Education Research Proposal: Exploring Students’ Understanding of Pronouns and Determiners in Mandarin Using Popular Chinese Songs

Research Proposal Form
To provide us with a sufficiently clear understanding of your proposed assignment for Module 3 and confirm that you have thought through several key issues and consulted other sources where necessary, please write something in all of the following sections. (You can expand the boxes!)
1 Proposed title
Exploring Students’ Understanding of Pronouns and Determiners in Mandarin Using Popular Chinese Songs

2 What is the problem, issue, or question you wish to address (you should have already agreed on this with your tutor, and it should be phrased as a question)? Remember, your investigation should:
1 be small scale
2 be exploratory
3 focus on understanding
Beginners sometimes struggle to understand and distinguish different pronouns and determiners in Mandarin. Music has long been proved as an inspirational and motivational tool in language teaching. Can popular Chinese songs promote the understanding of pronouns and determiners in learning Mandarin? To what extent?

3 What is the likely relevance of this investigation to your professional practice?
Unlike listening to mp3 files from the coursebook or practicing speaking and listening with each other, in my professional practice, listening to popular music connects students with real context and provides authentic material Sin language learning.

4 What ways of thinking about understanding could be relevant to your investigation, and how would they be helpful? Write approximately 600 words, including comment on the following:
* What is the relationship between understanding and knowledge?
* What is the relationship between understanding and learning?
* What does ‘understanding’ mean in your context and for your area of inquiry?
* How will your investigation explore the nature and quality of student understanding?
Knowledge is one of the critical aspects of research, which entails accumulating data and facts through relevant investigation, observation, and experience. In the research about the relevance of songs in expediting an understanding of pronouns, students should be aware of all related aspects. Knowledgeable individuals have the capability of collecting, remembering, and accessing relevant information. On the contrary, understanding entails the capability to discern and make relevant decisions on the aspects of gathered knowledge. Therefore, an understanding of pronouns can facilitate translating meaning from facts and applying it appropriately. Individuals with an understanding are capable of deriving meaning from the acquired information. Therefore, some students can have facts without knowledge of the meaning of information.
Besides, understanding and learning are two critical aspects that are interrelated despite the variation in meaning. The former refers to examining the context of a decision and the basis of the various processes. As such, understanding involves the process of taking any new information and putting it in a clear context. People understand aspects by knowing about them. Therefore, students have to understand pronouns to make sense of acquired knowledge.
Conversely, learning is the capability of memorizing a set of facts. If Chinese students attend school, they learn things. In most instances, teachers utilize an effective outlined curriculum by presenting data as facts that students can memorize. Being a good student depends on the capability to memorize data and apply it in a focused way.
Notably, learning and understanding are two varied aspects, even though they are interlinked. In the context of a school, students sit in a classroom to learn and understand key aspects. Therefore, the learning process could be incomplete if any of the students are missing. If a student only learns without a clear understanding, the concept remains with them for only a short period. The concept is likely to remain for a long time in their brain if they understand what they have learned. Students encounter issues of recalling concepts, which might influence them to fail in examinations. Learning is a theoretical part of a working concept, while understanding is the practical part. Students encounter numerous challenges in understanding concepts rather than accepting ideas openly.
The research will explore the role of language and the meaning of enhancing students’ learning in various curriculum areas. Teachers ought to recognize all modes of meaning representation through which they enact teaching and learning activities. Over the years, teachers have focused on strategies for enhancing an understanding of the Chinese language. Authors have realized that songs have potential benefits in teaching pronouns. Therefore, the study will expound on songs as pedagogical resources for teaching learners the use of pronouns. The research will reveal the limitations discovered through personal teaching experience. Notably, educational areas across China have encountered various opportunities and challenges because of global integration. The use of popular Chinese songs will facilitate an understanding of pronouns and determiners in learning Mandarin.
The study will also investigate if or not participating in a song-based lesson is likely to result in text retention among students compared to a lesson-based classroom. Based on ecological validity, procedures, and materials used in the classroom, the findings in a teacher questionnaire will be informed. In response to the study’s set question, the research will provide evidence that songs have particular linguistic learning aspects for entrenchment in memory. Notably, songs enhance memory among learners to facilitate an understanding of pronouns.
The Mandarin Chinese pronouns have gained considerable interest among linguistics as a relevant development. Over the decades, one of the critical callings for effective teaching and learning has been using songs to understand pronouns. Authors have realized the potential benefits of using songs in teaching language. Despite the numerous benefits of using songs, there has been limited research in the teaching aspect. The study’s focus will be on the use of songs in teaching pronouns in the Chinese language. Although most students encounter usage errors of third-person pronouns, further research can help make the case stronger. Accordingly, the future implication for Mandarin Chinese is that the students will benefit from exposure to L2 input.
Inaccuracy in gender pronouns is one of the critical issues among Mandarin Chinese students based on the teacher’s experience. Notably, most students confuse “he” and “she” pronouns, especially in oral performance. However, some authors have realized that some Chinese students cannot recognize the biological gender of the human race. Therefore, the research will focus on using Chinese songs to promote an understanding of pronouns and determiners of learning Mandarin. Notably, written Mandarin has numerous grammatical rules of usage of pronouns than spoken Mandarin. However, the gender specificity of gender pronouns in written Mandarin is symmetrical. The research will examine the occurrence of pronouns error phenomenon in spoken language among Chinese students.

5 What literature have you consulted, and do you plan to use in conducting the study? Please give full bibliographic references of what at this stage you consider to be the most relevant sources. The literature should cover three areas:
(a) Ways of thinking about understanding
(b) Area of interest (e.g., if your study is about understanding physical literacy, you will look at the literature on physical education, physical literacy, etc. If your study is about understanding ...