Eberly Center

Learning Chinese Formulaic Expressions In A Multi-modal Interactive Environment

When learning a foreign language, formulaic expressions are useful resources to master
because they are common in our everyday communication and assist our social
participation. Because formulaic expressions are community-wide in use and tied to
communicative situations, they are best learned in a context where the target language
is spoken. Since a foreign language classroom does not easily afford opportunities to
participate in real-life social events, technology-supported instruction, such as a multimodal
situation-based platform, can provide students access to formulaic expressions in
real-life situations. Our project created such a platform. Using Adobe Captivate, we
developed an interactive space so students learning Chinese can practice
comprehending and producing formulaic expressions in realistic, video-recorded
situations. In addition to the multi-modal, interactive elements, our platform incorporated
several gaming elements (e.g., clear goals, decision-making mechanisms, and timely
feedback). Summit participants will go through the sequences of the semi-immersive,
interactive practice. We will bring a laptop for our demonstration.

Tang, Xiaofei
Li, Qiong
Taguchi, Naoko
DC, Modern Languages