This review paper explains the rationale and purpose of design experiment in educational research from both the perspective of theory and practice, followed by a comparison of conventional and design experiments. Based upon the comparison, the paper describes the main components of design experiment, such as the development of main variables, design operations, report of results, and limitations. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications and some suggestions concerning the research of Chinese language education in Singaporean context.

Keywords: design experiment, conventional experiment, variables, Chinese language education

This study aims to explore (1) the relationship between international students' participation in network activities and their Chinese language ability and (2) how demographic variables may affect their Chinese language ability. In all, 285 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to international students from three universities in the Tainan metropolitan areas of Taiwan and 204 valid questionnaires were collected. The OLS regression model is utilized. The research results demonstrate that (1) The frequency with which international students browse websites on Chinese social and cultural activities is positively associated with their Chinese listening ability; (2) The frequency with which international students exchange information/files/opinions with other network users on Chinese social and cultural activities websites is positively associated with their Chinese composition ability; (3) The frequency with which international students search or buy books online for Chinese learning is positively associated with their language ability of Chinese phonetic transliteration system application and Chinese reading; and (4) In terms of demographic variables, Asian nationality and long-term residence in Taiwan have a positive influence on Chinese language ability. Education background, on-campus residence, and higher monthly consumption are negatively associated with Chinese language ability.

Keywords: network activities, online Chinese learning, international students, Chinese Language ability, Taiwan

This is a study on Japanese students' perceptions of effective Chinese teaching. 276 Japanese students from two universities of Japan responded to a 24-item Likert scale questionnaire of effective TCFL (Teaching Chinese as Foreign Language) teacher behaviours that covers seven areas: Grammar Teaching, Culture Teaching, Error Correction, Target Language Use, Communicative Language Teaching Strategies, Assessment and Computer-Based Technology. The questionnaire was modified on the basis of Brown's version (2009). Based on the questionnaire, the study finds that Japanese students are very keen in culture teaching and prefer learning Chinese grammar in authentic context. Also, they find it more helpful when teachers provide explanations while correcting their errors. In contrast, they dislike the teaching of Chinese without using Japanese or requiring them to speak only Mandarin in class. The research also shows that while Japanese students are in favour of communicative teaching strategies, they are not keen in group language activities in the classroom. Such a lack of enthusiasm in group language activities in the classroom presents a big challenge to all TCFL teachers in Japan in their attempt to come up with a more effective way of incorporating the output mode in Chinese language teaching.

Keywords: Effective Teaching, teacher behavior, teaching Chinese as foreign language, Japanese students

Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT) has attracted much attention from the field of Foreign or Second Language Teaching since 1980s. Researches on TBLT in two large academic corpuses, namely the Chinese Journal Full-text Database (CJFD) and the Journal Storage (JSTOR), are compared to show the differences in the understanding of the concept in China and the West and to explore the issue of suitability of TBLT inthe Chinese Non-Degree Program (Long-Term) for International Students in Chinese Universities. After a brief description of TBLT and the Chinese program, this article explores the two main issues of TBLT, namely, 'communicative task designing' and 'task-centered classroom teaching', to illustrate the differences in the focus of research in China and the West and discuss the problems on the application of TBLT in the Chinese Non-Degree Program. Finally, this article advocates that classroom teachers should develop their own sense of feasibility instead of following new teaching methods blindly.

Keywords: Task-based Language Teaching (TBLT), Communicative Task, Non-Degree Program (Long-Term) for international students in Chinese universities

Polysemy is an important but difficult part in Chinese language teaching, and polysemes are usually taught discretely. As a result, students cannot learn the multiple senses of these words in a systematic and comprehensive way, and often find it hard to do multiple choice items in a cloze test. This study introduces a new method to enhance the teaching of polysemes from the perspective of cognitive linguistics. Based on the analysis between the experimental and control groups, the study finds thenew method more effective than traditional methods. The experiment has also found that the extended senses of polysemes are more difficult for the students, and that the more abstract and the less related with prototype sense the extended sense is, the more difficult the cognition is. This study suggests that teachers should focus on the relations and cognitive motivations among the senses of polysemes in teaching, and exploit auxiliary teaching methods to improve students' cognitive reasoning ability and encourage their exploration into the relations between various senses of polysemes.

Keywords: polysemy, cognitive, motivation, sense extension, metaphor, metonymy

Situational learning, also known as scenario-based learning, is advocated in major learning theories. It is a learning method that emphasizes learning in daily life. Mobile technology can best support such a method of learning. This paper is a report on the research project "Move! Idioms!". Conducted for a period of 10 months in a Singapore primary school, the project explores how mobile learning technology can be utilized to incorporate learning both inside and outside the classroom. It aims specifically to enhance student learning ability of Chinese idioms. In class, students view animated idioms with their mobile phones, followed by activities based on the concepts of situational learning and cooperative learning. Outside the school, students are to observe things and people in their daily life. They are asked to take photographs of scenes which they think can be used to illustrate the use of an idiom, and then form a sentence or write a paragraph using the idiom. Their products will be posted online for sharing with fellow students. For the project, a "the five-stage teaching model" was proposed. In the model, students first learn the meaning of the idioms. They will then use the idioms to make a sentence, and proceed to use the idioms to write a short paragraph to describe the situation depicted in their photograph(s). A preliminary analysis on the collected data shows that the design of the research is well received by both teachers and students, and students' learning of idioms has shown considerable improvements.

Keywords: mobile assisted language learning, situated learning, collaborative learning, seamless learning, community learning