Save Your Strokes: Chinese Handwriting Practice Makes for Ineffective Use of Instructional Time in Second Language Classrooms

Abstract

Handwriting practice is the most time-consuming activity for learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). CFL instruc-tors report allocating at least one third of their course time to handwriting practice although it prevents students from engag-ing in meaningful communication, especially in the earliest stages of learning. Given the amount of time students spend in a college course is relatively fixed, the preregistered study presented herein examines the best use of students’ time when pri-mary goals are word acquisition and communication. This work replicates a pilot study examining CFL word recognition in an online learning environment (ASSISTments) and the effects of supplemental handwriting practice. We examined word acquisition and recognition while manipulating condition (no-handwriting practice and with-handwriting practice), and post-test test point (1 [immediate], 2 [1 day delay], and 3 [1 week delay]). Two-way repeated measures analyses of variance revealed significant main effects for both condition and posttest test point in online and on-paper measures of word recognition and handwriting. Potential implications for CFL instruction and directions for future work are discussed.