| dc.description.abstract | This study is focused on the behavioral study of Hakka language course and phonological awareness tests, based on which influence of Hakka language activities on young children is explored. Through the “behavior” and “study” of the researcher and intern teacher, self-study and action process is practiced. The process will help improve the status of the research and teaching practice and through self reflection and modification, the teacher will grow in his/her personal teaching expertise, implementing the “mother tongue teaching” and “effective mother tongue teaching” in this study. It is hoped that through development of Hakka language learning activities, children’s awareness of and exposure to the language will be increased and it will help the children develop a more tolerant attitude toward different languages. It is expected that they can be more open-minded about different languages and their culture in the future.
There are more and more people calling for promotion of teaching dialect Hakka language but few did exploratory studies on the curricular design and development of the course. This thesis is focused on the conduciveness and influence of Hakka language activities on young children. With pre-test and post-test differential analysis and observation records and quantitative analysis before and after the action process, results of the research are discussed and suggestions are brought forth.
The purpose of this research is to enhance the Hakka language phonetics ability and phonological awareness of kindergarten children and analyze the inspiration and influence of Hakka language activities and phonological awareness on young children. Through explicit Hakka lexicon that can be used by the children in daily life and with “symbols of wonder” as the main focus by means of sounds, illustrative graphics, games, and discussion, the influence of Hakka language phonological awareness activities on the phonological awareness is discussed. It is hoped that the sensitivity toward sounds and phonological awareness of the children can be enhanced. It also integrates the rich local dialect into the life of the children, making learning more pluralistic, more fun, and passing down Hakka language.
Results of the study show that after Hakka language activities, compared to the control group, children in the test group have showed obvious progress in recitation, phonological judgment, and phonetic judgment of Hakka language and recitation of English and their ability to “break down and put together” sounds is greater than children in the control group who can only “break down” sounds.
Major contributions of this research include:
I. Hakka language teaching activities can improve accurate pronunciation of children when speaking Hakka language and increase their phonological awareness.
II. Phonological awareness is not limited to only “breakdown” of phonology and phonetics. It is found in this study that after the Hakka language phonological awareness activities, the ability of the children to distinguish sound elements in double vowels and identify synthetic phonology is increased, contributing to the effectiveness of Hakka language teaching.
III. The Hakka language awareness activities not only increase children’s Hakka phonetics but also increase their phonological awareness of English. It is conducive to learning of other languages as well.
IV. Activities in this study encompass combination of sounds and logos and symbols. By the principle of whole language education, the concrete concepts are presented through games. It is a course suitable for young children.
V. Results of the behavioral study show that the activities designed in this study are feasible and effective. Children and their parents’ feedback and response are positive. The results can serve as reference for teachers and researchers in the future. With this research, it is also the researcher’s hope that it will inspire new teachers who intend to devote themselves to teaching the Hakka language in kindergartens.
Keyword: kindergarten, Hakka language, teaching activities, phonological awareness, behavioral study, game
| en_US |