Development and Evaluation of a Chinese Character Educational Board Game for Non-Native Learners

There is no doubt that knowing Chinese gives graduates a competitive advantage. The ability to communicate fluently in Chinese has long been a requirement for Chinese employers, particularly those looking to do business in China's e-commerce market. Non-native learners must master four fundamental abilities in order to become literate in the Chinese language: listening, reading, writing, and speaking. Previous research has found that writing Chinese characters is frequently the most difficult task for both non-native and native learners. The issue arises during the process of learning Chinese characters and excessive use of gadgets, while online learning inspires both researchers to create a Chinese educational board game dubbed the LiSCReW Family Board Game (LiSCReW). LiSCReW is an acronym for Listen, Speak, Count, Read, and Write. The purpose of this study is (i) to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the LiSCReW for learning Chinese characters; and (ii) to share non-native learners' perspectives and experiences while playing LiSCReW during a one-day exhibition at Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Johor Campus. To facilitate playtesting and evaluation of the board game, a total of 22 students from UiTM Johor were conveniently selected. The findings indicate that the LiSCReW board game is an effective educational tool for learning Chinese characters. The results show that respondents are more confident in recognising Chinese characters (90.9%), pronouncing Chinese characters (68.2%), reading Chinese characters (54.6%), and applying the Chinese characters they learned while playing LiSCReW to their Chinese test (77.2%). The findings can be used to guide future research into the empirical testing of Flow Theory's applicability among a large number of respondents.

An Error Analysis of Orthographic Representation in Written Chinese Characters

This paper reports an error analysis of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters among Mandarin as foreign language (MFL) learners studying at an elementary level at a Malaysian public university in their dictation assessment. A total of 262 stroke error types of their orthographic representation in written Chinese characters were collected and analysed. The errors were consequently classified into four main categories among 165 MFL learners who took part in the study. The study found that participants made most mistakes in the stroke numbers and shape of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. It was also found that there were detectable mistakes in stroke relation and stroke direction of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. The cognitive factors contributing to the orthographic representation error types in written Chinese characters are discussed. It is concluded that beginner MFL learners would have a greater tendency to commit several character errors in writing Mandarin because of their low level of orthographic awareness and presumably a high cognitive load given to them as they transit from writing alphabets scripts to writing Chinese characters. Future research could examine how MFL learners cognitively adapt when transitioning from alphabet scripts to Chinese characters. Findings would guide instructors in the teaching Chinese characters more efficient and subsequently, it would allow them to interpret orthographic representations and write Chinese characters more accurately.

Comparing the Effects of Stroke-Appearing and Stroke-Disappearing on Learning the Order of Strokes in Chinese Characters

Different approaches to stimulating perceptions in learning can be easily designed with technology-enhanced learning systems. This study aimed to explore how different approaches can influence learners' perceptions that may negatively or positively affect their learning performance of writing Chinese characters using the correct Chinese order of strokes (COS). We therefore designed an e-learning system which was subdivided into two modes: stroke-appearing (i.e., using red to mark incorrect strokes) and stroke-disappearing (i.e., using blanks to mark incorrect strokes) to indicate strokes written in the incorrect order. We then investigated the modes that would facilitate a higher level of attention and better learning outcomes. A total of 10 third-grade elementary school students participated in the experiment, divided into two test groups. Their EEG data were collected, and time series analysis and t-tests were utilized to analyze the differences. The results indicated that: (1) there was a significant difference in the attention levels of the students practicing with the stroke-appearing and stroke-disappearing modes when learning COS, and (2) there was a significant difference in the learning outcomes of the students practicing with the stroke-appearing and stroke-disappearing modes when learning COS. These findings support the specific role of stroke order knowledge in learning Chinese characters and the need for the design of an effective method for teaching children to learn Chinese characters.

MyOcrTool: Visualization System for Generating Associative Images of Chinese Characters in Smart Devices

Majority of Chinese characters are pictographic characters with strong associative ability and when a character appears for Chinese readers, they usually associate with the objects, or actions related to the character immediately. Having this background, we propose a system to visualize the simplified Chinese characters, so that developing any skills of either reading or writing Chinese characters is not necessary. Considering the extensive use and application of mobile devices, automatic identification of Chinese characters and display of associative images are made possible in smart devices to facilitate quick overview of a Chinese text. This work is of practical significance considering the research and development of real-time Chinese text recognition, display of associative images and for such users who would like to visualize the text with only images. The proposed Chinese character recognition system and visualization tool is named as MyOcrTool and developed for Android platform. The application recognizes the Chinese characters through OCR engine, and uses the internal voice playback interface to realize the audio functions and display the visual images of Chinese characters in real-time.

