The impact of technology-enhanced learning environment on teaching Chinese as a second language

3.3 Research question #3

Teacher of the EG shares her vision on how modern technologies can help develop a student-centered model that can be further used to assist unlimited number of learners. The respondent admits in modern era the role of the teacher has significantly transformed and now should be more focused on the assistance, guidance and content development, then on the assessment and control. In this section, she shares her mode of teaching Chinese to Grade-1 university students to show the aforementioned role shift. The example would be of a particular interest to the language teachers who can use it as a guideline for creating their own curriculums. The screenshots with comments provided by the teacher are attached for better understanding and visual support. They are taken from different classes earlier taught by the respondent. Names are changed due to privacy issues.

Online dashboard. To start with, teacher uses Edmodo as an online classroom to share all associated course materials, assign tasks and get student's feedback. The screenshots demonstrate that the platform perfectly suits all the requirements of a regular traditional classroom, but just transfers it online (Figure 1). By doing so, it makes learning process ubiquitous and more student-oriented.

Fig. 3 Screenshots that demonstrate the key teaching aspects common for traditional classroom (communicating trough the News Feed; assigning tasks and grading the results)

Auto-checked quizzes. In order to minimize the time spent on the assessment of the student's assignments and, therefore, maximizing the number of students taught simultaneously, the teacher proposes to create automated online quizzes that are integrated in the platform. The available options include 5 types of the questions, namely multiple choice, true/false, short answer, fill in the blank and matching. One assignment may combine different types of the questions. In that way, the role of the teacher shifts to the curriculum developer who needs to manage the course, create valid content and tasks, but has no longer spend hours on checking the handed-in papers. The quizzes are graded by the platform and the results are automatically transferred to the gradebook (Figure 2). With this feature, a teacher can simultaneously assess unlimited number of students. Moreover, the teacher may check the overall class understanding using the statistics of the correct answers, or analyze the progress of a certain student, as the system allows to see the answers of the selected learner.

Fig. 4 Screenshots that demonstrate the abilities of auto-checked quizzes

Peer-reviewed DBPs. In addition, to minimize the time a teacher spends on grading paper, a respondent advises to use Discussion board posts (DBP) that have to be checked by the peers [5]. Such a system is common in top international universities, but unfortunately is not widely used in Ukraine. Teacher creates the DBP with the assignment and then each student should comment on it. However, each student is responsible for both his-her- own post and the previous one. The teacher may randomly check 3-4 posts a week to mentor the process.

Useful external resources. Among the useful external resources, the respondent mentions massive open online courses (MOOCs) with ready-made materials and integrated grading systems (edX, Udacity, Coursera, TEDx, Prometeus etc.), online classrooms with ready-made content (Duolinguo, LinguaLeo, KhanAcademy among others), online flashcards (Quizlet, Memrize etc.), texting systems (Plickers, Kahoot!, ClassMaker etc.) and visualizing tools (PiktoChart, MindMap, Bibbl.us etc.). Duolinguo for Schools. When it comes to language education, a particular attention should be paid for the online classrooms with ready-made content. The respondent shared the experience using Duolinguo for schools with the EG. The main advantage of the application is that it can be adjusted for both - the needs of the whole class/group and for the personal needs of each student. Duolinguo for schools allows to create two types of the accounts - for teacher and for learner. Through the teacher's account, an instructor may set two types of the goals - personalized (gain experience points) and group (complete an assigned lesson). The teacher can check the results of each student, but all tasks and quizzes are already in the system, which significantly reduces the time spent on the lesson preparation (Figure 3).

Fig. 5 Screenshots that demonstrate the abilities of Duolinguo for Schools

Kahoot! In case the group consists of more than 10 people, it is quite difficult for a teacher to control the in-class work of each student. To make it more fun and engaging, the respondent advises to use Kahoot! The teacher can create a quiz or choose from the available ones and share the code with the students. The learners should choose the correct answers on their devices (smartphones, tablets, PCs) and the teacher instantly gets the class statics. Notably, it can be used for in-class activities (play mode) and as a homework (challenge mode). The platform allows to download the statistics on the student's replies in the Excel format.

Fig.6 Screenshots that demonstrate the abilities of Quizlet

Quizlet. Another extremely useful online resource is Quizlet, which can be used for both flashcard sharing and online testing. It allows to create and share personalized modules and works great for memorizing new words in foreign language (Figure 4). In addition, once a teacher added all new words, a program will automatically generate unique tests for each student. Such tests can be used for self-study activities and for the in-class check-ups. Moreover, the system has plenty ready-made sets of the cards, which is useful while preparing for standard language tests, such as IELTS, TOEFL, HSK and others.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the research shows that the implementation of the modern technologies can not only contribute to the learning outcomes, but can deal with the lack of academic staff. In particular, technology-enriched curriculum make Chinese language learning more productive, as 64 % of the students in EG managed to master the course with excellent grades (A/A+), when compared to 14% of those in the CG. Moreover, the teacher from the EG reported to spent less time on the grading in comparison to the traditional classroom. Though, teachers and institutions can choose from a variety of available online teaching platforms, one of the best options is Edmodo. SWOT analysis has shown that despite few weaknesses and threats, the platform has lots of benefits and opportunities. The platform can be easily personalized to any requirements of the class. Such feathers as online feed, where a teacher can share all relevant resources and initiate peer-reviewed discussions, auto-check quizzes and possibility to insert links to other useful resources (Duolinguo for Schools, Kahoot!, Quizlet etc.) can help teacher assist unlimited number of students at a time.

teaching chinese language academic

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