Japan Society for JapanSocietyforEducational Educational Technology Technology Edue. fechnol.Res.,28. 33-43,2005 nanslarion Development ofa Web-based Chinese LearningSystem thatFocuseson ListeningDrills JianmingWu," Da YANq'2 Ybshiyori URANo'] * PlhsedoUniversity, and valecommunicationstudies, School ofGtobai lt!fbrtnatien i-3-10.NishAvasecla,Shinjuku-ku,folyo,i69-O051Japan *iDepartment Flasetla Uhiversicy Artsand Sbience, ofLetters, '8644 7byama, S7iinjuku-ku, 7bkyo, i62 lapan 1-24-1, iGraduate Received forpub]ication, March24, 2004 Recently, due to the increasing pepulttrity of the Chinese ]anguageand the lackot' an eMeient learning education, the need formore effbctive cemputer-assisted learningmethod in conventienal The Department of Letters,Arts and Sciencent Wttseda University systems is beingrecognized. based ChineseLearning System thut tbcuses on listeningdri]]s.This has developed u CD-ROM through trials conductecl in 2002. Bttsedon these resu]ts, a has showed its eff'ectiveness one to conduct se]tL]earning over version of this Chinese Learning System that al]ows web-based With this system, eMcient lecture the Internet has also been developed. preduction and efi'ective deliverv of' multimedia learningmateriuls are realized with the use of the recent]y developed Multimedia Lecture Description Lunguage, Kay wottts ; Chinese Learning, Listening,Dig,LML, Web'tbased Version Chinesecharacters, Pinyinand notation forthe four vocals of Chinese pronunciation (pronunciation accents). These technical problems had not been dealt with until recently. Meanwhile, adequately software with multilingual interfaceshas also beceme commonplace. Even in the recently version of the WINDOWS Operating Japanese and BIG5) and System, Chinese native codes (GB Unicode are now avai]able, which has consequently solved problems arising in the past. As a result, the development of a Chinese Learning CALL System (whichwe refer to as Chinese Learning System)became feasible. While the developmentof such CALL techno]ogy has revolutionized Chinese lessons, there are still to realize many problems that must be overcome how these deve]opments can be put to the best -use,as they must coexist with the teaching styles lessonsgiven in the past. ofthe face-to-face (D Firstly,the lack of teaching material and the lack of people to develop teaching materials compared with the for Chinese studies, amount available for English overwhelming 1ttnguage educatlon, makes the introduction of issue a Chinese LearningSystem not an eusy l, INTRODUCT]ON Recently, due udvancement as has been an a 1argely to Chinas rapid leadingcountry fortrade, there , increase in the number of non-native Chinese, Chinese has become foreignlanguagestudied at Japanese universities. From this perspective, it hoped that Chinese can be teught is strongly speakers the studying second popular most without efflectively time fbund in the restrictions the classroom, of The p]ace spread and of has brought in the learning the classroom as a medium in environment, and which the traditional lessons" are used is now no longer u necessity. supplemental learning materials Furthermore, could obtain directlyfrom beyond whut students professors or textbooks in the past have also become avai]able. foreign language This way of conducting is education using computers generally called CALL (ComputerAssisted Language Learning) and has already been put inte practiceat some When app]ying the technology to universities. key Chinese educution, however, there were with displaying sjmplified technical problems computers about over a past ten years the dramatic change [`blackboard-type to @ consider, Secondly,the style of the lessonswi}l change dramatical]y,Because the lessons have 33 NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology J,Wu 34 become more time is computer-centered, for both teachers and accustomed to the changes required become to students in using a keyboard instead of chalk as in lookingat eomputer monitors to blackboards. It is necessary to the style of lessonsforCALL in order computer and pencils and opposed examine forthe program to become an eMcient way of studying. @ Thirdly,on hand it is thought that the education will be more edicient by studentsi the CALL system via the Internet utilizing without the restriction of place and time, On the other hand, the construction of network with which more erncient infr'astructures may be achieved is also very education dificult. To address this issue of sometimes limited network infrastructure,we developeda CD-ROM Dig, based Chinese LearningSystem Dig Ccalled that focuses on iistening drills. After hereafter) one of using this prograrn the effectiveness of Dig in face-to-face lessons,the web version confirming was developed to subsequently effective more achieve study. Chapter 2 explains the clevelopment of the Chinese Learning