E-Case+4-+Chinese+Literature+(Secondary)

= Overcoming resistance of learning Chinese =

By Cho CK, Lee BK, Ong Elly

This case illustrates how the teachers incorporate the use of blogs to motivate their students to communicate using Chinese language. As the students could be considered as digital natives, it is hoped that using information technology would interest the students to read and write using Chinese language. The students do have foundation in Chinese language and are from Chinese primary school. It is just that the students are not motivated to learn Chinese language as they do not see the purpose and the need of Chinese language. The students are Form One and Form Four in a school, and only Form One in another school. Originally, the case study was carrried out in a school targetting using tongue twister to improve pronunciation. As the teacher is facing some problems in carrying out the activities with her students, the other teacher decided to implement modified teaching pronunciation strategies in her school. It is interesting that the activities were well responded by the students. The activities slowed down towards the end as it was getting near the school final examination, but the activities in the other school managed to thrive.
 * ABSTRACT**

My school is in the county of Petaling Jaya. I am teaching Form 1 and 4 students. There is no courseware provided for this subject unless I create one myself, which is impossible.
 * CHALLENGES IN THE TEACHING AND LEARNING OF MANDARIN IN A CO-ED SECONDARY SCHOOL IN PETALING JAYA, SELANGOR**

a.Most of the students have the basics in Chinese language and the objective of the teacher is to make sure that her students get A for the subject. b.Generally, the students socioeconomic range are from the middle class to high class and most of their parents have professional careers. The students speak English at home with their family and friends. c.The students studied in Chinese primary school and therefore have basic proficiency in Mandarin. Despite that, the students do not possess strong basic proficiency in the language. Most of the students speak in Mandarin by translating English sentence structures and they have a limited range of vocabulary in Mandarin. d.Some students learn Mandarin because they are forced by their parents.
 * 1.1.BACKGROUND OF THE STUDENTS**

a.The students do not put effort in learning this subject because it is one of the electives. b.The students assume that Mandarin is the subject which could hold them from getting perfect scores in their examination results. c.As the students are forced to learn the subject, sometimes they do not complete the exercise given or do not hand in their assignments on time. What I would do is stopping them from having Physical Education class until they did what they are supposed to do.
 * 1.2.ATTITUDE OF THE STUDENTS**

__ a.Mandarin class period __. The time alloted which is 105 minutes for a week to learn a language is definitely not sufficient for the students. The students are taught the language after school. Usually, they would be tired after studying the whole day with other things and Mandarin comes at last in the schooling hour. __b.Number of the students.__ It is a combined class which actually the students of all levels crammed into one class. I cannot afford to give them personal attention as there are many students. The condition of the class is not comfortable as they also have to share the tables and chairs when learning. There are 47 or 49 students in a class and I have taught 53 students in a class before. __c.Syllabus__ Essay Short essays Summary Grammar Modern language Classical language 40 sentences for each form In 105 minutes a week, I would try my best to cover the whole syllabus, abandoning the weak students. Sometimes, there are other activities such as, library week and curriculum week which literally wipe out my teaching period. __d.Teacher__ This year I am teaching 7 Mandarin classes with a total number of 292 students which excluding the number of minor subject students. I feel nauseated when I check their essays. I use pictures from the internet for the students to understand things the biography of the authors. The problem is that I don't have a software support. It is very expensive and weird when the school said that it would affect the computer system. ICT and Mandarin are taught at the same time, so I don't get to use the computer lab. Anyway, there are only 30 sets of tables and chairs in the computer lab which are not enough for my class.
 * 1.3.SITUATION OF THE MANDARIN CLASS**

Total of candidates=160 students A-30%, B-36.9%, C-14.4%, D-15.6%, E-3.1% which make up the total of pass-96.9% which is low compared to other subjects in the school.
 * 1.4.ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT**

The school administration literally pressured the teacher as the results would affect the number of straight-A students. = =


=** PHASE 1: ANALYSIS ** =  = =


**Identification of the Problems based on the Case** 1. There is no one teaching style which can fit all learners who have individual differences. 2. There is a lack of time to attend to each student's needs.
 * PEDAGOGY**

1. Classical Chinese is not used in daily conversations so students do not see the need to learn them. 2. There is a lack of courseware and support materials.
 * CONTENT**


 * TECHNOLOGY**

1. There is a lack of facilities. 2. Chinese language courseware is something which could be considered as rare and expensive.

