Why Learning To Write Chinese Is a Waste of Time: A Modest Proposal

Joseph R. Allen

104 citations0/0 files storedForeign Language Annals

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning Linguistic Education and Pedagogy Language Acquisition and Education

Abstract

Abstract: This article argues that for students of Chinese and Japanese, learning to write Chinese characters (hanzi/kanji) by hand from memory is an inefficient use of resources. Rather, beginning students should focus on character/word recognition (reading) and electronic writing. Although electronic technologies have diminished the usefulness of Chinese character handwriting, its cultural importance remains. This leads to a hegemony of hanzi/kanji through which the assumed primacy of the written language is reinforced. After reviewing these conditions, strategies are offered to integrate handwriting skills with the new electronic writing technologies, creating an efficient and culturally sensitive program of instruction in hanzi/kanji writing. The article concludes with suggestions for further research needed to explore the theses of the essay.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 104 citations exist upstream.

References

2015Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci 1994Teaching Language in Context 1984The Chinese Language

Cited by

2013Reading, Writing, and Animation in Character Learning in Chinese as a Foreign Language 2017Effect of stroke-order learning and handwriting exercises on recognizing and writing Chinese characters by Chinese as a foreign language learners 2011Best Practices in Teaching Logographic and Non-Roman Writing Systems to L2 Learners 2021Comparison studies of typing and handwriting in Chinese language learning: A synthetic review 2018Understanding Chinese language teachers’ beliefs about themselves and their students in an English context 2013Chinese L2 Literacy Development: Cognitive Characteristics, Learning Strategies, and Pedagogical Interventions 2013Shall we delay teaching characters in teaching Chinese as a foreign language?2017Teaching Chinese in K–12 Schools in the United States: What Are the Challenges?

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.