Analysis of Difficulties in Chinese Character Learning for Intermediate and Advanced Korean Learners

Abstract

Chinese characters are beneficial for Chinese learning, but their complexity and high cost of the acquisition have been a factor restricting the development of learners’ Chinese proficiency. Chinese characters are composed of three-dimensional integration characterized as form, sound, and meaning, so their learning difficulties should be many. However, the academic research on the difficulties of Korean learners of Chinese characters mainly focuses on the study of the challenging points of the font, and it was based on the researchers’ point of view. Utilizing the method of error analysis to find learners’ difficulties in Chinese characters from top to bottom, fewer studies are conveying the specific difficulties of Chinese characters from the perspective of learners. Therefore, this article will use a hybrid research method to study the difficulties in the three dimensions of form, sound, and meaning in the learning of Chinese characters. For intermediate and advanced Korean learners, the viewpoint of combining top-down and bottom-up and try to fully explore the intermediate and advanced levels. Korean learners’ difficulties in learning Chinese characters and the reasons for the difficulties are to be known to help teach Chinese characters in the future.