Vocabulary training designed for users of Integrated Chinese
Recommended Uses:
In conjunction with the textbook series Integrated Chinese
Technical Requirements:
Netscape 4.x or Explorer 4.x
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Vocabulary practice through multiple choice exercises
Target Student Population:
First and second-year students of Chinese
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Beginning to intermediate level
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
This module covers a broad range of vocabulary, spanning forty lessons of the widely used textbook series Integrated Chinese. It includes both traditional and simplified characters, as learners can move easily back and forth between the two forms. The learner can also move from English to Chinese, or vice versa, in the vocabulary exercises, depending on individual preferences or pedagogical needs. The feedback as to the correctness of the learners responses is very fast, almost instantaneous, and the module also informs the user the percentage of items remaining in the given lessons exercises. It is even possible to enlarge the characters and English glosses or else keep them small on the screen.
Concerns:
The repeated selection of the correct English gloss or Chinese character from a group of four possible answers can become monotonous if continued for more than twenty or thirty minutes at a sitting. Usually, students should practice mostly going from Chinese to English when beginning the study of a lesson, not shifting from mostly English to Chinese until they have mastered the given lessons patterns and sentence structures or else are going back to review old material.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The module allows students to test their own progress in mastering a given lessons new vocabulary items. The feedback is instantaneous, and students can easily move from one lesson to another when reviewing old vocabulary. The program as a whole has a contemporary and polished feel, which suggests that a great deal of thought went into the design of the module.
Concerns:
The lack of audio input in this module means that students must rely on their CD or cassette recordings of vocabulary designed for the textbook. In other words,
this graphically oriented module is helpful in improving reading skills and writing ability only, unless students take their own initiative to read the vocabulary items out loud as they appear on the screen. Another apparent problem is that with only four possible glosses per item to choose from, it seems almost too easy to input the correct answer--yet there might be as many as 30 or more vocabulary items within the entirety of a given lesson.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
Once users get accustomed to navigating this module, it is quite easy to shift between traditional and simplified characters, between small and large characters, and between going from English to Chinese and from Chinese to English. There is fortunately not a plethora of menus and links to distract the learner from focusing on the task at hand, i.e., vocabulary practice.
Concerns:
Students who are using outdated computers & software programs might find that this module does not work properly. Also, it is not made clear that toggling back and forth between Big5 and GB codes is the best way of viewing traditional and simplified characters, respectively.
Creative Commons:
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