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DIM SUM WARRIORS
Adding Multimodality and Humour to Reading in Chinese (and English)
胡恩恩博士 DR. WOO YEN YEN
Ed.D (Teachers College, Columbia University)
CEO, Yumcha Studios Pte Ltd
yenyen@dimsumwarriors.com
Line/WhatsApp: +886-974230036
Dim Sum Warriors is produced by Yumcha Studios Pte Ltd, a
Singaporean education, entertainment and technology company that
fuses the power of great stories and proprietary characters with
leading-edge pedagogy. Brand and products include:
• the Dim Sum Warriors App;
• the Little Dim Sum Warriors Bilingual Tales;
• the Dim Sum Warriors Musical; and
• the Dim Sum Warriors Graphic Novels (currently published by
Scholastic).
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PROBLEM:
It’s hard to motivate kids to read in Chinese beyond their textbooks.
Teachers are reporting that comic books are the most popular form of texts
their students are reading right now, but there’s no easy way to
integrate comics into the supplementary reading curriculum.
The Dim Sum Warriors App
increases INTEREST
and decreases RESISTANCE
by using:
• Multimodal Comics
• Translanguaging
• Humour
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3
Dim Sum Warriors
3 Engaging Main Characters
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Play vocabulary- building games
The Dim Sum Warriors Comic Reader App
Practice reading aloud
and get immediate
feedback
Read & listen to stories
in different languages
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Bonus: The Dim Sum Warriors Doodle Date Video Collection
Kids get to learn and create using Chinese through the modality of drawing
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Bonus: The Dim Sum Warriors Teachers Toolkit
10 Lesson Plans Per Story
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Lesson Units give teachers many options:
Focus on literacy development, global competence, creative projects,
S.T.E.A.M. integration, collaborative tasks.
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Self-Directed Personalized
Connected Human-Centred
The Dim Sum Warriors App is supported by research in
literacy development that demonstrates how comics:
• Provide cognitive hooks in multimodal ways—through
visuals, sound effects, action, and expression.
• Because kids love comics, they form more positive and
stronger emotional associations with the content. Kids
especially love the Dim Sum Warriors comics because
they are very funny and relevant to children’s lives.
• The themes in the comic stories are aligned with PISA’s
Global Competence Framework with many stories
relating to the connection between self and others.
• Teachers and students are already using the stories for
performing together, shared reading, and the comic
stories have inspired a lot of co-creation in classrooms.
• The App has a strong focus on great stories so that
learners will be self-motivated to read. They are also
encouraged to choose stories based on interest rather
than levels.
• Education Alliance Finland’s audit of the Dim Sum
Warriors App for high pedagogical quality specifically
describes how it encourages self-directed practice:
• “Plenty of freedom for practice”
• “Limitless possibilities to listen and re-listen to the
stories”
Teachers and students have used the Dim Sum Warriors
App in highly flexible ways for differentiated teaching and
learning:
• Immediate voice evaluation provides personalized
feedback on pronunciation and fluency.
• Learners are able to turn pinyin support on or off.
• Audio and visuals provide multimodal scaffolding.
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“Students are captivated by the visuals and humorous
dialogue and word games that are pitched at different
levels to make learning easier. I find the range of lesson
plans and materials useful too as I can pick out what
works for my class. Dim Sum Warriors is a superb
supplementary learning tool to Chinese learning!”
- Ms. Koh Leng Leng,
Assistant Head of Languages & Chinese Teacher, ACS
International.
Singapore Teacher
Singapore Parent
“My son never picks up a Chinese book, but with Dim
Sum Warriors, he feels he can read a Chinese book. He
really likes trying to read aloud and get three hearts.
His older sister competes with him to read aloud in
Chinese in the app. I think it’s really helping them
because they don’t get to speak in Chinese very much.
The interesting thing is, he doesn’t see it as studying
Chinese – he’s just playing.”
Ms Yee,
Mother of 6 year-old and 11 year-old.
Singapore Child – From Reading to Creation
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HIGHLY POPULAR PRINT BOOKS AVAILABLE FOR OFFLINE READING
“The students and
staff at our school
absolutely adore The
Little Dim Sum
Warriors books...They
are funny, they are
bilingual, and they are
comic style picture
books. Fantastic
illustrations, brilliant
text and a must have
for all libraries!”
SARAH MOUNSEY
Director of Libraries,
Dulwich College
(Singapore)
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Awards
At the Singapore
Creator Awards
(organized by Lianhe
Zaobao & Singapore
Chinese Cultural
Centre), Dim Sum
Warriors won:
• Most Public Votes
Award
• Merit Award
(Established
Designer)
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... the lighthearted
performance by the
Dim Sum Warriors had
the audience
entertained and educated
at the same time
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
Singapore
Special Projects
Awarded Lee Kuan Yew Fund for Bilingualism Grant
Awarded Speak Mandarin Campaign VIP Show Commission
“
”
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Founder & CEO
DR. WOO YEN YEN
Tenured Professor
Doctorate of Education, Columbia
Founder & Content Chief
COLIN GOH
Humorist-Cartoonist
Lawyer
The Founders Are Storytellers, Creatives & Educators
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Together, Woo & Goh are
Creators and Storytellers
• Wrote, Directed & Produced “Singapore
Dreaming” feature film
‒ Best Asian Film, Tokyo Int’l Film Fest
‒ Best Screenplay, San Sebastian Int’l Film
Fest
‒ Licensed by HBO and Netflix
• Created Dim Sum Warriors characters &
comic book series
• Wrote “Dim Sum Warriors The Musical” that
was performed in 26 cities in China, with
over 40,000 audience
• Founded Talkingcock.com, which had 4m
hits/month and was featured in Wired, Times
of London, Washington Post, Time
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Links to Additional Materials
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Dim Sum Warriors Videos
Join the Doodle Date FB Group to
see a Doodle Date and community’s
responses
Why parents love the DSW App
Things to do in the DSW App
The Pedagogical Framework
Dim Sum Warriors Social
Media
Facebook Page
Dr. Woo Yen Yen
Email: yenyen@dimsumwarriors.com
Line/Whatsapp: +886-974230036
Url: www.dimsumwarriors.com
Dim Sum Warriors App
iOS Link
Android Link
Sign up for FREE username and
password to open up all stories:
https://www.dimsumwarriors.com/app/