Evaluating Mandarin Language Students’ Online Experience During Covid-19

Abstract

Given the impact of coronavirus, all schools across all sectors public and private, in the United Kingdom closed at the end of March 2020. Closures affected every type of establishment across the UK as well as private language schools. Our case study takes place in London and looks into the student experience in a language Mandarin Chinese school. These language students, as very many across the globe, who attended face-to-face sessions up until that point, have since been studying remotely and joining virtual classrooms via Zoom, one of the multiple video conferencing platforms available. To better evaluate students’ online learning experience of remote learning, this study examines the teacher-student interactions that take place via online means and the students’ sense of ‘presence’ (i.e., cognitive, social, and teaching presence) in order to evaluate the lessons we can learn from the online learning experience, going forward in terms of teaching and learning. This study also presents how meaningful and worthwhile the experience has been and how the sense of ‘presence’ plays a significant role in the process of online teaching and learning.

Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign or Second Language: The Educational Psychology Perspective

“…Several researchers further conducted empirical studies about online CFL learning. For instance, Qing and Diamantidaki (2020) explored the CFL learners' learning experience in the UK from the perspectives of cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence and found that the online Mandarin courses were highly valued by the learners. Based on Positive Psychology, Wang and Jiang (2022) found that CFL learners showed a high level of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) in the online learning context, yet they did not find a significant relationship between FLE and the participants' Chinese language achievement, as measured by a 10-point selfreport scale and an objective Chinese language test.…”

The roles of motivation, anxiety and learning strategies in online Chinese learning among Thai learners of Chinese as a foreign language

“…Several researchers further conducted empirical studies about online CFL learning. For instance, Qing and Diamantidaki ( 2020 ) explored the CFL learners' learning experience in the UK from the perspectives of cognitive presence, social presence and teaching presence and found that the online Mandarin courses were highly valued by the learners. Based on Positive Psychology, Wang and Jiang ( 2022 ) found that CFL learners showed a high level of foreign language enjoyment (FLE) in the online learning context, yet they did not find a significant relationship between FLE and the participants' Chinese language achievement, as measured by a 10-point self-report scale and an objective Chinese language test.…”

Editorial 5(SI1): Technology and education: Innovation or hindrance?

“…Researches worldwide show that technology and innovative practices can improve the educational experience (e.g. Gunasekara et al, 2021;O'Brien, 2020;Shelley, 2020;Qing & Diamantidaki, 2020;Bonk et al, 2020). We continue to seek alternatives to traditional communication, knowing that the world we live in will never be the same again (Kefalaki & Diamantidaki, 2021), yet we need to acknowledge that this technological advancement is not applicable in all parts of the world where access to technology is not always possible due to socioeconomic conditions.…”