 15 made-up associations between spoken labels and pictures accompanied either by no orthography, by pinyin, or regular characters in a repeated measures design. Pictures prompted recall of spoken labels without orthography present on tests. Results showed that both regular characters and pinyin boosted recall over no orthography. In Experiment 2, 19 American undergraduates as Chinese foreign language learners learned the same 15 label-picture associations in a similar design. Results showed pinyin facilitation, but no character facilitation. The findings highlight the influence of L1 on the role of orthography in oral vocabulary learning in L2, and have implications for vocabulary instruction in Chinese as L1 and L2 learners.