Tianwei Xie

Using Internet Relay Chat in Teaching Chinese Tianwei Xie California State University, Long Beach ABSTRACT The aim of this project is to explore the feasibility of using Internet Relay Chat (IRC) to facilitate Chinese language teaching and learning. This article describes procedures for organizing and conducting chat sessions and discusses the benefits and problems of using IRC. It is argued that IRC promotes communication in the target language and that it enhances students’ reading and writing skills. However, some general problems such as keyboarding skills as well as some special difficulties with typing Chinese characters exist. More research is still needed.

KEYWORDS Computer-mediated Communication (CMC), Chat, Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Synchronous Communication, Chinese Instruction

INTRODUCTION Computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been successfully used in teaching English and other languages as a second language for some time. CMC is taken here to mean highly structured, instructor-planned and instructor-directed online communication for second language students. This type of activity, or “synchronous communication,” (Connick, 1999) provides students with learning opportunities that cannot be duplicated in the classroom. As Lee (1998) has asserted, “[T]he use of online chat rooms as a medium for communication provides an individualized, interpersonal, and interactive environment which allows students to gain active learning experience beyond those of the traditional classroom.” Not surprisingly, for Chinese language teachers the temptation to adopt CMC is great. Can we, too, take advantage of synchronous communication in our teaching? The answer to this question can be derived from a study involving university students who were taught Chinese, in part, with © 2002 CALICO Journal

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese an internet relay chat (IRC) program. The study targeted the primary concerns of Chinese language teachers who were contemplating relying on CMC and addressed several questions. First, can CMC, specifically IRC, be useful in Chinese language instruction? Second, if so, how do we implement it in our teaching and related activities? Third, what are the benefits of using IRC? Finally, what are the problems that we as teachers face in resorting to such technology?

A DESCRIPTION OF IRC What is IRC?

Some universities have installed IRC servers allowing students to log on to the server and then enter a “channel” similar to the typical online chat room that enables groups of people to converse informally. IRC was initially used on a Unix platform, but, because Unix IRC does not support Chinese codes, other chat programs had to be created to meet the needs of Chinese language computer users. For example, web-based HTML chat programs allow users to type Chinese in a small window and then send the message to the chat room, which has proven to be somewhat cumbersome. Because users must constantly refresh the screen to communicate with others, they encounter unavoidable time delays that hinder the spontaneous exchange of ideas and information. JavaScript-based chat programs are much faster than HTML-based chat programs, but some chat sites either require a relatively recent versions of browsers or do not support Chinese codes, thereby discouraging Chinese language users. One program that does support Chinese codes (and does not require a browser) is mIRC developed by Khaled Mardam-Bey and mIRC Co. Ltd. (www.mirc. co.uk). After connecting to the Internet and initiating mIRC, users can log on to an IRC server directly and begin to chat. Moreover, mIRC supports both basic Chinese codes (GB and Big5) and displays messages almost instantaneously, which has led to its popularity among native Chinese speakers. Many computer users in China (mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) rely on mIRC to chat over the Internet. (It should also be noted here that Microsoft Chat supports Chinese codes.) IRC Hardware and Software Requirements

In order to engage in online chat, users need Windows and an Internet connection, either by modem or direct network connection. (The mIRC program that supports Chinese in Windows can be downloaded as shareware from www.mirc.co.uk.) In addition to mIRC, a Chinese system is also required to display and input Chinese characters. Chinese Win514

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Tianwei Xie dows or English Windows with any other third party Chinese systems such as NJ Communicator, Chinese Star, Unionway, or Twinbridge works well. When users connect to one of the IRC servers, they can find many channels (or chat rooms) and enter one of them to converse with other users by typing messages.

