Action Research Project

Diana Mora

Education 403

Sr. Mary Ann Jacobs

May 1, 2017

Abstract
 During my time observing in a charter high school in an urban setting, I was able to

observe an 11th grade Mandarin Chinese class. I was able to recognize the lack of knowledge in

how to sentence build. Students struggle to make their own sentences is possibly due to the fact

that Ms. Lin has pulled these students away from learning the actual Mandarin Chinese language

and to only teach them about the cultural aspect. I decided to work with five of her students in

order to help them understand sentence building with only using Chinese characters. I had

devised a plan in order to help students where each element of a sentence (verbs, nouns,

pronouns, adverbs, etc) goes in a sentence. I had hoped that the whole group would understand

how to sentence build on their own after our sessions together. However, only three out of five

students were able to understand how sentence build on their own. The other two students still

struggled in understanding where location words go in a sentence. Although I was able to

pinpoint where students had struggled most, I hope that for at least some students, this plan

would be able to help them sentence build with only using Chinese characters in their future

Mandarin Chinese classes.

Introduction

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 While observing the 11th grade introductory Mandarin Chinese class, I noticed that most

students had some difficulties in one particular area. Even though I was not able to help students

in reteaching the basic words in the Chinese language but I was able to help them in another way

in order to understand how to connect different words together in order to make complete

sentences. I was able to observe my cooperating teachers 11th grade Mandarin Chinese class.

During the class periods, I noticed that she assigns students mini group projects of the cultural

factor of the class, which moves students away from receiving lessons on how to learn the

language. These mini group projects consist in students making a PowerPoint or a poster about a

cultural factor. These mini group projects are all written in English, which does not allow

students to practice writing in characters and sentence structure. Although students can identify

vocabulary with the help of pinyin (the pronunciation of words), pinyin is not the official Chinese

writing system. Most students are now used to reading and writing in pinyin.

In this study, I hope to help students with showing them how to use the basic Chinese

sentence structure. Mandarin Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world;

the language has an extensive number of characters that one must learn in order to be completely

fluent in the language. When teaching Mandarin Chinese in schools, it is always recommended

to allow students to get used to looking at the Chinese characters. It is also recommended for

teachers to allow students learn the pinyin while learning the language in order for students to

understand each characters pronunciation. Teachers also allow students to use pinyin in their

writing to guide them and help them complete assignments, since writing characters can be

challenging. I also hope to help students understand the importance of practicing their sentence

structure skills using only Chinese characters. Pinyin is only the training wheels in learning the

Chinese language. Both character writing and sentence structure work hand in hand with each

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other in order to successfully write fluently in Chinese. With this study, I hope to answer my

focus question: How can I improve students abilities with sentence structure in Mandarin

Chinese?

Research on the Issue

The problem I noticed was the lack of knowledge of the material. Even though this is a

first year Chinese class, they are behind in where they should be at in their second semester of

Chinese. This was caused by not receiving well developed lessons that focused on the actual

language. Another cause is involving students in doing more cultural mini projects than learning

to be literate in the actual language. These cultural mini projects are all written in English, which

does not allow students to practice reading and writing the Chinese language. Learning a new

language is not easy, especially if it is in a different writing system than English natives are used

to. By learning another language that has a different structural system and being able to use it

fluently can make learning languages with similar syntax easier to learn. There are three groups

of researchers Ronald Carter & Michael Mccarthy, Susan M. Gass & Jacquelyn Schachte, and

Jack C. Richards & Theodore S. Rodgers have studies on teaching syntax structure and why it

would be difficult for students to understand and learn syntax structure of another language.

Learning a language can become more difficult as one gets older. In order to teach syntax

to older students, we need to come up with different more simpler strategies. However, there is a

main reason why students fail understand how to sentence structure works in a different

language. Students tend to stay in their first language sentence structure because they are used to

it. This would cause students go out of their comfort zone in order to learn a new language.

Students who are native English speakers will have trouble learning a language such as Japanese,

that has a completely different structural system. Learning a language that has their own set of

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grammar rules can become confusing to most students. Some students adapt faster to the new

grammar rules than other students, which can also cause students to not comprehend the

grammar rules as quickly as they are expected to learn them during their time at school (Gass

and Schachter, 1989).

When teaching syntax, the organization of vocabulary words and sentence structure are

essential because they work together in order to understand the language. A useful technique

shown to help students understand sentence structure is using paired associations. These paired

associations are words that pair together in a sentence in order to associate a native word that the

student already knows to the unknown word in the foreign language. This technique works well

when translating because it shows students how the words in their native language words are

placed in the order of the foreign language sentence structure. This technique is to help students

move away from their native language sentence structure in order to understand the foreign

language sentence structure (Carter and McCarthy, 2013).

Students can struggle in learning a new language, whether it would be in the same writing

system as their native language or not. Researchers Richards and Rogers found that students

have a difficult time in learning a new language due to learning style preferences, affective

factors, motivation, and learning strategies. All students have different learning style preferences.

Some students like to learn in groups and others like to learn alone. Some students are visual

learners, other are lectures, and etc. Teachers have to accommodate to the students learning

preference. Students also have difficulties learning a new language due to affective factors.

