Teaching Chinese Characters in the Digital Age

Caitríona Osborne is an Assistant Professor in the Irish Institute for Chinese Studies at University College Dublin, Ireland.Danping Wang is a Senior Lecturer of Chinese in the School of Cultures, Languages and Linguistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.Qi Zhang is an Assistant Professor in the School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies at Dublin City University, Ireland.

“This volume brings together nine perspectives from colleagues in several English—speaking countries, all of whom explore the question of which new possibilities for teaching character writing in CFL classes the digital age can offer, and delves deeply into different aspects of that matter. … the volume provides a diverse and contemporary overview of the topic, drawing on an impressive corpus of empirical research and recent literature.” (Andreas Guder, CHUN - Chinesisch Unterricht, Issue 40, 2025)

• 1. Introduction (Caitríona Osborne, Danping Wang, and Qi Zhang).- Theme I: Teaching and Learning Chinese Characters Online.- 2. Chinese Character Instruction during Emergency Remote Teaching: A Review Study (Linda Lei and Danping Wang).- 3. Investigating the Student Perspective on the Present and Future of Teaching Chinese Characters Online (Caitríona Osborne).- Theme II: Critical Perspectives Regarding Typing Chinese Characters in the CFL Classroom.- 4. The E-writing Approach to L2 Chinese Pedagogy: Educational Imperative and Empirical Evidence (Matthew D. Coss).- 5. Embodied Learning of Chinese Characters Through Typing and Handwriting in the Multimodal Virtual Space: Implications for a Digital Future (Qi Zhang).- Theme III: Development of Methodologies and Theories for Character Teaching.- 6. Enhancing Understanding and Engagement with the Chinese Writing System in Second Language Classrooms (Andrew Scrimgeour).- 7. Visual Skill and Orthographic Decomposition in Character Learning (Yi Xu).- 8. Psycholinguistic Research Related to Chinese Character Recognition: Implications for CFL Teaching (Xi Fan and Ronan Rilly).- Reflective Narrative.- 9. Reflections on Learning Chinese Characters (Bob Adamson).