A Romanised Mandarin Web-Based Instruction: Its Economic Potentials and Acceptance Levels of Non-native Mandarin Learners

Abstract

The Guru Hanyu Pinyin web-based instruction (Romanised Mandarin Web-based) is specially designed to tackle the specific needs of UiTM students. The main objective of this paper is to examine the acceptance levels of UiTM students towards the design of the instruction. It deals with suitability of content, structure of the content, the appropriateness of the language used and user-friendliness of icons. At the same time, this paper describes the economic potentials of romanised Mandarin web-based instruction in South-East Asia countries especially for non-native Mandarin learners. This research focuses on first year elementary level Mandarin students at UiTM Penang campus. A total of 28 students have been selected from two Mandarin classes to attend a 4-h self-learning session. After the lesson, a questionnaire on the design of the instruction is given to each student. The finding shows that majority of the students feel that the content of the web-based Hanyu Pinyin instruction suits their level of proficiency and well structured, most of the students also feel that the language used is appropriate and easy to understand, and they also agree that the icons of Guru Hanyu Pinyin web-based instruction is user-friendly. Learners have no difficulty in using this Guru Hanyu Pinyin web-based instruction.