Study on the Application of Fun Teaching Methods in Chinese Classrooms for Southeast Asian International Students

Abstract

Since the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) came into effect, China's economic, trade, and cultural cooperation with Southeast Asia has continued to deepen, driving a surge in demand for Chinese language learning in Southeast Asia. The total number of Chinese language learners in the region has exceeded 12 million, and the number of Chinese language students studying in China has increased by an average of 15% annually, reaching a total of 324,000 in 2023. However, current Chinese language teaching for Southeast Asian international students still focuses on "grammar indoctrination" and "rote copying of Chinese characters," which is difficult to adapt to the diverse native language backgrounds and pragmatic learning motivations of international students. This leads to problems such as class participation rates below 60%, poor post-class learning retention, and difficulty in transforming Chinese knowledge into communicative competence.Based on Krashen's second language acquisition theory and constructivist learning theory, and drawing on teaching practices at institutions such as Yunnan Normal University, Guangxi University for Nationalities, and the Confucius Institute at Universiti Putra Malaysia, this paper systematically explores the application of fun teaching methods in Chinese classrooms. Through classroom observations, comparative experiments, and questionnaire surveys, we found that engaging teaching methods that incorporate gamification, cultural experience, and situational simulation significantly improved teaching effectiveness: International students' active classroom participation rate increased from 54% in traditional teaching to 89%, their Chinese character recognition accuracy rate increased from 54% to 82%, and 87% of students reported being "willing to actively engage in after-school Chinese language learning." The HSK Level 3 pass rate was 32% higher than in traditional teaching classes, and their learning anxiety scores decreased from 4.2 out of 5 to 2.1.The research results can provide practical guidance for Chinese international education institutions to optimize their country-specific teaching programs in Southeast Asia, helping to address the challenge of regional adaptability in Chinese language teaching. They also offer valuable insights for the reform of engaging teaching methods in non-universal language international education.