Visual Skill and Orthographic Decomposition in Character Learning

This chapter explores the role of visual skills in Chinese as a Foreign Language (CLF) students’ character learning. It begins by examining the theoretical foundations, assessment measures and empirical evidence concerning the relationship between perceptual visual skills, visual-orthographic skills and the acquisition of Chinese characters. Subsequently, the chapter underscores the need for pedagogical consideration of the basic perceptual unit of characters, or “chunks”, with data from a survey study on students’ and teachers’ perceptions. Furthermore, I report an exploratory study that investigated CFL students’ performance in visual chunking, with specific attention to different characters’ internal configurations. Through discussions from these perspectives, readers will have a better understanding of how students’ orthography-specific visual skills develop as they gain more experience in learning, and how students can harness this perceptual aspect of orthographic awareness to facilitate character learning.