Dr Nathaniel Owen (The Open University) Katharine Carruthers OBE - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Action Research: Teaching Chinese Characters Dr Qian Kan (The Open University) Dr Nathaniel Owen (The Open University) Katharine Carruthers OBE (UCL IoE) Jane Woo (Christ’s College Finchley) Victor Wu (Highdown School) Jolanta Vanate (Lambeth Academy) Liwei Chen (UCL IoE PGCE) Kay McLeod (UCL IoE)

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Classroom context:

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Introduction - Kay McLeod (UCL IoE) Previous reseach and the action research ‘cycle’ - Dr Qian Kan (OU) and Dr Nathaniel Owen (OU) INTERVENTIONS: De-composing and composing characters - Li-wei Chen (UCL IoE) Teaching characters in ‘chunks’ - Jolanta Vanate (Lambeth Academy) Emphasising the eight basic strokes -Victor Wu (Highdown School) Emphasising radicals - Jane Woo (Christ’s College Finchley) Looking to the next stage - Katharine Carruthers (UCL IoE)

Some fin indings from previous research about character le learning/teaching strategies

Learning strategies (by learners)

Shen’s top 30 commonly used strategies (2005) N:95 university students

25 of 30 are cognitive strategies (memorise, comprehend, enhance attention, etc) ; and 5 are metacognitive strategies (monitor, plan, evaluate, assess)

Kan et al (2017) N: 11 adult distance learners

• More metacognitive strategies

(e.g. I test myself to check if I have learnt the character)

• Cognitive strategies (e.g. I try to

visualise the character and compare it with a familiar shape)

• Memory/social/compensatory

strategies: (e.g I repeat the sound when the character is first introduced (M); /I listen to conversation by native speakers (S); I focus on how the character is used in context (C)

Teaching strategies (by y teachers) In Instructional l strategies in in UK schools ls –

Preston (2 (2018) ) (N: : 12) Procedure related:

• Most teachers introduce characters and pinyin at the same time, but

some teachers choose textbooks that do not print pinyin over characters.

• When teaching characters, majority teach stroke -> radical -> whole;

but four think stroke order unnecessary; 80% think teaching radicals are vital.

• Re how to teach radicals, some do it systematically (raise their
• rthographic awareness), whilst others do it when they appear in

the course.

Chan Lü’s research (2019)

One of the findings/recommendations is the importance of print input, which is implemented in Kensington Wade school in London.

Book: Chinese Literacy Learning in an Immersion Program

Most popular teaching strategies by MEP Teachers

• Recent survey (N = 36)

Code Item Mean SD Median Mode Q9

I give examples of learnt characters that share the same radical used in the new character.

3.39 0.49 3 3 Q15

I ask pupils to make up an expression or simple sentence with the new character(s).

3.33 0.63 3 3 Q2

I show and teach the character, pinyin and tone at the same time.

3.28 0.78 3 4 Q8

I ask pupils to write each new character stroke by stroke (on paper

• r on a digital device) many times.

3.25 0.73 3 4 Q5

I focus first on the radical (the part that indicates the associated meaning).

3.22 0.68 3 3 Q21 I read aloud and ask the class to repeat after me. 3.18 1.19 4 4

The questionnaire contained 34 strategies based on previous research (Shen 2005; Kan et al 2017; Preston, E. 2018)

Next step: Action research …

• Which methods are more effective (in both short and

long-term?

• How do we find out?

Action research ‘cycle’

• Plan
• Teacher ‘notices’ or identifies an issue/problem
• Looks for solutions (literature/colleagues)
• ‘Research as practice’ rather than ‘research on practice’ (McAteer, 2013).
• Devise intervention to implement in own context (can be

qualitative/quantitative/mixed-methods).

• Action
• Deliberate/carefully-planned/Observation/Documentation (context – who, where,

when/actions – what/implementation – how/opinions of participants)

• Reflection
• What have you learned that you previously did not know?
• Was the experience positive/negative/mixed?
• How do your findings relate to others’ findings?
• What are the participants’ perceptions? How do they relate to yours?

De-composing and Composing Chinese Characters: Impact on Students’ Chinese Character Writing

• A Case Study in a South London Secondary School

Li-wei Chen (UCL IOE)

Outline of Presentation

• Summary of Intervention
• Data
• Findings
• Summary

Summary of Intervention

Who? Mixed ability MEP year8 aged 13-14 (22 pupils: 9 girls and 13 boys) When? 12th of March – 23rd of May (8 weeks) Why? Students were struggling with recognising and writing characters What? Topics: Me, hobbies, school, food, and my area How? 1. breaking down a character into two components and putting them back to a characters

• 2. giving each component meaning (mnemonics)

bearing fruit

Data

• 1. Pre-test
• 2. Post-test
• 3. Survey
• 4. Informal interview

Pre-test Post-test

Findings

1 - Post-test mark increased significantly. 2 - Intervention seemed to benefit the higher ability the most and the middle ability second. 3 - Students wrote new words covered during the intervention.

