Organizing online discussion for the teaching and learning of modern Chinese grammar

Grammar of Modern Chinese is a core subject for pre-service language teachers but it is not at all easy to study. Because of the abundant grammatical categories and complex concepts, pre-service teachers often find grammar study stressful. In fact, the study of grammar requires learners not only to grasp the linguistic concepts, but also to apply their knowledge to solving practical problems such as reading comprehension and marking student writing. Instructors strive hard to motivate student teachers and convince them of the relevance of grammar studies to their future career. As online learning becomes a popular complement to face-to-face teaching, online facilities were used to enhance the learning quality of the subject. This paper reports how online discussion forum was structured to stimulate information discovery and active learning, what the student responses were and why. The study forms part of an action research in enhancing the effectiveness of “blended learning”. Feedback from the participants indicates that online discussions did stimulate thinking but there were still shortcomings. Findings of the study should offer insights for organizing discussion on grammatical analysis, particularly, that of Modern Standard Chinese.