Record Details

South African Grade 5 non-native learners learning Mandarin as a second additional language with a focus on Chinese characters

Literator

 
 
Field Value
 
Title South African Grade 5 non-native learners learning Mandarin as a second additional language with a focus on Chinese characters
 
Creator Nel, Norma M. Krog, Soezin Lebeloane, Lazarus
 
Subject — Mandarin; second additional language; learning Chinese characters; non-native learners; challenges; educational implications.
Description The South African Department of Basic Education (DBE) listed Mandarin as a second additional language (SAL) (Grades 4–9) in the National Curriculum Statement Grades R to 12 in 2015. We identified a gap in current research regarding the learning of Chinese characters by non-native learners of Mandarin as an SAL. The great number of characters, their complexity and the absence of grapheme–phoneme correspondences put a huge strain on learners’ memory. Rote learning and repetitive exercises lead to boredom and lack of motivation to learn Mandarin. A qualitative research design (case study) was employed in this study. Individual and focus group interviews, questionnaires, classroom observation and a Chinese characters exercise for researchers were used as data collection tools. The data were analysed manually using an inductive process and organised according to categories, themes and conclusions. The study highlights how South African Grade 5 learners learning Mandarin as a SAL learn the Chinese characters and the challenges they encounter. We consider the educational implications for learning Chinese characters and offer recommendations.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2019-05-16
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip application/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/lit.v40i1.1557
 
Source Literator; Vol 40, No 1 (2019); 11 pages Literator; Vol 40, No 1 (2019); 11 pages 2219-8237 0258-2279
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1557/2949 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1557/2948 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1557/2950 https://literator.org.za/index.php/literator/article/view/1557/2947
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2019 Norma M. Nel, Soezin Krog, Lazarus Lebeloane https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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