TITLE:
The Impact of Voice-Interactive Multimodal Instruction on Chinese Character Literacy Outcomes and Cognitive Load in Early Primary School: A Pilot Study
AUTHORS:
Wuting Huang, Wei Zhu, Shirui Hong, Haosheng Lu, Lulu Shao
KEYWORDS:
Multimodal Interaction, Voice Interaction, Chinese Character Literacy, Cognitive Load, Lower Primary School
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.13 No.7,
July
22,
2026
ABSTRACT: Chinese character literacy instruction for lower primary grades is commonly confronted with practical challenges, including weak association between character form, sound and meaning, high cognitive load in single-modal learning, and poor sustained attention of students. As a pilot study, this research adopted a quasi-experimental design and recruited 44 second-grade students from two parallel classes of a primary school. The experimental group received literacy instruction via a speech-interactive multimodal system, while the control group used the traditional audio reading-aloud mode. After a 2-week teaching intervention, the effects of this teaching mode on students’ literacy performance, cognitive load and learning interest were investigated. The results indicated that the total literacy score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p