Abstract
Yale–China Chinese Language Centre (CLC) is a unit specialized in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). CLC offers credit-bearing Cantonese courses for international students, non-local Mandarin speaking students and exchange students as well as credit-bearing Putonghua courses for local students, non-local students and exchange students. CLC also offers non-credit Cantonese and Putonghua courses for students since 2017 (TDLEG 2016-19). A needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-19) conducted in 2018 indicated that students request learning supports, such as tutoring sessions and other learning aids, associated with the formal curriculum to assist their CSL learning. A CSL tutorial system has been piloted (TDLEG 2016-19) for two groups of CSL students, namely students learning Cantonese as a second language (CanSL) as well as students learning Putonghua as a second language. The piloted tutorial system received positive feedback from CSL students, peer tutors, and course teachers.
To be in line with University’s vision which states the importance of “bilingual and multicultural” abilities and foster internationalization within CUHK, this project aims at maintaining and expanding the tutoring system in the 2019-22 triennium for CUHK students learning CanSL.
One half-time Research Assistant and student helpers are needed in this project to work on a peer tutoring system for CUHK non-local students and international students learning CanSL. The team will be led by the PI. This project will benefit CUHK students, including international students, non-local Mandarin speaking students, as well as exchange students learning CanSL.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
Yale-China Chinese Language Centre (CLC) is a unit specialized in teaching Chinese as a second language (CSL). CLC offers credit-bearing Cantonese courses to international students, non-local Mandarin-speaking students, and exchange students. CLC has also offered non-credit Cantonese and Putonghua courses for students since 2017 (TDLEG 2016-19). A needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-19) conducted in 2018 indicated that students request learning supports, such as tutoring sessions and other learning aids, associated with the formal curriculum to assist their Cantonese learning. A tutorial system has been piloted (TDLEG 2016-19) for CUHK students learning Chinese (Cantonese/Putonghua) as a second language. The piloted tutorial system received positive feedback from students, peer tutors, and course teachers. To be in line with the University’s vision which states the importance of “bilingual and multicultural” abilities and foster internationalization within CUHK, this project aims at maintaining and expanding the tutoring system in the 2019-22 triennium for CUHK students learning Cantonese as a second language (CanSL). The PI of this project leads a team consisting of 1 Research Assistant and student helpers to work on a peer tutoring system for CUHK international students and Mandarin-speaking students learning CanSL. This project can benefit CUHK students, including international students, Mandarin-speaking students, as well as exchange students learning CanSL.
Activities, process and outcomes
The peer tutoring system provides opportunities for CanSL students to use the target language outside classes with their peers at the university. The needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-19) indicated that CanSL students lack opportunities to use the target language with their peer group. Semi-structured peer tutorial sessions, workshops, and cultural tours in this project could foster the use of the target language among students with diverse backgrounds, enhance the language learning experience of CanSL students, eventually promote mutual help among students with different linguistic backgrounds and internationalization at home.
The implementation was affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. In Spring Term 2019-20, all teaching was changed to online synchronous teaching mode. The CanSL peer tutoring system also needed to change to an online synchronous mode. In Spring Term 2019-20 and Summer Term 2019-20, work has been done on peer tutors’ training (training CUHK student helpers using zoom and online synchronous mode to run the peer tutoring sessions and workshops) and at the same time helping CUHK students who were taking CanSL courses resided in separate locations. The majority of the CanSL students are international and Mandarin-speaking students who were staying outside Hong Kong during the pandemic. Spring Term 2019-20 and Summer 2019-20 focused on training and piloting the online synchronous mode in peer tutoring. The system is stable and fully launched in Fall Term 2020-21 onward.
Deliverables and evaluation
The system is stable and fully launched in Fall Term 2020-21 onward. From Fall Term 2020-21 onward, a total of 20 CUHK students were trained as CanSL peer tutors, 63 peer tutoring groups (441 peer tutoring sessions) and 16 language and culture workshops and 25 Interactive online tours were organised. Around 500 Mandarin-speaking students and 100 international students (a total of 600 CUHK CanSL students) are participating in the Cantonese peer tutoring system. The Cantonese peer tutoring system consists of peer tutoring sessions, Cantonese language and culture workshops, as well as interactive online tours.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
The PI shared the experiences and outcomes of this project in departmental workshops, CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo 2021, General Education seminar, and 2 international conferences. The PI continues to disseminate good practices in international conferences. Attempts will also be made to submit for publication.
An Instagram account has been operating to disseminate information relating to this project and to set up an online Cantonese learning community.
Impact on teaching and learning
The proposed peer tutoring system can provide opportunities for CanSL students to use the target language outside classes with their peers at the university. The needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-19) indicated that CanSL students lack opportunities to use the target language with their peer group. It is observed that the peer group tends to use English to communicate with international students and Putonghua to communicate with Mandarin-speaking students. Semi-structured peer tutorial sessions, workshops and cultural tours could foster the use of the target language among students with diverse backgrounds, enhance the language learning experience of CanSL students, and eventually promote mutual help among students with different linguistic backgrounds and internationalization at home.
Online synchronous teaching mode was tried out in credit-bearing courses with students with satisfactory results. The majority of the international and non-local students who stayed outside Hong Kong because of the pandemic benefited from this teaching mode. The potential to develop this delivery mode and run the peer tutoring system, in the long run, can be further investigated.
