Wong Lung Hsiang is a Senior Research Scientist at NIE’s Learning Sciences Lab. His extensive work in educational research includes mobile and seamless learning, Chinese language learning, and game-based learning.

Research in Action

issue 45 nov / dec 2013

Collaborating in the Chinese Classroom

Pair up a centuries-old language like Chinese with games, and what you get is a classroom of excited pupils working hard (and smart) with their classmates to form the most complex Chinese characters possible.

Learning to recognize Chinese characters can be a challenge for some pupils. Can we find a way to make it more fun and less daunting for them? NIE researchers put their heads together for an answer, and came up with a clever mobile app called Chinese-PP.

But playing in the classroom isn’t just fun and games. “We want to go beyond playing games,” says Dr Wong Lung Hsiang, who headed the research team. “We designed a curriculum to teach pupils orthographic awareness, which is the understanding of the structure of Chinese components.”

Room to Learn and Interact

What sets this game apart from others is that the pupils didn’t play in fixed groups. They chose which group they wanted to join by matching their component with others.

This idea of “flexible grouping”, as Lung Hsiang calls it, allows the pupils to develop both content mastery and other competencies, such as agency, negotiation, collaboration and critical thinking.

Because pupils worked in flexible groups, they were not just learning Chinese characters, but also learning how to interact and negotiate with their classmates as they moved around the classroom.

Getting learners to “promote” their components to others to form higher scoring characters also ensures that they thoroughly understand their components.

At first sight, this “chaotic” classroom seems a little hard for the teacher to manage.

“But if the students are very engaged in these games, then it’s a different story. The students loved playing these games. They were very engaged and quite focused,” says Lung Hsiang.

Flexible Learning

The game offered two game group modes: single and multiple. Single-group mode meant pupils could join only one group. In the other mode, they could join multiple groups simultaneously. Regardless of the mode, which group(s) they wanted to join was entirely up to them.

As in any game, pupils wanted to do their best by trying different strategies to achieve the highest scores possible. They formed the most complex word they could in the single-group mode, or joined as many groups as they could in the multiple-group mode.

“They figured out all different types of strategies by themselves,” says Lung Hsiang. “We didn’t need to teach them these kinds of higher order thinking skills.”

The game made it easier for them by giving them the option of a trial run, where they could form characters by themselves before approaching their classmates.

Lung Hsiang recalled that sometimes, there were pupils who found themselves without groups. When they asked peers who were already in groups for assistance, help was usually given willingly. The peers gave advice about what characters they should form, or even broke away from their current group to form a new character with the pupils in need.

How the Game Is Played

A lesson was made up of three activities: a pre-task, the game and a post-task.

The pre-task lasted 15 to 20 minutes. Pupils did group activities to cover new topics, and this student-centric approach also helped warm them up for the game.

The game had two turns and lasted for 20 minutes. Pupils were each given a smartphone and assigned a different Chinese component (such as 氵or 日) for each turn. They were also able to see their classmates’ components.

The game was simple: Pupils were to work together and form the most complex Chinese character possible. The more complex the character, the higher their score.

The smartphones were all connected to the teacher’s console and each character from the respective groups were collected, reviewed and scored by the teacher. The scores were then tabulated by the system for everyone to see.

After the game had ended, the post-task, which lasted about 10 minutes, began. The research team was mindful that game-based learning isn’t just about playing the game. “We have to close the loop; we have to do the reflection,” Lung Hsiang explains.

“Teachers can help pupils reflect: For all the characters that had been formed, were there any that are relevant to what was covered during the pre-task or a previous lesson?”

Learning by Making Errors

Through Chinese-PP, pupils learned Chinese in a manner that is vastly different from the traditional approach.

Instead of memorization, this game-based learning curriculum uses the trial-and-error method – something you wouldn’t think would be used for learning Chinese.

“Trial and error is a good way to learn,” says Lung Hsiang. “Even if you come up with the wrong character but put the component at the right space, you still get a score. So, it’s not a clear-cut ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

Pupils had to try and understand why they had failed, which led them to the right answers. “Don’t try to teach everything,” Lung Hsiang advises teachers. “Give them some space to grow by themselves. If not, it’s just direct transmission and they won’t necessarily internalize.”

When they compared the experimental class to the control class, the research team found the former clearly had a higher orthographical awareness.

Through this higher awareness, Lung Hsiang hopes these pupils can make educated guesses if they were to encounter unfamiliar Chinese characters in the future.

“You can make some clever guesses. Like this component (氵), you’ll know it’s something to do with water or a liquid.”

To him, Chinese isn’t just about memorizing characters as a whole or strokes sequences – understanding the components matters just as much.

With games, even a centuries-old language such as Chinese can be learned in a new fashion. More importantly, it’s fun and engaging for pupils, and they become more flexible and collaborative learners along the way too.

Implementing a Game in Class

Dr Wong Lung Hsiang is an expert in using games for learning. For teachers who want to use games to help pupils learn better, here are some useful tips from him on how you can do it.

The game is just a part of the learning process.
As other activities around it are just as important, Lung Hsiang recommends the pre-task, game and post-task cycle. The pre-task activity engages and introduces new content to the pupils, the game lets pupils apply their new knowledge and collaborate with each other, and finally and very importantly, the post-task activity is where pupils reflect and internalize what they had learned.
Encourage trial and error.
Failing is a natural process and it has been well documented that figuring out why one fails brings about deeper understanding. Trying and figuring things out is a great way for pupils to come up with their own solutions.
Encourage peer interactions throughout the game.
In schools, we’re not only teaching content, but also nurturing pupils for the world outside the classroom. Learning how to socialize is just as important as learning the ABC’s (or in this case, Chinese characters!).
Always have a backup plan.
If technological resources fails on you or isn’t available in the first place, there are other alternatives. For example, Chinese-PP can be turned into a card-based game through the use of paper and white board. It would probably pose a greater logistic challenge, but it can be overcome by simplifying the game design.