System Dig, and Chapter 3 talks version of about the development of the web Chinese LearningSystem,In Chapter 4 and 5, the study the and using methodology results of the web experiments Conclusionsare includeclwith system in Chapter 6. an version are of Dig described. evaluation ofthe 2. THECHINESELEARNINGSYSTEMDIGTHM FOCUSES ON LJSTENING DRILLS As mentioned above, suMcient CALL teaching fbr the study of Chinese is still lacking and there is little material available that can be put to practical use. Therefore,the authors have worked on the development of Chinese Learning System Dig which is based on <<New audible on Dig Chinese>>.At the same time, experiments in the beginners'Chinese have been conducted class of the Department of Letters,Arts and Scienceat Waseda University. material et at. students to even give answers questions the Chinese peop]e coulcl not conversation When spoken the students asking. speed, with could at a natural not even easy were speaking understand "Where is your house?" basic questions such as to the lessonswere changed From this experience, based on the concept that focuson listening-skills must begin with listeningin order to understand a conversation.' After this, while drills, the students were concentrating on listening able to improve on their pronunciation even though intensive practice of the ora) reading had such as not taken place. It was fbr situations describedabove that the teaching material <<New was forlistening audible Chinese>> produced. This on a cassette tape teaching material is recorded of lesson with a duration (40'v50 questions per do about 20 minutes) with which the students some drills and undertake reading. The use of this `One First of all, not had many good results. only did the listeningskil}s of the students skills also improved, but their conversation were improved.In terms of reading, the students without Pinyin, able to read Chinesecharacters became closer to and the tone of each sentence material Chinesespeaker. There were, however, some problems in this in many cases the approach as well. For instance, Pinyinafter proceeding students began forgetting to the latterhalfof the textbook. As students became more proficient in the reading Chinese read characters, they had a tendency to not To it succinctly, Pinyinaccurately, put because the students came to be able to read Chinese without the aid of Pinyin, they characters that ofa native expressed gradually forgot the phonetic symbols by the correct pronunciation from Pinyin,in which the interference from the case, they obtained pronunciation of English and JapaneseRomaji, native Chinese This is similar to the process the notation used for Pinyin. speakers forgetting When they are in the lower years of primary to be school they read Pinyin,but as they come of able to read Chinesecharacters they gradually This is definitely a problem of aiming to learnChinese as from the perspective In a second language,unlike for native speakers. and stabilize the order forthe learnerto confirm the learning tone ofthe sentence, after completing 2.1. How Dig Came 7b Be Developed te continue on ]istening it is important to be able The Dig system focuses mainly process rea,ding Pinyin reading Pinyin. In addition, drMs and is effective in large classroom correctly is required to be able to pay attention to environments. One of the authors (DaYANG) had the tone of a sentence, to consult a dictionary, language undertaken a second Chinese year using the and to input words in a computer conversation course at a university in which the forgetthe symbols. NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology Development keybeard.Furthermore, minutes time frame from 10-15 a in required was order to the match saved in one lesson. How much time could depends very much on the resources means of answers the teacher. believed that It was above be solved could the by Weh-based Chinese LefirningSystern ofa problem be and 2.2 The firsthatf : (l)Memorization of VOcabulary (Athome) @ ExpianationofGrammar and @ Word Practice,SentencePatternPractice, mentioned using computer software @ thus Dig wtts developed. and 71heCompositionofDig When Japanesepeople study Chinese, the issues that they usually have the mest troub]e With Dig, it pronvnciation and listening. is the phonics, listening and conversation practice that are the main emphasis and through these 35 Application Practice by Dig (About3e minutes. The student who doesn't finishin time can do it after the lesson) Writjng Practice wili be takenas an (jt assignment to be answered at next lesson when time isinsuMcient) The latterhalf : @ tools, VOcabutaryfest Word Practice,SentencePatternPractioe,and Application Practice 15 minutes, to the degree of getting (About communication used with are Chinese-likepronunciation and improved can be achieved, Moreover, the basic sentence