Chinese Flashcards on Computer: A CAI System for Chinese with Voice, Characters, and Pinyin Tonal Diacritics

Abstract

Chinese Flashcards on Computer is a system for computer-assisted practice of Chinese vocabulary. The main goal of the system is to help students improve their association between the sound of a Chinese word or phrase and its graphic shape, as written in Chinese characters. A secondary goal is to get the student to associate meaning through typing the correct pronunciation in standard pinyin romanization and an acceptable English equivalent. The computer responds to wrong and right answers. The system has many special features such as an extensive and flexible vocabulary of Chinese characters, diacritical marks, and a digitized voice stored on the disk. There are also plans for future improvements to the system.