1. The Impact of Character Analysis
and Reading Aloud on the Chinese
Proficiency at Second Grade in a
Language Immersion School
Haibin Li

2. Chapter 1: Introduction
• Overview
• Problem Statement
• Purpose
• Research Questions
• Community
• Work Setting
• Writer’s Role
• Definition of Terms
• Summary

3. Chapter 1: Overview
• School: CMS Language Magnate School
• Program: Chinese Immersion
• Students: Second Graders
• Problem: Some students are not at grade level
• Goal: Design strategies to improve Chinese
proficiency

4. Chapter 1: Problem Statement
Some of the students of a Chinese
Immersion program in second grade are
not demonstrating proficiency in character
recognition, reading fluency, and oral
communication in Chinese. Their Chinese
performances are not at grade level.

5. Chapter 1: Purpose
• Identify the causes of low proficiency in
Chinese
• Design and implement effective teaching
strategies
• Help students improve Chinese proficiency
with guided practices

6. Chapter 1: Research Questions
• Can character structure analysis help
students improve proficiency in Chinese?
• Can additional reading aloud practice
help students improve proficiency in
Chinese?

7. Chapter 1: Community
• School Location: Urban area in Charlotte,
North Carolina
• Total Population: 19,388
• Median Age: 30.5
• Average House Value: $83,600
• Average Household Income: $50,484
• Public Schools: 1 regular home-based school,
and 1 language magnet school

8. Chapter 1: Work Setting
• 98 certified administrative staff
• 40 target language teachers
• 71% teachers have a Bachelor’s degree, 29%
Master’s degree
• 30% professional staff is not U.S. citizens
• Languages include German, French,
Japanese, Chinese, and Spanish
• In year 2011grade 4 test 80% students at or
above basic reading level, and 95% math

9. Chapter 1: Writer’s Role
• B.A. degree in English Teaching, former
English teacher in China
• Native Chinese speaker
• Joined CMS in 2008 as a teaching
assistant
• Second grade Chinese Immersion
Teacher since year 2010

10. Chapter 1: Definition of Terms
• PBIS: Positive Behavioral Intervention
and Supports
• PEP: Personal Education Plan
• RTI: Response to Intervention

11. Chapter 1: Summary
The research will investigate the impact of
character structure analysis and extra reading-
aloud practice on the Chinese proficiency at
second grade. The ultimate goal is to help two
of the twenty-two students in the class who
have low Chinese proficiency to move up to
grade level, and to establish repeatable
teaching practices that can be utilized to assist
low performing students in the future.

12. Chapter 2: Study of the Problem /
Literature Review
• Overview
• Problem Documentation
• Literature Review
• Causative Analysis
• Summary

13. Chapter 2: Overview
• Some of the students of a Chinese Immersion
program are not demonstrating proficiency.
• There are various causes to the problem: limited
opportunity to practice, different culture,
different character and language structure, etc.
• This chapter will study the problem further by
first review the literatures in the area of Chinese
proficiency, and then provide a causative analysis
of the problem.

14. Chapter 2: Problem Documentation
Regarding Chinese proficiency, among 22 second
graders, 5 of them are under grade level
• Weekly writing:
– Student 1 can barely write any sentence correctly.
– Student 2 can write some sentences with
grammar errors.
– Student 3, 4, and 5 can write very simple
sentences but not enough to express ideas clearly
in Chinese writing.

15. Chapter 2: Problem Documentation
(Continued)
• Speaking
– Student 1 can say some Chinese characters but can
barely communicate in Chinese with whole sentences.
– Student 2 can sometimes speak with whole sentences
but still has difficulties in expressing ideas fluently.
– Student 3 seldom spoke in Chinese but sometimes can
answer question in Chinese although it took long time
to compose sentences.
– Student 4 can speak Chinese with mixed English
words.
– Student 5 can say some sentences with grammar
errors.

16. Chapter 2: Problem Documentation
(Continued)
• Listening
– Student 1 and 2 can understand common daily
phrases related to generic greetings and everyday
classroom activities, but lack of ability of
comprehension when it comes to listening
practices and tests.
– Student 3, 4, and 5 can understand basic daily
Chinese communication and classroom
instructions, but have difficulties in listening
comprehension practices.

17. Chapter 2: Problem Documentation
(Continued)
• Test Scores (Phrase Making)
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Class Average
Week 1 3/15 6/15
10/15 10/15 10/15
11/15
Week 2 3/15 5/15
9/15 8/15 10/15
11/15
Week 3 4/15 6/15
10/15 9/15 9/15
12/15
Week 4 5/15 5/15
8/15 9/15 11/15
11/15
Week 5 4/15 6/15
9/15 10/15 10/15
12/15

18. Chapter 2: Problem Documentation
(Continued)
• Comprehensive Test Scores
Student 1 Student 2 Student 3 Student 4 Student 5 Class Average
Preliminary Test 50 57 56 56 58 70
Dictation 1 45 45 63 63 72 81
Dictation 2 58 58 83 75 75 85
Dictation 3 66 58 84 75 76 85
Unit Test 1 68 53 83 82 87 87
Unit Test 2 31 60 87 77 80 87
Reading Test 1 52 42 54 56 58 63

