This study explores the effectiveness of the autonomous practice of Chinese characters through an app. Some 45 participants with no prior Chinese knowledge were trained using character-building tasks in three different modes: (a) teacher-assisted; (b) app-assisted with necessary parts/radicals; (c) app-assisted with extra parts/radicals as distractors. The results of subsequent tests indicated that all three training modes effectively improved reading and writing of Chinese characters. However, the two app-assisted groups demonstrated a more significant improvement in writing accuracy. Besides, participants from the app-assisted group with additional parts/radicals out-performed the other two groups in terms of the accuracy of writing structures and parts/radicals. These findings suggest that incorporating app-assisted exercises, especially those that challenge learners with distractors, can effectively augment traditional learning methods.
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