2008 ACTFL/CLTA conference proposal
by Lixia Ma
Free online journal writing and the effectiveness of teacher’s feedback
With the increased use of computers in both teaching and learning Chinese, it is
worth our attention to see how to best utilize the technology in combination with other
pedagogical tools in helping our students to learn Chinese effectively. This study is
interested in looking at whether writing online journal blog helps learners develop their
writing proficiency and how effective it is for teachers to give different types of written
feedbacks in students’ free writing.
The data are collected from an advanced Chinese class in an American high
school over a period of 6 weeks, with one journal entry per week. The writing is free
style, with a word count of around 400 characters. The teacher provides comments and
feedback at the end of each journal, and requires students to incorporate them into their
next journal writing.
Teachers’ feedback is categorized into several types, including discrete-item attention to
form and holistic feedback on meaning, evaluative and communicative feedback on the
writing quality. Narciss (1999) studied the motivational effects of feedback types and
results show that the informativeness of feedback exerts an influence not only on
information processing but also on German learner motivation. This paper is to present
what effects those feedback types may have on Chinese learners’ motivation and
information processing.
Throughout the six weeks of journal writing, data are also analyzed to see what
progress learners are able to make from the beginning till the end, and whether the free
style writing and teacher’s feedback help learners build writing proficiency over time.
Both their content, language use and text structure are analyzed to show the effect. A
questionnaire of learner’s level of motivation in writing is given toward the end of the six
week to collect their opinions.
The significance of the study lies in three areas: 1) present research result from
advanced Chinese learners; 2) present research result from high school students and 3)
study the effectiveness of using computer in learning Chinese at advanced level. With the
increasing number of learners of Chinese at different age and proficiency levels, it is
helpful for the Chinese teaching field to have a broader view in those areas. More studies
at the advanced level hopefully will shed light on how and what we, as language
researchers and educators, can do to help more and more learners reach that proficiency
level and beyond.
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Convention