Incorporating Chinese social media into classroom teaching materials can enhance Chinese learning for motivation for CAL students.
In this project, from The University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Education, researchers worked with secondary school students from non-Chinese speaking families.
Dreary textbook passages about ancient battles were replaced with contemporary texts taken from Instagram, TripAdvisor etc. YouTube clips were used for listening comprehension and vocabulary acquisition.
HKU's Dr Lai Chun said the use of social media increased students’ motivation to integrate into Hong Kong society, learn about Chinese culture and study Chinese. The team found that social media helped students become more confident in their interactions with local Chinese people as well as Chinese speaking students inside and outside of their own school.
Read about the research here: (English Version)
Read about the research here: (Chinese Version).