1. There is a lack of motivation and initiative. 2. They have weak foundation of Chinese language.
 * LEARNERS**


 * ROOT CAUSE**

1. Students do not have strong foundation in Chinese language. They speak to their friends and family members using English. The students have been using English since young. 2.Students do not have the motivation to learn Chinese language. Mandarin is an elective paper in public examinations such as PMR and SPM. Moreover, they can communicate in Chinese language without knowing the correct grammar as long as they can get message across. The parents forcing their children to study the language, not that the students wanting to do so on their own. 3.The teacher cannot afford to attend to the students who are of different levels.

=PHASE 2: EVALUATION = 1. Finding alternatives to teach the basic Mandarin within the teacher's allocated time. 2. Provide awareness on the importance of the language which could help the students' future career, changing the students' mindset-which could be done by asking people of different fields to give career talk. 
 * PROPOSED SOLUTIONS **

= PHASE 3: DESIGN  = = = =** SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES/PROPOSED SOLUTIONS **=

AT PRESENT AS THIS IS DEEMED MORE COMFORTABLE BY THE TEACHER (A DIGITAL IMMIGRANT)


 * 3.1 PROPOSED SOLUTION WITHOUT THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

**(Based on root cause 3)**
3.1.1 Using peer teaching when it comes to checking essays. The peers would help out if there is a minor mistake rather than having the teacher focusing on unedited 292 essays all by herself. If the students are to learn from their peers, the students will improve on their own voluntarily which means they are intrinsically motivated rather than forced by their parents. This will help the students to do things for their own sake and do not need any extrinsic reward according to Deci (1975) cited in Brown (2000). This would also train the students to be facilitator for their peers and the teacher would not be stressed out trying to accomodate to individual needs. I use this technique when teaching my students writing English essays and they are only 13 year old boys. Nevertheless, I believe this would help any language teacher especially in correcting grammar. I would like to credit one of the brothers who worked in a La Sallian school who gave me this idea four years ago in teaching writing.

3.1.2 Using mentor system when it comes to basic things such as dictionary skills. I always pair my 13 year old boys with 14 year old boys when it comes to learning basic things such as dictionary skills. I would tell the 14 year old boys to coach their mentees in extensive reading programme. I would ask the boys to get the Buku Nilam (to record the synopsis and the number of books that they read over a period-in or out of the school). Then I would ask my boys to learn the dictionary skills before they go into the library. Usually, they are given a one week period to learn dictionary skills from their mentors. The teacher needs to work hard to ensure that the students do their work.

3.1.3 In response to the plight that the teacher does need support from the administrator to use the computer facilities, I would like to suggest that the administrator should draft a time table which includes all the teachers to get the access to the internet. The teacher should volunteer herself to be in-charge or to be in the part of the team who works in the computer laboratory first. I am not sure if the teacher is working in the afternoon session as well but if she does, she should volunteer to take turns to work in different session. I got this idea last week when a course mate told me that the teachers in the afternoon session were not given any post in the school. I believe that I would propose this idea to my school next year as both of the teachers who are in-charge of the school library are on leave with medical problems.

3.1.4 Organizing a voluntary Mandarin language camp for non Chinese speaking students. This can be arranged by getting the Chinese language students to teach Mandarin to non Chinese speaking students. This will motivate the students to learn Chinese language in a meaningful way. The teacher could give out appreciation certificates to the students who act as the facilitators in the project. The students could start out the extra class in the weekends with the students in the same school. It could be a 30 minutes class-teaching greetings and basic characters such as numbers and writing one's own name (which I would treasure the most). The other teachers could join the language class as well. The language camp proposed is to have the students to see how motivated the others would like to learn the Chinese language. They need not be non Chinese as there are a lot of Chinese who cannot speak or read the Chinese characters. Some sites that provide free courseware to be used during the camps []# (a simple courseware for beginners) [] (other coursewares that can be downloaded free to be used)

3.1.5 Organizing a mandarin school paper project. Students are the editorial board and they can publish the paper weekly. The paper can be sold among students for minimum fee.

