Animating Characters: from Textbook-Dependent to Textbook-Independent Software Tianwei Xie California State University, Long Beach

The computer technology makes it possible to animate character writing procedures. USC Animated characters for Integrated Chinese Xie’s Animated characters Standard Chinese 标准中文 Standard Chinese 标准中文 Mandarintools: links to animated characters

Animated Characters and GIFConstruction

Textbook-independent software makes it easier to animate characters: Example 1 – eStroke CHIN 451CHIN 451

Stroke pictures can be saved and inserted in other applications (e.g. Word document)

Example 2: Chinese Writing Master

Can we find some other textbook- independent program for teaching vocabulary, grammar, etc? Textbook writing: Chinese TA (converts between simplified and traditional characters, between characters and Pinyin, statistics, glossary making, etc)Chinese TA Vocabulary (glossary making): DimSum, Popjisio, Rikai and Asotrans Dictionary: Lin Yutang (online), KingSoft Voice: text-to-speech JTTS (online) KeyTip Grammar: NONE

Other textbook-independent software Dictionaries and gloss makers: DimSum, Popjisyo, AdsotransDimSum PopjisyoAdsotrans Text-to-speech: JTTS online speech synthesizerJTTS online speech synthesizer More…

Putting the textbook-independent tools together Example: Chinese Culture and Tradition course pageChinese Culture and Tradition course page Example: Primer A Primer for Advanced Beginners of Chinese Vol. One 大学语文A Primer for Advanced Beginners of Chinese Vol. One 大学语文

It is suggested that more textbook- independent software be developed to aid language teaching.

谢 谢！