THE PILOT STUDY The Procedures THE STUDENT PARTICIPANTS AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE STUDY

The participants in the study described here were 27 students who, at the time, were enrolled in their third year of Chinese language instruction at the University of California, Davis. Most of them were bilingual, and their oral Chinese language proficiency was very high. The students were reading Beyond the Basics by Bai Jianhua (1997), the textbook for the course in which the study was conducted. After the instructor had taught a lesson, he mediated the students’ participation in three chat room discussion sessions (a preparatory session, a semi-serious session, and a serious session). The preparatory session was casual and provided anonymous interaction between instructor and students. The semi-serious and serious sessions obligated students to display and improve their Chinese language abilities. The serious session was devoted to a class chat room discussion of the homeless. These sessions was 50 minutes long and conducted during the regular class period on different days. The sessions were logged for subsequent analysis by the instructor.

THE PREPARATORY SESSION

The preparatory session was designed to instill students with the confidence necessary to take full advantage of synchronous communication as a learning tool. In this preparatory session, the instructor explained how to set up the IRC program, connect to the server, and begin chatting. Students were asked to participate anonymously under their nicknames. (See excerpt of this chat session in Appendix A.) The instructor urged the students not to be self-conscious about typographical errors or typing speed. The preparatory session served to make students familiar with the lab environment, the chat room program, and the Chinese system and its codes. Such uncertainty would have dissuaded even the most motivated students from engaging freely in the subsequent semi-serious and serious sessions. Any benefits of IRC as a learning tool would have been diminished, if not nullified. Volume 19 Number 3

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese THE SEMI-SERIOUS SESSION

In the second session, no specific discussion topic was assigned to the class beforehand. The purpose was to train students to be responsible for what they type while, at the same time, maintaining the relaxed atmosphere of the preparatory session. The instructor informed students that their online discourse would still be an “open talk” but that, unlike the previous session, students would now be required to identify themselves by their true names. Students were cautioned to continue to avoid grammar and syntax errors and to be careful with spelling errors in Chinese. (See excerpts from this chat session in Appendix B.)

THE SERIOUS SESSION

The purpose of the serious session was to reinforce the earlier classroom lesson by making it more meaningful to the students. The instructor generally tries to build the chat room discourse around the lesson in a way that motivates students to be eager, pro-active learners. After designating a theme pertinent to the lesson, he guides the students through an in-depth discussion in Chinese by asking a series of questions. In answering these questions, students exchange their thoughts and opinions about the theme. In this study, the instructor assigned a theme concerning the homeless stemming from the lesson they had studied in the textbook. To begin the session, the instructor typed the theme, followed by several pertinent questions that students spontaneously answered. Their responses often generated lively interactions, including frequent challenges and criticism from other students. The passage presented in Appendix C begins with the a follow-up question from the instructor: “If you don’t give money, does it mean that you are not sympathetic?” The instructor’s questioning tactics provoked a thoughtful and sometimes emotional exchange of ideas and information among the students. Interestingly, participating students generally felt sufficiently confident to debate their moral convictions and political beliefs. However, as the session grew progressively more heated, many students simply stopped communicating, leaving the session to be dominated by three male students. Some students tended to revert to English when they became excited about a particular issue. The instructor had to remind all of them repeatedly to type in Chinese only.

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Tianwei Xie The Assessment SOME BENEFITS OF IRC

Relatively few nonnative Chinese speakers have easy access to a Chinese speaking community. Even heritage learners are inclined to speak English to each other in their daily interactions. When they do converse in Chinese, they seldom discuss serious political, social, or economic issues in depth. Synchronous communication offers a solution to repeated demands by language educators that more numerous and realistic opportunities be made available to students to talk in the target language outside the traditional classroom (e.g., Ellis, 1988; Swain & Lapkin, 1986). IRC enables Chinese language students to converse in Chinese on serious topics. It additionally creates a fairly nonthreatening atmosphere in which “students can express, negotiate, and interpret meaning within a meaningful context” (Beauvois, 1992).

