Designing intelligent language tutoring system for learning Chinese characters

The purposes of this research are to explore 1) the design and usability of the interface for an intelligent tutoring system for recognition of Chinese characters, 2) the pedagogical effectiveness of different forms of information presentation and feedback. A prototype system (an iPad Chinese character tutor) was developed and was evaluated for its effectiveness and usability. In the evaluation test, two groups were given 34 Chinese characters and phrases to learn using two different versions of the system. Version A contained a metaphor-based pedagogy, feedback, and extra instructions; Version B did not. Participants’ learning performance and survey results were used to measure the effectiveness and usability of the system. Learning performance of the group who used Version A was statistically significantly better than that of the Version B group. Participants surveyed rated Version A significantly higher than Version B on several constructs, including usability, satisfaction, functionality, and usefulness. This study lays the foundation for the development of an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) for Chinese learning

Construction and Application of Learner Corpus for Chinese Language E-Learning Systems

制度:新 ; 報告番号:甲3354号 ; 学位の種類:博士(国際情報通信学) ; 授与年月日:2011/2/23 ; 早大学位記番号:新567

A Sketch-Based Educational System for Learning Chinese Handwriting

Learning Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) is a difficult task for students in English-speaking countries due to the large symbol set and complicated writing techniques. Traditional classroom methods of teaching Chinese handwriting have major drawbacks due to human experts’ bias and the lack of assessment on writing techniques. In this work, we propose a sketch-based educational system to help CSL students learn Chinese handwriting faster and better in a novel way. Our system allows students to draw freehand symbols to answer questions, and uses sketch recognition and AI techniques to recognize, assess, and provide feedback in real time. Results have shown that the system reaches a recognition accuracy of 86% on novice learners’ inputs, higher than 95% detection rate for mistakes in writing techniques, and 80.3% F-measure on the classification between expert and novice handwriting inputs

Online comics for the teaching and learning of Chinese language in the Australian context

This research explores the potential value of online comics in Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) education for nonbackground learners in the context of Australia. Mixed research methods, quantitative and qualitative, were adopted to investigate the affordances of online comics in CFL education, examining their effectiveness in improving students’ word recognition ability and exploring how students’ attitudes towards online comics influence their word recognition ability. During the time of the research, when the researcher was a teacher-researcher in the research school, data was collected from 60 students and one mentor teacher, through pre- and post-tests, artefacts, survey questionnaire, interview, and the teacher-researcher’s self-reflective journals. It was found that online comics’ affordances were connected with the characteristics of meaningful learning, which afforded CFL teaching and learning by showing it as usable with everyday life content, by making it useful through online comic creation, and by creating a fun and conducive teaching and learning environment in the classroom. In addition, the quantitative data analysis indicated that as the main teaching and learning method, the strategy of using online comics to teach Chinese characters may have improved their word recognition ability. Moreover, students’ attitudes towards online comics had significant influence on their Chinese word recognition ability. Students’ perceptions of online comics’ effectiveness, regardless of year and gender, were found to be related to their improvement in word recognition ability. On the other hand, students of different years and genders had different preferences towards online comics, and such preferences had different influences on their word recognition ability. Specifically, Year 6 students’ perceptions of online comics increased their motivation and were found to influence improvement of their word recognition ability. Girls’ opinions of thinking online comics were interesting in CFL learning were found to influence their improvement in word recognition ability. This thesis hopes to illuminate online comics in CFL teaching and learning. The findings of this research suggest the importance of adopting effective teaching approaches that align with students’ preferences

Readings on L2 reading: Publications in other venues 2021-2022

This feature offers an archive of articles published in other venues during the past year and serves as a valuable tool to readers of Reading in a Foreign Language (RFL). It treats any topic within the scope of RFL and second language reading. The articles are listed in alphabetical order, each with a complete reference as well as a brief summary. The editors of this feature attempt to include all related articles that appear in other venues. However, undoubtedly, this list is not exhaustive

UmobiTalk: Ubiquitous Mobile Speech Based Learning Language Translator for Sesotho Language

