The Effect of Pinyin Input Experience on the Link Between Semantic and Phonology of Chinese Character in Digital Writing

Abstract

With the development of ICT, digital writing is becoming much more common in people's life. Differently from keyboarding alphabets directly to input English words, keyboarding Chinese character is always through typing phonetic alphabets and then identify the glyph provided by Pinyin input-method software while in this process which do not need users to produce orthography spelling, thus it is different from traditional written language production model based on handwriting process. Much of the research in this domain has found that using Pinyin input method is beneficial to Chinese characters recognition, but only a small part explored the effects of individual's Pinyin input experience on the Chinese characters production process. We ask whether using Pinyin input-method will strengthen the semantic-phonology linkage or semantic-orthography linkage in Chinese character mental lexicon. Through recording the RT and accuracy of participants completing semantic-syllable and semantic-glyph consistency judgments, the results found the accuracy of semantic-syllable consistency judgments in high Pinyin input experienced group was higher than that in low-experienced group, and RT was reversed. There were no significant differences on semantic-glyph consistency judgments between the two groups. We conclude that using Pinyin input method in Chinese digital writing can strengthen the semantic-phonology linkage while do not weakening the semantic-orthography linkage in mental lexicon at the same time, which means that Pinyin input method is beneficial to lexical processing involving Chinese cognition.

The neural mechanisms underlying the processing of consonant, vowel and tone during Chinese typing: an fNIRS study

“…With advances in technology, typing and handwriting have become equally important in school education ( Mangen and Balsvik, 2016 ; Amez and Baert, 2020 ; Verhoeven et al, 2020 ). Previous research has found that handwriting enhances orthographic awareness while typing enhances phonological awareness and phonetic-semantic mapping in Chinese learning ( Chen et al, 2016a , b ; Guan and Wang, 2017 ). In addition, a review of case studies on handwriting and typing impairment found that both can serve as important indicators of stroke ( Sharma et al, 2019 ).…”

“…Although some studies have found that excessive use of typing may lead to a decline in handwriting speed and fluency and deterioration of handwriting motor skills ( Sülzenbrück et al, 2011 ), typing does have tremendous advantages in other aspects. For example, typing is much faster than writing, and the content of typing is more recognizable ( Chen et al, 2016a , b ).…”

“…Some studies have found that the cognitive processes underlying typing in English is similar to the handwriting system but different from the speech system. This was attributed to the consistency of the English typing and handwriting processes since they both require spelling out correct words directly through letter selection and arrangement, involving phonetic and orthographic processing of words ( Ouellette and Tims, 2014 ; Chen et al, 2016a , b ). According to this logic, the cognitive processes involved in typing should be more similar to speech production than handwriting in Chinese because the pinyin input method used for typing relies more on phonetic spelling ability than handwriting due to the low correspondence between orthographic and pronunciation ( Chen et al, 2009 ).…”

Modeling the relationships among teacher instruction, learner belief, and learning strategies in Chinese character learning by alphabetic learners

“…Many studies have supported the benefits of using typing for character learning. The Pinyin input experience strengthens the semantic-phonology linkage in learners' mental lexicon and improves character recognition, even for advanced learners (Chen et al, 2017). In addition, typing on computers helps learners to write and express their ideas because their vocabulary is not limited by their inability to write certain Chinese characters (Zhang and Min, 2019).…”

Internet use predicts Chinese character spelling performance of junior high school students: multiple mediating roles of pinyin input proficiency and net-speak experience

“…Therefore, children need both phonetics and written morphology to write Chinese characters. Pinyin input involves both the process of speech production and the recognition of Chinese characters ( Chen et al, 2017 ) by first typing Pinyin based on semantics and then selecting the desired character from alternative homophones. Numerous studies have found that pinyin input experience facilitates both phonological and orthographic processing, and that high proficiency in Pinyin input is beneficial for character recognition and further improves literacy performance.…”