"Pinyin Tzimu Project" — a Landmark Event in the History of Chinese Civilization Initiated and Supported by the CPC

The Creation of the Alphabet and words spelling of Chinese Mandarin (Pinyin tsimu project) is a landmark event in the history of Chinese civilization. It breathes new life into ancient Chinese characters. Great "dumb" − the Chinese character − for the first time since 1958 has become known to the whole world by sounds of Beijing speech. Today the two types of writing − Chinese Mandarin traditional ideographic and innovative phonographic writing, in their unity, provide the linguocultural unity of the Chinese society and the progress of science and technology of China. Millions of people in China and beyond are studying the Chinese language based on the sound letter standard of the words of Chinese Putonghua. Letter orthogramms of Chinese words provide tele- and Internet communication of hundreds of millions of Chinese. In the 20 century the first Latinized alphabet for the Chinese language was created with the leading participation of one of the founders and leaders of the CPC, Qu Qiubo, (included in the official list of "100 Greatest Figures of New China") under the influence of the experience of creating alphabets for the peoples of the USSR in 1921-26. Chinese alphabet, based on Latin letters and letter-spelling forms of Putonghua words are a huge scientific achievement of Chinese linguists. Outstanding contribution to the creation of the alphabet and letter words of Chinese Mandarin was made by a brilliant Chinese linguist Zhou Youguang (1906-2011), called the «father of pinyin zimu» or Chinese alphabet in China. The top leaders of the Communist Party of China, Mao Tsedong, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi led the creation of the "pinyin" alphabet. The political will and wisdom of the CPC's senior leadership, combined with the creative genius of Chinese linguists, ensured the creation of a letter writing for the people of China, which was "an epochal event in the history of the development of Chinese civilization".

A Contrastive Study of Discourse Construction Features of Abstracts of Chinese and Foreign English Academic Papers From the Perspective of Contrastive Rhetoric

is responsible for introducing research, attracting readers and other multiple functions, and has its own unique characteristics of discourse construction. Through objective analysis of the characteristics of discourse construction in abstracts published by Chinese and foreign scholars in international English journals, the accuracy of the expression of the articles can be increased. The author builds his own corpus and makes a contrastive analysis of the frequency, types and distribution of fuzzy restrictive language in each step of English abstracts in Chinese and foreign journals, and summarizes the unique short language types and textual functions of each step. The results show that the distribution trend of hedges in the fourth step of English abstracts in Chinese and foreign journals is generally the same, but there are significant differences in the types of use and the frequency of occurrence. Therefore, in English abstract writing, Chinese authors should properly use various types of rhetorical devices to enhance the diversity of language expression, so as to better obtain the recognition of readers.

THE LINGUISTIC NATURE OF ONOMATOPOEIA

The problem of onomatopoeias as a special lexical group has existed in the language for many decades. Onomatopoeias imitate the sounds of nature, the language of animals, objects of the surrounding world. In the text, onomatopoeia can perform various functions: emotional influence, imitation, as well as the function of language economy. But one of its main functions remains sound imaging. In Russia and China, different language pictures, specific cultural elements and linguistic features are noted. All this confirms the large-scale differences in the sound imitations of both languages, and in various aspects: in the composition of the components, in the functional role, in the meanings. Despite the fact that the differences in the phonetic system of Russian and Chinese are quite large, the onomatopoeias and their functions in the languages under consideration have the same features. Onomatopes are an expression of the same emotions, feelings, sounds both in oral speech and in writing. Chinese onomatopes are a graphic copy that attributes us to the actual sounding. This fact makes onomatopoeias in Chinese similar to onomatopes in Russian. The connection of sound and meaning is especially important: linguists study the nature of this connection from different points of view. It is also important to note the difference between sound imitations and similar interjections. Onomatopes are not only part of the system of the Russian and Chinese languages, but are also a progressive link that develops the resources of the language, its word-forming capabilities, as well as the expressive sphere of expression.