Findings

4- The majority found ‘breaking down’ and ‘putting together’ helpful.

• 6 out of 7 higher ability students found it helpful. 1 out of 7 not sure.
• 7 out of 8 middle ability students found it helpful. 1 out of 8 found it not

helpful at all.

• 2 out of 4 lower ability students found it helpful. The other 2 out of 4

found it neither helpful nor unhelpful.

Findings

5- Most of the students found giving meanings (mnemonics) to the broken components helpful. Yet, some students found it complex or confusing.

Findings

6- Students found rote-learning helpful.

Conclusion

1- Awareness-raising of character’s components is crucial. a) Breaking down and putting together b) Explanation for each component must be succinct and easy to understand. 2- Awareness-raising must be complemented by repetitive practice in order for students to write more in quantity and quality.

!!!

CHARACTER WRITING ACTION RESEARCH

JOLANTA VANATE

PROBLEMS PUPILS FACED WITH CHARACTER WRITING

• REMEMBERING HOW TO WRITE MORE

COMPLICATED CHARACTERS/PHRASES

• PUTTING NEW CHARACTERS INTO CONTEXT
• USING NEW SENTENCE STRUCTURES TO WRITE

LONG SENTENCES

INTERVENTION

• RESEARCH FOCUSED ON IMPROVING STUDENTS’ WRITING BY TEACHING

CHARACTERS IN CHUNKS

• NEW CHARACTERS WERE INTRODUCED IN CHUNKS RATHER THAN SINGLE

CHARACTERS

• PUPILS PRACTICED CHARACTERS BY WRITING THEM OUT IN PHRASES AND CHUNKS
• ACTIVITIES USED IN CLASS - DICTATIONS WITH PHRASES/SENTENCES, DESCRIBE THE

PICTURE TASKS, TRANSCRIBING PINYIN PHRASES INTO CHINESE CHARACTERS

• HOMEWORK – STUDENTS FOLLOWED ON FROM THIS BY MAKING UP OWN

SENTENCES WITH GIVEN COMPONENTS/PHRASES AND PRACTICING WRITING OUT LONGER PHRASES

INTERVENTION

• OVER A 4 WEEK PERIOD
• STUDENT PROFILE –

16 PUPILS – MIXED ABILITY; 6 BOYS AND 10 GIRLS 11-12 YEARS OLD  LEARNING MANDARIN SINCE SEPTEMBER 2018

• ALL FINDINGS COME FROM TESTS TAKEN BEFORE AND AFTER THE

INTERVENTION

FINDINGS - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS

• THE PRE-TEST
• WRITING SINGLE CHARACTERS
• CREATIVITY
• CHUNKING ACTIVITIES
• PAIR AND GROUP ACTIVITIES

FINDINGS - DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOYS AND GIRLS

• CONFIDENCE/LONGER SENTENCES
• THE POST-TEST
• PROGRESS BETWEEN PRE-TEST AND POST-TEST

FINDINGS – SENTENCE DICTATIONS

• SENTENCE DICTATIONS
• LONGER PHRASES VS. SINGLE CHARACTERS
• ADAPTING SENTENCE STRUCTURES
• COPYING LONGER PHRASES

FINDINGS – PICTURE DESCRIPTION TASK

• SENTENCE DICTATIONS
• CREATIVE PICTURE WRITING
• CONFIDENCE IN GROUPS
• STUDENTS CHOSE TO WRITE LONGER PHRASES IN THE POST-TEST
• THE SUCCESS OF ‘CHUNKS’

Intervention

 26th March – 25th April 2019  “8 basic strokes” introduced via an interlude during 3 continuous lessons and with colloquial names  Repeat with body gestures > Handwrite down with the names in pinyin  Character Analysis Sheet during the Easter holidays and right before the post-test

Data

 Participants: 27 students (10 male; 17 female) on Year 7 MEP – officially learning Chinese since January 2019  Pre-test (Tuesday 26th March) & Post-test (Thursday 25th April) 

• 1. Recognition of the spoken form



• 2. Recognition of the written form / production of spoken

form 

• 3. Production of written form

 At the end of lessons: Writing previously learnt words with the correct stroke order > Learning new words through questioning/guessing > Pronunciation practice > Listen and understand key words > Analyse new/key characters into components  Pre-test: 红色的、黄色的、绿色的、黑色的、白色的  Post-test: 吃猪肉、吃鸡肉、吃牛肉、吃羊肉、吃鸭肉  Two set of 22 valid samples (EAL factor controlled)

Findings

 Recognition of the written form as controlled factor  Evaluation criteria for production of the written form: O: Errors that do not hinder clarity > Minor errors in characters such as a misformed stroke in a character, or errors of proportion/balance/alignment between the radicals within a character Z: Errors that hinder clarity without preventing meaning being conveyed > errors in forming a character such as characters with an extra or missing stroke (Cf. Mark Scheme for Foundation Writng Paper Question 1, New Edexcel GCSE)

