Chinese is a highly complex language with internal variation unprecedented in most other languages. Yet, that does not mean Chinese is unique in the sense that it cannot be compared to other languages and new concepts need to be introduced for the description of it. This paper is dedicated to the question of how to apply the notion of…

Existing studies have evidenced that mobile-assisted vocabulary learning, which allows students to create artefacts and engage in productive skills, can help them in vocabulary learning. However, there remains little research and validated approaches for designing seamless vocabulary learning experiences for young learners. In this paper, a…

Augmented Reality (AR) has been applied to education in a variety of subjects, but in comparison to AR in STEM education, research on integrating pedagogical designs with AR in language learning is less mature. This study presents an AR-supported Chinese character learning game designed for young learners and investigates its effects on learners'…

Textbook writers, Chinese language teachers, and test designers need to ensure readability of the texts they use or intended to use. They often resort to "expert judgements" based on professional experience rather than apply objective measures. This happens because there is a lack of suitable readability formulas like those established…

Chinatowns, as neighborhoods for overseas ethnic Chinese, have garnered considerable scholarly attention from linguistic landscape (LL) researchers in recent years. These investigations tend to treat old immigrants who have been tied to the neighborhoods for generations as the key text producers of LL, with far too little attention paid to the LL…

Appropriate design of collaborative learning activities for students using mobile devices can be supported by different forms of scaffolding provided by peers, by the teacher or by the technology. Building on prior studies in mCSCL (mobile computer-supported collaborative learning), we developed Chinese-PP, a novel in-class mobile synchronous…

This paper discusses the design of a digital Chinese character composition game with the paper-interface named as ARC (Augmented Reality-based Chinese Characters) and its implementation in a Singapore primary school. The ARC game is designed to help beginning Chinese as second language (L2) learners to develop Chinese orthographic knowledge and…

This paper reports a novel, mobile-assisted, game-based learning design for Chinese character learning. In playing the "Chinese-PP" game in a 1:1 (one-device-per-student) setting, each of the 31 target students in Primary 3 (9 years old) is assigned a Chinese character component. A student may make use of his/her own and peers' character…

This paper describes the design of a technology platform for supporting content-independent collaborative mobile learning in the classroom. The technical architecture provides mechanisms for assigning different content or materials to students and then guiding them to form groups with other students in which the combination and integration of…

This paper reports the impacts of spontaneous student grouping to develop young students' orthographic awareness in the process of learning Chinese characters. A mobile-assisted Chinese character forming game is used to assign each student a Chinese character component on their smartphones through a wireless network. Fifteen Singaporean students,…