SOME GENERAL PROBLEMS WITH IRC

Because synchronous communication is essentially student centered, the instructor has to be careful to avoid intruding in productive chat room discussions. The instructor’s main tasks are to encourage and guide students’ participation and to decide whether and how to mediate student disputes or the overall intensity of discussion. The instructor’s frequent role is to remind students, when necessary, to write solely in the target language and to correct their errors. Not all students participate equally. Some students may be more active than others and inclined to control the discourse. Others may not talk at all. Throughout the study, there was an uneven distribution of “speakers.” The author calculated the frequency of the students’ individual posting for the second and third sessions. Every occurrence of a speaker’s name was counted as one posting regardless of the length of his or her message. The statistics of the two sessions show that 1. Three students (out of 27) remained silent during both sessions. Seven students participated in the second session but kept silent during the third. Six students spoke solely in the third session. 2. A few students obviously took control of the session, while others were less active or chose to be passive “listeners.” Five students exceeded the average of 23 postings over the two sessions. Seven students spoke fewer than 10 times over both sessions. Volume 19 Number 3

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese KEYBOARDING SKILLS

The level of students’ keyboarding skills is bound to affect their ability to readily engage in synchronous communication. Indeed, As Falsetti (1997) has noted [s]tudents who have low-level keyboarding skills will be at a disadvantage in a MOO [Object-Oriented Multiuse dialogue, Multiuse domain, or Multiuser dimension] … . However, conversing in a MOO could be just the motivation some students need to get their fingers flying … . Though frustrating at first, with patience and a willingness to learn, students find MOO a rich and rewarding supplement to the language classroom. In this study, student evaluations of IRC attest to this reaction among students with self-perceived low keyboard skills. Some students who did not actively engage in online discourse blamed their poor typing skills, yet they were eager to have another IRC session (see section below on students’ opinions of IRC).

SPECIAL PROBLEMS LINKED TO THE CHINESE LANGUAGE

Synchronous communication in Chinese demands some skills that are unique to communicating in that language. Chinese students must be familiar with at least one of the Chinese “input methods,” either Zhuyin or Pinyin to use the Chinese system.1 An inability to input Chinese characters tends to compound any lack of keyboard skills. In this study, those students who were from Taiwan knew only Zhuyin, while most other students could rely on Pinyin. However, individuals’ familiarity with this input method in the latter group varied, either because they did not know the Pinyin equivalent of some words or they needed more time to recall it. As a result, students had to delay sending their messages and sometimes forego making any online comments. This problem could be alleviated if Chinese language teachers were to make the instruction of Pinyin a priority. If the IRC students had been able to input Pinyin “fluently,” the resulting discourse would have included more “talkers” than “listeners.” The students’ proficiency level is also crucial to the success of synchronous communication. As mentioned above, the students in the study were mostly heritage students who seemed to speak Chinese fluently in the traditional classroom setting. IRC enabled them to become more adept at reading characters as well as formulating and expressing new concepts in Chinese with their peers. It would be fruitless to ask students in earlier stages of instruction to participate in an IRC session comparable to the 518

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Tianwei Xie third session in this study. Further research is needed to discern what kind of online discussion would be appropriate for beginning Chinese language learners.

THE STUDENTS’ OPINIONS OF IRC

As benefits of IRC, students mentioned the power to practice Chinese and chat with people far away, the chance to sharpen their Chinese keyboarding skills, the opportunity for those who do not talk much in class to participate more, and the freedom to voice opinions. As negatives, they mentioned that those who can type Chinese quickly dominated discussion, that slow typists were frustrated, that there were too many comments to read, and that Pinyin is a difficult input method.