41% 40% 21% 11% 52% 33% 0% 27% 47% 6% 32% 22% 59% 33% 32% 83% 16% 45% 红 黑 黄 白 绿 Average

PRE-TEST

X Z O 80% 21% 53% 29% 24% 41% 7% 21% 0% 7% 11% 9% 13% 58% 47% 64% 65% 49% 猪 鸡 牛 羊 鸭 Average

POST-TEST

X Z O

• In average: Slight increase of O
• In average: Significant decrease of Z

100% 89% 100% 100% 100% 100% 87% 71% 80% 94% 100% 89% 100% 100% 100% 100% 60% 57% 90% 76% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 红 黑 黄 白 绿 猪 鸡 牛 羊 鸭

CONTROLLED CRITERIA: RECOGNITION OF THE WRITTEN FORM & PRODUCTION OF THE WRITTEN FORM

Recognition of the spoken form Production of the spoken form

• Overall, the competence of RSF seems to co-exist with RWF and PWF
• According to the pre-test, the competence of PSF seems to co-exist strongly wih the RWF and PWF
• According to the post-test, the competence of PSF seems to co-exist less strongly with the RWF and PWF

100% 100% 100% 94% 89% 100% 100% 100% 90% 94% 100% 100% 100% 94% 89% 100% 100% 100% 90% 94% 70% 56% 60% 63% 56% 100% 67% 86% 70% 71% 100% 100% 93% 94% 89% 100% 93% 100% 90% 88% 红 黑 黄 白 绿 猪 鸡 牛 羊 鸭

CONTROLLED CRITERIA: RECOGNITION OF THE WRITTEN FORM & PRODUCTION OF THE WRITTEN FORM

MidYIS Math - A MidYIS Non-Verbal - A MidYIS Skills - A MidYIS Vocabulary - A

• MidYIS: A computer-adaptive assessment created by CEM, pupils aged 11-14, provides informaiton

and predict performance

• Maths: Logical thinking, manipulating numbers and numerical concepts (speed and fluency)
• Non-Verbal: Cross-Sections, Block Counting and Pictures ; ability in 3-D visualisation, spatial aptitude,

pattern recognition and logical thinking

• Skills: « Proof Reading » and « Perceptual Speed and Accuracy »
• Vocabulary: Word fluency and understanding

Action research: Chinese characters

Jane Woo 2019

Context

• Comprehensive school
• 23 MEP Year 8 students
• 4-week intervention

Loach & Wang (2016)

Optimising the Learning Order of Chinese Characters Using a Novel Topological Sort Algorithm

Fig 1. Structural decomposition of the character

Loach & Wang (2016)

Intervention

• 1. Homework tasks

Intervention

• 2. Classroom discussions

Evaluation

Pre- & Post-tests

• Transcribe (pinyin → characters)
• Translate (English → characters)
• Writing (picture → words/phrases/sentences)
• Gap-fill

Results & Findings

6.8 10.2 16.9 5.8 39.7 8.0 9.3 25.3 6.0 48.7 10 20 30 40 50 60 Transcribe Translate Writing Gap fill Total

Test scores Test items

Pre- & Post-intervention Comparison

Pre-test Post-test

Results & Findings

2.2

• 0.1

7.5 0.6 10.2 0.1

• 1.8

9.5

• 0.1

7.7

• 4
• 2

2 4 6 8 10 12 Transcribe Translate Writing Gap fill Total

Score differences between pre- & post-tests

Test items

Lower- & Higher-ability Group Comparison

Lower-ability Higher-ability

Student's voices

65% 15% 20%

Did you find the intervention helpful?

Yes Okay No

“I think learning/researching about radical and components is very helpful.” “It helps me understand the meaning of the character and radicals so I can remember them.” “'They' help us tell a story.” “Extremely useful and effective.”

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Action Research: Teaching Chinese Characters Looking to the next stage Katharine Carruthers OBE (UCL IoE)

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

Kan, Q., Owen and Bax, S. (2018). Researching mobile-assisted Chinese- character learning strategies among adult distance learners. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. DOI: 10.1080/17501229.2018.1418633



Lü, C. (2019). Chinese Literacy Learning in an Immersion Program. Palgrave Macmillan.



McAteer, M. (2013) Action Research in Education, London, SAGE.



Pan, L., Neal, R., Tyskerud, P. and Carruthers, K. (2018). ‘Chinese teachers as researchers’, in Mandarin Chinese Teacher Education: Issues and solutions. Diamantidaki et al (eds.). UCL Institute of Education Press.



Preston, E. 2018. ‘How Chinese characters are taught in UK schools: A survey of twelve teachers’, in Mandarin Chinese Teacher Education: Issues and solutions. Diamantidaki et al (eds.). UCL Institute of Education Press.



Shen, H. H. 2005. An investigation of Chinese-character learning strategies among non-native speakers of Chinese. System 33: 49-68.

References