Abstract:
Most non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in mainstream local schools, and many primary schools require NCS students as second language learners to catch up with the progress of the first language mainstream Chinese courses within three years. To achieve this goal, in addition to intensive Chinese teaching in the separated class after school, it is necessary for students to establish the habit of reading Chinese books and self-directed learning ability as soon as possible. Picture books are rich in pictures and plain text, which can provide NCS students with comprehensible input (Krashen, 1985) in reading. And because the content of picture books is interesting and storytelling, it can arouse students’ interest in reading. This plan uses adjusted picture book stories, teaches different reading strategies before reading, uses self-directed learning theory as a scaffolding, and combines with the extended reality (XR) of technology, so that students can be more involved in reading, enjoy reading, and understand reading content, thereby improving reading and self-directed learning ability. In addition, the plan selects positive picture book contents, which can build up students’ moral affection.
This project is based on past research results and theoretical developments, including research on self-study reading materials for fairy tales (TM Cheung, 2021), electronic self-study theory (Mishra and Koehler, 2006), etc. In terms of teaching material design, it is in line with the teaching theory of second language acquisition (Tabors, 2002). With the collaboration of teaching material design, technology and teaching theory, the self-study ability of Chinese language will be enhanced. The self- study method used in the project, referred to as TSR, consists of three steps: T (target), S (strategy) and R (reflection). It is expected that students will self-directed learning by TSR during reading – set goals before reading, use strategies during reading, and reflect on the result after reading. After the project is completed, the strategies learned can also be extended to other readings, so that the effect of the project can be continued.
Virtual reality (VR) has been widely used in teaching Chinese writing in recent years to provide students with an immersive experience. As the input of teaching writing, VR enriches the materials of students’ writing. With the development of science and technology, from virtual reality (VR) to XR (Extended-Reality), XR is a collective technology name between reality and illusion (Rori Duboff, 2022), and the academic community has also begun to explore XR to be an effective teaching tool. This project cooperates with innovation and technology companies to develop extended reality (XR) picture books. XR includes three modes, namely Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), which have more flexibility in designing teaching materials, developing strategic, interactive self-directed learning and assessment etc. The goal is to help NCS students develop interest in reading and language literacy and improve reading ability by mastering reading strategies and metacognition. At the same time, students immersed in the story environment set by the scene can more easily understand the subject content and internalise moral and emotional learning. Also, as language teachers in the Information age, they should develop effective e-teaching skills. This project helps EdUHK students to improve their e-teaching ability through experiential learning and the production of electronic picture books.
Code:
T0273
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 Nov 2023
End Date:
28 Feb 2025
Status:
Completed
Financial Year:
2023-24
Type:
TDG