A cognition-based interactive game platform for learning Chinese characters

Abstract

Evidence observed in classrooms and findings reported in neurolinguistic research have suggested that awareness of the correspondence between graphemes and phonemes in Chinese is instrumental for effective learning of Chinese characters. We collected and analyzed errors in written Chinese characters, and found that phonologically related factors also participated in a large proportion of the reported errors. To verify and evaluate the influence of the phonetic awareness on learning Chinese, we built interactive games for computer assisted learning of Chinese characters. A software tool was implemented to recommend Chinese characters that are phonetically or visually similar, and we applied this tool to assist the task of selecting useful characters in designing the games. We discuss the related findings of ours and the designs of the games, but results of the final evaluation will be available only in the oral presentation. © 2011 ACM.