SHORT TERM AS THIS IS DEEMED AS A START UP TO INCORPORATE THE USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE EARLY STAGE BY THE TEACHER (A DIGITAL IMMIGRANT)


 * 3.2 PROPOSED SOLUTION WITH PARTIAL USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

3.2.1 I could understand when there are 50 students and only 20 computers are working. I would assign a project for the students to work in groups and each group has different tasks. For example, a group would watch the video clip for pronunciation and taking the notes to teach it to their peers. The other group would be assigned to doing worksheets on how the words in a song or a poem to be pronounced. If they are given the wrong pronunciation, will the meaning changed? The students could use a dictionary to complete this assignment. Both of the groups should take turn to watch the video clip and compared their notes to discuss on the best strategies in pronouncing the Chinese characters. This is what I do with my 13 year old boys. The boys are to write their names with the number of the computer and the time that they logged in using in a form. This should be a good way to track which student uses which computer. They really enjoy working with the computers and they do understand that if they are not careful with the computers, they would be banned from using the computers for the whole school year. I believe that this is good enough to motivate the students need to have self discipline and not to be extrinsically rewarded with small gifts.

3.2.2 Students gets an English reading text (a dialogue) from the teacher and translate them into Chinese characters. Then, the students fill up the bubble with the dialogue in Chinese characters. The students are to work in pairs and they can present their work to the class using toondo.com.

Suggested link: http://cogdogroo.wikispaces.com/50+Ways

LONG TERM AS THIS IS DEEMED AS PHASE WITH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY USED BY THE TEACHER (A DIGITAL NATIVE)


 * 3.3PROPOSED SOLUTION WITH FULL USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY**

(Based on root cause 1)
3,3.1 Using a video clip which would improve pronunciation. Despite that course wares are expensive and rare, there are many free and interesting video clips which could be used for teaching. The teacher could adapt or use only certain parts of the video clip to teach certain parts of the language i.e. pronunciation. Watching and listening to video clip are easier for the students to learn the pronunciation of certain characters as the teacher said that there are students who are yet to master the symbols of pronunciation.

3.3.2 Propose video clip as a tool to enhance students learning A video show improper pronunciation in certain words which are influenced by other languages, such as mother tongue. [|Pronunciation]

**(Based on root cause 2)**
3.3.3 Introduce some interesting applications to convince the students that learning Chinese language is actually FUN!! [|classic text application (suitable for teacher and student)] [|Prose, Verse]

3.3.4 Video clip for Form 1 students to show them the difference between dialect and Mandarin (the official language) [|The difference between dialect and Mandarin] [|Learning Chinese is not an easy task] [|Zhongguo Hua (Popular song by SHE)]

3.3.5 Video clip for Form 4 students from wiki [|" class="wiki_link_ext">The difference between dialect and Mandarin] 3.3.6 A Japanese learns Chinese by trying to sing Jay Chow's (a male Taiwaneses hip hop singer) popular song "Qi Li Xiang" [|" class="wiki_link_ext">Qi Li Xiang (Jay Chow)] [|Digital Education Revolution NSW ~ Languages] [|education application in chinese language] [|Chinese Language essay compatition (winners' essay)] [|Website for students in oversea who learning Chinese language]

3.3.7Collaboration among the students is important as they are to share the computer facilities while learning. Working with the original Chinese learning network, the continuous learning of the language and the interactive internet activities could motivate students to communicate using Chinese language. [|President of Australia] -news [|Chinese education should be expanded to enhance the status in international level]-news

3.3.8Students gets a reading text in Chinese character and work in groups of four. The students are to create dialogue in Mandarin and to act it out in 3 minutes. They are to record the act and send it to the teacher for approval. Then, the students will publish it to youtube or rockYou which has a link in Facebook.