OTHER POSSIBLE USES OF IRC IRC can be used for tutoring and/or online office hours. The instructor simply needs to announce the IRC channel and student appointment schedule in class. When the appointment is set to begin, the instructor selects the channel or enters the chat room first, before students. Thereafter, when students log on, the session commences. Students in the study were offered online office hours several times. During their appointments, they would usually ask questions about the most recent class lessons. They particularly welcomed online tutoring just before a test to clarify general misconceptions and to practice specific grammar exercises. However, not all students took advantage of this kind of service. Those who would rather not rely on the computer or who were unfamiliar with IRC were reluctant to make appointments for online tutoring or office hours. Those who did not have access to the Internet, Chinese system, and IRC software had to go to the campus computer lab. In this case, they seemed to prefer conventional office hours to see instructors. Therefore, online office hours and tutoring may be a good supplement for those who have necessary equipment at home and want to communicate with instructors beyond regular class or office hours.

CONCLUSIONS IRC can be very useful in teaching Chinese. It promotes communication among students in the target language, and it is particularly good for enhancing students’ reading and writing skills.2 Students can practice already learned vocabulary, grammar, and syntax in the context of spontaVolume 19 Number 3

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese neous and serious discourse with their peers. In effect, synchronous communication motivates students to use, and thus retain, what they have been taught in the classroom. The most effective use of synchronous communication is student enrichment. It can serve as the means to motivate students to think creatively in Chinese by introducing thought provoking topics and new vocabulary related to earlier lessons. Typically, IRC can be conducted at the university language lab if it has the proper software. The instructor can direct the form and content of the chat room discourse by setting and enforcing ground rules, choosing the discussion topics, correcting online student errors, and providing feedback. The instructor can also control the intensity of the learning environment so that it corresponds to the current nature of the synchronous communication. Students are likely to communicate with instructors, other students, or native speakers of the language in a relatively relaxed atmosphere. IRC is most helpful to students with relatively high language proficiency, solid knowledge of Pinyin, and good keyboard skills. It is useful practice for advanced or bilingual Chinese language students. Whether it can be geared toward lower level students or beginning learners is unclear and requires additional research.3 Furthermore, not all students feel comfortable with the online discussion format and are disinclined to participate. Others attempt to dominate the discourse. Finally, IRC is feasible for students at the same location as well as students in different places. However, different time zones make this type of online discussion relatively difficult to schedule.

NOTES 1

Zhuyin and Pinyin are two phonetic systems to represent Chinese pronunciation. Zhuyin is a set of specially designed symbols. Some symbols represent con(b) and (p), others represent vowels like (a), (i) sonants, for example, and (u) or combination of vowels like (ao) and (ou). The Pinyin system uses Romanized letters. The same Chinese word ‘ ’ (person) can be represented as either ‘ ’ (Zhuyin) or ‘ren’ (Pinyin). Zhuyin symbols are assigned to the computer keyboard. When one types a word using either Zhuyin or Pinyin, the computer program converts the word to Chinese characters. 2

IRC and other web-based chat programs allow text chat only. However, webbased “voice chat” programs are now becoming available. It would be interesting to explore how “voice chat” helps to develop learners’ oral language skills.

3

The author’s preliminary answer to this question is that even beginning students could benefit from IRC, but their online activities would have to be highly structured. For example, instructors may lead discussions on learned vocabulary and grammar, let students translate some sentences, or ask simple questions for students to answer. 520

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Tianwei Xie REFERENCES Bai, Jianhua. (1997). Beyond the basics. Boston: Cheng and Tsui. Beauvois, H. M. (1992). Computer-assisted classroom discussion in the foreign language classroom: Conversation in slow motion. Foreign Language Annals, 25, 455-464. Beauvois, H. M. (1994). E-talk: Attitudes and motivation in computer-assisted classroom discussion. Computers and Humanities, 28, 177-190. Boswood, T. (Ed.). (1997). New ways of using computers in language teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Inc. Connick, G. P. (Ed.). (1999). The distance learner’s guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Ellis, R. (1988). Classroom second language development. London: Prentice Hall. Falsetti, J. (1997). Getting started with MOOs: MOO and YOO—What to DOO. In T. Boswood (Ed.), New ways of using computers in language teaching. Alexandria, VA: TESOL Inc. Fanderclai, T. L. (1995). MUDs in education: New environments, new pedagogies [Online]. Available: sensemedia.net/sprawl/16880 Lee, L. (1998). Going beyond classroom learning: Acquiring cultural knowledge via online newspapers and intercultural exchanges via online chatrooms. CALICO Journal, 16 (2), 101-120. Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1986). Immersion French in secondary schools: The goods and bads. Contact, 5, 2-9.