means for mastering patterns and isalso considered in Dig. grammar structures Dig was made tts the stand-alone application and is offered on CD"ROM, but fundumentallyit conforms to <<New audible Chinese>>,20 sections are ofTered all together are in (details published Table 1 of Chapter 4).Each section isdividedinto 3 blocks (a practice block, word a the next degree of confidence promotion test, certain passing after the and, only proceed to may to hearing,) 'lext @ Dictation ofthe @ Reading and Conversation Practice students had insuMcient time to read (Actuatly, the whole textmore than once) Fig.1. The Flow CALL in system of the Classes listening was therefore practiced Nothingcan be used except the practice mode, hundredsoftimes, sentence pattern practice block and an application practice block), and promotion tests are inserted inL between the blocks.It consists of a mechanism whereby the ]earner goes through the practice drills from each block and proceeds to a test after gaininga @ order to do this is in less thun heur duratjon. Basically, one section was completed comfortably in two class sessions, Includingthe conversation practices with the National Taiwanese Master University, all the 20 sections of <<New audible one Chinese>> finished. were level. 2.4. Results As with the previous experiment, all members･ 2.3, 71heChineseExperimentLessons which A dqptedDig had to undertake Level 4 of the 2001 Chinese of Akira YAMAMOTO Proficiency Test. This includes 500 -- 1000 With the cooperation vocabulary, mastering Chinese grammar, (Chuo University)and Kazue HYONO (Keio common University), Class 25 and Class 30 (thename/ a listening test and speaking test. In a 2001 class, however, only one out of four number of the classes ]eurningChinese in the Department of Letters, Arts and Science at students used Dig, Two students from that class Waseda University) took the experimental lessons took Level 4 of the Chinese Proficiency Test in which concentrate on listeningn. Referring to the which both of them passed, The results were as c]uss structure breakdown given in Fig, 1, the fbllows: listening was 90 points and 85 points for writing was a high score, At this time, both parts oflessons which actually used Dig are Step 3 and Step 6. It is understood that these were not classes tried the Levet 4 ProficiencyTest and primery focus the that was much able students. repetition actually correctry in the ofthe the of class class and time. Even did not improve the to measurably This was probably due to the and clear practice each answer examination seetion, over 90 mode. practice skill must order manage e 86 them passed (60points required) and which 77 of was 89,3%. Moreover, there were four unsuccessfu1 candidates in Class 25 and fiveunsuccessfu1 candidates in Class30. was The average fbr both clesses in ]istening over 80 points, which was around 10 points approxjmately to to only e fbllowingresults. took the examination the students of questions Combinecl with the conversation obtained of the amount In obtained. one utilize this so, NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology 36 J.Wu et aL CD-ROM. Because it had to be installed individual computer, the distribution of teaching materia] as well as the renewa,1 of teaching material was inconvenient, @ It was inconvenient to collect the progress records of the learners. Regardless of the restriction of place and tirne using the Internet,one can imagine that more via on each is possible. Therefbre,based the results listed in Section2, the development effective education on of an Fig.2, The Comparison of the Resultsof Leve] 4 Chinese ProficiencyTest one higherthan the writing, Among the partieipants,fiveof the examinees for listening scored 100. e the Among people who failed,only one person failedbecauseof listening section. Fig.2.compares the results of both classes wjth Test. The the average forthe ChineseProficiency study are -･ that showed to necessary previous preparing 120 200 usually the pass hours of (When test, to undertake the necessary to have students in the past, itwtis enough time to cover learningand examinatien Dig, the same techniques), In the tests with results were achieved in the short ]earningtime of about 60 hours, in terms of the Although an objective evaluation students' Pinyin ability and tone had not been undertaken up to now, when video which featured the conversution practice was shown to Chinese examination people, excellent students such who as: given to the were learntChinese using Dig. Comments pponunciation is like that "The Chineseperson", they been studying were evaluations "They can forover talk very year?" a and of so selFlearning a forth update server, via Dig which the Internet was al]ows and maintenance would very Due to histories are is thus also the server, the student able to identifywhich study sections they time