Designing a Technology-Enhanced Board Game Based on Recognition-Handwriting Separation to Boost Chinese Character Learning

Abstract

This study investigated how a technology-enhanced board game, the Chinese Character Component Monster (3CM) system, grounded in the recognition–handwriting separation (RHS) approach, supports young learners’ Chinese literacy development. The 3CM system integrates tangible gameplay and lightweight digital features such as speech recognition and augmented reality etymology videos to enhance component recognition, orthographic awareness, and motivation. A quasi-experimental design involving 58 second-grade students and two teachers compared 3CM with a text-only board game over three weeks. Quantitative data were analyzed using ANCOVA and t-tests, while qualitative data from post-intervention focus group interviews underwent thematic analysis. Results showed that students using 3CM significantly outperformed the control group in component recognition and orthographic awareness, and reported higher value, confidence, and interest in learning. These findings demonstrate the pedagogical potential of low-tech, multimodal, and gamified literacy tools that effectively integrate cognitive, motivational, and interactive learning principles for early Chinese character instruction.

Keywords

Chinese character recognition learning motivation multimodal learning recognition-handwriting separation (RHS) approach technology-enhanced board game

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