Typed sentences generated by CN 101 students--posted on Feb.27, 2013
Course Design: Students were randomly paired up for practicing to form the sentences for five minutes after being introduced some subjects, verbs, objects, and the concept of predicate. And they were asked each to submit a typed homework of the generated five sentences by following the link of setting up the Chinese Key-In method at http://shareschinese.weebly.com/chinese-key-in.html.
Demographic Information: Students ranging from freshman to senior of college in any field. The gender ratio of female to male is 4:13. It is an elective course with 3 credits. Students are at the very entry level of Mandarin Chinese. They had only received Chinese lessons for 10 hours with no any previous Chinese typing experience before generating this outcome.
Demographic Information: Students ranging from freshman to senior of college in any field. The gender ratio of female to male is 4:13. It is an elective course with 3 credits. Students are at the very entry level of Mandarin Chinese. They had only received Chinese lessons for 10 hours with no any previous Chinese typing experience before generating this outcome.
Statistical Results:
The statistics is based on the 12 effective samples out of the whole 17 population. The total words submitted by each student ranges from 21 to 25 words for the whole five sentences. The average number of the total words is 23. Most students submit 22 words.
From the output, each sentence is composed of 3 to 8 words. The shortest sentence is as such你好吗？（How do you do?）你忙吗？（Are you busy?） 我很好。(I am fine.）The longest sentence is “ 爸爸把妈妈吗好吗? (Mistaken Sentence)” The next longer sentence is “你爸爸妈妈好吗？” The shorter the sentence, the un-mistaken sentence is formed. From the results, it is found that students rarely typed the subjects wrong especially when the subject is represented by one word only such as the pronouns你 (You)，我 (I)，他(He/She); or the repeated words of family members such as爸爸 (Dad)，妈妈 (Mom)，爷爷 (Grandpa)，奶奶 (Grandma), and哥哥 (Elder Brother). A couple of students output the wrong word of the plural form of the pronouns 你们 (You)，我们(We)，他们 (They). “门” was chosen instead because it was usually shown as the first word at the computer popped up screen.
Students also have the tendency of choosing the wrong words when it comes to a phrase. At the beginning level, students have very limited source of phrases and also the knowledge of Chinese sentence structures. They do not know a lot the feature of Chinese language. Chinese contents become more meaningful when you say/type a phrase or a sentence. If you only type a single word, computer will pop up plenty of words with different meaning. Each sound has many different words, not to mention, it is multiplied by different tones. Computer is like a human brain. The more you train it, the smarter it will become. And the more correct and proper Chinese words will pop up at your first sight.
Most of students did not place the punctuation mark, a period, “。” or a question mark “?” in the end of the Chinese sentence. The lesson is not taught yet. The other commonly seen of a mistaken sentence structure is with the verb “be”. Take the following sentence as an example.
爷爷是很好。(Wrong)
爷爷很好。（Correct）
English: Grandpa is very good.
Students usually translate directly from the English by adding “is，是”into the Chinese sentence. However, Chinese sentences tend to omit the verb“is，是”when an adjective predicate is employed for modifying a subject.
Generally speaking, students feel comfortable of using the basic sentence structure of “S+V+O”. They also try to use the negative form of the sentence by adding “not, 不”. They start to use the adverb such as “也，also”, and “都，all” into the sentences. The conjunction word “and, 和” is also seen to connect between the subjects. I am surprised to see a couple of sentences structured beyond their level such as “他 们 也 吃 捕鱼”, “你们学好”… The former sentence even is missing one particle “的” between the phrase “捕的鱼, the hunted fish”. However, it is a very complicated structure. And the second sentence “你们学好” is a command form, meaning you have to learn well.
I am very proud of student’s output and learning results. Even the sentence structure is simple. However, they have only learned 10 hours of lessons. I was constantly amazed by the fun generated by the “cultural chemistry” while teaching in class. We constantly came across to versatile cultural issues. It reminded me of the 're-entry shock' for coming back to a pre-existing culture after being away for a long time. I am always cheered by their eagerness of learning. As long as they start to put more effort on a new language, they are not just learning the language itself, but also explore a totally different culture. Learning Chinese is hard at the initial stage. But it could be fun and interesting if they persist with efforts. I really enjoy teaching them.
From the output, each sentence is composed of 3 to 8 words. The shortest sentence is as such你好吗？（How do you do?）你忙吗？（Are you busy?） 我很好。(I am fine.）The longest sentence is “ 爸爸把妈妈吗好吗? (Mistaken Sentence)” The next longer sentence is “你爸爸妈妈好吗？” The shorter the sentence, the un-mistaken sentence is formed. From the results, it is found that students rarely typed the subjects wrong especially when the subject is represented by one word only such as the pronouns你 (You)，我 (I)，他(He/She); or the repeated words of family members such as爸爸 (Dad)，妈妈 (Mom)，爷爷 (Grandpa)，奶奶 (Grandma), and哥哥 (Elder Brother). A couple of students output the wrong word of the plural form of the pronouns 你们 (You)，我们(We)，他们 (They). “门” was chosen instead because it was usually shown as the first word at the computer popped up screen.
Students also have the tendency of choosing the wrong words when it comes to a phrase. At the beginning level, students have very limited source of phrases and also the knowledge of Chinese sentence structures. They do not know a lot the feature of Chinese language. Chinese contents become more meaningful when you say/type a phrase or a sentence. If you only type a single word, computer will pop up plenty of words with different meaning. Each sound has many different words, not to mention, it is multiplied by different tones. Computer is like a human brain. The more you train it, the smarter it will become. And the more correct and proper Chinese words will pop up at your first sight.
Most of students did not place the punctuation mark, a period, “。” or a question mark “?” in the end of the Chinese sentence. The lesson is not taught yet. The other commonly seen of a mistaken sentence structure is with the verb “be”. Take the following sentence as an example.
爷爷是很好。(Wrong)
爷爷很好。（Correct）
English: Grandpa is very good.
Students usually translate directly from the English by adding “is，是”into the Chinese sentence. However, Chinese sentences tend to omit the verb“is，是”when an adjective predicate is employed for modifying a subject.
Generally speaking, students feel comfortable of using the basic sentence structure of “S+V+O”. They also try to use the negative form of the sentence by adding “not, 不”. They start to use the adverb such as “也，also”, and “都，all” into the sentences. The conjunction word “and, 和” is also seen to connect between the subjects. I am surprised to see a couple of sentences structured beyond their level such as “他 们 也 吃 捕鱼”, “你们学好”… The former sentence even is missing one particle “的” between the phrase “捕的鱼, the hunted fish”. However, it is a very complicated structure. And the second sentence “你们学好” is a command form, meaning you have to learn well.
I am very proud of student’s output and learning results. Even the sentence structure is simple. However, they have only learned 10 hours of lessons. I was constantly amazed by the fun generated by the “cultural chemistry” while teaching in class. We constantly came across to versatile cultural issues. It reminded me of the 're-entry shock' for coming back to a pre-existing culture after being away for a long time. I am always cheered by their eagerness of learning. As long as they start to put more effort on a new language, they are not just learning the language itself, but also explore a totally different culture. Learning Chinese is hard at the initial stage. But it could be fun and interesting if they persist with efforts. I really enjoy teaching them.