ancl which study sections required the recorded more fact that be convenient. all the study on they wish. inwhenever For a web-based systern to be reallzed, the of downloadingand displaying of a large arnount teaching material via the lnternetwas a major jssue. Test showed that it took a lot of time to contents of video, voice displaythe multimedia and animation uniformly required for the Dig are weaker system that and was issue was students in the compared the of synchronization diMcult.Moreover, another media the maintuining teuchers, and as well "On-Demand" online with the "Real-Time" contaet as these important between students, among lecture model lecturemode] in a c]assroom, Due to the factthat the web-based amount made, of version conduct an lnternet web browser,such as Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator, a student would be able to use itat hisor her own anywhere and unytime, Furthermore,because pace is only viu a the distributionof teaching material "Have well", to launched. Using e results "On-Demand" teaching ofmultimedia material resources, have authors utilizing a made significant the developmentof Mu]timediaLectureDescriptionLanguage ca]]ed LectureMaking Language (LML)was proposed. In the past for web-based resources, character, image, video, animation, 3DCG ancl media were each handled independently.However, in LML eech while beingshown to the user. mediu issynchronizecl a 3. THEWEB-BASEDVERS]ONOFCH]NESE LEARNING SYSTEM DtG Since,as indiuated above, itwas proven that the way introduction of Dig wtts a very efective of learningChinese;it was thought that one could Thus the authors undertook the construction of further enhance the use of this system via a web version Dig using this LML. self-learning application, The goal was to allow the l-larsion feaching learner to study conveniently at hisor her own pace. 3.1. A DescriptionofPViib-based However, z number of problems still existed in MateriatforDig - TVieAmptication terms of demanding the existing Dig to perfbrm ofLectureMbking Language sueh functions. These includethtit: amy The teaching material for web version Dig O Dig was designedas a stand-a]one application to be used us a teaching resources distributed includes the combination of video, animation, NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology Development of These are synchronized the television like program through the played text and voice browser. Because al1 media among is not complex. On the other content on display multimedia of time is needed, web played locally are applications, stand-alone ----1.11Ill,1111C,h and clip, the implementation hand, in order to the Internet, a lot the (Using HTTP protocol, one must wait until the end of a download before a file, Thus this can be time consuming, playing Based on this, a with large files,) particularly concept time of multimedia also technology etc because they had a because they were one-flow which user's the +TIME, with of the structure multimedia teaching as and TV ± cgr!gt!/itpmgEeifiotEio L, nv'i'ri"'caui{"it'oo'/vtiin' tt-pr-ttny as I l･ H"1$.1if.'t/.[qi'-"1 '11:lr.l!EIil..,.EEErmier:::11ii･ --t--tt-p 'Si-ll'-"i'Ust"l ･･-[･ --/'""s'cLima iiir"'crewiv" programs a the web-based Mu]timedia LML, and version teachjng Dig was developed using LML. is a mark-up languagewhich is easy to LML and it can be edited by any text editor, understand such tts Windows Notepad. LML provides the web multimedia definition of elements fordisplaying teaching materiul. Furthermore,it can describe the of of multimedia web teaching material - time axis such the layoutinthe web browser, present several switching of events on a Lrsde"na'fiu2'IK6 ''/ us -r.-uagff........tT.,,me".p.p....p.!.s.Te,..,.,,..! t--tLttt- of LML Fig.3. The LanguageSpecification 4.).AIIof (Fig, block the }) and Events of the the Elements between the <Section> ･･･ described are <ISection> tags. Elements, e.g., etc, are exerclse, <IEIement> tags. indicatedby The aetion the praetice <Element> ･･･ video, of reproduction and described in the <Event> ''' between </Event> tags, Each Event identified in <EventList>and <IEventList> tags isexecuted turn,inside whereas when more than one Action exists an Event it is executed in paraHel to this. `Target' can be attribute Furthermore, a ''' specified with an Element ID in the <Action> `Param' ettributes with </Action>tags, as well as movement und The languagespecification of LML isformulated in Fig,3, ltis defined in a hierarchical as indicated order: from Lecture,Chapter,Section and Element severul Chapters to Event. The Lecturecomposes using as units, each Chapter is constructed Section there several Sections,and then in euch exist several Elements and Events. Then the of lecture such as movernent, representation or transfbrmation can be describedby playback, the time uxis. the Event to Element in allocating this, the deseription of web In accordance with in Dig is made possible version teaching material by using LML script. The study stage fi'omsection by using LML structure to section is constructed units such us Chapter and Section, Furthermore, can be describedby various the representation example, the playback of Elements and Events (for video, the indication of drill exercises as wel] as the flowofthe explanation voice and so forth). of the The fo11owingexamp]e gives an account selection content practice block "Conversation l' authors called original ' to need the material, Lecture DescriptionLanguage consequently t--t---t-i[.