Investigation of a Chinese character writing app: Learners’ perspectives

Abstract

Many people who learn Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) have encountered challenges when it comes to character writing. This was a follow-up study of our quantitative study in 2019 that showed that mobile app was a significantly more effective method than pen-and-paper method to learn Chinese character writing. Thirty beginning CFL learners participated in this study. Surveys and interviews were conducted to seek their perspectives on the role of stroke order knowledge, the use of the mobile app in Chinese writing, and suggested ways to teach Chinese character writing. As shown in the results, findings demonstrated that the participants recognized the value of the app in their character learning. They held the view that stroke order not only plays an important role in Chinese writing, but also should be emphasized at the beginning level. Although the use of the app was favored, compared with the conventional pen-paper method, a mixed method of both was suggested for pedagogical practices.