Published ThesisThe need to conserve the under-resourced languages is becoming more urgent as some of them are becoming extinct; natural language processing can be used to redress this. Currently, most initiatives around language processing technologies are focusing on western languages such as English and French, yet resources for such languages are already available. The Sesotho language is one of the under-resourced Bantu languages; it is mostly spoken in Free State province of South Africa and in Lesotho. Like other parts of South Africa, Free State has experienced high number of migrants and non-Sesotho speakers from neighboring provinces and countries; such people are faced with serious language barrier problems especially in the informal settlements where everyone tends to speak only Sesotho. Non-Sesotho speakers refers to the racial groups such as Xhosas, Zulus, Coloureds, Whites and more, in which Sesotho language is not their native language. As a solution to this, we developed a parallel corpus that has English as source and Sesotho as a target language and packaged it in UmobiTalk - Ubiquitous mobile speech based learning translator. UmobiTalk is a mobile-based tool for learning Sesotho for English speakers. The development of this tool was based on the combination of automatic speech recognition, machine translation and speech synthesis

Re-examining Phonological and Lexical Correlates of Second Language Comprehensibility:The Role of Rater Experience

Few researchers and teachers would disagree that some linguistic aspects of second language (L2) speech are more crucial than others for successful communication. Underlying this idea is the assumption that communicative success can be broadly defined in terms of speakers’ ability to convey the intended meaning to the interlocutor, which is frequently captured through a listener-based rating of comprehensibility or ease of understanding (e.g. Derwing & Munro, 2009; Levis, 2005). Previous research has shown that communicative success – for example, as defined through comprehensible L2 speech – depends on several linguistic dimensions of L2 output, including its segmental and suprasegmental pronunciation, fluency-based characteristics, lexical and grammatical content, as well as discourse structure (e.g. Field, 2005; Hahn, 2004; Kang et al., 2010; Trofimovich & Isaacs, 2012). Our chief objective in the current study was to explore the L2 comprehensibility construct from a language assessment perspective (e.g. Isaacs & Thomson, 2013), by targeting rater experience as a possible source of variance influencing the degree to which raters use various characteristics of speech in judging L2 comprehensibility. In keeping with this objective, we asked the following question: What is the extent to which linguistic aspects of L2 speech contributing to comprehensibility ratings depend on raters’ experience

Impact of mobile virtual reality on EFL learners’ listening comprehension

Virtual reality (VR) has received increasing attention from researchers and practitioners in EFL listening. However, prior studies are primarily concerned with non-immersive desktop-based VR. Few studies examined the effects of VR via mobile-rendered head-mounted displays (mobile VR). Therefore, this study investigates the impact of mobile VR on EFL learners’ listening comprehension. Participants were 49 Taiwanese seventh-graders, randomly assigned to either the VR group or video group. The VR group played with a language learning VR app using mobile VR while the video group watched the walkthrough video of the VR app on personal computers. The effects of mobile VR were analyzed based on listening comprehension post-tests, recalls, and interviews. The results revealed the VR group’s listening comprehension and recall were significantly better than that of the video group. The interview data indicated that, for most VR players, mobile VR-mediated EFL listening was motivating, beneficial, and convenient. They felt more engaged in the listening tasks. Simulated real-life scenarios and interactivity, particularly the interaction with virtual characters, led to a stronger sense of presence and a higher degree of immersion, which enabled them to listen as a participant rather than overhearer. Interaction in an authentically fully-immersive context facilitated listening comprehension. The findings suggest that mobile VR may be a useful tool to promote EFL listening and underscore the necessity for additional research on the emerging technology for language learning

Methodology of Augmented Reality Chinese Language Articulatory Pronunciation Practice: Game and Study Design

Learning a language can be hard. Learning a language that contains tones to convey meaning is even harder. This dissertation presents a novel methodology for creating a language practice using augmented reality that has never been used before. The design of a new app in AR and non-AR versions can evaluate the same practice methodology. This methodology was applied to new software and was examined in regard to the importance of this software. Although the study results are inconclusive, progress has been made in answering research questions on the effectiveness of AR versus non-AR and the reliability of peer assessment. This study is essential for developing future language applications using design and methodologies in AR and peer evaluation