}lll{Eyilz tt inappropriate, comp!icated source, but originally designed for WU) developedthe (Jianming structure "Ie'ct'ure .t. not such tep 11..tt- a such were representation Ii iiT 'E-tt'iitt'IAin-iii{T6--･--l ement limitsthe controlling functions on the this point and focus on side, To address support material ---Elill･ima･･･ L.i- developed. Existing was axis synchronization SMIL, HTML only technology synchronization multimedia 37 Web-based Chinese LearningSystpm a are , parameters actlon the identifying <sectLan ID ='abeS' action `Command' and attribute u rype, maher"se1Picture'style:'Video-Fl-ab' besc:"> (EIebentab Cidient ]D:'v-D19'Typet-VA"bese:'"ent-Pv4-:"krl in"t> besi:'Videefer stLect the PlctureV ff1out ID:-vdDIO'Type:"Video" htt-:'Hraf:stLpit.-sf;kt:IDD,lea'i> <E1ont [D:-viOl1'Typet'thi-lion"Dest:`Flsshfor sc1ectthe Pieture" kra-!'Hraf:seipic.srf;PesTaSn,100' on1ewH"TyptlbelectPlc:Seq:nOtOS'MOI04't> </Eltsents>CyetltLisb lihe;'Inlt'> <EventIpt'veOenDl' <iction 1pt'eOOeODOI' TErtst="ydtlO" Ce-Mnd:"Pley' PtrL-='O- t> <ictLpm 1ts"tneOOOOI- Tercet:'vcOIO' imnd:'aesire' Pert-:"lirle-/> <rewi} <EvenLEge'veOnOOI' T+-e:'OD:Ol:05'] Ptrth:-S50.ieO'r/. <Ac"em 10;"moOOOIOI" T-rret!'vtOIS' Cut"-ovt' (hetien 1tr-tOOOOIOI" Ttrpet"vtOIS'im-Spe-P" Para-,'Plette thieetthe PietureJ//<ictien iV'-OOeOI03Terset:'stell' eo-end.'PIey"Perd-.'OiJ) VEvoryt> </EventL:st>tlStctlmu Sentence Fig,4. The LML Description NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society for JapanSociety for Educational Educational Technology Technology ' 38 J.Wu et al. 3.2. DevelopingandDetivet:),offeachingMaterial As mentioned above, a text editor can be used to edit the LML fiIesand develop the teaching rnaterial of the web-based version of Dig.However, because those unfamiliar with the LML mark-up languagerequire tirne to reinember the eommand of the script, a more convenient option is the LML through editing of editing application. a intuitive LML more Furthermore,besidesmaking the script, various inputting of the processes such supporting multimedia as file material, as the generating of a page and so forth need to be supported. On this note, for automating and upgrading the process, the frameworkof the web version teaching material system LML Writer developedby the authors was applied. Because the user can eraciently rnake teaching meterinl fbr web version Dig by just conversions as well draggingand dropping materials such as video, OHPs, scripts as well as animation without any specialized knowledge.Additionally, the updating ttnd maintenance be done The much more tree in Fig. 5, the teaching material can also of conveniently, structure be ofthe ehapter ancl made by dragging paragraph dropping in StructureEditMode. Moreover, various templates of each Fig. 6. shows paragraph can be applied, can and RepresentationEdit Mede. Editingof layoutand event are conducted fiashscreen, (video, to each according element When editing is complete, itis preserved in the LML format and the teaching material is registered to the lecture deliverysystem, Using the LML converter via the lecture system delivery inresponse the material is then form in eomprehend. the standard web web which version voice, As a eonverted etc). to the client terminal, and delivered in the Fig.6. Representation EditMode 4, THESTUDYMETHODWITHTHEWEB VERSION OF DIG The <<New web version Dig is based any PC equipped browsers,the lectllre content Dig can be clisplayed via streaming. web with of the content Chinese>> and is composed in total,Table1 shows the content of of audible sections of 20 the 20 sections. In order te make the study material of the these 20 sections easier for the students, drmculty ofthe content was categorized. Although the theme which is to be studied next is automatically specified based on the learner's study history, in the current version there is a mechanism to allow the repeating of previous study content, For the future,the authors also want to consider the course management of the learner's study plan. Tabie1. The Listofthe 20 Sections Contentofstudy Studypurpote lThediscriminationofTheattemptto tone,consonant-1stflbilizethefour vocals,acquiring basicChinese browsers (HTML, java)can result, on pronunciation 