60 Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.36722/sh.v8i1.1435
The Implementation of Dictation (Tingxie) in Chinese
Online Learning For Beginner-Level Students
Nanda Lailatul Qadriani
1*
1
School of Chinese Studies and Exchanges, Shanghai International Studies University
Dalian West Road 550, Shanghai, China, 200083
Correspondence author: [email protected]u.cn
Abstract Dictation (tīngxiě) is commonly applied to evaluate students' ability to master Chinese
characters. However, dictation is challenging to use in online learning because lecturers do not have full
control over the conditions around students when dictation is carried out. Students tend to think more
about a "strategic position" to putting notes during dictation than preparing and memorizing Chinese
characters. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the types of dictation questions in online learning. This
study is a classroom action research which consists of 4 stages: planning, implementing, observation,
and reflection. Researchers designed four types of dictation questions that applied to the Writing
Proficiency course for beginner-level Chinese Language and Culture Study Program students at the
University of Al Azhar Indonesia. Research data sources from observations, questionnaires and tests.
The results showed that the design of the applied dictation question types effectively reduced the
opportunity for students to cheat during dictation. In addition, this dictation method is also effective for
practising Chinese writing skills and students' mastery of Chinese strokes and writing order.
Keywords - Chinese character; dictation; tingxie; online learning; Chinese language.
INTRODUCTION
hinese characters or hanzi ( 汉字) is the
character used in Chinese writing. Chinese
characters contain components (specifically,
phonetic and semantic radicals) carrying rich
phonological and semantic information that play
significant roles in their recognition (Leung, Lui,
Law, Fung, & Lau, 2011). Chinese characters are
written characters that combine form, sound, and
meaning ( (Juan, 2020). Therefore,
some Chinese characters can directly know how to
read, and the meaning contained by looking at
them. The total number of Chinese characters
summarized in the book Shuō wén jiě during the
Eastern Han dynasty reached 9353. In the List of
Common Characters in Modern Chinese issued by
the China State Language Commission, the total
number of Chinese characters is 7000. However,
the number of characters that are often used is only
3500 characters. (Commission, 2014)
In learning Chinese foreign speakers, the Chinese
character is a unique part but also quite complicated
to learn (Mengge, 2015). Chinese learners,
especially from countries that use Latin letters or
the alphabet, are unfamiliar with letters in pictures
or symbols such as Chinese characters, so they
have difficulty recognizing, memorizing, and
writing Chinese characters. At the basic level, the
teacher can provide explanations and exercises for
writing Chinese parts, for example, practice writing
strokes (笔画 bǐhuà), writing order (笔顺 bǐshùn),
components (部件) and its whole character (整字).
(Yuanyuan, 2018).
Bihua, or so-called Chinese strokes are the smallest
parts that make up a Chinese character. One
Chinese character can consist of one stroke, for
example, the character “yī”, up to dozens of
strokes, such as the character dá” which
consists of 51 strokes. Bishun, or writing order, is
the direction or sequence of writing stroke that
makes up a Chinese character. Writing order is very
important to be taught to students because learning
writing order can increase the ability and speed of
students to remember Chinese characters and make
Chinese characters writing more neat and beautiful.
C
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
62 Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023
to Success - Lower Elementary 1, published by
Beijing Language and Culture University Press.
Figure 1. The design of dictation questions in online
learning
In the observation stage, the lecturer observes the
student's learning progress and motivation to
prepare for dictation. The lecturer analyzed the
questionnaires and students’ dictation sheets in the
reflection stage.
Before the implementation of dictation in online
learning is applied, students are first taught the
basic rules in Chinese writing, including Chinese
strokes(笔画), writing order(笔顺), rules for
the composition of Chinese components (汉字组织
结构) and radicals ( 部首). Students are also
introduced to several web pages or smartphone
applications that can be used for self-learning, such
as hanzi5.com, quizlet.com, and Pleco. In addition,
students have also participated in several writing
exercises and two times of general dictations.
During dictation, the lecturer reads several hanzi
aloud. Then students are asked to write down the
hanzi and pinyin the same as during face-to-face
learning.
Through observations in a virtual room during
dictation and comparing the results of dictation
with students' daily progress, it was found that
students were suspicious of looking at notes or
dictionaries, which gave rise to ideas for evaluating
and adapting the dictation design for online
learning.
