WeChat is currently one of the most popular text and voice
messaging communication services developed by Tencent, one of the largest
Internet service providers in China. It’s
similar to most social media, but its voice message function makes it
outstanding. Because texting in Chinese characters is
quite slow, WeChat allows users to send voice messages. To send a voice
message, the user simply holds the button, talks, and releases the button to
send the message. Even if the recipient of that message is not online, he/she
can still listen to it when checking messages.
Both
voice message and texting inspired me to use WeChat for Chinese teaching. Voice
message is a real-life way to practice speaking, and texting is good for practicing
pinyin (a phonetic system to pronounce and type Chinese characters) and
recognizing Chinese characters (since the students will select the characters
from an option bar that has all these characters with the same pronunciation).
In my class, many Chinese dialogues are completed by using the phone. A
simulated dialogue task is always assigned to students when they finish
learning certain sentence patterns and vocabulary, and they work in pairs or
groups using WeChat to create the dialogue. For instance, in one task, students
work in pairs to create a “Mom, I forgot my stuff at home and please bring it
to school” dialogue. In the dialogue, the “child” is required to text his/her
mom what school materials he/she left at home, where he/she put it, and the
color of it. And the child should make an appointment with the mom to bring the
stuff to school, in which they will use certain sentence patterns to ask the
location and time to meet at school. The students first text each other to
practice typing Chinese, and they send voice messages to each other to practice
speaking. These two activities function the same with writing a dialogue and
practicing it orally with a partner, but using WeChat on the cellphone makes
the two activities more fun for the students, and they are more motivated to complete
the exercise. When they finish their dialogue, they send me a screen shot of
the dialogue page, which is easy for me to grade. Using WeChat is also a
cultural learning, since this App is widely used in China in the recent years,
and it still enjoys a rising popularity. I am sure my students who are going to
visit China this summer would not feel unfamiliar using WeChat to communicate
with Chinese people. A simple practice in class may help them prepare better
for a completely different culture that they will see in summer.
Further use of this App is to make it
an oral assignment platform. I have been using this App after school recently
with my two students who are going to take part in an oral proficiency contest.
We practice dialogues by leaving each other voice messages. I send them a
question, and they send me an answer. They told me they like the way of
practice, because by clicking on my voice message, they can listen to my
question over and over, which helps them understand the question and answer it.
And they are glad that they can still practice Chinese with me after school. In
the near future, I will use it for more students. I will leave them voice
messages, which will be questions we practice in class, and the students answer
the question by leaving me a voice message. I can listen to their answers and
grade them easily. Similar question-and-answer systems are online, but WeChat
is free of charge to use.
Another possible use of this App is to
make it a skype tool between students at GA who learn Chinese and my former
students from CNU High School in Beijing. Students can do video call with
Chinese students from Beijing practicing Chinese with them once a week.
References:
1. http://world.time.com/2014/02/21/whats-all-the-fuss-about-whatsapp-chinas-wechat-is-a-worthy-rival/
