Innovation in Language Learning

The paper proposes an integrated platform for Chinese Language targeted teaching based on oral proficiency diagnostic screening test, and the screening test is based on a R&D project of “Chinese Oral Proficiency Diagnostic Tool” and the subsequent targeted teaching experiment. The diagnostic tool mainly comprises of a rubric, a set of diagnostic activities and a set of speech samples with evaluation criteria and descriptions. The rubric is designed with refrence to the proficiency descriptors used in CEFR, but the descriptors are based on the analysis of the interactive speech data of about 180 students. The rubric measures the proficiency in language forms and interaction. Based on the diagnosis, targeted teaching is conducted, and a teaching toolkit is developed. The teaching toolkit comprises of oral activities that highlight the "learning points" in the rubric. In the targeted teaching, explicit teaching oral activities are designed from the perspective of structured input to enhance both language forms and interactive competence, while a micro functional-notional repertoire is constructed to provide a resource bank of sentence structure and linguistic expressions with different difficulties. This configuration is an attempt to implement the CEFR's "can-do" descriptors (also used in the construction of Chinese language proficiency descriptors in Singapore) as the "can-do" descriptors do not take into consideration of linguistic difficulties. The platform will integrate the current man-machine interaction into the traditional classroom man-man interaction so that a semi-virtual interactive environment may be built for language assessment and teaching. The platform will comprise of three main sectors which are speech data collection activities, oral proficiency diagnosis, and targeted teaching.