Piecing Together Mandarin: Pinpinju a Fun Board Game for Sentence Mastery

Pinpinju is a physical board game created to assist beginners of Mandarin learners in mastering sentence building skills through enjoyable face-to-face gameplay. Pinpinju literally means sentence assembling which refers to the process of putting together words, phrases or sentence components to form a complete sentence. The problem of effectively mastering sentence building is a common issue experienced by Mandarin learners. Traditional language learning methods, such as textbooks and role memorization result in low motivation and limited practical application of the language. The learners struggle with sentence construction, applying grammar rules, and using vocabulary in real-world situations, resulting in slow progress in third language learning. Pinpinju is created to address these problems by providing a hands-on, game-based approach that involves enjoyable sentence construction and interaction between the instructor and learners, it transforms the learning process from passive memorization to active involvement. The use of guided prompts and immediate feedback from instructor or game host encourages learners to construct sentences with more confidence. This approach not only helps learners in comprehending grammatical rules but also enhancing their vocabulary ability in a real-word setting. Pinpinju has been copyrighted (CRDV2024Q06401) with the Intellectual Property Corporation of Malaysia (MyIPO) under the Malaysia Copyright Art 1987. Copyright protection applies to its unique design elements, such as the game mechanics, instructional content, sentence-building system, vocabulary sets, and any original materials like cards, boards and manuals. The main targets of Pinpinju are beginners of any basic Mandarin courses at schools, tutoring centers, colleges and universities or self-study learners.

Pinpinju, educational board game, Mandarin

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