A study on the time course of orthographic, phonological, and semantic activation of Chinese heritage language learners under different experimental tasks

Inherited language acquisition is different from both native speaker acquisition and second language acquisition, but it also has some characteristics of both. Based on the priming paradigm of phonology, semantics, and orthography, with participants comprising different types of Chinese learners, this study investigates the time course of phonological, semantic, and orthographic activation in Chinese character recognition among Chinese heritage language learners under different stimulus onset asynchronies conditions. The findings reveal that: (1) The time course of the activation of Chinese character recognition is not related to the experimental task, with intermediate Chinese heritage language learners exhibiting a form-sound-meaning sequence, and advanced Chinese heritage language learners exhibiting a form-meaning-sound sequence; (2) As Chinese proficiency improves, the time course of orthographic, phonological, and semantic activation in Chinese character recognition among Chinese heritage language learners transitions from patterns observed in advanced second language learners to those of native speakers. The causes of the above research findings were analyzed based on the 'Characteristics of Chinese Heritage Language Learners' and the 'Competitive Model of Language Comprehension and Learning'. This study has the following implications, first, it is necessary to subdivide the types of Chinese non-native speakers. It is not possible to homogenize Chinese second language learners and Chinese heritage language learners. Second, the teaching of Chinese characters for Chinese heritage language learners should be focused on different levels of Chinese.