APPENDIX A Excerpt from the Preparatory Session

(Hello.) ! (Hello, everybody!) hi ... (Prof., I know who you are as soon as you speak [an error in Chinese word ‘to know’ occurred, should be ]) topic (What is our topic?) (Professor said already: About Loving!) happy, ‘happy’? (happy, you don’t have a boy friend, are you still ‘happy’ ?) (Sorry, I can be your boy friend. Girl friend is OK, all right?) happy???? (Who says that one must have a boy friend and he will be happy????) ‘ANONAMOUS’!!! (This is ‘ANONAMOUS’!!!) Volume 19 Number 3

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese APPENDIX B Excerpts from the Semi-Serious Session

Typical exchange the essay was too hard. david, stop writing in english ? (no more small talk. what are we going to discuss?) (Please talk in Chinese.) ? (What are we going to talk about?) ? (The first question is: Is today’s test difficult?) ? (Is it fairly long?) (Too long.) laoshi: !!! ( laoshi: it is super difficult!!!) ... (Thank you, everybody! Today’s discussion is better that last one. ) (I also agree.) (It is a very responsible discussion, not joking.) Example of Error Correction

(Too happy [an error for Chinese word ‘happy’ occurred, should be ) (happy) (my Pingyin is too bad [an error for Chinese word ‘Pinyin’ should be ]) occurred, (What do you mean?) (Pinyin) ? (Pinyin is too bad?) g, pinyin, pingyin (There is an extra ‘g’, it should be ‘pinyin’, not ‘pingyin’)

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Tianwei Xie APPENDIX C Excerpt from the Serious Session

: , ? (The second question is more difficult: If you don’t give money, does that mean that you are not sympathetic?) ( ) (They have time to wander in the streets. That means they do not want to strive to make progress [an error in Chinese word ‘progress’ occurred, should be ]) (It may not be.) ! (My sympathy is sufficient, but my money is not sufficient!) 25cents (Give 25cents.) ? (Do you accept it if we build houses for them and feed them using taxpayers’ money?) no. (No.) (Don’t say No only.) I agree Lsoshi: (I agree. Because it is only a tiny part of the state budget.) US US the system ( ) … (US spent so much money to help other countries. If US uses the money to help its own country, the problem won’t be that serious. But, as soon as there is help, there homeless people will take advantage of the system and they will not strive to make progress [an error in Chinese word ‘progress’ should be ].) occurred, mike (mike’s argument is good.) that’s just the way the society works!!!!!! our society! (Use Chinese.) yeah but that’s because you’re living a good life... (Please use Chinese.)

AKNOWLEDGEMENT The author would like to express my gratitude to Professors Jianhua Bai, Bingfu Lu, Noriko Nagata, and Leslie Dery for their valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. All errors remain the author’s. Volume 19 Number 3

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Using Internet Relay Chat in teaching Chinese AUTHOR’S BIODATA Tianwei Xie, B.A. in Russian, M.A. in Linguistics, and Ph.D. in foreign language education, teaches Chinese and Chinese linguistics at California State University, Long Beach. For the past seven years he has researched the use of the Internet to aid Chinese instruction. His web site, ‘Learning Chinese Online’, may be found at www.csulb.edu/~txie/online.htm.

AUTHOR’S ADDRESS Tianwei Xie Department of Asian and Asian American Studies California State University, Long Beach 1250 Bellflower Blvd. Long Beach, CA 90840 Phone: 562/985-5278 Fax: 562/985-1535 Email: [email protected]

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