The dictation design in online learning consists of
four parts. In the first type of question, students are
asked to recite the strokes (bihua) and writing order
(bishun) of the three Chinese characters (hanzi)
displayed by the lecturer. In the second type, the
lecturer asked the students to write down hanzi,
pinyin and the meaning of the vocabulary read by
the lecturer. In the third type, the lecturer reads
several hanzi, students write down bishun, the
number of bihua and pinyin. In the fourth type, the
lecturer reads the bishun of a hanzi, students are
asked to choose the most appropriate hanzi
according to the bishun they heard.
From the four types of dictation questions applied
in this study, the second and third types are usually
applied when dictating face-to-face in the
classroom. The first and fourth types of questions
are the adjustment of dictation in online learning. In
the first part, each student has to read three hanzi in
a limited time so that the student cannot see the
notes.
Literally, the first type of question does not fall into
the "hearing" and "writing" categories, which are
the basis of dictation activities. However, this
question is designed to test students' understanding
of "oral writing of bihua and bishun". If the student
does not understand the pronunciation of bihua and
its bishun, then the student may not necessarily be
able to write hanzi in the proper order. Moreover, if
students do not understand how to recite bihua and
bishun, they cannot get points on this part.
Likewise, in the fourth type of question, students
must also understand the bihua and bishun of the
hanzi dictated to choose the right hanzi.
The analysis technique in this research is
descriptive quantitative. The researcher explained
the results of the students' dictation tests in each
section by analyzing errors and combining the data
with the results obtained from questionnaires and
observations.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Based on the results of the dictation carried out in
four virtual face-to-face meetings, the percentage of
correct answers are stated in Table 1.
Based on Table 1, it is known that the lowest
percentage of students' answer accuracy is in
dictation question type I: reciting bihua, then
question type III: writing hanzi, bihua, bishun and
pinyin, then question type II: writing hanzi, pinyin
and its meaning and then question type IV: writing
hanzi from recited bishun.
Dictation
design in
online
learning
I. Lecturer chooses three hanzi, and
students read the pronunciation and its
bishun.
II. Lecturer reads hanzi, and students write
hanzi, pinyin and their meanings.
III. Lecturer reads hanzi, and students
write hanzi, the number of bihua and
bishun
IV. Lecturer read bishun of a hanzi, and
students choose the hanzi in question.
Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023 63
Table 1. Percentage of correct answers in each type of
dictations
Dictation question types
II
II
IV
Number of
hanzi
56
33
44
First
dictation
64,9%
82,35%
92,9%
Second
dictation
61%
85,4%
95,3%
Third
dictation
59%
90,6%
96,4%
Fourth
dictation
68,9%
77.2%
96,4%
Average
percentage
63,45%
83,9%
95,25%
Dictation part I: Reciting bihua
In this section, the teacher asked students to recite
the bihua of three hanzi according to their order.
Students recite errors are divided into: (1) errors in
bishun; (2) errors in bihua; (3) errors in both bishun
and bihua; (4) recited bihua are less; (5) recited
bihua are more. The error percentage in part I can
be seen in Table 2.
Table 2. Percentage of Dictation Errors Part I
First
dictation
Second
dictation
Third
dictation
Fourth
dictation
Error in
bishun
17,64%
15,6%
7,8%
3,9%
Error in
bihua
9,8%
15,6%
31,3%
21,5%
Error in
both
bishun
and
bihua
5,8%
7,8%
0%
1,9%
Recited
bihua
less
1,9%
0%
1,9%
1,9%
Recited
bihua
more
0%
0%
0%
1,9%
In bishun errors, students often reversed in reciting
the order of writing of hanzi. For example, in the
character' ' the correct order is héng ( ),
piězhě (), héng (), shù (), but some students
mistakenly recite the order to be héng (), piězhě
(), shù (), héng (). In error in reciting bihua,
students did not say the correct bihua, for example,
the first bihua of the character '' is piě (丿), but
some students called it héng ().
In the case of errors in both bishun and bihua,
students are incorrect in the writing order and
incorrect in reciting the bihua. In less bihua or
more bihua errors, the error rate is shallow. Usually,
they unknowingly miss a certain hanzi or two or
say it repetitively.
