Abstract

This study is an evaluation of online annotated readers developed for first grade students enrolled in Chinese immersion. The electronic readers were created to provide additional input to immersion students, who had little time in class for Chinese character reinforcement. The students accessed online readers from their homes and took assessments before and after each reader to test for improved character comprehension. In addition, students were divided into treatment and control groups. The treatment group had annotated electronic readers with audio and games. Conversely, the control group did not have annotations but audio was included. Results demonstrate a significant difference between preliminary and post-assessments, suggesting that students comprehended more characters after reading. No significant differences were detected between the control (non-annotated) and treatment (annotated) groups. Additional data collected from parent surveys provide useful demographics about subjects' socio-cultural and language variables as well as highlight parental desires for more support and help-aides. Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in relationship to young immersion students learning Chinese is also discussed. Results suggest that online annotated readers can be an important resource for students who have limited instructional time in the classroom and little opportunity to receive help at home.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Center for Language Studies

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2012-12-11

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd5845

Keywords

annotated, annotations, Chinese, early Chinese immersion, character recognition, online materials, CALL, Chinese CALL, electronic readers, vocabulary retention, text with audio, text with animations

Language

English

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