The Effectiveness of Using Memrise Application to Learn Chinese Characters by American Middle School Students - A Pilot Study

Abstract

This study examined the effectiveness of Memrise application in motivating American middle school students to learn Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Participants (N = 27) in the study were middle school students enrolled in CFL courses in an urban public middle school in the Midwestern region of the United States. During the study, the experimental group used the Memrise application while the control group used the traditional paper-made flashcards to learn new Chinese characters. Results of the mixed-design ANOVA indicated that there was no significant (p > .05) difference in the scores between students in the experimental and control groups on Chinese characters acquisition. However, the Group main effect was significant (p < .001), indicating that the students in the experimental group had stronger motivation in learning CFL than those in the control group. It is suggested that further research should include a larger sample size and other types of CFL learning applications.