gochinese curriculum-focused online language learning platform 2011 asia pacific ict grand award,...
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GoChinese
Curriculum-focused online language learning platform
2011
Asia Pacific ICT Grand Award,Education & Training, 2006
Hong Kong ICT Grand Award,eLearning, 2006
Discussion topics
What is GoChinese
How is GoChinese being used around the world
Qualitative feedback and quantifiable improvement from GoChinese
What is GoChinese
Offering Teachers & Students …Offering Teachers & Students …
1.Resources that support:
- Your textbooks
- Your courses
- Your particular curriculum
2.Support for teacher-created
lessons and exercises
3.Tools for students to learn from
self-submitted content
4.Performance and usage feedback
1.Resources that support:
- Your textbooks
- Your courses
- Your particular curriculum
2.Support for teacher-created
lessons and exercises
3.Tools for students to learn from
self-submitted content
4.Performance and usage feedback
Online Learning Platform that …Online Learning Platform that …
… automatically generates the
voice output, Pinyin, English
definitions and both character
forms all Chinese text.
… automatically generates the
voice output, Pinyin, English
definitions and both character
forms all Chinese text.
The core of GoChinese
What does GoChinese look like?
Double-click or highlight
words to hear the voice
Point cursor to view its
definitions
Hanyu Pinyin displayed
alongside the Chinese
characters
Select among many other
learning features – from
Podcast downloads to
auto-graded exercises
Taking a closer look …
Using GoChinese to transform any text
into a multimedia-rich, actual language
learning resource
Let’s look at a demo in GoChinese …
Teacher and student-created resources placed alongside curriculum-based learning materials
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Personalizes the learning experience, featuring instructor-assigned and any self-created materials
Integrates in-classroom and outside classroom work
Customization of learning materials for or from the institution
Supports instructor-created materials
Assesses, monitors and communicates with learners
Global pool of instructor-created resources
Engages all participants in the learning process
Flexible, collaborative publishing platform
No incremental costs for producing online resources
Copyright protections
Taking a closer look …
Let’s look at a demo again …
Unprecedented functionalities
Enriched lessons Supports the layout of typical lessons Voice, definitions, phonetics, annotations, Podcasts/MP3 downloads and other features Support graphics and video links
Online assessment Full range of auto-graded exercise types Voice can also be auto-generated at all parts of the exercise set Wide range of “homework” and “testing” features, including exercise pools and “re-takes”
Authoring and content management Lessons and exercise templates Editing and linguistic adjustment tools Ability to control the student groups accessing the content, timing, etc.
Feedback and reporting, for individual classes and students Usage reports Score records
What’s more? GoChinese’s linguistic strengths …
Challenge #1
By adding phonetic elements to all text: All words read aloud with linguistic accuracy Hanyu Pinyin phonetics auto-generated for all words Supports textbook-style presentation of characters and phonetics
Chinese is a non-alphabetic, non-phonetic language
Some characters have more than one sound:
Example: huìyì kuàijì
会议 会计meeting accounting
A Challenge Addressed by GoChinese
… addressing the challenges with learning Chinese
Challenge #2
By extracting words and looking-up definitions: All Chinese characters are automatically ‘grouped’ into words English definitions instantly displayed
Comprehension: Words are not explicitly delineated &
dictionary look-up is not easy
Example: guóhuà lǎoshī hé xiàozhǎng shì hǎo péngyou
国画 老师 和 校长 是 好 朋友 Měiguó huàjiā zài zhè suǒ xuéxiào zhǎngdà
美国 画家 在 这 所 学校 长大 GoChinese knows to group together the above
characters differently, to form different words.
A Challenge Addressed by GoChinese
Taking a closer look …
GoChinese’s usage and performance
feedback reports empowers teachers
and further motivates students
Students enjoy monitoring their performance
Teachers can monitor the performance of all students
And check the usage of students, class or entire school
How is GoChinese being used around the world
With first-of-its-kind learning opportunities, globally
In the UK, we are offering courses that also conduct assessment for government-recognized certifications.
This integrated learning experience
successfully motivating Our
Lady’s Convent School’s
non-academic track students.
At Avondale Grammar School in Singapore, primary students were able to engage in interactive exercises based on their textbook content. Email reports to parents.
Supporting many of the international schools in Mainland China. Dulwich College Suzhou using GoChinese actively to support homework assignments.
At Sparta Middle and High Schools in New Jersey, the teacher is using GoChinese to modify passages and dialogues presented in their textbook.
Over 30,000 logins at South Island School in Hong Kong to date. GoChinese providing textbook, GCSE and IB support and served as a valuable resource especially when textbooks were delayed.
Enthusiastic teachers and students
“The students are enjoying it and it’s amazing to see how I.T. motivates them. Most of all, it is very effective. For me, I like GoChinese's flexibility and it saves me a lot of admin work. I don’t need to worry about the paper work, and they can be re-used over and over again, with some modifications.”
– Michelle Hsu-McWilliam, Teacher, Merchiston Castle School, UK
“I believe GoChinese is an excellent and helpful software. It helps us to better understand certain
meaning and sentence structures. GoChinese is a very good tool, because files can be downloaded
to an MP3 player, so it is possible to practice on the go. Overall, GoChinese helped me push
pass difficult words and structures. Thanks to such a great program I feel more confident in
learning Chinese, and I hope this software continues to run here.”
– Samuel Batista, Student, CUNY, New York
“It's great that you have the ability to look at every characters and pinyin plus the English
meaning and also hear the words all at the same time. It’s great that you get to learn
everything in detail. [I love] being able to check your scores and the competitions… it’s a
thrill to be at the top of the score board.”
– Joan Amo, student, Our Lady’s Convent School, UK
Featured usages
Classroom: Jazzing up the class
Language lab: Resources integrated with classroom activity
Outside school: Additional learning support; develop independent learning.
30%-50% of logins outside the classroom/lab.
Online homework. Reduces teachers workload. Part of student grade.
Collaborative resources, both among teachers and students.
Expanding courses with limited specialist teachers.
Hybrid / distance learning classes
Qualitative feedback & quantifiable improvements
Raising Scores on CASLS Pilot Exams
School: U.S. East coast private school
Exam: The Center for Applied Second Language Studies Reading Proficiency Exams – 2009 (at University of Oregon)
Top Table: Chinese 2 class Studied with textbooks Used GoChinese to learn from materials found on the
Internet that students ‘copied & paste’ into the platform
Bottom Table: Chinese 3 class Studied with textbooks only
Conclusion: Chinese 2 students achieved equal or higher reading scores than Chinese 3 students, who also had 2 more years of Chinese
Raising Scores on UK GCSE Exams
School: Secondary school in Hackney, London
Exam: Chinese GCSE (for 16 year olds)
64% of students scored the highest marks A/A+, higher scores than for any other subject (1)
Students learning Chinese had one less year of study; no native Chinese students