Mandarin is the most sought-after language due to its rapid economic development. Simultaneously, Mandarin is also becoming arguably the most difficult language in the world especially for those who are not used to the tonal language. Today, the speedy development of the internet and advanced technology has transformed Mandarin educators to accommodate innovation in pedagogy occasioned by the worldwide demand for the acquisition of Mandarin as a foreign language by non-native speakers. Thus, this action research is to investigate to what extent smartphone applications, the latest mobile technology could impact teacher’s pedagogical practice and students’ oral performances. One class of Mandarin non-native learners participated in the study. The triangulation method was used in collecting data. The data from students’ diaries, teacher’s self-reflective journals, focus group interviews and oral assessment were analysed through content and thematic analysis to gauge the impact of the technology integration. The results revealed that, over a four-week intervention period, the students viewed their Mandarin pronunciation and confidence level of oral had improved. But they contradicted the result of oral assessment. In short, Mobile-Assisted Language Learning is a potential approach to address the difficulty of Mandarin. However, to make it a success, the existence factors which facilitated and hindered students’ performance during the technology integration instruction were the most crucial.
Teaching is a complicated and comprehensive task. Teachers may spend many years of practice to learn how to teach well, and most of us will not have learned enough. It would be a continuous process to be a good teacher. Instead of keeping on learning what we do not know about teaching the subject, it is better to know what the real problems are happening in the class, reflect what is the cause and come out with an action plan as nobody starts well at teaching. Furthermore, in fulfilling the worldwide demand for Mandarin language acquisition occasioned with the advance affordances of technology, most of the researchers focused on technology impact than the pedagogical aspects. And there is still too little action research regarding teaching pedagogy that has been done on enhancing Mandarin learning, especially in the local context. Thus, it is the right time the researcher cum instructor examines Mandarin pedagogical practice through individual action research to examine to what extent technology-enhanced Mandarin instruction could impact teacher’s pedagogical practice besides assisting students’ learning. A total of fourteen Mandarin non-native learners have participated in the study. The triangulation method was used to ensure the trustworthiness of this qualitative study. The data was collected through students’ diaries, reflective journals, focus group interviews and oral assessment. Then they were analyzed through content and thematic analysis to ascertain the themes regarding teacher pedagogical practice which influenced smartphone usage in Mandarin learning. The results revealed that the human aspect was the most crucial factor in ensuring the success of technology integration instruction. The smartphone was found as a promising tool in teaching Mandarin however it is only effective when teachers use it as a pedagogical tool effectively.
Mobile devices and technology integration in teaching and learning are becoming common tools in education. However, not all technology-enhanced instruction is structured in the same manner. At the same time, mobile learning is a comparatively new occurrence and the theoretical fundamental is presently under development. Thus, this paper presents a comprehensive pedagogical view among the current Mandarin mobile learning practice to the existing MALL framework and principles. The researcher cum instructor conducted an individual Mandarin mobile instruction via smartphone applications. The results from the implementation were qualitatively studied and analysed to evaluate as to what extent the Mandarin practice has kept up with the existing MALL pedagogical framework and principles. The emerging truths found in the results that might be impactful for Mandarin mobile learning were pedagogical skill, situation task content, continuous reflection, readiness, and native speaker.
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