19. Chapter 2: Literature Review
• Chinese as Second Language Programs
–Chinese as Second Language (CSL)
–Chinese Immersion (CI)
–Heritage Language (HL) Learning
–Dual-language Immersion (DLI)

20. Chapter 2: Literature Review
(Continued)
• Difficulties in Chinese Learning
–Complicated characters and compound
word
–Four-tone pronunciation of characters
–History and enriched cultural contents
embedded in language

21. Chapter 2: Literature Review
(Continued)
• Chinese Teaching Philosophies and Strategies
– Transmission model: Teacher provides instruction
while learners play a passive role. Emphasize on
learning of discrete skills and sub-skills.
– Constructivist model: Learners are active
participants and teachers facilitate the learning.
Emphasize on acquire knowledge through being
immersed in social environments.
– History and cultural contents in teaching and
learning
– Language elements and syntax structure

22. Chapter 2: Causative Analysis
• Complicated Character Structure
• Lack of Practice Opportunity
• Lack of Motivation

23. Chapter 2: Summary
This chapter investigated in more details the problem
of low proficiency in Chinese as second language
programs. Even in a Chinese Immersion school where
students have more opportunities to practice Chinese
in classroom activities and interpersonal
communications, the students’ Chinese proficiency is
not completely at satisfactory level. Literature review
showed that there are various causes to the problem.
Complex character structures and limited practicing
opportunities are the two main obstacles in the
students’ path to Chinese proficiency.

24. Chapter 3: Expected Outcomes and
Procedures for Data Analysis
• Overview
• Design of Study
• Research Questions
• Methodology
• Summary

25. Chapter 3: Overview
• The causes of the low Chinese proficiency are
mainly in two folds: complex character
structures, and limited practicing
opportunities.
• Character structure analysis could be helpful
for students to get familiar with the structures
and build up vocabulary.
• Repeated reading-aloud of texts could remedy
the limitation on practicing opportunities.

26. Chapter 3: Design of Study
• Character Analysis
– Pictograms: to use the character structure to
emulate the shape of objects, for example, 人
(person), 木 (wood).
– Indicators: to use the character structure as
abstract indicators for actions or object status. For
example, 上 (above): use two lines above a
horizontal line to indicate above; 看 (look): use a
hand (手) above eyes (目) to indicate looking.

27. Chapter 3: Design of Study (Continued)
• Character Analysis
– Ideograms: to use two or more standalone characters to
form a new character that carries unified meaning of the
standalone characters. For example, 森 (forest): three
wood (木) characters to convey the idea of a lot of wood in
a forest, 尘 (dust): the top part means small (小) and the
bottom means dirt (土).
– Phonograms are mostly based on two standalone
characters, one indicating the shape of the object and
another indicating the sound of the characters. For
example, 湖 (lake): the three dots on the left side indicates
water and the right side (胡) the same pronunciation as湖,
骑 (horseback riding): the left side is horse (马) and the
right (奇) has the same pronunciation as骑.

28. Chapter 3: Design of Study (Continued)
• Extensive Reading-aloud Practice
–In class and at home practices
–Texts from textbook and additional Chinese
reading materials
–Extra four-tone pronunciation practices

29. Chapter 3: Research Questions
• Can character structure analysis help
students improve proficiency in Chinese?
• Can additional reading aloud practice
help students improve proficiency in
Chinese?

30. Chapter 3: Methodology
• Participants: five low performing
students from second grade Chinese
Immersion class
• Instruments: The scores from four tests,
YCT (Youth Chinese Test), Chinese
Preliminary Test, Class Weekly Dictation,
and Chinese Unit Test

31. Chapter 3: Methodology (Continued)
• Procedures
– Obtain consent form from parents
– Collect baseline test scores
– Apply the teaching strategies in classroom teaching
for six weeks
– Collect test scores along with the teaching/learning
process
– Analyze test scores to determine effectiveness of the
teaching strategies
– Student survey on the research process

32. Chapter 3: Summary
This chapter described the design of the study and
its methodology. There are two main focuses in
the study: use character structure analysis to
reinforce students’ ability in character
recognition, and use repeated reading-aloud
practice to compensate the lack of practice
outside of classroom. Corresponding strategies
are incorporated in classroom teaching and
participants’ performances are tracked. The
collected data will be analyzed to determine the
effectiveness of the strategies in next chapter.

33. Chapter 4: Data Analysis
• Overview
• Report of Results
• Summary

34. Chapter 4: Overview
The chapter presents test scores to show the
differences between before and after applying
the above teaching techniques. Data from four
assessment areas are gathered: character
dictation, phrase dictation, sentence making,
and reading comprehension.

35. Chapter 4: Report of Results
Character Dictation Before After
Student 1 2/11
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5

36. Chapter 4: Report of Results
(Continued)
Phrase Dictation Before After
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5

37. Chapter 4: Report of Results
(Continued)
Phrase Making Before After
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5

38. Chapter 4: Report of Results
(Continued)
Reading Comprehension Before After
Student 1
Student 2
Student 3
Student 4
Student 5

39. Chapter 4: Summary
This chapter presented the test results on the
effects of character structure analysis and
reading aloud practice on Chinese teaching and
learning. Four areas of baseline test scores,
character dictation, phrase dictation, sentence
making, and reading comprehension, were
gathered before applying the techniques, as a
comparison to those collected after.

40. Questions?