Does pinyin help or hinder young Chinese foreign language learners?

Abstract

Pinyin, a Romanization system representing Chinese speech, is used to facilitate Chinese literacy for first language (L1) Chinese speakers. It also serves as a tool for Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners, enabling them to decode the pronunciation of Chinese characters. However, some educators worry that CFL learners focus on Pinyin more than characters, which may delay Chinese reading skills. This is the first study to measure the eye movements of elementary school Chinese dual language immersion (DLI) students when reading characters with Pinyin placed above. It is a partial replication of a study done in Beijing with second-grade L1 Chinese readers (Yan, Ming, Kevin F. Miller, Hong Li & Hua Shu. 2008. What is the place for Pinyin in beginning Chinese reading? Evidence from eye movements. In Keith Rayner, Deli Shen, Xuejun Bai & Guoli Yan (eds.), Cognitive and cultural influences on eye movement , 343–360. Tianjin: Tianjin People’s Publishing House). While the Beijing students looked at the Pinyin above unfamiliar characters, they rarely looked at it above familiar characters. In contrast, the American DLI students looked at Pinyin significantly more than they looked at the characters, even when it was above familiar characters. Pedagogical applications are suggested.