Abstract
Yale-China Chinese Language Centre (CLC) offers credit-bearing and non-credit-bearing Putonghua courses to CUHK international students and Cantonese-speaking students. The needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-2019 project: CSL Initiatives: Needs analysis and Tutorial System) conducted in 2018 and surveys done by CUHK indicate that international students at the University have academic and practical needs in learning Putonghua. The needs analysis (2018) provided information for designing and implementing a peer tutoring system for Putonghua and Cantonese learners. The practices in the peer tutoring sessions were well-received by international students. As indicated in this needs analysis (2018), using multimedia materials was another strategy which Putonghua learners were willing to adopt in addition to learning in language classroom and practicing in peer tutoring sessions. In the needs analysis (2018), 60.2% (n=1010) respondents, including international and local students, were intended to use multimedia materials to learn Putonghua, especially to improve listening comprehension skills and to arouse their cultural awareness. There is a need of multimedia Putonghua learning materials designed for international students, including students in the Centre for China Studies, to enhance their Putonghua learning. This project aims at producing and providing a series of multimedia micro-modules to be used in a number of Putonghua language courses (including 3-unit, 2-unit and 1-unit courses) and to suit the needs of CUHK international students.
One half-time technician assists the project supervisor to collect data in the scriptwriting and preparation phase, to coordinate student helpers to make educational videos, to produce multimedia teaching and learning materials (specially to assist in audio and video recording and editing), to help trouble shooting, to promote the use of the micro-modules, as well as to collect students’ feedback in the form of questionnaire survey and focused group meetings.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
Yale-China Chinese Language Centre (CLC) offers credit-bearing and non-credit-bearing Putonghua courses to CUHK international students and Cantonese-speaking students. The needs analysis (TDLEG 2016-19 project: CSL Initiatives: Needs analysis and Tutorial System) conducted in 2018 and surveys done by CUHK indicate that international students at the University have academic and practical needs in learning Putonghua. The needs analysis (2018) indicated that using multimedia materials was another strategy which Putonghua learners were willing to adopt in addition to learning in language classroom and practising in peer tutoring sessions. In the needs analysis (2018), 60.2% (n=1010) of respondents, including international and local students, were intended to use multimedia materials to learn Putonghua, especially to improve listening comprehension skills and to arouse their cultural awareness. There is a need for multimedia Putonghua learning materials designed for international students, including students in the Centre for China Studies, to enhance their Putonghua learning. This project aims at producing and providing a series of multimedia micro-modules to be used in a number of Putonghua language courses (including 3-unit, 2-unit and 1-unit courses) and to suit the needs of CUHK international students.
Activities, process and outcomes
15 Mandarin-speaking CUHK students are recruited as student helpers to work on 30 micro-modules. A team of 15 Mandarin-speaking students was formed and the PI leads the team to prepare and produce a series of multimedia micro-modules. This project is a pioneer project to produce short educational multimedia materials to demonstrate the use of Putonghua and introduce Chinese culture to international students. The team was trained and engaged in the curriculum design and materials preparation in language teaching. Workshops were held to train the student team and equip the team with basic techniques in making educational materials for language teaching and learning.
Deliverables and evaluation
30 micro-modules will be adopted by University Putonghua courses and tutoring sessions. Each micro-module contains pedagogical asynchronous videos and learning materials of 3-8 minutes. The micro-modules contain videos and learning materials displaying the use of Putonghua and introducing Putonghua language and culture. The content consists of pedagogical materials of Putonghua language and culture:
1. brief history of cities and provinces in China,
2. food culture,
3. geographical knowledge,
4. literature reading,
5. museums and art,
6. popular culture,
7. sights of major cities and provinces,
8. songs and television drama
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
The deliverables and project outcomes will be presented in CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo and in international conferences.
Impact on teaching and learning
The design of the proposed micro-modules throws light on teaching materials design in the second/foreign language teaching field. The outcomes could be promoted within the Yale-China Chinese Language Centre and applied in the University Programme Section of the Centre. Collaboration and exchange could be fostered with departments and units at the university, such as the Centre for China Studies, Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages, and Department of Chinese Language and Literature.
