Graduate Assistants Share Their Research at the Professional Development Workshops Held at CCLE
Maxwell Koenen
October 13, 2023
Workshop Introduction
The Center for Chinese Language Education hosted a professional development workshop on Friday, October 13, as a part of the Teacher’s Professional Development Series. The workshop saw two enlightening presentations, one given by graduate assistant Hsin-Tzu Jen and the other jointly given by Jia Lu and Jiaxin Tian. In attendance were graduate student instructors as well as Chinese Flagship Center Director, Professor Song Jiang, and Associate Director, Professor Julie Jiang. The presentations were open to questions by all in attendance, Professors Song Jiang, Haidan Wang, and Julie Jiang leading the discussion.
Summary of Events
The first presentation, given by Hsin-Tzu Jen, explored the topic of how conversation analysis (CA) could be used to better understand the needs of students studying Chinese. To this end, Hsin-Tzu provided data in support of the idea that visual aspects and gesturing may help students learning Chinese by providing answers to the questions given to them. He also suggested the idea that certain linguistic elements vary in terms of grammaticalization between native and L2 speakers of Chinese. While his research is not yet complete, its preliminary findings could provide insight with respect to how to better assist learners of Chinese master the language.
The first presentation, given by Hsin-Tzu Jen, explored the topic of how conversation analysis (CA) could be used to better understand the needs of students studying Chinese. While his research is not yet complete, its preliminary findings could provide insight with respect to how to better assist learners of Chinese master the language.
Another noticeable facet of Hsin-Tzu’s presentation was his research into the manner in which students use gesturing during tutoring sessions. Gesturing was observed to often accompany speech in situations where speech cannot adequately convey the one’s intended meaning. It may be employed as a means of acknowledgement as well. Both circumstances were observed and documented, with its data allowing instructors to better understand the cues for understanding or the lack thereof for students. Questions from Professor S Jiang, L Jiang, and Wang followed.
The second presentation was jointly given by Jia Lu and Jiaxin Tian, who explored the topic of the utilization of various methods aimed at correcting students’ improper tones in an online setting. As Chinese is a tonal language in which the tonality of a single syllable can drastically alter the meaning of a word, assisting students in their mastery of Chinese tonality is a must for instructors. To this end, Jia and Jiaxin provided a substantial amount of data in support of the idea that gesturing and the usage of artifacts (tools such as screen sharing or a chat box) is conducive to tone correction. While their research is not yet complete and requires further analysis, Jia and Jiaxin, as well as those in attendance, believe that if applied to online teaching of Mandarin Chinese, it could provide insight with respect to how educators can better assist learners of Chinese in their mastering of the language. Questions from Professors S Jiang, L Jiang, and Wang followed.
After an enlightening array of presentations and discussions, the participants enjoyed a light dinner.
The second presentation was jointly given by Jia Lu and Jiaxin Tian, who explored the topic of the utilization of various methods aimed at correcting students’ improper tones in an online setting. They provided a substantial amount of data in support of the idea that gesturing and the usage of artifacts (tools such as screen sharing or a chat box) is conducive to tone correction.