Chemistry has been looked upon as a challenging subject by teachers, students and researchers because of the abstract nature of content in chemistry, teaching styles applied in class, and the difficulty of the language of chemistry. Cognitive load for the novice learner has a significant role in creating difficulties in chemistry learning.…

The research was conducted in Sydney and Hong Kong using students, from grades 5 to 9, whose first language or teaching medium was English, learning to read Chinese as second language. According to cognitive load theory, the processing of single Chinese characters accompanied by pictures should impose extraneous cognitive load and thus hinders…