4.1 Students are encouraged to create his/her own blog in Chinese language.
==== 4.2 Teacher is to set up a blog or email where he/she and students could use the internet connection for interaction. The blog or email does not cost a lot to maintain, therefore these could be used for a start up in a long term project in introducing students to information technology. ====

2 Send to teacher via email. 3. Evaluate the performance. 4. Post to platform that students feel secure. 5. Propose few pla​tforms for students to choose. || A one week class assignment. || **Before** 1. Form 4 students were anxious that the teacher would post their video clips on youtube. 1. 2 days after assignment given, she received 10 groups responses out of 15 groups. 2. Some groups failed to pass their video clips on Friday because the file were too big to be attached in the email, but some students burned their performance in CD and submitted them on Friday. || 2. Post/link last assignment in 1. 3. Students re-evaluate the performance and post their comment in Chinese characters. 4. Teacher and students would comment both on design and pronunciation of Chinese language. 5. Teacher and students would monitor and comment on the collection of tongue twisters in their blog. || A three week group assignment. || **Before** Based on STEP 1, she found that a lot of students are very competent in information technology.
 * STEPS || ACTIVITIES || PERIOD || REMARKS ||
 * 1 || 1 Teacher asked the students to record their tongue twister performance by using electronic tools that they have.
 * After**
 * 2 || 1. Set up a platform which is monitored by teacher and a few selected students.

After the tongue twister, ‘ 绕口令 ’ recording, the students created a blog so that they could post the recording to their blog. Other than trying to make the lesson interesting, the teacher would like to have this activity as an introduction to using information technology in teaching and learning activities. The teacher chose blog as she hoped the blog could help her students to extend their in-class discussions. This would help them to study after school hours. When the recordings were posted to the blog, she asked the students to comment on them. Form Four students are not interested and some of them did not check in the blog at all. This could be that it was getting near the examination. When the teacher asked the Form One students to comment, they prefer chatting in their blog. In the beginning, the students used English Language. When the teacher forced them to use Chinese Language, there were a few problems: 1. There were a few computers which cannot interpret Chinese Language. 2. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">There were a few computers which could interpret Chinese Language but the students cannot write in Chinese Language as there is no Chinese version software. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The students’ freedom to surf internet is limited <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">4. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">The students are not good in writing Chinese because they are not good in hanyu pinyin. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; msofareastfontfamily: 'Times New Roman'; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">There are a few students who commented but failed to post them. Other than this ‘ <span style="font-family: 宋体; font-size: 12pt; mso-ascii-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-hansi-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">绕口令 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">’ activity, the teacher did not manage to do the other activities because the final examination is getting near. she needs to finish the syllabus and help her students with revision. || Based on STEP 2, the students are to share their sites with their peers as this would encourage peer teaching in the class. This is important for the cognitive development of the students. The teacher did not manage to do this due to time constraint. || Based on STEP 2, when the students are comfortable with the platform, they are to have a blog for their own class which would add more variety for the students of different levels of proficiency. The blog created was not active as the final examination is getting near. ||
 * After**
 * 3 || Teacher introduces other sites and students are to share their sites as well. || A one week individual assignment. || **Before**
 * After**
 * 4 || Students are to set up blog for their class. || A one week class assignment || **Before**
 * After**

Blog created by Cho's students

= =

[|Blog Form 1]

**RE-ANALYSIS OF THE PROPOSED LESSON FOR FORM ONE AND FOUR STUDENTS**
1.1 Teacher decides on the lesson because of time and resource constraint. This would be a good jumpstart in introducing students by assigning them the tasks before practicing it out in the next few days. The teacher believes that the tongue twister is an important part in the language to be studied using information technology as the students could practice using online dictionary. Regarding the performance, the teacher believes that this would be a good motivation to the students as teenagers would love to be seen performing among their peers. The informal situation in performing the tongue twister could be associated to rap performance that teenagers' favourite.

1.2Steps 3 and 4 would be considered as long term project as they do not cost much to maintain except the internet connection. The teacher believes that by creating a blog would motivate the students to maintain and adding the collection of tongue twisters. This is because the students get to design the blog with sounds and graphics according to their preferences.

1.3The other activities proposed would take some time to be implemented due to the red tape. However, the teacher believes that she would try out to implement the activities when there is support from the administrators.

