| Author: | Leung, Kam-ha Lydia |
| Title: | Teaching Chinese practical writing through the World Wide Web : a study of students' attitudes and study behaviours |
| Degree: | M.Ed. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Subject: | Chinese language -- Writing Internet in education World Wide Web Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | School of Professional Education and Executive Development Educational Development Centre |
| Pages: | xi, 113 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | With the increasing use of Chinese in Hong Kong, the need for learning Chinese Practical Writing (CPW) also increases. In order to cope with this trend, CPW courses are offered in most of the tertiary institutes in recent years. At the same time, there is an increase in CPW-related research. Many scholars opined that the use of new teaching approach as different from traditional uni-directional teaching can result in better learning outcomes. Web-based teaching (WBT) is one approach suggested by many as a means to improve teaching and learning because its flexibility and interactivity fits well with the need of Chinese Practical Writing learning. Yet, the number of research on using WBT to teach CPW is very limited. This research is about the feasibility of using WBT in teaching CPW. More specifically, it examined the attitudes and behaviours of the students in learning CPW via WBT, and investigated the relationships between students' background characteristics, learning attitudes, and study behaviours towards WBT in CPW. The study was conducted in the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and the participants of the study were selected from Engineering departments and Language department. Three sets of teaching homepages for three selected modules were used in the study. Students participating in the study were asked to study the Web-based materials and submit a simple written assignment via the Web, Then, discussion and real-life examples of writing were conducted in the 2-hour workshop in a face-to-face setting. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods were selected for the study. The first part of the study was in the form of individual interviews. Twelve participants from different year groups of Engineering and Language programmes were selected to participate in this part of the study. Findings of the first stage were then used to construct a questionnaire, which was administered to all participants (N=103) to verify the generality of the findings in stage one and explore the relationship between the variables. A total of 90 completed questionnaires were returned. The response rate was 87.4%. It was found in the study that students' attitudes and behaviour towards learning CPW through WBT, in general, was quite diverse. The most prominent factor influencing students' learning attitudes and behaviours is the mastery of Chinese input method. Although students tended to appreciate the flexibility and novelty of WBT, most of them claimed that they enjoyed the face-to-face classroom-based teaching and found this more effective for discussion and interaction. Therefore, both Web-based and classroom-based teaching should be used in teaching CPW at least for on-campus courses. Moreover, it is important to make good use of the interactivity and hyperlink in WBT to suit different students' interest, and to enhance the learning outcome of learning CPW via the Web. Other implications for theory and practice were also discussed. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b15978060.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 4.1 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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