Frederick Poole
In June, I participated in the 12th International Conference and Workshops on Technology and Chinese Language Teaching. I was part of a panel with three other speakers: Matt Coss, David Moser, and Liz Carter. Matt Coss is a Ph.D. student in the Second Language Studies program at Michigan State University. Liz Carter is a Chinese professor at Vassar College, and David Moser is an educator based in Beijing who has written several papers and books about learning Chinese.
Our panel, entitled “过来人的反思——成功的二语中文学习者谈电写转型” focused on the perspectives of successful L2 Chinese learners regarding the shift from handwriting to typing Chinese characters. This topic is part of a larger project led by Matt Coss and his colleagues, who recently published a book advocating for the development of Chinese typing skills in lieu of handwriting to enhance efficiency and the overall quality of L2 Chinese instruction.
Figure 1. Transforming Hanzi Pedagogy in the Digital Age (https://www.routledge.com/Transforming-Hanzi-Pedagogy-in-the-Digital-Age-Theory-Research-and-Practice-Dian-Xie-Shi-Dai-De-Yi-Zi-Jiao-Xue–Li-Lun-Yu-Shi-Jian/Chu-Coss-Zhang/p/book/9781032259468)
This is also a topic that has long been of interest to me. In fact, my first publication, Poole & Sung (2015) explored three different approaches to teaching Chinese characters. One which delayed Chinese character instruction and focused on oral skills, one that focused on characters only, and a third blended approach. A few years later, I collaborated with a colleague on a follow-up study exploring similar approaches (Walker & Poole, 2019). Both of these studies were inspired by Allen (2008) who argued that character instruction monopolized much of instructional time without contributing to proficiency development. Matt Coss and colleagues have continued this area of research putting forth an approach that involves typing as an alternative to developing handwriting skills.
During our panel, we shared our unique experiences learning Chinese and how emphasizing handwriting affected our learning. I discussed the significant amount of time I dedicated to practicing a skill that is now largely obsolete. Even over the summer, when I was in China for two months, although I had exclusively used Chinese for daily interactions, I did not need to handwrite anything. Every interaction is mediated by technology. Learning how to compose text messages, write blogs, and draft essays in Chinese via the computer is much more relevant and useful to my everyday life than being able to reproduce a character from memory. Reflecting on the time I spent learning to write characters (4 to 5 hours per day for several years), I can’t help but wonder how much more proficient my Chinese would be if I had dedicated that same time to reading or composing texts on the computer.
The panel was extremely well received, with nearly 150 participants attending virtually and providing positive feedback. In fact, all four of us have been invited to write about our experiences in Chinese for a prestigious journal in China. If you are can read Chinese, you can check out our pre-print below:
References
Allen, J. R. (2008). Why learning to write Chinese is a waste of time: A modest proposal. Foreign Language Annals, 41(2), 237-251. http://doi.org/dv8m5d
Poole, F., & Sung, K. (2015). Three approaches to beginning Chinese instruction and their effects on oral development and character recognition. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 59-75.
Walker, J., & Poole, F. (2019). Effects of delaying character instruction in a Chinese as a foreign language classroom on affective outcomes. Researching and Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, 2(2), 162-180.