1.4The teacher would like to find out the response of two different level of students towards information technology. The teacher carries out the lesson plan with different level of the content subject. Information technology should be very interesting for teenagers who are considered as digital native. According to Gardner (1983) who proposes the eight categories of multiple intelligences which included music, linguistic and bodily kinesthetic, the proposed lesson should be able to cater to most of the students who have different learning styles. Other than that, the assigned works are also done in groups which would encourage peer teaching. According to Vygotsky (1978), working in groups is important for the cognitive development which was proposed in zone of proximal development.

1.5 Other than tongue twister, teacher can teach idoms or other parts of grammar using the same design.

[] Zhongguo hua MV by Singers SHE [] introducing what is tongue twister [] introducing idiom to students

Schon (1987) identifies that one of the key problems in teaching design is that designing is a holistic skill which has to be experienced in action. The re-analysis of the proposed lesson for form one and four students above showed that we do have to think of the optimizing technology in the constraint of time and space that Cho has with her students and school facilities.

PHASE 5: IMPLEMENTATION This morning, my colleague came to me asking how to access internet in Chinese application, I wondered why she asked these questions, because her family is English educated. After talking to her, she told me her son is in Cho’s school and needed to accomplish the activity given by Cho. Apparently, she needed to help him to solve problem, because the computer does not have access to Chinese language sites. I took the opportunity to have a short interview with her. Her son was excited to do the activity and, as parents, they were happy to assist him to achieve the goal. She asked on the reason her daughter in different school that didn't have such activity and wondered if it will be carry out in all schools. The conclusion, is that under the parents’ guidance, teaching and learning using the internet will become more interesting and effective not because only students have been motivated, but the parents too. The problem of students of not being able to access the internet is solved.
 * Feedback from parents** (Friday-11/9/2009)

1 Form 4 students were curious and kept asking they were using the internet. They also wondered whether the teacher will post it on youtube. 2 Students were facing some technical problems when attaching the video clip via email. 3 The quality of the video clip was not good.
 * Feedback from students** (Friday-11/9/2009)

BACKGROUND OF LEE'S STUDENTS The students are willing to learn the Chinese language as opposed to Cho's students. It is just that they are in a big class, about 60 students in a class. The students especially the boys, are quite naughty and sometimes create minor discipline problems like making loud noises in the class. The students do have basic in Chinese language but they prefer to speak using dialects rather than Mandarin. Their pronunciation when speaking Mandarin is bad and they do not see the importance of Mandarin.

PHASE 6: RE-ANALYSIS RATIONALE FOR INCLUDING LEE'S STUDENTS IN THIS CASE STUDY Lee would like to find out if her students would be able to improve using the proposed solutions since her challenges are almost similar to Cho's. Lee also hoped to see if the solutions would help her to have more individual contact hours with the students since they are in large classes. Integrating information technology, Lee hoped that her students would be active in their participation. The students have no problem to access the internet and most of them possess mobile phone, digital camera and computer. Some of the students are from Chinese speaking family and some of them from English speaking family. These factors are almost similar to Cho's students. Cho's blog was not active since three weeks ago as the students were preparing for the examinations. There was a lack of response since the students were working for the final examinations.

PHASE 7: DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION Feedback from Lee's school (Monday-14/09/2009) I gave the Form One students the lyrics of the tongue twister. I did not change the content, but students have to look for the full version of the lyrics. The moment I give out the assignment, I received a lot of feedback: 1 . Parents not allowing them to PLAY computer, because some of them are addicted to certain applications like facebook, online chatting and online games. 2 . Parents cut off internet access because of the similar problem stated above. 3 . .Computer is their parents' working tool which they are not allowed to touch. 4 . Only less than 10 from 80 students do not have internet access. 5. Difficult for them to work together because of transportation problem, tuition, etc.

2 hours after giving out the assignment, I received a call from a parent, asking whether it is true her daughter had to do the particular assignment that I mentioned. It happened that the parent is my former schoolmate. He was worried that his daughter and friends would use the opportunity to do things unsupervised by adults. Anyway, after I explained my objectives, he supported me.

