Abstract
Learning to read and reading to learn are fundamental concepts in education arenas. To be literate and a competent language user, the learner must learn to read for information, comprehend, and eventually express in the written form of the target language. This chapter depicts the journey from one book project to another. Supported by government funding, the first book project aimed to enhance the learners’ motivation for learning Chinese as a second language (L2) and introduce traditional Chinese culture that could cater to their learning needs. As a result, a Chinese cultural history reader for non-Chinese speaking (NCS) learners was compiled in print. Despite corpus-assisted writing and editing of the stories about 20 historical personages, with annotation and translation, each 500-word story was deemed too difficult for intermediate second language learners of Chinese to read on their own. Based on the experiences of the first project, the second project turned the printed reader into an independent mobile application and added on e-learning features, including speech recording and animation of the stories, multimedia annotation of vocabulary, interactive comprehension exercises, and assessments. The enriched digitized content effectively facilitated intercultural understanding. The digitization of the printed reader also broadened its impact on learning and teaching written Chinese. On reflection, this chapter reviews the challenges encountered and solutions to problems in the process of exploration and development, discusses the feedback from users and project consultants, and concludes the insights gained for the future development of technology-enhanced reading resources for promoting intercultural communication. Copyright © 2025 selection and editorial matter, Jing Jin and Sihui Echo Ke; individual chapters, the contributors.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Chinese language education and second language Chinese acquisition: An interface with Chinese linguistics |
| Editors | Jing JIN, Sihui Echo KE |
| Place of Publication | Abingdon, Oxon |
| Publisher | Routledge |
| Pages | 247-272 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781003441779 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781032579474 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2025 |
