Organizer: San-Pao Li, California State University, Long Beach
Chair: Madeline Men-Li Chu, Kalamazoo College
For humanists and social scientists who plan to engage themselves in the study of Chinese history, society, literature, philosophy, and language, this panel brings together some of the latest, cutting-edge Chinese language software that will certainly facilitate their learning and enhance their ability to acquire a seemingly "impossible language." The panelists will each address the critical pedagogical issues related to language acquisition. Presenters will demonstrate the most sophisticated yet user-friendly new computer programs for the enhancement of language skills facilitated by multimedia-based, interactive CD-ROMs. Ample fully interactive examples of multimedia applications for improving the four fundamental linguistic modalities and analytical abilities of students will be provided. The programs presented in this panel will demonstrate how some of the latest technologies can be easily harnessed to help integrate engaging technology-based activities into the curriculum and how they can effectively expand user’s classroom experience.
Pinyin Master 2.0: Interactive Tutorial for Mandarin Pronunciation and the Pinyin System
Jeffrey Winters, Ambassador Educational Services
Pinyin Master (CD-ROM) is perhaps the only fully-developed and highly sophisticated such computer software program available today that makes the mastery of Chinese pronunciation and the pinyin system a pleasant and enjoyable experience for the learner. It convincingly illustrates that interactivity and unlimited opportunity for repetition with the aid of sound and animated video segments substantially enhance the student’s total learning experience. The pedagogically sound interactive exercises are logically and creatively conceived and developed. They challenge the user’s mind and skill. The user receives a full performance analysis at the end of each exercise not only with a percentile score, but with mistakes clearly indicated for recommended additional work until perfection is achieved. The program developed contains all the possible sounds and tone combinations in Mandarin with an abundance of examples complete with pinyin, Chinese characters, and their English equivalents. It is extremely user-friendly.
CyberChinese: A Fully Interactive Practical Chinese Reader
San-Pao Li, California State University, Long Beach
It would have been ridiculed as nonsensical only a few years ago if one were to attempt an unlikely marriage between Chinese language instruction and a computer-based multimedia interactive compact laser disc. It has become apparent that creative use of computer technologies available today can effectively help remove some of the obstacles that have historically confronted both the instructor and the student of Chinese language. The mastery of Mandarin pronunciation, the recognition and differentiation of the four tones, the command of the pinyin system, the ability of learning and retaining Chinese characters together with their stroke sequence, the construction of lexically and syntactically sound sentences, and the ability of performing Chinese word processing are among many of the difficulties experienced by students enrolled in first-year Chinese classes. These problems are significantly magnified if the students were required to overcome them within a matter of weeks.
Among the numerous unique features are video enunciation tutor, self-guided voice instruction, recording and play-back capability, various fully interactive exercises, and specially designed supplementary exercises developed to broaden the cultural perspectives of the users on numerous aspects of Chinese culture including poetry, music, opera, tea-drinking, among others. Evaluation of this program has been ongoing and a utility assessment study has been conducted by the Center for Usability in Design and Assessment, California State University, Long Beach. It has been proven that the use of this program elicits greater learner motivation and increases student participation as well as their classroom preparedness.
Putting ChiNews on the Map: Creating a Web Chinese Comprehension Program
Ying-che Li, University of Hawaii, Honolulu
This presentation will highlight the result of several years of intensive labor that attempts to develop a fully interactive program that will easily help intermediate and advanced students of Chinese language develop their comprehension abilities. Funded by several federal grants during the past several years, this extensive project has involved more than a dozen specialists in the fields of linguistics and computer engineering. This will be its "debut" presentation to social scientists and humanists in the field of Chinese studies. Many of the features not found elsewhere will definitely help its users develop their comprehension of advanced Chinese material with tremendous amount of ease not conceivable even a year ago. Effort is underway to make this into an online web course. This presentation will demonstrate to our AAS members for the first time the great value of this program and the success for which it has been acclaimed.