Research carried out in Malaysia identified that learners of Mandarin as a foreign language (MFL) in Malaysia were keen "to make small talk" and "to communicate with Mandarin speaking colleagues at workplace". However, a survey of the Mandarin learning materials available in the market indicates that there are plenty of learning materials for "General Mandarin" for daily use and materials for "Business Mandarin" but none for "Workplace Mandarin". Hence, there is an urgent need for Mandarin experts to produce suitable and comprehensive materials specifically for Mandarin for workplace communication. In contributing to the needs of "Workplace Mandarin", the Mandarin e-Module of "Small Talk at Workplace" was developed to fulfil Mandarin language learners' needs "to make small talk" and "to communicate with Mandarin speaking colleagues at workplace". For this purpose, ADDIE Model, a systematic approach consists of instructional design principles was adopted to develop the e-module of "Small Talk at Workplace". The ADDIE model consists of five phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. It is a strategic plan for designing an e-module and video clips incorporated with Powtoon animation were selected as the platform to deliver the e-content developed for the e-module. The completion of the Mandarin e-Module of "Small Talk at Workplace" is important as it can be marketed as an e-learning toolkit. The toolkit will help learners to make effective small talk as a social skill where effective small talk can be a useful tool to help them achieve goals they set in their work life.
This study evaluated the use of the online quiz as part of the formative assessment for Mandarin as a third language (MTL). A questionnaire was designed to investigate three aspects, namely, academic honesty, students' satisfaction in doing the online quiz, and students' preference between the online quiz and the manual quiz. Two hundred and nineteen (219) MTL students who studied in three different levels of the Mandarin course answered the questionnaire in May 2013. The findings indicated that more than half of the students received help from course mates while answering the online quiz. Overall, students from all levels were very happy to have the online quiz as part of the assessment. They strongly recommended that future students should also be given the online quiz as there are more pros than cons in having the online quiz as compared to having the manual quiz. However, students were reluctant to do the online quiz in the computer labs of their faculties. Nonetheless, this study proposes a solution to control misconduct during the online quiz. The most effective way is to have the online quiz done in the computer lab of the faculty under the supervision of a lecturer. Some detailed steps to conduct the online quiz have been outlined in the paper.
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