Classroom Action Research Classroom Action Research ProjectProject

TITLE: THE ROLE OF CHINESE WORD CARD PLAYING IN MANDA

RIN LEARNING

By Xu Hong

.

Research question:

What is the effect of Chinese word play cards on grade 7 students’ abilities to learn and memorize Chinese words? What are the visual effects of the cards if the cards embody pictures, English meanings, Chinese phonetic guidance, and Chinese characters.

The goal of the project:

Find an effective way to teach American students Chinese vocabulary in a fun way, integrating language learning with 5 “Cs” (Communication, culture, connection, comparison, community.” (ACTFL Performance Guideline sets 5c’s for K-12 foreign language learners, with communication as the first one)

Goal of language learning (5c’s)

The mainstream current literature on the subject suggests the main goal of language teaching as to equip our students with the ability to communicate in the target language. communicate in the target language.

The benefits to using Chinese play cards The benefits to using Chinese play cards aiming at promoting communicative language aiming at promoting communicative language learning through card tasks and games learning through card tasks and games can be summarizedcan be summarized asas

meaning is primary;

there is a learning task or review task of some sorts.

the activity has some relationship to real-world (food, fruit, color, nature, family members), some cards involve useful sentence pattern, such “I like …...”

task is integrated with games

task performance can be assessed in terms of the outcome (*quotes from Skehan, 1998, p. 95).

an influential educator in Second Languge Acquisition. He is also the leading figure promoting cognitive approach of language learning and task- based instructions. His philosophy has been widely recognized by ELT (English Language Teaching) teachers in China. In this action research project, I try to adopt his language teaching ideology into American foreign language classroom, with Chinese as a foreign language.

Peter Skehan is

Description of the research activity outline :

1. Pre activity : I lead the students to recognize 10 new words ( same category, eg. fruits). I use big teaching flash cards and projector to do instruction. (Time frame 10-15 minutes)

2. Then, Students will get 2-3 inches (Width, length) small play cards to play with these new words. (Time frame: 20 minutes for card play activity)

Rules of the card games: Every 2 students form a

pair. They will get these 10 word cards they have just learned. First they need to together figure out these words between themselves. They need to know the pronunciation, meaning, most of all, they need to work on remember the Chinese words without

looking at the cards.

Each student will have 5 cards in his or her hands. Then similar to playing card game, they need to win the card from their partners’ hands during the little game. I give students suggestions as how to set up rules for winning:

Winning

At a certain time, the student who has more cards in his hands is regarded as the winner between the two. The students can also shuffle the cards between different rounds or they can create their own rules to make it more difficult (Eg: Just showing the picture to get the words out, or just show the character to get the correct words, etc)

Data collection method After game checking/testing At the end of 20 minutes, data will be collected

by testing individual pair to see how many words they remember ( I give English, they answer in Chinese. They can not see any cards or have any reference). I will record how many Chinese words they remember accurately. Eventually, I will calculate the average number (No. of Words *per pair).

Data

Following are 4 days observation ， resulting from using different combinations of variables: Picture image; Pinyin (Chinese phonetic pronunciation guidance); Chinese character.

Students’ play CARDS with picture guidance, pinyin, English translation, Chinese characters

Pair ( Group A) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

English-Chinese 7 7 6 8 6 6 8 9

Chinese-English 8 9 8 9 6 9 7 9

Table A.1 Date: Oct. 5, 2010

Students’ play CARDS with pinyin, English translation, Chinese characters ( without Picture guidance)

Pair (Group A) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

English-Chinese 6 7 6 7 6 5 8 8

Chinese-English 6 7 7 8 6 6 7 9

Table A.2 Date: Oct. 6, 2010

Group A

Data

Students’ play CARDS with picture guidance, English translation, Chinese characters (with out Chinese characters)

Pair ( Group A ) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

English-Chinese 7 7 6 8 6 6 8 9

Chinese-English 8 9 8 8 6 9 7 8

Table A.4 Date: Oct. 8, 2010

Students’ play CARDS with picture guidance, English translation, Chinese characters (with out Pinyin)

