Java array is lost when exiting method

I'm relatively new to java, and the passing by reference
without pointers confuses me a little. I wrote a function for homework that requires me
to return the length of user input, and assign use input to an array that is passed in,
when the method exits the user input array is lost, what is
wrong.

public static int
            readArray(char[] intoArray)
 {
 char[] capture =
            captureInputAsCharArray(); //User input comes back as char[]

            System.arraycopy(intoArray,0, capture, 0,
            capture.length);


 return capture.length;

            }

public static main(String[] args)
{
 size =
            readArray(arrItem7); // item 7
 System.out.println(size);

            printOneInLine(arrItem7); // prints individual elements of
            array
}