Month: December 2021

1. What kind of interaction would the video require from your students? Does it force them to respond in some way (inherent)?

The video explains the origin and evolution of Chinese characters in chronological order, which belongs to direct teaching. Students use cognitive theory to learn and understand the knowledge of Chinese characters.

2. In what way are they likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?

Students may take notes or a flowchart to help them remember the evolution of Chinese characters and begin to think about why Chinese characters evolve like this.

3. What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

Students can write down their understanding of the evolution of Chinese characters, edit it into a blog and send it to the website to express their views on Chinese characters. They can also compare the evolution of Chinese characters with English or other languages. Because their blogs are posted on the website, students can comment on each other to exchange inspiration and ideas. This method can also let them form the habit of cooperative learning.

4. How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?

I will give comments and feedback to every student who publishes a blog. If students are confused or disagree with my feedback, we can also use discord for a private chat for further explanation and discussion.

Our interactive learning resources are displayed in the form of a website. Almost everyone can access our website as long as they have a mobile phone or computer. Each article on the website can be accurately located by URL. Just click the URL to jump to the corresponding article. For learners who have never been exposed to Chinese culture, we provide a brief introduction to ensure that they have a preliminary understanding of the history of Chinese culture. In our teaching content, we inserted YouTube videos and some pictures to help students understand the content. As long as you log in through the browser, you can watch the video directly, and there is no problem with viewing qualification. The course content is divided into five parts in detail, and each part is related to our theme. Students can view each part according to their preferences. After reading all the parts, most students should have a rough understanding of Chinese history and the pronunciation system. Besides, our learning resources are fully online and are not affected by unexpected effects such as COVID-19 and national relations. Students can visit websites whenever and wherever possible. In order to deepen students’ understanding, we have arranged discussions and group lectures. Cooperative learning can significantly improve students’ efficiency and enthusiasm. Finally, you can test your mastery through a small quiz.

First of all, I should first express my own point of view: the most appropriate teaching method for language teaching should be the cooperative learning method. Cooperative learning refers to mutual learning in which students have a clear division of responsibilities in order to complete common tasks. Members of the team not only need to master the knowledge they have learned, but also help teammates and exchange their understanding. Cooperative learning can not only improve students’ learning efficiency but also does not need additional investment. It only needs to divide students into groups.

Why do I think cooperative learning is suitable for our Chinese teaching? As one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world, many foreigners basically have no Chinese foundation. They have no experience in learning Chinese at all. Directly instilling a large amount of new knowledge may make students bored. Cooperative learning can avoid this. Timely communication can keep students interested in learning and exchange their new vocabulary. For example, students can correct each other’s pronunciation to improve their proficiency.

Due to the Chinese hieroglyphic system, it is almost impossible for students to master a large number of vocabulary and pronunciations in a short time, but through cooperation, students can exchange their own skills and strengthen their memory with specific methods, which makes teaching easier and more successful.

Of course, cooperative learning is not the only way of language teaching. The cooperation of students alone is not enough for them to master Chinese. We should first teach some knowledge directly, insert interactive and multimedia files, and then let the students discuss.

Through this week’s study, I learned three different learning methods, namely behaviorism, cognitivism, and constructivism.

When we come into contact with new content, we always encounter difficulties in varying degrees. In order to overcome these difficulties, we must make rational use of these three theories. But because of personal differences, we need to find the most suitable learning theory.

Cognitivism is similar to the traditional teaching model. Teachers teach students knowledge, and students provide feedback to teachers and think about themselves. After mastering and skillfully using knowledge, students can use knowledge to further improve their learning.

Behaviorism focuses on the interaction with students. It uses appropriate interests to stimulate students’ interest in learning, which is similar to the conditioned reflex in biology. This theory uses interests to promote students’ enthusiasm, so as to make students have learning motivation.

Constructivism is more dependent on students themselves. Students must use their own experience, cognition, and understanding to construct their own unique learning methods. Compared with the first two theories, constructivism relies more on students’ own initiative.

These three theories are not good or bad, but I want to share my learning experience, which almost includes three theories. Before I went to Canada, I had a sketching course for the first half of the year. The teacher used cognitivism theory when teaching the initial basic skills, that is, directly teaching us how to sketch. In the later course, the teacher just gave us a painting object. We painted according to our previous understanding, and we couldn’t get any help during the period. At the end of each class, the teacher will give various small gifts to the authors of the best works as rewards. I think the combination of the three learning cognitive theories is perfect.