Pair (Group A)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

English-Chinese

7 7 6 8 6 6 8 9

Chinese-English

8 9 8 8 6 9 7 9

Table A.3 Date: Oct. 7, 2010

Group A

Data

Group B data Students’ play CARDS with picture guidance, pinyin, English translation, Chinese characters

Pair ( Group B)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

English-Chinese

7 7 6 8 6 6 8

Chinese-English

8 9 8 8 6 7 9

Table B.1 Date: Oct 5, 2010

Students’ play CARDS with pinyin, English translation, Chinese characters ( without Picture guidance)

Pair ( Group B) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

English-Chinese

7 7 6 7 6 6 8

Chinese-English

8 9 8 8 6 9 7

Table B.2 Date: Oct 6, 2010

Group B dataStudents’ play CARDS with picture guidance, English translation, Chinese characters (with out Pinyin)

Pair (Group B)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

English-Chinese

6 7 6 7 6 6 7

Chinese-English

8 9 8 8 6 9 7

Table B.3 Date: Oct 7, 2010

Students’ play CARDS with picture guidance, pinyin, English translation, ( without Chinese characters)

Pair ( Group B)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

English-Chinese

7 8 6 8 6 7 8

Chinese-English

8 9 8 8 7 8 7

Table B.4 Date: Oct 8, 2010

Data analysis and study

I put all 8 pairs four days results together, especially each pair can compare its own word learning results with different variables.

PairGrp.

A

*4 prompts result

*Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3 pro. (no Picture) result

Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3 pro.(no Pinyin) result

Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3pro.(no Characters) result

Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

1 7 / 8 6 / 6 7 / 8 7 / 8

2 7 / 9 7 / 7 7 / 9 7 / 9

3 6 / 8 6 / 7 6 / 8 6 / 8

4 8 / 9 7 / 8 8 / 8 8 / 8

5 6 / 6 6 / 6 6 / 6 6 / 6

6 6 / 9 5 / 6 6 / 9 6 / 9

7 8 / 7 8 / 7 8 / 7 8 / 7

8 9 / 9 8 / 9 9 / 9 9 / 8

Group A data comparison and analysis

Table A.5 ( I hr. 7th grade, data collect on Oct. 5,6,7,8, 2010)

*4 (prompts): Picture image; Pinyin; English translation; Chinese character.

Eng-Ch refers to English to Chinese interpretation

Ch-Eng refers to Chinese to English interpretation

From the relevant figures above, we conclude that:

In all four days experiment, 7 groups (87.5%) Chinese-English task is doing better than English-Chinese. only 1 pair ( pair7) is English-Chinese slightly better

Average learning rate with different variables: (number of words/per pair)

4 prompts: Eng-Ch 7.125/per Ch-English 8.125/per 3 pro.(no picture): Eng-Ch 6.625/per Ch-Eng 7/per

3 pro.(no pinyin): Eng-Ch 7/per Ch-English 8/per

3 pro.(no characters): Eng-Ch 7.125/per Ch-Eng 7.875/per

i. Average learning rate highest 4 prompts:

8.125/per (Chinese-English) ii. Average learning rate lowest 3 prompts

(no picture)

6.625/per (English-Chinese).

5

6

7

8

9

4 prompts NoPicture NoPinyin NoCharacter

Eng- ch

Ch- Eng

PairGrp. B

*4 prompts resultEng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3 pro. (no Picture) result Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3 pro.(no Pinyin) result Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

3pro.(no Characters) result Eng-Ch/Ch-Eng

1 7 / 8 7 / 8 6 / 8 7 / 8

2 7 / 9 7 / 9 7 / 9 8 / 9

3 6 / 8 6 / 8 6 / 8 6 / 8

4 8 / 9 7 / 8 7 / 8 8 / 8

5 6 / 6 6 / 6 6 / 6 6 / 7

6 6 / 7 6 / 8 6 / 9 7 / 8

7 8 / 9 8 / 8 7 / 7 8 / 7

Table B.5 （ 2 hr. 7th grade, data collect on Oct. 5,6,7,8, 2010)