Based on the feedback from the students, I decided to work it out by writing to them the procedure that they have to work in peers. 1 . Divided them into 10 groups. 2 . Everybody has a role to play. Each group must have a **group name**; appoints member to certain positions such as director, producer, software engineer, actor or actress after discussion. 3 . It is important that each group must adopt a member who does not have facility to access internet, to play a role as actor or actress. 4 . All discussion in group must be noted on an exercise book. 5 . Duration: 1 week to complete the assignment. Summit the URL to the teacher; teacher will post to her blog. 6 . 2 days are givento the students to get the lyrics and practice the tongue twister before video recording.

It happened that my colleagues' children in a particular class. I received a massage from one of the colleagues asking about whether it was true that I gave her son the assignment. I get the opportunity to understand her worries because her son was addicted to a computer game named 'tota' and also facebook. When she knew it was a homework, she agreed to send her son to his friends' house to complete the assignment. 2 days after recording, the students failed to send me the URL. Some students told me that they were facing problem when uploading the file. The files were too large and they could not sign in to teachertube. Some groups came to me with pen drive. Some of them posted their file on youtube but refused to give me URL because I discouraged them from using the platform.

The first post of the video clip from the students media type="youtube" key="DY5OBpYQcuY" height="344" width="425"

Video clips from the other groups

media type="youtube" key="8nnvOPWqVoE" height="335" width="413"

media type="youtube" key="WitViNb-sAc" height="344" width="425"

Anyway, I wish they could settle the troubleshooting by themselves, so I let them posting their videoclips to youtube. I also recommended them to ask those who posted their assignment successfully.

Schon (1987) also believes that design must be learned by doing. The proposed solutions would not work as ideally as it suggested in the planning process. The feedback helps both Cho and Lee to carry out the activities planned later in the design.

Additional Information

The activity would be carried in the form of competition which hopefully would motivate the students to work hard without realising that they are doing the activity. Students can practice saying the tongue twisters in their groups and record their best performance at home. The performance can be recorded using handycam, digital camera or even their mobile phones (as long as they do not bring the phones to school). The video clip will be sent to the teacher using email as most of the students have internet access back at home. As we agreed in our previous discussions, the teacher will evaluate the video clips and upload them to the youtube. However, the students will not be told about this as to surprise them. The teacher would announce the best tongue twister performers and comment on the other groups by showing them the video clips in the youtube. Having to perform the tongue twister with music would allow the students to use their creativity and improved their pronunciation in Mandarin.

Below are some questions that tCho would like to find out from her students regarding the proposed lesson for the Form Four and One students. The feedbacks which are considered as summative evaluation in ADDIE model of learning theory, are important for the teacher to gauge the students' interest so that the teacher could suggest better activities or platforms in the future. Support from parents are important too as illustrated in one of the student's father asking Lee for help in using Chinese application.

QUESTIONS (for the students)

1. Do you like to use this way to learn Chinese language? Why? Answers: Yes = 75.7% No = 24.3%

Reasons for positive answer: 1. more interesting, not bored, no pressure. 2. able to communicate and to cooperate with friends, sharing ideas. 3. able to learn Chinese language at home, easier and more comfortable. 4. enrich knowledge, motivating to learn Chinese language.

Reasons for negative answer : 1. group work would spell trouble like transportation, poor attendance of members during discussion 2. embarassment for the upper form students 3. waste of time if not good with the computer

2. Do you think it is more interesting to learn Chinese language this way? Answers: Yes = 81.1% No = 18.9%

3. Do you like learning Mandarin by reading and copying using exercise books? Why? Answers: Yes = 48.6% No = 51.4%

Reasons for positive answer: 1. direct access to the important issues, more effective 2. easier to carry books, drafting notes, easier for revision and able to have more drills and exercises

Reasons for negative answer : 1. a real bore especially the classical article, sleepy 2. not interested in reading, not being able to concentrate 3. no need to carry many books 4.no written assignment

4. Do you like learning Mandarin by using information technology? Why? Answers: Yes = 73.6% No = 26.4%

Reasons for positive answer: 1. easier, fun, motivating learning 2. more effective, easy to remember 3. information in the internet is more interesting compared to the one in books 4. follow the trend of the era, at present is the technology

Reasons for negative answer : 1. waste of time if the internet connection is slow or no skill with the computers 2. easily influenced 3. not practical

5. Do your parent support you learning Mandarin by reading and copying using exercise books? Why? Answers: Yes = 93.2% No = 6.8%

