Semantic Radical Influence On The Acquisition Of Chinese Characters In Italian Native Speakers:A Prototype Theory Perspective

This study investigates the impact of semantic radicals in the acquisition of Chinese characters for Italian language native speakers.We designed a language test consisting in multiple choice questions,whose answers included both real characters and non-real characters.The correct answers contained both high-transparency and low-transparency characters,divided across four different levels of difficulty.The research findings are:(1)the difficulty of the characters impacts the performance of the students,namely the higher the difficulty,the lower the scores,and the higher the number of students who scored low in the test;(2)the semantic radical has a positive impact most evidently in bachelor students of the second year,as students proceed from bachelor to master,the positive impact becomes progressively lower;(3)third year bachelor students have been dramatically impacted both from the difficulty of the characters and the semantic radical presence during their test,representing an exception to the general trend;(4)overall,the negative impact of the semantic radical emerges mainly in second year bachelor students,though such impact tends to be relatively mild.