Teach Chinese characters by the stroke orders

In the viewpoint of many native speakers, some of the foreign Chinese language learners seem to “copy and draw” the words rather than “write” the characters when they write in Chinese. One of the reasons for this impression is that the concept of stroke orders is not particularly emphasized in TCSFL (Teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language). Following the specific stroke orders when learning how to write each character is still significant in the native kids’ literacy education. However, out of the tacit consensus that “Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to be learned in the world”, many Chinese teachers tend to reduce the “obstacles” as much as possible to hope the beginning learners won’t be terrified so they will continue to learn this ancient language.

However, is learning the stroke orders a waste of time or “barriers” for the Chinese learners? According to the research[1], learning stroke orders can considerably help identify new words because the stroke orders reflect the logic of the Chinese characters structure system, which is actually reinforcement for recognizing Chinese characters. Having learned the 8 basic strokes 29 compound strokes and the 9 stroke orders, students will not “create” new characters as easily as before when they had no concept of the stroke order in the process of copying vocabulary down to their workbook. The more characters students learn and copy, the clearer concept of Chinese character structure will be established in learners’ minds. The clearer character structure can be built, the more quickly learners can requisite new characters.

However, the way of teaching and building-up the concept of stroke orders can be improved. The traditional way of teaching Chinese characters with a teacher-center modeling on board can be replaced and added variety of elements nowadays when a range of ICT resources available.

For example, showing the character stroke order animation:

Or, showing the stoke orders in characters’ practice worksheets [see “Create worksheets for practicing Chinese characters”]:

It may take time to teach the rules of the stroke orders in the beginning level. However, they are worth to be introduced because after the beginning level, students will have the ability to self-study the characters so the learning of the new vocabulary does not have to start from the recognition and writing practice of the characters. The class time can be used to produce more communicative language teaching/learning.

[1] Flores d'Arcais, G. (1994). Order of strokes writing as a cue for retrieval in reading Chinese characters. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 6(4), 337 - 355.

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