4 (prompts): Picture image; Pinyin; English translation; Chinese character

Group B data comparison and analysis

Group B relevant statistic We learn the average learning rate with different variables as follow

s:

(number of words/per pair)

4 prompts: Eng-Ch 6.85/per Ch-English 8/per

3 pro.(no picture): Eng-Ch 6.71/per Ch-Eng 7.85/per

3 pro.(no pinyin): Eng-Ch 6,42/per Ch-English 8/per

3 pro.(no characters) Eng-Ch 7.14/per Ch-Eng7.87/per

See (average learning) line figure below:

5

6

7

8

9

4 prompts NoPicture NoPinyin NoCharacter

Eng- ch

Ch- Eng

Both hr. students learning level is much higher when there are 4 prompts on the play cards (Except hr. 2 Eng-Ch)

Hypothesis: the students are not trying as hard as they need to, 2nd hr students are mentally tired already when they come in for my class.

Chinese-English interpretation is obviously better than English-Chinese Hypothesis: when learning new words, students can somewhat guess

out the English meaning if they already what 10 words are. But it’s very hard to verbalize out the correct Chinese words when they are only given English

When the Variable Picture image is missing, the learning ability has seen obvious declining.

Hypothesis: at this age, students are still quite visual learners, they need picture to engage active learning.

When Variable Pinyin is missing, it has higher impact on students learning ability then when the Characters are missing.

Survey Questions (to students)

1. Do you like playing Chinese words cards? 2. Do you think the cards are helping you to

remember the words more efficiently than the regular text book script words?

3. Do you think it’s a more fun way of learning than other regular learning activities.

4. Do you want to join making Chinese word play cards?

5. What kind of words (theme) do you like to learn

I collect all 30 questionnaires back, and record the following relevant figures:

1. Choice A1. Choice A (like) 25 B 5 C none

2. Choice A (more efficient) 2. Choice A (more efficient) 20 20 B B 77 C C nonenone

3. Choice A ( more fun) 3. Choice A ( more fun) 2323 B B 7 7 C C nonenone

4. Choice A (want to join making card) 4. Choice A (want to join making card) 2626 B B 44 C C nonenone

5. Choice A (food, color) 5. Choice A (food, color) 1414 B B 66 C C 55

Research evidence has proven that Chinese words card play is a fun and effective way of learning Chinese words.

Key notes:

Using card games for 6-8 grade students when they are learning Chinese vocabulary and simple sentence pattern is effective for the children

Teacher need to further Adapting play card to suit my teaching purpose and learning styles

Success tips:Be Creative , Make meaningful learning happen, Make simple cards playing a professional look by setting up basic

bottom guide lines for students

Research evidence has proven that Chinese words card play is a fun and effective way of learning Chinese words.

Key notes:

Using card games for 6-8 grade students when they are learning Chinese vocabulary and simple sentence pattern is effective for the children

Teacher need to further Adapting play card to suit my teaching purpose and learning styles

Success tips: Be Creative , Make meaningful learning happen, Make simple cards playing a professional look by setting up basic

bottom guide lines for students

Chinese words Sample Cards mother

mā mɑ

妈 妈

father

bà bɑ 爸 爸

younger brother

dì di 弟弟

REFERENCE AND WORKS CITED Peter Skehan. A cognitive approach to language learning Oxford University Press, 1998 Long, M.H. (1981). Input, interaction, and second language acquisition. In H. Winitz (Ed.), Native language and foreign language acquisition (Vol 379, pp. 259-278). New York:Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Mauer, J. (1997, September). Presentation, practice, production in the EFL classroom. The Language Teacher, 21(9). Retrieved from February 12, 2006, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huyen & Khuat Thi Thu Nga. (2003, December). Learning vocabulary through games. Asian EFL Journal, 5(4).

Asselin, M. (2003). Assessment Issues and Recommendations. Teacher Librarian

Lamphere Schools Chinese Program

The End of Xu Hong’s presentation

Thank you for viewing !