Register your Class

The Pinyin Tutor can be set up for anyone who wishes to use it. We are particularly interested in setting up the tutor for Chinese teachers that will use it as part of their curriculum. This allows us to collect data that can be used to improve methods for teaching Pinyin.

Contact

If you are interested in using this program in your class, please
contact Mark MacWhinney at

Additional Information

How it Works

The Pinyin Tutor is a set of lessons that train the student to produce correct Pinyin forms for both old and new words they hear over the browser. The student is prompted by an audio recording of a word in Standard Chinese after which they must correctly enter the Pinyin for this word. If correct, the student progresses to the next trial; if incorrect they are given a second chance, along with diagnostic feedback regarding the difference between their form and the target. If they fail on the second attempt, the application remembers the incorrect word and presents it again later. On each trial, students also have the option of comparing the sound of the Pinyin that they typed with the target sound following each of the two Pinyin entry attempts.

Automatic Reports, Customization, and Tracking

Although users are free to use the Tutor on their own, we are particularly interested in supporting the structured use of the Tutor as a required for-credit assignment in formal classes. For this mode of deployment, we have constructed word lists that match up with each of the six major textbooks for Introductory Chinese. Instructors can contact us if they wish to have websites configured particularly for their courses. In such cases, we then also provide instructors with their own webpage that summarizes how each of their students has been progressing through these lessons. Using this website, instructors are thereby spared any of the work of grading papers and can simply grade and monitor their students by consulting the summaries at their own specific grading sheet.

Pinyin Entry Conventions

When entering Pinyin in the Pinyin Tutor, the following conventions should be followed:

  1. Use numbers (1, 2, 3, 4) for the four tones. For example, “tóngxué” would be written as “tong2xue2”.
  2. Use number 5 for the neutral tone. For example, “shénme” would be written as “shen2me5”.
  3. Use “v” for the umlauted “ü”, as in “nv3er2” for “nǚ’ér”.
  4. Spaces are ignored and it is not case sensitive.
  5. Punctuation (such as apostrophes, questions marks or hyphens) is not accepted.

Registering an ID

To use the Pinyin Tutor, you must first create and register your own ID. Please keep in mind that the ID is case sensitive. You must use this ID consistently in all the Pinyin Tutor training sessions. If you use the wrong ID, you will not receive credit for the session. If you forget your ID, you can always retrieve it by clicking the button “I forgot my ID”. The ID will be emailed to you instantly.

Hardware and Software

The Pinyin Tutor depends on Flash Player. If you don’t have Flash Player installed in your computer, the system will prompt you to download the free Flash Player and install it. The Pinyin Tutor is basically an online dictation tool. So please remember to turn on the volume of your computer before you start doing Pinyin exercises.

Grading

Grading policies differ between schools and teachers. Please consult your syllabus or speak to your teacher for such information.

Support

Dr. Yanhui Zhang developed the tutor in the context of her doctoral thesis at CMU. John Kowalski programmed the system and Dr. Brian MacWhinney provided advice on the design. Financial support for this development has come from a grant from the National Science Foundation to the Pittsburgh Science of Learning Center. Mark MacWhinney, John Kowalski, Brian MacWhinney, and Yanhui Zhang are all involved in the ongoing refinement of the Tutor.