2Consonant-2,withDitto airsoundfwithoutair sound3Mono:yllablevowe]1Ditto compoundvowel 4ThesummaryandtheDitto practiceofPinyin :ymbols 5Selfintroduction,OneisabLeto persona]pronoun,conductasimple thepronunciationofselfintroductionand surnameandnfime,understandtheselfaninterrogative jntroductionefothers sentence, thesentencepattern ofAisB, asentencewherean adjectivebecomes predicative Fig.5. StructureEdit Mode 6Numher, Thenumberiseounted, NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society for Educational JapanSocietyforEducationalTechnology Technology Development "th1)="a)"t subiect+verb, ofa ' "Nii", andaneasydocumentcan convevthecharacteristics "N'LJ4-viT heexpressed. ofoneobjectmore interrogatiye"[IS"and ttee--7ThewaytoaskfortheTheexpression,existence, 19tLl"yiteXVP", "ft'vM-utl thanonce Itispossib)eto expressphrases]ike "Should.Must", -paig--MLJ-L-V dayoftheweekandandtheposfessienofaday £ .NfEre'v",andspeakingrotationof "bl' age, oftheweekandagecan "fimeeN", order,reason,changeand "(st).Li7) hypothesiscanbe "E"and"1'ftig",heexpressed dernonstrativepronoun -pt/SKfop" 8Tocountfami}v' expreg.:ed Indescriptionof Theremainsofexpressions, 20"Flt) "N,'g., centinuationefthestate membersandobjects,famiLystructure, "adjective+te" prepositions"U",onecanexpress, At-v,Do'vphrases Toheableto 9Time, expressthetime, vzzv?, vrgvo?, acquiringavarietyof anditheresuttsof theactions "di"and"ge" VO1;V? 10"ts"and"a", "imrnediatelytaLready" canbeexpressed in section 2.3 that the audible Chinese>> study of each section of <<New version is divided into8 steps, the CD-ROM of Dig was only used in Step 3 and 6 of the lessons. When the web version is used, all the study content from Steps 1 to 8 is covered and one cun Although it is mentionecl questioningmethods Onecanaskabout "hS,'v"and"jl'v",themethodof .,glA" expressingtheexisteneeof peopleanciobjects&the ' rnethodtocenvevdirection 11Morethan100 Yumbers, 39 Web-based Chinese Learning System Shoppingterms,onecan orderatarestaurant, in the also engage theunitofmoney,andtheabilitytoexpress self=learning. "tslSK"+Associate+thepasttenseofverbs SicepI.'7he A4bmorization ofl'ocabutary& neun,"v-v"and"V-TJV', &ep 2,'7he Exptanation ofGrammar Before one beginsstudying, the vocabulary "teTl1"T"12"viit", Thefrequeneyof 'opera"ons, "Iarv-re., mijpt. "revl Theexperiencecan corresponding beexpressed. the Complexsentenceswith 2ormoreverbscan beusedtosaycomplicated sentences,canlt "EUV", "vtg-v", "AmsftB" video and the of items is shown of grammatical and combining One's)ikesand dislikescanbe The purpose learnercommit long=term memory expressed,andcan the -h-"and"haven't""' hear progressiveform "BVftEA-", eontent section, the memorjze the explanation each to slides, andAtzpticationPractiee thephrases:"don't "Vk"and"Vf"conveythe 15"AttB---", study the tearnercan Then, vocabulary. list be displayecl on &ep 3.'vabrd Practice,Sentence Pattern Practice, "?"EV"and"7ftfiV"beab]eto",canuse 14"gxJ･v", thus can Tounderstandthe3 -fi･AHL.･qLJ",wordswithmean iST7 relevant and section the learner(Fig. 7.). expressonesopmlons 13Auxiliaryverb sereen, to that computer. the undertaking Thecomparisoncsn heexpressed,and the is to have section content each of section the to through repeated practice on Looking at the screen, one can sound much t ',r'..... w variousquestion this of and write eharacters while prectiee. ,.........ww.t.Z'./1.l:' ''l'itiv' rnethodsareacquired. 16Preposition"geu",Howtetalktoguide Causativeverb"U:",theotherparty /reeeivingparty, "st"Nr-) ' onecanuseanexpretg.]on guchasrMakesomebodydoingl 17TheamountoftiineOnecanexpress nouns, comparig.ong,ofmorethan `LAeeB-if\", oneperson,andcanconvey t "rtfivp" ) intentionsflndones ownopinions 18l-taJ)) Apassiveexpregsion resu]tcomplementcanheused.Onpcan Fig.7. ExplanationofGrammar NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology 40 J.Wu et at, the CDrROM version of Dig, this is djvidedinto 3 blocks (aword practice block,a sentence pattern practice block and an As with section practice tests are application advancement block),and the unit installedbetween the 3 inwhich the learnergoes blocks. It is a mechantsm through the practice drillsin each block until they feelready to move on, and then, they can select the examination mode to take the exam. Ifhe or she passes this, the learnercan then to progress to the next step, Sectionl to 4 section the covers pronunciation Fig.9. PinyinSelection basically assumes that the person has touched a computer before.Although it begins stage which not to get used to the 4, the learner should be able to listen to the sound ancl type appropriate responses in the designated tirne. In the fo11owingtables, the concepts portrayed in the blocks after section 5 are explained in a with practices click by the mouse, simple end to al]ow of one section manner. Block - }VbrdPractice practice blocks,itis the proeess