Development of Communicative Chinese Learning Through Task-Based Learning of Thai Students Studying in Chengdu University, PR China

Abstract

The purposes of this research were to compare the students' learning achievement after studying Chinese through task-based learning (TBL) with the set criterion indicated in the course description of “Chinese Culture”, one of the compulsory courses of the UBRU’s curriculum, and to investigate their attitude towards studying Chinese using task – based learning. The purposive samples consisted of 18 Thai students majoring in Chinese who have taken Chinese courses for four months at Chengdu University, PR China in the 2^nd semester of the academic year 2016. The design of this research was a one-group pretest-posttest. The instruments used in this study were six lesson plans using task – based learning, the Chinese achievement test , and the attitude-evaluation form. The study took 18 hours. The statistics used for data analysis were percentage, mean, standard deviation, and One sample t-test. The research findings were: 1) After the students were taught through activities of task – based learning, the posttest score was significantly higher than pretest score at the critical level .05; 2) After the students were taught by the task – based learning, the posttest score was not significantly higher than the set criterion; and 3) The students had positive attitude towards studying Chinese at a high level.