「 主題 」 與 「 工具 」：以 詞 典 軟 件 提 高 閱 讀 能 力
Text and Tool: Authentic Media Reading via Computer Technology
Paper Proposal for CLTA-GNY 2004 Conference
Frances Yufen Lee Mehta
Cornell University
March 12, 2004
One of the objectives for an advanced Chinese language course is to prepare students for more intensive reading. Chinese newspapers, magazines and internet articles are useful sources of authentic reading materials because they use a written style, which lies between colloquial and classic and is commonly used nowadays. Reading newspapers also enables students to relate their linguistic skills to broader, deeper and relevant issues and cultural aspects.
News articles from various formats of media can capture the pulse of the society in the timeliest manner. Modern China: Life, Language and Culture meets the need of advanced learners in knowing more about China via expanding their reading skills to include authentic reading materials and at the same time keeping abreast of contemporary changes taking place in Chinese speaking areas.
Modern China was developed with integration of Clavis Sinica, a software that entails a richly cross-referenced lexical database. It helps learners recognize and master new vocabulary, and build upon their relationships among characters and their various components. Its wealth of information about individual characters and the relationships among them make acquisition of new vocabulary more efficient and enjoyable.
The author will present how the authentic materials, namely media articles, can be transformed into interactive and dynamic learning tools for the most updated issues of Chinese life, language and culture. The study will include the process of designing and applying the materials and the effect on acquisition of all the language skills. In addition to material development and its integration with and support of Clavis Sinica, the interface of the multimedia tool, its process and pedagogical effect on teaching and learning in the advanced level of Chinese will be discussed.
Keywords:
Authentic reading, multimedia, pedagogy, Clavis Sinica, advanced Chinese