Effects of type of multimedia strategy on learning of Chinese characters for non-native novices Ming-Puu Chen * , Li-Chun Wang, Hsiu-Ju Chen, Yu-Chu Chen National Taiwan Normal University,162, He-Ping East Road, Sec.1, Da-An District, Taipei City 10610, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 2 January 2013 Received in revised form 29 July 2013 Accepted 30 July 2013 Keywords: Applications in subject areas Improving classroom teaching Multimedia/hypermedia systems Pedagogical issues abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of multimedia strategies for instructional tech- niques and practice on non-native novices’ Chinese character learning performance and cognitive load. Two types of multimedia instructional presentations – radical-highlighted and stroke-pronunciation – and two types of practice – visual cue and voice cue – were implemented. Participants were 81 non- native novices randomly assigned to one of the four experimental groups, namely radical-highlighted visual-cue, radical-highlighted voice-cue, stroke-pronunciation visual-cue and stroke-pronunciation voice-cue. An Internet-based e-learning course on the basis of Chinese characters was implemented and delivered as experimental instruction using a Moodle platform. The results show that, for non-native novices, the stroke-pronunciation (SP) strategy of showing strokes with pronunciations is better than the radical-highlighted (RH) strategy, enabling the novices to achieve better performance in identifying Chinese radicals. The significant two-way interactions suggest that (1) the SP presentation should be delivered with the voice-cue (VoC) practice to elicit better performance in writing and in identifying characters and strokes, and (2) the RH presentation should be delivered with visual-cue (ViC) practice to elicit better performance in character writing. Furthermore, participants showed similar levels of perceived cognitive load toward the stroke-based task and the radical-based task. However, when the SP presentation was delivered with the VoC practice, participants revealed lower perceived cognitive load toward the writing task. Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In recent years, due to the enormous global economic change, learning Mandarin Chinese has become a pervasive need for people of different societies to get familiar with both the Chinese language and culture (Lo Bianco, 2007). Such an increase in Chinese learners has resulted in greater demands of educational materials. Accordingly, research on Chinese learning for non-native novices has come into focus in the academic field. With the increasing usage of information technology, the application of multimedia technology in facilitating Chinese learning has become an emerging trend and is promoted by the researchers of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL). Due to the fact that characters are the most fundamental objects of the Chinese language, identifying and comprehending the meanings of characters is the very first step for non-native novices in learning Chinese. However, foreign learners usually encounter difficulties in learning Chinese characters because Chinese characters look like pictures, and foreign learners can hardly understand the meanings. According to the dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1986) and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2001), appropriately presented information with visual and verbal codes can enhance learning. In light of these concerns, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of multimedia instructional strategies on non-native novices’ learning of Chinese character identification and meaning comprehension. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: mpchen@ntnu.edu.tw, mpchen@ice.ntnu.edu.tw (M.-P. Chen), cct101wang@gmail.com (L.-C. Wang), tkucutpingu@yahoo.com.tw (H.-J. Chen), katiey- chen@gmail.com (Y.-C. Chen). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2013.07.042 Computers & Education 70 (2014) 41–52