The Role of Online Assignments and Feedback to Chinese Language Learning Efficiency

Lu, Xiwen

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The Role of Online Assignments and Feedback to Chinese Language Learning Efficiency

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The projects in this dissertation focus on the efficiency of feedback on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) assignments using an intelligent tutoring system (ITS), with a particular interest in understanding how to provide feedback effectively to students to promote CFL learning. The first three projects compared Chinese learning efficiency between the ITS and traditional handwriting methods. The initial project assessed online Chinese word recognition challenges. The second and third projects delved deeper into Chinese word recognition with ITS, examining the effectiveness of ITS versus handwriting. These projects, comprising five experiments, collectively confirmed that recognizing Chinese words through ITS is more efficient than handwriting. The fourth and fifth projects examined the efficiency of feedback timing in CFL learning with ITS. The fourth project compared immediate and delayed feedback, demonstrating that immediate feedback outperformed delayed feedback in conceptual knowledge learning. The fifth project focused on immediate feedback timing, revealing that end-of-question feedback was more effective than end-of-assignment feedback. Based on the previous projects, the final project focused on immediate feedback through semi-open-ended questions in ITS for CFL. A teacher survey and in-class experiment revealed that providing only correct responses led to the highest learning gains, requiring less time for feedback and enhancing student learning judgment. This dissertation offers insight into effective teaching practices in foreign language education and ITS interventions. It contributes to developing efficient approaches to CFL instruction.

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