Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023 61
In addition, by studying writing order, students can
understand the components and characteristics of a
Chinese character and reduce the possibility of
errors in writing (Yuhua, 2019). Chinese characters
with a small number of strokes are easier to
memorize. However, the more significant the
number of strokes and components a Chinese
character must be learned, the more students often
make mistakes in writing the characters. Some
errors that usually occur are the number of strokes
that are less or more, the position of the strokes
being incorrect, or all of them being wrong.
In learning to write Chinese, dictation is one of the
essential forms of practice applied at both beginner
and advanced levels (Yonghua & Jizhou, 2014).
Dictation means “which is spoken or read aloud so
that it is written by someone else” (Bahasa, 2016).
The lecturer or teacher usually uses dictation in the
classroom by reading Chinese vocabulary or
sentences slowly and loudly. Then students write
down the Chinese characters in their exercise
books. Alternatively, it can also be done by asking
several students to come to the front of the class
and write down the Chinese characters read aloud
by the lecturer or teacher on the blackboard.
Although in practice, some students often feel
afraid and complain when facing Chinese
characters dictation, this method has been proven to
improve the ability and motivation of students to
memorize Chinese (Hongyan & Chunming, 2014).
In Chinese learning, dictation is commonly used to
evaluate and test students’ writing skills. (Muliani,
Saud, & Junaeny, 2021) research on seventh-grade
students of SMP Kalam Kudus Makassar stated that
the implementation of dictation in the classroom
made students experience an increase in mastery of
Chinese vocabulary and changes in learning
behaviour in a positive direction. (Nathania, 2020)
in her research on students of the Teng Swie Bio
Chinese Temple stated that students who were
given dictation experienced an increase in their
ability to read and recognize Chinese when
compared to students who were not. (Rahayu,
2016) in her research on class X APK SMKN 01
Turen stated that the application of dictation could
motivate students to be more motivated, happy and
active in learning Chinese vocabulary.
To prepare for dictation, students inevitably learn
and use their memorization skills to get good
grades. However, since classroom learning has
been transformed into online learning, applying
dictation has become more challenging. The main
obstacle is that the lecturer or teacher does not have
full control over the activities of the
students/students during the test, including dictation
(Qadriani, 2022). In the author's observations in
preparation for this research, some students were
caught looking at notes on books, walls, tables, or
the devices they used.
This condition reduces the effectiveness of
dictation as one of the best methods to improve
students’ memorization of Chinese characters.
Students seem to focus more on finding a “strategic
position” to put their notes down rather than
memorizing them. If this condition continues, it
will undoubtedly impair their memorization ability
and mastery of Chinese characters. Therefore, an
evaluation is needed to apply the dictation from
offline to online.
To solve this problem, we designed a dictation
question design that is specifically applied in
Chinese online classes. This study aims to test the
effectiveness of the dictation question design to
train students' skills in mastering Chinese character,
bihua and bishun, as well as reduce the possibility
of students cheating during dictation.
METHOD
The subjects of this study were 17 first-semester
students of the Chinese Language and Culture
Study Program of the University of Al Azhar
Indonesia (UAI). 13 of them (76.4%) had never
studied Chinese before entering UAI, four others
(23.6%) had studied Chinese, but their Chinese
abilities were still at the basic level.
This research is a classroom action research that
contains four stages: planning, implementing,
observation, and reflection. The research data
sources are questionnaires, tests and observation
sheets.
At the planning stage, the lecturer observes and
evaluates student learning conditions for half a
semester (7 weeks). The lecturer then prepares a
dictation design more suitable for online learning.
The dictation design is as follows.
At the implementation stage, the lecturer gave
dictation four times through virtual face-to-face
meetings. The number of Hanzi dictated is 174
characters, taken from students’ handbook: Road