Shenglan Zhang publishes book chapter on “Integrating Technology into Beginning Level CFL Students’ Tone Learning at the Curriculum Level.”

Shenglan Zhan, associate professor in the Department of World Languages and Cultures, recently published a book chapter on “Integrating Technology into Beginning Level CFL Students’ Tone Learning at the Curriculum Level” in the book, “Handbook of Chinese Language Learning and Technology.”

Empirical research on L2 Mandarin tone learning in a classroom setting has emerged since the 1960s, but it remains scarce to date. There is little research on how to assist students in learning or improving their tones outside the classroom. This study describes and examines the effectiveness and students’ perceptions of an approach designed by following the ADDIE instructional design model to improve students’ mastery of tone knowledge, tone recognition, and tone production outside of the classroom with the assistance of technology. This approach has two stages: the first stage consists of an online multimedia module with interactive exercises, and the second stage consists of tasks that engage students in comparing their tone production with the tones of native Chinese speakers. The results indicate that this approach significantly improved students’ knowledge of tones and tone changes, their tone recognition and production skills. The students’ perception of using this approach was also positive. This approach proved to be one that could be implemented at the syllabus level outside of the classroom to free up classroom time for learning other aspects of the language. The reasons for their positive perception, as well as their suggestions for further improvements, were discussed.