Reasons for positive answer : 1. parents believe that this is a traditional method 2. more effective, more practical, the best method 3. language is a subject which requires a lot of reading and drills 4. eye health is guaranteed 5. ensure the children literally study on their own and not to worry if they are cheating by playing the computer games

Reasons for negative answer : 1. bored 2. wasting money to buy books 3. heavy bags

6. Do your parent support you learning Mandarin by using information technology? Why? Answer: Yes = 68.1% No = 31.9%

Reasons for positive answer : 1. follow the trend of the era so that their children would be skillful using the computers 2. more information with different opinions 3. more interesting, easier and time saving 4. no heavy bags 5. the other subjects in the school have yet to use this method for teaching and learning

6. if the objective is to learn, the parents will support

Reasons for negative answer : 1. parents assumed that computer affects the health of the eyes 2. children play computer games only 3. not practical, waste of time

Generally, Cho's students and their parents do agree and support learning with information technology.

Respond from Cho's students.

- During the introduction of the activity: The form 4 students were interested in the activity as they have never done it before but some of them were quite anxious if the recordings are to be posted in youtube. Peer pressure is always there haunting the students' to worry of their own actions.

The form 1 students took the assignments seriously and worried about completing the assignment. It was just an assignment and that was it.

Problems encountered during the activity: Since it was a group work, the students felt difficult to work together. Cho could ask the students to work in a smaller group for a start. The other problem was that, the file was too large to be emailed but they burned it in CD.

Most of the students like doing the activity as they have never done anything like this before but in the long term.... Cho should be really creative to motivate her students in the long term. By the way, it is near the end of the school year and Cho could plan something better for them next year.

Changes encountered during the activity: The students did show interest as this activity is something new to them but some of them prefer to be taught by a teacher especially when they are learning a language. They are weak in pronunciation so learning Chinese using information technology is a burden. Cho could go round facilitating the weaker students or she could ask the better students to tutor their peers in their group.

In such a short time, there is a little change of the students' attitude towards learning Chinese. The students managed to respond and completed the assignment given by Cho. That should be good enough for a start.

Questions for the students. 1. Is the activity difficult? Yes = 35 students No = 4 students

2. Satisfied with your video recording? Yes = 30 students No = 9 students

3. Would you hope that information technology integrated in other subjects? Yes = 36 students No = 3 students

4. Do you look forward to learning Chinese online? Yes = 37 students No = 2 students

5. Getting any parents support? Yes = 39 students

6. Do you like working in groups? Yes = 39 students

Reasons for preference in group work a. Better interaction and could learn from peers b. Happy for doing so

Generally, Lee's students and their parents support teaching and learning using information technology. Lee does have students coming up to her whether there will be assignments using the computer.

Respond from Lee's students.

I still have problem in getting the students to comment on the video recording. One of the boys said that everybody is happy with their recording. It will not be nice to compare with the others as it might hurt them. So i modified the activity and asked about how they feel during the recording.

http://www.smkbdsd2bc.blogspot.com/

Learning Objectives: 1. Encourage students to use Chinese language when giving comments. Task: Students have to answer all the questions given. At the same time, the teacher mentions that they have to use 10 verbs and adjectives in their answers. For students who cannot access the internet, they can ask their friends to post on their behalf.

Learning outcomes: The response can be considered good. About 60% of the students completed the task. Some students did not attempt it because their parents did not allow them to do so, due to the final examination next week. The questions included inquiring the students’ and parents’ opinion about teaching and learning using information technology and students' learning style.

Feedback from this quick survey, students are interested to learn using information technology, and was even supported by their parents. 30 students suggested that teaching and learning activities to be incorporated with information technology in the future. 5 students felt comfortable with collaboration learning with group discussions and presentation. 4 students prefer the traditional 'chalk and talk' method.

The latest assignment which was given on 15 October, asking the students to post their essays online. This assignment did not go on well because it was near the examination.

