IERI Procedia 4 ( 2013 ) 8 – 16
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where each card has a prompt side and an answer side. Everyone can access online flashcards. The advantages of online flashcards are instant dictionary reference, interactive pronunciation and session statistics. Session statistics give a summary of how many attempts a user takes to get a correct answer. In addition, the session statistics page allows the users to save the words they got wrong or they were unsure, so that they can review those words at a later time. YellowBridge offers great tools for students to review their vocabulary, but its tools are not for portable mobile devices. As a result, students cannot carry the online flashcards or memory game wherever they go.
Study tools can be found in mobile applications. For instance, Mandarin Comprehension created by Golden Quartz [2] is a fun and free interactive application for anyone who wants to test their Mandarin skills through listening to audio clips and answer questions based on the terms spoken. IndieQ [3] has also produced a Mandarin vocabulary application for the Android platform. This application is a mobile e-Learning quiz program where users have to name the pictures on the flashcards in Mandarin.
There are already many free mobile application based study tools available. However, study tools specifically work with textbooks can be useful for language courses. Students are more likely to focus on the vocabulary from their textbooks, so it is preferable for study tools to be based on the content of a textbook. This paper introduces an Android application designed for students who are learning Mandarin using a textbook titled Integrated Chinese [4]. This application uses flashcards and multiple choice questions to help students learn the vocabulary of the textbook. The application is fun and interactive and provides an interesting way to learn Mandarin.
2. Application GUI Design
The graphical user interface of the application was designed using a markup language called extensible markup language (XML). There are six interfaces in this application. The interfaces are designed in such a way that they can work with phones that have small, normal and large screens. The main interface consists of two buttons called Flashcards and Multiple Choice Quiz. The two buttons lead the users to a secondary menu interface where they can select items from a dropdown list before the application can generate the flashcards or multiple choice questions.
When the Flashcards button is clicked, a menu interface appears which requests the user to select a lesson numbered 1 to 10 from a dropdown list called a spinner. There is another spinner for the user to select the type of words to appear on the front of a flashcard. The options from this spinner are Chinese character, Pinyin or Translation.
The flashcard interface has three text views at the centre of the screen. These text views are used to display the Chinese character, Pinyin and English word. Two buttons let the users navigate to the previous view and the next view. The user clicks these buttons to move through the deck of flashcards. The Show/Hide button is used to reveal the front or the back side of the flashcard.
When the Multiple Choice Quiz button is selected from the main interface, a menu appears which requests the user to enter three inputs. Similar to the Flashcards interface, the user is required to select a lesson, but this menu also requires the user to select two items from dropdown lists. The first item determines the words to be used in the multiple choice quiz, and the second item determines the words displayed on four answer buttons, one of which shows the correct answer.
The Multiple Choice Quiz interface contains a text view, which reveals a question word. The user has to select an answer among the four answer buttons. For example, if the application reveals a Chinese character, the user has to select the corresponding Pinyin of the Chinese character in order to score a point.
The use case diagram (Figure 1) indicates the relationships between the use cases and the actor. The actor is a student who wants to review vocabulary. The actor has two ways to review vocabulary. A student can review the vocabulary either using flashcards or a multiple choice quiz.
Fig. 1. Use case diagram 2.2 Flow Chart
The flow chart (Figure 2) shows that users are required to enter two requirements which are lesson and question type before the application can generate the flashcards. The application retrieves the lists of vocabulary and displays a question on the front side of the card. Users can navigate through the deck of cards, and if users want the answer, they can flip the card by press the Show button.
The flow charts for Flashcards and Multiple Choice Quiz look similar, but unlike the Flashcards, Multiple Choice Quiz (Figure 3) requires an additional input, which is the answer type. The application then checks if the inputs are valid before the application retrieves the lists of vocabulary the same way as Flashcards. Multiple Choice Quiz then displays a question along with four choices. When the user selects one of the answer choices, the application lets the user know if the choice is correct or not.
Fig. 3. Flow chart for Multiple Choice Quiz
3. Implementation
The application was implemented using the Eclipse IDE. Eclipse is a free open source software. This software is compatible with Windows and Mac operating systems. Eclipse is installed along with the Android Development Tools (ADT). ADT is a plug-in for the Eclipse that gives developers the integrated environment to build Android applications. ADT is free to download, and it provides the necessary tools to develop Android applications for all platforms.
According to the data collected during a 14-day period ending on January 3, 2013, Android 2.3 is still active on 47.4% of devices that have accessed Google Play [5]. Therefore applications should be developed using Android 2.3 or lower. The application of this paper is developed using Android 2.2, so it is compatible with most of Android phones. The application is built using the Java programming language. The application interface is built using XML. The application is then tested on a virtual machine which emulates an Android phone.
The application reads data from arrays in a Java file. Before arrays are created the data are organized using Microsoft Excel or Open Office Calc. The data are vocabulary from a Mandarin textbook. There are 10 lessons and each lesson contains around 40 Chinese words. Each word has Chinese characters, their Pinyins and translations. Therefore, there are 1293 data entries in the application. Microsoft Excel keeps the data organized because vocabulary data are entered in three columns. They are the columns for Chinese characters, Pinyin and translation. Once the three columns are created, columns of quotations and commas are inserted
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Mr. Wayne Tebb, Deanof the School of Business, and other staff in the Dean’s office, Kwantlen Polytechnic University,for their support.
References
[1] Chinese Flashcards, YellowBridge, Apr 2011. [Online]. Available:
http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/flashcards.php [Accessed: 14 Jan. 2012].
[2] Golden Quartz, Chinese Listening Quiz, Google Play, Feb 2012. [Online]. Available: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quipack.a.b4ed6129813f8d5000100628e [Accessed: 18 Jan. 2012].
[3] IndieQ, Chinese Vocabulary, Google Play, Dec 2011. [Online]. Available:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.quipack.a.b4e97fceafde72e000100a444 [Accessed: 20 Jan. 2012].
[4] Y. Liu et al. Level 1 Part 1 Integrated Chinese Textbook Simplified Characters, 3rd ed. Boston, MA: Cheng &Tsui Company Inc, 2010.
[5] Platform Versions, Android Developer, Oct. 2012. [Online]. Available:
