Chinese Productive Vocabulary for Problem Solving in Educational Service

Abstract

Most of newly arrived Chinese students who study abroad for Thai universities face a significant communication gap. A survey at College of Arts, Media and Technology (CAMT), Chiang Mai University has shown that language barriers between Chinese students and Thai academic service staffs caused ineffective results in problem solving related to educational service tasks. This study aims to identify Chinese productive vocabulary extracted from the keywords of frequently asked questions in 3 domains including academic s􀁘ppor􀁗, s􀁗􀁘den􀁗s􀂶 ac􀁗i􀁙i􀁗ies, and life assis􀁗ance. Knowledge management is used for the design concept of the research methods. Document reviews and in-Depth interviews with experts were used during the first stage to find frequently asked questions and answers. Keywords and phrases of 3 different domains were then extracted using a part of speech of Linguistic approach. The assessment of keywords to identify the real productive vocabulary was done by experts who had experiences or deal with the domain tasks. Analysis of the responses showed that there were a number of 92 words representing the productive vocabulary in this context. Conducting 20-hour intensive course with scenario test, final result also points that the Chinese productive vocabulary has somewhat positive effects on the staff performances in relation with communication and problem solving with Chinese students. Future research is needed to develop other domain-specific productive vocabulary of different units throughout the university. Finally, to sustain the knowledge management cycle, new disruptive technologies and tools such as Chatbot can be applied for the development of the system to support the knowledge reuse.