Generally, both Cho and Lee's students showed positive reactions towards learning using information technology and they are actually supported by their parents. Cho and Lee's schools are two different schools. The similarities that their students possess are of family backgrounds and lack of motivation in learning Chinese language. It is almost possible that the problems faced by Lee and Cho could be overcome with almost similar activities, namely video recording with positive results and the use of blogs. There is no need for Lee to respond to all the posts in the blog as mentioned in one of the class discussions, which could burden Lee unnecessarily. Also, it is important to understand that the use of blogs is a platform for the students to read and write using Chinese language. Using the platform, the students do have an option to practice using Chinese language as they are surrounded by English speaking community. There were a few glitches, i.e. technical problems in uploading files and Lee managed to ask the students to work with their better peers. It can be concluded that the teachers managed to have the students to communicate using Chinese language voluntarily.

REFLECTION BY CHO

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Membuat e-book ini memang membolehkan saya mempelajari banyak tentang pengetahuan teknologi secara tidak lansung, walaupun tidak secara mendalam. Sebenarnya melalui bantuan teknologi merupakan satu jalan lain untuk meningkatkan minat pelajar dalam mempelajari bahasa Cina. Ini ialah memandangkan pelajar pada masa sekarang adalah suka melayar ke internet atau ‘main’ komputer, ia memang satu tarikan yang baik. Dengan ada perbincangan di blog, guru dan pelajar boleh berkongsi idea mereka pada bila-bila masa, di mana-mana pun. Ini memang satu cara yang ‘realistik’ bagi seseorang guru yang kesuntukan masa dalam menjalankan P&P mereka. Kekurangan cara ini ialah bagi pelajar-pelajar yang pasif, mereka mungkin tidak akan melayar ke blog dan siapkan apa yang dipesan oleh guru. Maka sekiranya menggunakan cara ini dalam P&P, guru mesti pastikan mempunyai satu perancangan yang menarik dan baik untuk terus menarik perhatian dan minat pelajar supaya mereka terus menggunakan blog ini sebagai satu ‘platform’ tambahan bagi mereka memperolehi pengetahuan dalam jangka masa panjang. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> REFLECTION BY LEE <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">From the original design aims to help teachers solve the shortage of time, communication problems with students, teacher spent more time, but when students has been active in the performance, students have a platform to communicate and learning with teacher anytime, anywhere, I think worth it. In the process of complete this case, I deeply impressed I do learn technology by design as Misshra & Koehler mentioned in their article, all activities I work with my students really enroll me a chance to experience, struggle, enjoy the technology learning through the process. Next, To engage students who are digital native in learning with technology are not a hard job, beside, technology also gain active learning among them, but to drive away at technology with them, digital immigrant must spend more patient, time to make a big step forward so that can keep up with the students. This is my learning outcome when I succcessfully put my students in "heaven", I'm thinking of pull them back to to "real world" or join them in their "heaven". Doctrine of Confucius said education in accordance with individual differences. From time to time, educator should alert to the change of the students'world, keep on do changes of pedagogical support to fulfill students’ need are important option to achieve successful teaching and learning.

REFLECTION BY ONG Learners must individually discover and transform complex information if they are to make it their own, [suggesting] a more active role for students in their own learning than is typical in many classrooms, Slavin (2003) in Brown (2007). I realised that I have been spoonfed by my teachers and lecturers almost all my life, sponging as much as information as I could. Traditional teaching method such as lecturing would not be a much help to develop students to be brave to criticize and socialize for their own good. This has been proven throughout the semester that few students are active in giving constructive comments to the peers in the class discussions. The public examinations do not actually test the students' oral skills but reading and writing skills which I believe that this could be one of the factors that the teachers are using textbooks and countless drilling. However, to learn by discovery and with the help of peers would need strong determination as this would depend on one's personality and learning style. Socializing would definitely benefit extrovert individuals. Adolescents are much influenced by their peers and also the environment that they are in. This is proven by the case study that the students responded well to the assignments given by the teachers.

**REFERENCES**
Brown, H.D. (2000). __Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.__ New York: Longman

Brown, H.D. (2007). __Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.__ New York: Longman

www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences. Multiple Intelligences. Retrieved on 13.9.2009

http:/tip psychology.org/vygotsky.html. Social Development Theory. Retrieved on 13.9.2009

http://www.learning-theories.com/addie-model.html. ADDIE Model. Retrieved on 13.9.2009