Comparison of English alphabet flash cards design on mental recognition and memorization：a case study of native Chinese-speaking children.

蕭冰

◆Abstract：Teaching the alphabet is the foundation for reading and writing English.Some children learn alphabet quickly，others need more repetition and time to learn letters.This is where the question of teaching method and material comes into the picture.I did an ethnographic observation for several months at several kindergarten around Shanghai，as well as being involve in teaching several English classes to build up the understanding on the research subject.However，the instructional learning material available in the kindergarten dissatisfy my eagerness to research.Besides not having systematic syllabus for English study，the material used are not thoroughly revised to be taught to the children.Having said that，this is also opens up an opportunity to conduct a study on the instructional material that are commonly used in the kindergarten for their English learning.

◆Key words：instructional material;infant memory;visual design;English alphabet card;infant visual perception.

Alphabet knowledge is the early literacy ability that every child should acquire.According to Shayne and Wagner（2010），alphabet knowledge refers to children’s familiarity with letter forms，names，and corresponding sounds，as measured by recognition，production，and writing tasks.As been demonstrated in existing researches，children’s knowledge of letter names and sounds is the best predictor of their later reading and spelling abilities（Hammill，2004;Scarborough，1998;Schatschneider，F(xiàn)letcher，F(xiàn)rancis，Carlson，& Foorman，2004）.Preschool and kindergarten students with poor knowledge of letter names and sounds are more likely to struggle with learning to read and be classified as having reading disabilities（Gallagher，F(xiàn)rith，& Snowling，2000;O’Connor & Jenkins，1999;Torppa，Poikkeus，Laakso，Eklund，& Lyytinen，2006），resulting in falling further behind their peers in reading acquisition，leading to gaps in spelling，reading fluency，vocabulary，and comprehension skills（Stanovich，1986;Torgesen，2002）.

Native-Chinese children are used to ‘pictorial’ image since Chinese characters itself are pictorial based.

According to Gelman，designing the teaching materials for 2-4 years old should be bright，with vivid colours，icons/image should be highly recognisable，contain an element that are large and visually memorable，also include elements that allow child to interact in some way，etc.But all of those design impacts were researched on English speaker kids.Currently，little research exists on the visual design of instructional material in teaching alphabet to young Chinese learner.So，this article offers a new and more suitable approach to Chinese kids’ perception in study English with its research.

1 Research Problem

There are significant variety of alphabet’s cards nowadays.And only some of them can stimulate learning procedure and can be easily memorised by Chinese children，whom native language is not English.Therefore，several concepts such as visual design and perception，children cognitive learning，and language acquisition are conducted to analyse the problems and provides recommendation to solve arising aspects of difficulties.

2 Visual Design and Perception for Children

Existing researches stated that visual information is many times more effective than textual communication.The power of the visual persuasiveness depends on individual experiences，cultural meanings，social conventions，institutional contexts and local ways of thinking and perceiving.In general，when learning using visual information，young learners are required to visually search，selection，and then extraction of the information from different visual representations.Individual differences，such as in cognitive style，impact on children’ information-processing patterns.

3 Children Cognitive Learning

Visual pedagogical approach promotes the affective dimension of learning，where emotions and learning repeatedly conceives，and students share an affective experience of classroom content，they are more likely to enjoy a richer learning experience and to retain content（Belenky et al.，1997）.While the written，the word can explain the association of certain material，visual instruction often captures ideas more powerfully and viscerally.Visual material appears to be especially memorable and salience that confers it can be particularly forceful Boholm’s（1998）.

4 The current study

is an observational and explorative study with the intention of developing recommendation for design and future research in English learning for Chinese Children.

This study aims to examine and compare the effectiveness of different design alphabet flash cards as an instructional material for teaching preschool Chinese native speakers’ in learning English alphabet.Article contains the two-phase study，where the first phase involved assessing post-test achievement using scales and ratings，while second phase involved using post-test attitudes in the focus group experiment.

This study is showing how Chinese kids perception system works，the following research objectives were addressed to understand which design of flash cards，perform better in recognition and memory retention of English alphabet letter to Native-Chinese children;to get a comprehensive assessment of the difficulty in learning the alphabet by evaluating and examining children’ preferences in the instructional material;to recommend improvements on the design of the alphabet flash cards.

