Drama in Education to Enhance Tone Pronunciation and Communication Skills Intonation in Online Chinese Language as Foreign Language Class

Abstract

The Chinese Language has been one of the most chosen foreign languages among Malaysian. Most kindergartens, primary schools, secondary schools, universities or even language and education centres will offer Chinese language classes to students. Each Malaysian had an abundance of opportunities to learn the Chinese language. However, unfortunately, most of them give up after learning for a few weeks or months or are stuck at the beginner level for life because of the difficulty in mastering Chinese word tone and communication skills, especially during online classes. Chinese language as a tonal language had been so challenging for the learners even after learning the Chinese language for three months and reaching HSK 1. Online classes make learning harder, and using only traditional recognition or repetition-based techniques is impossible. Students could not master the right pronunciation or intonation. Therefore, during beginner-level HSK 2 Chinese language working adults' class, the Drama in Education technique was applied to increase the students' language production and enhance the intonation of their word tone and communication skills. Students' results for the first, second and third months were compared using the Google Translate audio feature, WeChat Voice-to-Text feature and teacher evaluation. Students' self-evaluation about their performance and views about Drama in Education were analysed. The results revealed student improvement in their word tone pronunciation and communication skills. Students' confidence and class participation also had been boosted.

Keywords: Drama in Education, Chinese language, online class, word tone, communication skills