of typing what you have hettrd, When typing a sound that you hear, one has to fo11owthe work steps below, It is said that all the processing forthese tasks are done in largebrainthrough the cranial nerve YANG 1996). (Huiyuan (1)Correctlyrecognize the sound. (2)Analyze the sound. Usually,one would haveto Befbreone enters the word to firstthink necessary the consider meaning about the of (3)After this is understood, again word (4)The that while repeating word. in the head, key is hitaccording most recent]y stage Thereforein this block, (3)and (4), learnersundertake stages the examination of the three in the fo11owing order: Chinese character ' Pinyinselection - Pinyin input,The in each stage is us fo11ows (Fig.8, - Fig. selection 10,), pronunciation of the correct wus execute screen Pinyinis assembled the Fig.10. Pinyin Input iijSbntence Pattern Practice Block to the sound assembled, It is thought that people who cannot (1)and (2)will find it very didicult to complete correctly The listening in the sentence pattern practice block is divided intothe fo11owingfour sections: Sentence pettern selection, Array substitution selection, Sentence pattern input and ArTay input. This order basicallycorresponds to the diMcultyofthe content. In sentence pattern selection, the user is asked to first]y remember the word order aurally and visually (Fig. 11,)before the text of the array substitution se]ection ilppears substitution ･/･/･ma.･th offering 12.).This is (Fig. drag & drop selection then fo11owedby the input of the audible words and phrases in the sentence pattern input (Fig, 13,).Finally,the multiple random the end must be put in the threugh typing (Fig. 14.). at vocabuLary set correct order Fig,8. Chinese ChHrfieterSelection NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society for Educational JapanSocletyforEducationalTechnology Technology Development 4t Web-based ChinegeLearnmgSystem ofa tva.b :n v Ur.= ..k Fig,15. Video Exposure Fig.11, Sentence Pattern Selection - asgE,/H ww , ".w Fig.16. ConversationContent Seleetion Fig,12. ArraySubstitutionSelectionmva CJAmpiicationPracticeBlock In the application practiceblock,each section the same content. does not necessarily contain as a practice forthe This block is mainly meant to student the eonversation catch sentences, &ep 4, 71Pre Miting Practice & &ep5 7VieJbcabuta,yfest etc) is also done Writingpractice(translation, in Step 4 with instructionsprovided on screen. In Step 5, one Fig.13. Sentence Pattern lnputpmVM is in that section. proceed to the tested on all the vocabulary Upon passing, the next studied student may step. trM 2t Sep 6: PlorziPractice, Slentence PatternPractice, and Apptication Practtce In order to allow the newly ]earntknewledge to settle firmly, this section implementsthe practice drills of Step 3 once &ep 7, again. T7teDictation ofthe 71zxt& Slaep8. IVieReading Practice lnput F[g.14. Array Substitution ofthefextand Conversation In Step 7 whi]e the voice fileof the text is played, the learneris expected to write down the content ofthe text, In Step 8, the text is firstread uloud by oneself according to the instruction on screen. In terms of conversation practice, the NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society for JapanSociety for Educational Educational Technology Technology 42 J.WuetaL At the present sections of web In addition, the content stage, the 20 of Dig has been version completed. being requested to the webLbased version of Dig with their classes as part of tt tria]. Furthermore, the fo11owingcomments were received ft'omthe 40 students who in the test class Chinese(working members of the community and students of the Department of Letters, Arts and Science at the teachers are use Fig,17. Internet Classroom Waseda University). 1) Convenience of the web version: Since the launchof Dig on the Internet,the learnersare able and teacher and the learnerenter a virtual classroom on the Internetand are able to undertake real Face-TotFace conversation practice (Fig, 17.). When On-Demand style of study described in the previous paragraph, the issuebecomes how the teacher and learner in remote places can be effectively connected. In order to compensate fbr this weakness'of distancelearningas much as possible, the Internetc]assroom was integrated with video chat, text chat, a bu}letin board and filesharing management, The Internet classrooms are one uses the the Internetas via organized to the according stages allowing section to able one-to-many study anytime and anywhere, to their own according many-to-many and conversations, 3) Teaching teaching made in ancl face-to-face study was materials the of smooth ･ achieved. LML: used LML that used material use online video time, real that abundant thus became more The efflectively and multimedia, fun to study and to easier learn.This consequently increused students' motivation