L2 learning of opaque Chinese compounds through elaborative encoding

What is it about?

This study develops a method called elaborative encoding to improve the learning of opaque Chinese compounds by adult Chinese learners. The meanings of opaque Chinese compounds have partial to little overlap with the meanings of their constituent characters (e.g. 薪水, xin1shui3, firewood-water, 'salary'). The literary translations and the word meanings are connected by a metaphor. For 薪水, the metaphor is that firewood and water are paid by salary. Elaborative encoding teaches these metaphors.

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Why is it important?

Around 70% compounds are more or less opaque in Chinese. These opaque compounds are difficult to memorize. First, the learners may not know the meanings of the constituent characters. Second, even if they know those characters, they may not know the metaphors.