AbstractsComputer Science

As the economic growth of China increasingly affects the global economy, the interest in learning the Chinese language in U.S. schools has been growing rapidly. For adult learners who are non-native Chinese and who are beginning learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL), one of the difficult tasks is to produce Chinese characters correctly. Although it is important to write Chinese characters with the correct stroke sequence, most CFL learners in U. S. higher education institutions do not have the knowledge of the basic strokes in Chinese characters. With the advances of computer technology, computer animation has been used to support learning in education. However, few research studies have investigated the effects of computer animation on the content of language learning. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of a custom-designed computer animation program on learning Chinese characters by beginning learners of Chinese as Foreign Language (CFL) in a higher education setting. This study used a matched comparison quasi-experimental design to explore the effects of the customized computer program within two groups of students. The treatment groups were two classes of CHIN 110 course taught by instructor A and the control groups were two classes of CHIN 110 course taught by instructor B. A demographic questionnaire, a posttest, and a pre and post attitude Surveys were given to students to measure the effects of the custom-designed computer program. A one-way ANOVA was performed to compare the posttest scores and test completion time between control group and treatment group. The results showed there was a significant difference in test scores between the control group and the treatment group, and there was no significant difference on test completion time between the control group and the treatment group, The Chi-Square tests were conducted to compare the attitudes toward learning Chinese characters between control and treatment group. The results showed no significant difference on attitudes toward learning Chinese characters between control and treatment group. Additionally, the results of supplementary attitude questionnaire showed the treatment group had a positive view of the program. The findings of this study can help Chinese language teachers to understand how computer animation can affect Chinese characters learning and will encourage adoption of the computer animation program in the teaching of their courses.