1. Introduction

C-for-Chinese@JC-eStorybook is an interactive app equipped with multimedia and interactive games to support learning of Chinese for early language learners with age around 3 to 8 years old, especially for children growing up in family of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong.

The app is designed as companion to the series of C-for-Chinese@JC storybooks created by a project team led by Dr LAM Wai Ip of Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong. Team members include (in alphabetical order) Ms. Rainbow Chan, Dr. Celinda Chu, Ms. Janice Kwan, Mr. Ringo Lee, Ms. Sindy Pang and Ms. Sonya Yim. The team uses Ma Yau Chung as pseudonym of the Project. The Project＊ is one of CACLER's collaborative projects to support teaching and learning of Chinese for multicultural students. The ‘C-for-Chinese@JC’ Project is created and funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and the copyright of this App is owned by the Trust.

＊The period of Phase 1 was lasting for five years from 2016 to 2021. It has been entering a new phase now.

2. Principles of Design

The design of series of C-for-Chinese@JC Storybooks and eStorybooks follows principles of culturally responsive (CR) instruction and language focused curriculum (LCF). The design focuses on modeling how Chinese language is organized by pairing meaning and expression to accomplish communication in context enriched with funds of knowledge from family and community of ethnic minorities. Children are able to be exposed to rich amount of high quality Chinese oral and written language by interacting with the stories in the series by teachers, parents, as well as children themselves.

3. Organization of the Series

The series of Storybooks, and its electronic companion eStorybooks, comprises 18 stories in 3 groups, which are designed for children in nursey class (ie stories 1st-6th for K1), lower class (i.e. stories 7-12th for K2), and upper class (ie stories 13-18th for K3) respectively. The stories revolve around the lives and studies of five children, including ethnic monitories and Chinese native speaker characters. Each story is written in three differentiated language levels catering for children with diverse Chinese language abilities. Objectives on learning particular Chinese language constructions from the perspective of cognitive frame are deliberately designed for each level as well as for different stories.

4. Teacher and Parents’ Guidebooks

Each story is in companion with a teacher guidebook and a parents’ guidebook. A full set of learning and teaching activities and playful learning aids for the story are designed and suggested in the teacher guidebook. The parents’ guidebook focuses on cultural funds of knowledge from family to help parents engage children in interacting with the story at home. Teacher and parents can make their choices from the repertoire of suggested activities to use the Storybooks and eStorybooks according to their situation and needs.

5. eStorybooks

The eStorybooks digitize printed version of the series to a multimodal (with read aloud function) and multilingual (with translating function) version of the Storybooks. Interactive games are designed and built in each story to foreground the main objectives of the story in a playful and fun way.

Target users: Children of ethnic minorities in kindergarten or junior primary learning stage

Users: Children, their teachers and parents

6. Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that the background music and sound effects in this Apps are contributed by the following persons / website:

- Carrie Yue@La Voix Emcee, Talents & Academy

- Janice Kau@La Voix Emcee, Talents & Academy

- Patrizia Yeung@La Voix Emcee, Talents & Academy

- https://www.zapsplat.com/ (Royalty free music and sound effects)

*For further information, please visit: Link~Link~

C-for-Chinese Project Website：Link~Link~

DOWNLOAD

C-for-Chinese@JC-eStorybook Apps

(Android) ~Download~Download

(iOS) ~Download~Download

C-for-Chinese@JC-Storybook

Apart from project website (https://cforchinese-jc.hk/), the resources for multi-cultural students and parents developed by C-for-Chinese (Phase 1) HKU Team were also disseminated through Education City website to reach wider community:

https://www.hkedcity.net/sen/ncs/slhttps://www.hkedcity.net/sen/ncs/sl

(Parents’ guidebooks for differentiated storybook sets)

https://www.hkedcity.net/sen/ncs/subject/page_6171143d316e83b7183c9869https://www.hkedcity.net/sen/ncs/subject/page_6171143d316e83b7183c9869

(Differentiated storybook sets, and teachers’ guidebooks)