Abstract
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of different teaching strategies for English-speaking students learning Chinese as a second language. As Dual Coding Theory (DCT) emphasizes, both visual and acoustic input influence language acquisition positively; however, some teaching strategies emphasize only one type of input. The current study involved implementing three teaching strategies (i.e., paired-associate, translanguage, and a combination of both) at a weekend Chinese school. Students were given pre-tests, immediate post-tests, and delayed posttests to evaluate their learning of Chinese character names and meanings. The findings showed a main effect of time on children’s pronunciation and knowledge of meaning, with children showing immediate learning across all teaching strategies. Additionally, participants’ level of speaking confidence and gender predicted their performance.