Abstract

Many students without any background on Chinese characters find characters to be one of the biggest hurdles in learning Chinese. This project aims to ease students’ beginning journeys in learning Chinese by providing background knowledge in Chinese characters in a low-pressure environment, with practical examples based on signs found on campus and supplemented by basic daily conversations. 

Due to the nature and time constraints of the level one courses, characters and the history behind them are not individually taught in lecture. As a result, students without any background in Chinese characters may feel overwhelmed when they encounter Chinese characters in their first Chinese course, while students who have knowledge on basic Chinese characters may not necessarily have a systematic understanding of the history and culture behind the characters. In this pre-level one course, all students will benefit from learning about Chinese character formation and common Chinese radicals, with examples drawn from real-world signs that students will likely encounter in their quotidian campus life. 

One full-time junior research assistant will be employed to assist the project supervisors in gathering real-life examples and developing the course materials.  

Brief write-up

Project objectives

The main objective was to develop a taster course for international students who are interested in learning Putonghua and Chinese characters. The purpose of this taster course is to attract more students to take Putonghua courses at Yale–China Chinese Language Centre (CLC) to contribute to the University’s goal of internationalization at home.

Activities, process and outcomes

A list of Chinese characters and signs to be used was compiled, the characters were researched in-depth, English explanations for the characters and for the animations’ storyline were recorded by native English speakers, hand-drawn animations were created for the explanations for the Chinese characters, animation videos were created for the English storyline using the cloud-based software Animaker, and the final videos were compiled through sound and video editing. Furthermore, online exercises, character stroke order videos, and handwriting practice sheets were also created.

Deliverables and evaluation

6 micro-modules were created and the total duration of the micro-modules is approximately 200 minutes. All project objectives have been achieved and the project kept in line with the indicated University themes of curriculum design and internationalization at home, as well as the University’s strategic plans, priorities, and goals.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

The taster course is advertised on CLC’s website, displayed in the course catalogue on CUSIS, and is currently live on KEEP.

Impact on teaching and learning

Student feedback has been positive, with some reporting that the videos are interesting, detailed yet not overwhelming, and straightforward.