to Iearn. Study historyrecords showecl that beyond these of ]earners to the program use pace, Even busy working part-time students were able to contro] their study time. 2) The use ofthe lnternet classroom: When using the Internetclassroom, one was able to make use of the PC camera to conduct one-to-one,' that correspond the Dig teaching material, that Internetclassroom which bestsuits their level to conduct conversation with each other. FurtherTnore,the practice communication space was offered in order to reliably improve the content of study. In the Internet classroom, the time and method of to each to ure enter three of comments, there was an excellent functioning of the web'based Based on the results mentioned the concluded that the web version improved the learning environment assessment system. it js above, of forthe Dig has class. practice fbr the conversation is not particu]arly however, in order to make the most in conversation skills, it is possible progress 6, CONCLUS[ON restricted, that one uses Chinese in a positive Moreover, apart from video conversation, one can also exchange infbrmution and ask functionsliketext questions using misce]laneous chat, bulletinboard and fi]esharing (available in recommended manner. This expeniment verifies the etlbctiveness of Chinese Learning System Dig that focused on listening in class to attain the bestresults. Based on the success ofthe Dig System,an Internet accessible version allowing students to study and practice both Chineseand Japanese). anytime and anywhere was deve]opecl with the aim of When study ends, one's study history(time, enabling students te learnat theirown pace. result, aecess frequency,etc.) is reeorded on the At present, the assessment of the web-･based server. tu'ot only can the learnerrefer to their own version of Dig isbeing conducted on learners both study history,they can also view the aggregate insideand outside university; however, a more st-dy historyfiguresof the entire class at any objective in quantitative evaluation is necessary time (average time, average ･ result and everage the future. access frequency, etc.), Moreover, there are plans to further udd to the depth of this analysis by ofTering additional 5. THEEXPERIMENTOFUSINGWEB-BASED teaching material templates and by developingan ･VERSION OF D]G easy-to-use user interface and a more convenient study management system. NII-Electronic Library Service Japan Society JapanSocietyfor for Educational Educational Technology Technology DeveLopment Historically, the teacher the education together conducted while learner because in the same directlyinternctingwith was teach ean Web-based Chinese LearningSystem ofa the Internet,it is diMcultfor the teacher to accurately assess the needs at a specific learner's study pointin time. In order to address this in the Web-based version, it place. When was studying equipped with which virtual assistant was the emphasizes phraseslike Moreover, when "Please teaching and to with material necessary explanation information from the database to the teaching material that the learner In the future, it is intendedto partially supplementary according specified. replace human with assistants vinual assistants, drawingon the close connection between to and student. The authors wi11continue study research that offbrs autonomous functions, as such management, progr'ess helpdesk teacher conduct support correspondence, etc. NOTE 1) There are four lessonsin one week, Iessonis90 minutes. The total class time of the firstterm was 65 hours. Furthermore, although the time using the system students' for this enables c]assroom trial, the was not outside of reeorded Web-based version now of such information, the recording BIBLIOGRAPHY support remember thispointproperly". the learnerattends class, the assistant retrieves the virtual as fun¢ tion. For instance,the virtual in a position placed on the screen the required assistant a via 43 IFTA, T. HAItA,H.,KoNNO, S.,SL]GAWAI{A,K, and KINosi {2001)Desig] and ]mplementationof TrainingJSystem for Agent Framework TAF, IEICE, J84-Dl(8) : 1202-1210 OGASN'A,T, (1999) Pessibility about CALL in the junior class of Chinese Language Learfiing.The Waseda review] CommercialDouKou SocietyFThe Cultural (14)WU, J.,UltANo, Y.,SL'Mlyos-,H. and INouli,S. (2002) of the eXtensible Lecture On Demand Developrnent (XLOD)system by uti]izing LML, ]PSj-AVM 37-4 YANC, H, (l996)Listening and SpeakingChinese BejjingLanguage Academy PubLishing, Beijing YANG, D, <2002)Practiceand subjeet ef Dig Chinese LearningSystem - Possibilityaheut CALL in the CD"-ROM class ef Chinese Langunge Lettrning. junior Book of the Researchand Practice of LatestForeign Language (CIEC Foreign Language Educational ResearchSection): 140-148 YANc, D. and Wu, Z. (2001)New audihle Chinese. NANUN-DO PubLishing, Japan methodology, each NII-Electronic Library Service