Effectiveness of Different Written Presentation Formats in learning Chinese as a Second Language

1. Effectiveness of Different Written Presentation Formats in learning Chinese as a Second Language Chee Ha Lee Slava Kalyuga School of Education, UNSW

2. Overview • Aim of the Research • Chinese characters and pinyin • Hypothesis • Research Method • Data Analysis • Conclusion

3. Aim of the Research • The research aims at investigating the learning effects of two presentation formats of Chinese characters, pinyin and English translation in learning Chinese as a second language from the perspective of cognitive load theory.

4. Chinese characters and pinyin 妈 麻 马 骂 mā má mǎ mà

5. Chinese characters and pinyin 参 松 sōng cān

6. Horizontal format Vertical format 位置 wèizhi location 位置 wèizhi location Figure 1 The horizontal and vertical presentation formats of characters, pinyin and English translation

7. Hypothesis • Limited working memory • Heavy intrinsic load in learning Chinese characters for for novices. • Extraneous cognitive load caused presentation format.

8. Horizontal format Vertical format 位置 wèizhi location 位置 wèizhi location Figure 2: Diagrams demonstrating split attention effect in a horizontal presentation format

9. Research Method • Participants 4 classes of 92 Year 8 and 9 high school students from a Sydney public boys school • Procedures and Materials • Experimental groups: horizontal ( N=40); vertical ( N=52) • Procedures • Questionnaire • Pretest • Learning phase • Subjective mental load ratings of learning (9 point scale) • Posttest • Subjective mental load ratings of posttest (9 point scale) • Subjective reporting of familiarity of learning materials

10. The learning phase • 25 simplified two- characters words presented on the screen using PowerPoint.

11. Figure 3: Fragments of horizontal and vertical presentation of Chinese characters, pinyin and English translation on PowerPoint

12. 6 seconds 6 seconds 6 seconds 12 seconds Voice-over: Please read xiàngliàn Voice-over: xiàngliàn Voice-over: xiàngliàn means necklace Figure 4: Example of the flow of learning one of the words in a vertical instructional format

13. Result and analysis • Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Dependent variables: posttest scores subjective ratings of mental effort instructional efficiency Covariate: pretest scores • Subjective reporting of familiarity of learning materials and modified experimental groups: N=38(H) N=35(V) • Effect size

14. Result and analysis Figure 5: Result of ACOVA analysis and effect size on posttest, mental effort and instructional efficiency

15. Figure 6: Representation of relative condition efficiency (E) for horizontal presentation format and vertical presentation format of character, pinyin and English *Relative condition efficiency based on the subject ratings about the posttest

16. Result and analysis Figure 5: Result of ACOVA analysis and effect size on posttest, mental effort and instructional efficiency

17. Conclusion • The result supported the superiority of a vertical presentation format over the horizontal presentation format in learning Chinese as a second language at beginner level. • The relative efficiency indicator supported the cognitive load theory based suggestion that the removal of split attention effect may enhance learning.

18. Further investigation • Expertise reversal effect • Dual-modality • Materials with different complexity • Participants with different language background