4.1 Test 1 “Completion Success Rate”

Method

Participants

The experiment involve forty children ages 2～3 years old.Two kindergartens agreed to have the experimental teaching classes.Given the exploratory nature of this study，criteria for participant selection were ①children whom has no exposure of English beforehand were selected，②Chinese-Native speaking parents，③children does not speak/learn any other language other than their native language，④mentally-normal children，⑤Shanghai citizens.

Material

4 sets of different design，but commonly used designed flash cards were used as instructional material： ①Coloured letter with image，that starts with the same letter;②Coloured letter with image（blended）;③Capital case letter and its’ lower case;④letter with its’ concomitated word.

Procedure and Data Collection

Controlled experimental class

In The experiment was administered with 1 researcher and 2 assistant.The instructional materials were different for each group.Each experiment class lasted 50 minutes.The tasks were game-based activities that provide context for testing and let the children to get more insight and familiarity.Quasi experiment was conducted as each child where evaluated individually within 5 minutes timeframe.

Task Completion Success Rate

During phase one test，children were evaluated ‘√’? if they successfully identify the letter，and were marked as ‘×’ if not.The result were follows：every child in Group 1 successfully completed the task 90%，while only seven of the ten（70%）from Group 2 managed to complete the task.Five of children in Group 3（50%）.Group 4 only 20% succeed.This gives us an idea on how significant the design is to the Chinese child knowledge of the alphabet.

4.2 Test 2“find favourite”– Focus group

Materials were same as in the previous test.

Participant

20 children were selected，where 4 groups of 4 children，and 2 groups of 2.The group of 2 were created as a dummy run group to validate the result in group of 4 student.

Procedure

Students were have to choose the cards that he/she liked.After teachers’ command children were attempt to grab more colourful，vivid and attractive cards（cards 1，2）.In the team of 4 kids 2 kids were disappointed and upset with the leftover selection（type 3，4 cards）.Group of 2 students with the same test were fully satisfied with the cards as all two got coloured cards.

Recognition and Memory Retention Rating

To test the hypothesis，were applied one-way analysis of variance（ANOVA）to evaluate whether there is any evidence that the means of the groups differ. P-value were less than 0.05，therefore the finding is significant，which mean that there are differences in result of all four group.To understand which group that are significantly different from each other，we extend the test by using Tukey’s range test.

Tukey Pairwise Comparisons

The results indicate that Group 2 and Group 3 are equal（because p-values > 0.05）while the rest are not equal（because all the p-values < 0.05），can be derived that Group 2 and Group 3 performance are same.Even though type 2 card contain image，it does not perform as good as type 1 cards.This is due to the visibility of the image itself.

The clear difference between Group 1 and Group 4 is due to more visually attractive elements，type 4 cards is monotone letter with word.

Therefore，the result from Tukey’s range test being confirmed by the Controlled experimental class，that type 1 flash cards has better design for recognition and memory retention of children.

5 Discussion

To sum up the results of four different experiment groups，group 1 demonstrate the highest comprehension of letters recognition and this result was proven by the ‘Task Completion Success Rate’ where every child in group1 manage to complete the task，90% of the children.

The ANOVA test and Tukey’s range test confirmed that there are significant differences between all four groups.Specifically，between 1 type and type 4，and the later test concluded that type 1 cards has the better design for recognition and memory retention of children.These results prove the theory of Boholm where he stated that visual material are more memorable and particularly powerful.

Phase two result confirmed the theory by Gelman，Boholm and Harris and Hodges about persuasive impacts，emotional tone and identification are crucial in the design.Cards that more visually attractive，highlights，coloured more draw the child’s attention to the individual letters.

6 Conclusion

The effectiveness of different design of English alphabet cards where provided by four commonly used design alphabet cards.Four groups of ten，age two to three years old toddlers were taught to learn alphabet under each condition.The effectiveness of the two procedures was evaluated.Results indicated that highlighted things which child can interact with or using primary and tertiary colours，can more attract attention.Easy recognisable pictures or elements that allow child to interact in some way would be more effective in English teaching targets.

In summary，the present study clearly established，that young Chinese children predominantly attend to see the colourful，vivid and familiar instructional materials.These results were found when children were asked to choose their preferred card.