Strategies used in learning Chinese vocabulary by adolescent Mandarin-Korean bilinguals in Korea

This present study investigated the Chinese vocabulary learning strategies of adolescent learners of Mandarin at two heritage language (HL) schools in Korea. A total of 450 participants from two secondary schools completed the Vocabulary Learning Strategy Inventory (VLSI). The quantitative analysis of the questionnaires was conducted through exploratory factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) in order to explore the Chinese vocabulary learning strategies and learner variables. The results found that ethnicity made no statistical differences in the four VLSI factors, but students’ gender, home language use, Chinese proficiency, and nationality caused statistical differences in vocabulary learning strategies. This study can contribute to re-developing the VLSI for traditional character learning and the Sinographosphere context. The findings shed light on how individual learner differences relate to Chinese vocabulary learning strategies, which yields pedagogical implications. Copyright © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.