Interestingly, based on the questionnaire results
distributed to students, 41.2% thought that part I
was easier to do than the other parts. It is probably
because most students did not realize they had
made a small mistake while reading the bihua and
bishun. Therefore, they felt pretty confident
completing the first part of the dictation. However,
from the questionnaire results, students said that
they often went back and forth in reciting the
bishun, had trouble distinguishing similar bihua and
did not memorize the names of the strokes. In
addition, being too nervous is also the reason why
students make mistakes in reading bishun.
Dictation part II: Writing hanzi, pinyin, and the
meaning
Compared with the results of part I, the accuracy of
answers in the dictation part II is higher (83,9%). In
this section, the lecturer first reads the hanzi, and
then the students write down the hanzi, pinyin, and
its meaning. This question type II is a type of
dictation question that is usually applied in
classrooms. In the second part of the dictation, the
students' answer errors were divided into three
groups: writing errors in hanzi and pinyin, writing
errors only in hanzi, and writing errors only in
pinyin. The error in meaning is not discussed in this
research because this research only focuses on
Chinese writing elements.
The percentage of error answers in part II are
shown in Table 3.
Table 3. Percentage of Dictation Errors Part II
First
dictation
Second
dictation
Third
dictation
Fourth
dictation
Writing
errors
both in
hanzi and
pinyin
7%
1,1%
0%
2,3%
Writing
errors in
hanzi
8.8%
13,5%
9,4%
16,4%
Writing
errors in
pinyin
1,7%
0%
0%
4,1%
64 Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023
Table 3 shows that the error rate in writing hanzi is
higher than in writing pinyin. The errors
in hanzi writing are students writing down
characters with similar pronunciation or written to
the read character. For example, the lecturer reads
the word 房间, but students write it down as
. The teacher asked to write the word 书架,
but the students wrote it as 暑假; the teacher
asked to write the character , but the student
wrote into character ’. Some students did not
answer because they did not know what
recited hanzi was. In pinyin writing errors, the most
mistakes were that students only wrote consonants
and vowels but did not write tone (声调) in pinyin.
In line with the dictation results, part II was
considered the most challenging part for students to
do based on the questionnaire results. 47.1% of
students said that part II was the hardest. Students
find it challenging to memorize hanzi and are often
confused about which hanzi the lecturer reads,
considering that hanzi has a homophone character
with the same sound but different writing and
meaning. In addition, students also feel rushed,
making them often forget to write their tone in
pinyin.
Dictation part III: Writing hanzi, bihua, bishun,
and pinyin
In dictation part III, the lecturer read a word
consisting of one syllable, for example,
and others. Students must write down the
hanzi, pinyin, the number of bihua and bishun.
Based on Table 1, the percentage of accuracy of
student answers, part III ranks second with the
lowest level of accuracy. Based on the
questionnaire, this type of question III is also the
second most difficult part, with 35.3%. The
categorization of errors is divided into (1) hanzi
writing errors, (2) pinyin writing errors, (3) bishun
order errors, and (4) bihua miscounted. The
percentage of errors in the dictation part III is as
follows in Table 4.
Based on table 4, the most common errors are
errors in bishun. The bishun are incorrect; some
bihua are lacking, and some are more in number.
Bihua, which is written more or less affects the
calculation of its number, so the number of bihua
written is also incorrect. In addition, many words
appear that are not written as required. For example,
the lecturer says the word “ jǐ”, but students write
the word or ”. The error in pinyin is that
students forget to write down the tone or pinyin as a
whole.
Table 4. Percentage of Dictation Errors Part III
First
dictation
Second
dictation
Third
dictation
Fourth
dictation
Hanzi
writing
error
2.9%
1.8%
2.9%
4.4%
Pinyin
writing
error
2.1%
2.6%
3.5%
4.4%
Bishun error
4.7%
7.9%
5.5%
7.6%
Bihua
miscounted
4.7%
5.8%
5.3%
7%
The questionnaire data filled out by aligns with the
data analysis above. However, students find part III
difficult because they often forget the writing order
or the bishun. They are often confused about which
character was read by the lecturer and often
miscount the number of strokes. In addition, the
time limit also becomes an obstacle for some
students. It makes them in a hurry to complete the
dictation.
Dictation part IV: Writing hanzi from recited
bishun
In dictation part IV, the lecturer read bishun from
several hanzi, and students write down the hanzi in
question. In the dictation of this section, the
presentation of the accuracy of student answers is
the highest compared to the other sections, which is
95.25%.
