Fostering Mandarin mastery in children: Harnessing technology for learning

In today’s interconnected world, the ability to speak more than one language has become an important skill, and creating a bilingual society is often a priority in Southeast Asia. For instance, in Singapore, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, Mr Heng Swee Keat, highlighted the significance of bilingualism. English helps citizens of different races connect with each other and the rest of the world, on the other hand, learning their Mother Tongue allows them to be in touch with cultural values and heritage. However, he also recognized that learning two languages is not an easy task, as many can attest.

This is particularly so for Mandarin. While it is one of the most common languages spoken in Asia, it is also considered one of the toughest languages to learn in the world. Learning Mandarin requires a lot of memorization of Chinese characters — their meanings, how to write them, and their different pronunciations. Additionally, learning Mandarin can prove especially hard for non-native speakers, particularly those who are familiar with non-character-based languages like English. Nonetheless, fluency in Mandarin remains a useful skill, as the second most widely spoken language in the world, it is greatly advantageous in networking and broadening career opportunities.

Research has suggested that children are more adept at picking up foreign languages due to their increased neural plasticity — the critical period for children to pick up a new language is before 10 years old. Introducing and inculcating a second language before the child reaches 10 years of age is vital to ensuring that they have increased chances of fluency in the language. However, it is no secret that children have short attention spans, which has an impact on their ability to learn. As such, there remains a critical need to make learning more engaging to capture children’s attention.

Traditional methods of Mandarin instruction often involve extensive memorization. With tens of thousands of characters, each with various contextual meanings and multiple pronunciations, learning Mandarin can be a daunting task. The tedious and challenging nature of the language makes it particularly difficult for children to find the discipline to memorize and pick up.

Personalised learning experiences with technology

The introduction of edtech has provided a plethora of opportunities for enhanced learning in the classroom and improved educational outcomes. This holds true for language learning as well; some of these technologies have fundamentally changed the approach to picking up a new language.

Introducing technology in the form of games and individualized solutions removes some of the barriers that come with challenging languages such as Mandarin. This comes in the form of blended learning, which integrates both physical and digital tools to create a personalized learning experience. By augmenting traditional pedagogy with new cutting-edge technology, edtech can make learning much more efficient and effective.

Gamifying language learning

With children’s shortened attention spans, a big struggle teachers often face is that children have trouble concentrating in class. The gamification of learning has shown great promise in addressing this challenge by reframing learning to a form of play. This increases active interaction with the learning material, and makes learning fun and attractive!

Research has shown that gamification can improve educational outcomes by incorporating points and prizes to motivate children and help them retain focus. Children are more immersed and absorbed in the game, and their prolonged interaction with learning material can help to improve memory retention. This is especially useful for learning Mandarin as it requires learners to memorize and familiarise themselves with the different Chinese characters. We managed to implement this by using unique interactive smart cards for character recognition, and by implementing a reward system to motivate students to continue engaging with learning material. These all work to help make learning Mandarin more engaging for children and have been shown to increase their Chinese subject scores by 15 to 20 points.

Addressing educators’ pain points with AI

AI comes into play by automating and expediting processes that were previously dependent on humans. Utilizing AI allows for real-time feedback, analytics, and adaptive learning paths to aid students’ learning. With personalized data-driven feedback, educators can pinpoint areas of improvement for each student and evaluate students’ competencies. This ensures that they are exposed to the right materials at the right time especially when they learn at different paces.

Writing Mandarin characters is a challenging feat, as each character requires one to follow defined stroke order rules. Hence, educators have to closely monitor students to ensure they are writing each character correctly, which can prove difficult in big classrooms. This is where AI-powered handwriting recognition comes into play, for instance detecting each stroke when the learner is writing a character and correcting them accordingly. This is especially important when learning character-based languages such as Mandarin.

As children navigate the globalized world, learning more languages unlocks a wealth of cultural, economic, and professional opportunities. With the growing usefulness of learning Mandarin, it becomes all the more important to start children off on a good foot. Building a strong foundation in Mandarin from a young age will help increase their chances of fluency and gamification allows them to develop a positive attitude with learning as well. With the aid of technology, children have the potential to reframe the boring and tedious aspects of learning Mandarin and set them up for success in the future.

Kendall Lo is the CEO and Co-founder of Kazoo Technology (Turtle Learn).

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