Computer game based learning approach for Mandarin language

As a multinational and multicultural country with diverse population, Malaysia comprises of 3 races such as Malays, Indians and Chinese. There are 2 other languages that need to be learned by Malaysian that is Mandarin and Tamil. Mandarin was chosen in this study because Chinese is the second largest ethnic group in Malaysia and most of the Asian countries. Learning Mandarin is becoming essential to secure more job opportunities as most of the employers emphasize Mandarin as one of the requirements in recruiting employees. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the issues concerning the learning Mandarin language for Malaysian children and to develop a learning model based on current instructional design model for teaching and learning of Mandarin language for children. The prototype computer game in learning Mandarin will validate and refine this model. For this study, questionnaires has been distributed to parents and children (4 to 8 years old) to evaluate the effectiveness of learning Mandarin by playing computer games for children who are not using Mandarin in daily basis. According to the survey, parents agreed that children learning Mandarin by playing computer games is a new way of teaching and learning. Learning using computer game found to be better and easier for young age children to understand Mandarin as it is more interesting compare to traditional learning. This prototype shows that the children could talk in basic Mandarin as daily language by studying through computer games. Therefore, this study will increase the learnability of Mandarin language for children by playing computer games.