Table 5. Percentage of Dictation Errors Part IV
First
dictation
Second
dictation
Third
dictation
Fourth
dictation
7.1%
4.7%
3.6%
3.6%
The questionnaire results also showed that 52.5%
of students thought part IV was the easiest part to
do, and 64.7% stated they had no difficulty doing
part IV. However, some students who found it a
little challenging to do the dictation of part IV
reasoned that the lecturer was too fast when reading
bishun. Others stated that they were still unfamiliar
with the name of bihua, so they were often
confused when following the dictation part IV.
Reflection
From the results of the dictation analysis and
questionnaires in the four dictation sections, we can
Jurnal AL-AZHAR INDONESIA SERI HUMANIORA, Vol. 8, No. 1, Maret 2023 65
see that the error that occurs lies in the students'
mastery of bishun and bihua still needs to be
improved. Therefore, it is necessary to practice to
enhance students' understanding and knowledge of
bihua and bishun. Providing a strong base for their
Chinese characters learning at the next level is
important. If they already have a good
understanding at the primary level, it will help
reduce writing errors at the next level.
In addition, in part I of dictation, many students
must realize that they have made minor mistakes in
mentioning bihua and bishun. Therefore, teachers
must evaluate the results of dictation, explaining
common mistakes students make after dictation is
complete so that students can be more careful and
thorough in the future.
Overall, through observations made face-to-face
with Zoom during dictation and aligning with
students' daily learning development, this online
dictation design effectively improves students'
Chinese writing skills. Evaluation of the dictation
design can also reduce the opportunity for students
to cheat during dictation. Students no longer focus
on writing hanzi on cheat sheets or looking for
"strategic positions" to view dictionary applications
on their phones, but try to memorize hanzi and
store it in their brains.
Based on data from the questionnaire, 100% of
students thought that this online dictation design
motivated them to recognize and memorize hanzi
along with the pinyin, bihua, and bishun they had
learned. Students also feel increasingly interested in
learning and repeating lessons regularly to get high
grades. They are also encouraged to use various
online learning media such as Youtube, Chinese
learning applications, and websites. On the
questionnaire question, "Do you agree that this
dictation method will continue in the next
semester?" All students agreed with the reason that
this dictation method helped them in learning
Chinese characters and vocabulary.
CONCLUSION
Dictation (tingxie) is one method teachers, and
lecturers often use to teach Chinese face-to-face.
Dictation effectively motivates students to
recognize and memorize Chinese characters and
vocabulary. The teacher or lecturer fully controls
monitoring students during dictation in the
classroom. However, teachers or lecturers have
limitations in monitoring and controlling students
in online learning. At the beginning of online
learning, students often have found cheating during
dictation. Before dictation begins, they have
prepared small notes or devices that can be
accessed when they do not know how to write the
Chinese character or look for a "strategic position"
to easily view the cheat sheets posted on the wall or
other media. This condition certainly reduces the
effectiveness of dictation in learning, encouraging
the author to evaluate the dictation model and apply
it in the classroom.
The results of this study indicate that the dictation
adapted for online learning has proven to be
effective in improving student's writing skills.
Students focus on memorizing Hanzi and strokes
(bihua) and how they are written (bishun). Students
are also motivated to memorize and explore the
Chinese characters they have learned through
online media to increase their understanding of
Chinese. Some students also think that dictation
made regularly makes their study schedule regular
and tends to be encouraged to understand better the
lessons that have been taught. In addition, the
dictation method applied can reduce cheating
during dictation. It is because, to get good grades,
students are not only required to be able to write
but also be able to recite and understand the strokes
and the order of the hanzi writing.
FUNDING
This study was supported by a grant from Chinese
Center for Language Education and Cooperation
2022 International Chinese Teaching Practice
Innovation Project (YHJXCX22-006).
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Appendix:
The design of dictation questions(听写设计) Third Dictation
Part I: Read the bihua according to its writing order 说汉字的笔顺3 满分 15 分)
便
Part II: Listen to the teacher, write down hanzi, pinyin and its meaning 听老师说词,写汉字、拼音和意
10 题,满分 30 分)
比如: nǐmen: kalian
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Part III: Listen to the teacher, write down Hanzi, pinyin, bishun and bihua 听老师说字,汉字、拼音、笔
顺和笔画(5 题,满分 30 分)
比如: zhī 四个笔画
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Part IV: Listen to the teacher, choose the proper hanzi. 听笔,写汉字(5 题,满分 25 分)
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