These affective factors are the emotions students go through when learning a new language such

as: anxiety, shyness, etc. Motivation plays a huge factor when learning a new language. Students

need to be motivated or want to learn a new language. Motivation is what gives one the

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dedication, patience, and determination to learn a new language. Lastly, learning strategies can

influence how a student learns a new language. Each student has their own learning strategies in

how they learn a new topic, this includes how students: plan, manage and evaluate their learning.

Students need to be able to identify what are their strengths and what needs improvement in their

learning. All these elements need to work together in order for a student to learn the syntax

structure of a new language (Richards and Rodgers, 1986).

Devise the Plan

Purpose: The research question focuses on how can I improve students abilities to

sentence build in Chinese. The purpose of this research is to find if students can use a basic

Chinese sentence structure in order to build their own sentences while using only Chinese

characters.

Participants: In order to put my plan into action, I observed a 11th grade Mandarin

Chinese class at an bilingual school in an urban setting. This class included 24 students, most of

them whom are bilingual students. The class was mostly composed of racial minorities with

African-American and Hispanic students. This class meets everyday from Monday through

Friday for an hour and half.

Procedures: After observing the class for a couple of times, I proposed to the teacher to

let me work with a group of students who needed help with sentence structure. I discussed with

with the teacher about which students need a bit more help in understanding how Chinese

grammar sentence structure worked. I was given the opportunity to work with five students, all

with a Spanish speaking background. We would sit together in a group once a week for about 45

minutes, after the teacher had given them a set of vocabulary words to use in their sentences.

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 I know I cannot change the way the teacher teaches the class but I can help students with

understanding how to sentence build. By starting with sentence structure and showing students

where verbs, nouns, adverbs, adjective, and location words go in a sentence. I plan to take three

lessons that they learned and use those as my examples help them understand sentence structure.

I will also encourage students to write only in Chinese characters in order to get them used to

writing in the official Chinese writing, moving them little by little away from the pinyin.

Execute the Plan

I first needed to see what each student was struggling with specifically. I had each student

write one sentence about taking the train home. Once each student was done writing, I took a

look at each students sentence. They all had one common error in their sentences and that error

was location word placement. Once I knew what the common error was, I was then able to show

the group how a correct sentence is built. I then gave each student a diagram of a basic Chinese

sentence structure. I chose three different lessons that they had already learned: colors,

transportation, and numbers, in order to use them as examples on how to use the diagram. I

explained to the group that this sentence structure format is used for most sentences in the

Chinese language and that they needed to write their sentences in Chinese characters only. Once

I gave them samples sentences, I then translated the sentence word by word in order to show

them where each English word is placed in the Chinese sentence format. This was important

because students will see where the placement of the English words changed after being

translated from Chinese back into English. After each session, I would ask the group to write a

sentence or two in Chinese characters on their own without using the sentence structure diagram.

At the end of the session, I asked them what part still confuses them and what part did

they believe they understood after using the diagram. I also asked if they would continue using

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the sentence structure diagram for their future assignments. Some students found that they

understood it a bit more than when they first started working with me and others still felt

confused about their location word placement. I hope that using the diagram would help them

practice how to build their own sentences in their assignments and quizzes (without the help of

using pinyin).

Assessment Results

Over the course of working with my group of students, I asked them if they felt that by

using the basic Chinese sentence structure was helpful in building sentences on their own in

Chinese. Students were asked to build their own sentences after every session without looking at

their practice notes that was done as a group. Brandon explained that this sentence structure

strategy did help him understand which words go where but he is not able to write all the words

in Chinese sentences due to not being able to remember how to write them. Julia explained that

the sentence structure was still confusing, mostly since she could not remember how to write

many of the words in Chinese characters. Three out of five students felt comfortable enough in

using the basic sentence structure and are able to write mostly with Chinese characters. While the

other two students still struggle with understanding how to use this structure in different

sentences, since their mind is still set on their English knowledge of sentence structure.

Next Steps

Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to continue to work with these students and

help them completely understand how to sentence build on their own. However, if I had the

opportunity to continue working these students, I would use more examples of previous lessons

in order to have them better understand sentence structure. Although most of my group of

students started to understand the concept of the Chinese sentence structure, I would have liked

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to continue having them practice on how to do it on their own so they would feel comfortable

enough to do it without the guidance of someone sitting there with them. I was able to give them

a sentence structure diagram as a template on sentence building for their future classes. I would

have liked to see them be able to build their own sentences on their own in a quiz to see if they

fully understand Chinese sentence structure.

Conclusion

Overall, I believe that I presented the group with a basic sentence structure diagram in

order to help them understand the difference between the English sentence structure and the

Chinese sentence structure. I was also able to demonstrate to the group how to use the diagrams

by using three previous lessons that they have already learned. After asking the group if the

diagram was useful and if they would use it in the future, three out of five students said it was

helpful and it made it easier to understand how to build their own sentences. Three out of five

students also said they would use the diagram in their future classes and continue practicing with

it until they were able to be fluent with it. Although I did not have enough time to help the other

two students fully comprehend the Chinese sentence structure, I am pleased that my plan was

able to help at least three students in my group. I believe that in the future, I will be able to use

this basic sentence structure diagram again to help my future students.

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 References

Carter, R., McCarthy, M. (2016).VOCABULARY AND LANGUAGE TEACHING. Routledge:

TAYLOR & FRANCIS.

Gass, S. M., & Schachter, J. (1989).Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. C., & Rodgers, T. S. (1986).Approaches and methods in language teaching.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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