Improving Reading and Writing, With a Focus on Immersion Chinese Programs

Andrew Corcoran

Head of School

Chinese American International School

Introduction

One of the major problems in Chinese immersion programs for English speakers is how to address the problem inherent in reading and writing. Our experience at the Chinese American International School (CAIS) has been frustrating in this area. In the third or fourth grade, students begin to get frustrated with reading in Chinese because their developmental level surpasses their reading level. Although they are beginning to read chapter books in English, they are forced to read passages and short stories in Chinese that are notable for their simplicity.

This is particularly important when students are asked to read subject matter material in Chinese. Since this ability is central to an effective immersion program in any language, it must be fully developed. Likewise, students in immersion programs need to reach writing levels that allow them to present complex and sophisticated ideas. It is impossible to write at those levels if a student is not able to read at them.

It was interesting to learn that the education ministry in Singapore was concerned about the same problem. A 2004 report titled “Report of the Chinese Language Curriculum and Pedagogy Committee” written by the ministry identifies this problem in its Chinese “mother tongue” program. A footnote in the report refers to a new program designed to address the same problem in Shanghai. Referred to a “Read First Write Later,” this program was developed to address the same concerns being echoed in schools in Shanghai. As students neared middle school, they were not able to write with the desired complexity or sophistication. The Shanghai education bureau was facing the same problem we were facing at CAIS and in Singapore. There was a disconnect between the level of sophistication in students’ writing in Chinese and their level of intellectual development.

We decided to investigate “Read First Write Later” to see if it had application to our program.

The Concept

Traditionally, students learn to write characters at the same time they learn to read them. As a result, reading and writing levels advance together. The problem rests in the fact that learning to write characters takes much longer than learning to recognize them and much longer to learn to write with an alphabet.

Learning to properly form all the strokes, in their specific stroke order, without missing any of the strokes that are present in each character takes much longer than being able to recognize the same character when reading. This slows a student’s progress in reading to the same pace as her progress in writing. If there were some way to disconnect reading from “replicating[1]” characters, it would seem that reading levels could advance at a much faster rate.

By extension, students who have a read more complex and sophisticated material also write more complex and sophisticated material. How we write is heavily influenced by what we read.   An approach to improving reading and writing lay in our ability to have students read more sophisticated material. The problem is finding a way to decouple learning to read and learning to write. Technology provides us a way to decouple those two activities.

Looking at the End First

Trying to address this problem of improving reading and writing levels requires that we look first at where we are going. We need to consider the destination before we focus on the starting point.

When students are ready to enter high school[2] they should be able to read and write at a relatively sophisticated level. At this age, students submit papers that are written on the computer. As students progress through high school and into college, the amount of writing that is done on the computer continues to increase to the point where the overwhelming amount of academic and professional writing is done on the computer. This paper follows that same pattern. Save for an initial outline, this is composed and edited entirely with the computer. The advent of email, text messaging and online chatting now makes it true for much informal writing as well.

The key to decoupling reading and writing (or recognizing and replicating) in Chinese is to take advantage of the computer. This requires a willingness to step away from traditional ways of teaching those skills.

It is much easier to recognize a character than it is to replicate it. Writing in Chinese with a computer depends on accuracy in pronunciation, knowledge of Hanyu Pinyin[3] and being able to select the correct character from a pop-up list. This is a dramatic departure from the skills that are required to write in Chinese without the aid of a computer.

The ability to recognize a character from a list is closely related to the ability to read. The computer provides an important tool for improving reading and writing in Chinese that was not available until very recently. The power of this tool requires that we rethink our approach with a focus on what we are trying to achieve in the end rather than on how we have done it in the past.

This discussion assumes that the bulk of any writing done by advanced learners of Chinese will be with the computer as an aid. This includes formal academic papers, business proposals, and business emails. It also assumes immersion programs are fertile ground for these advanced learners. The informal use of electronic writing adds to the urgency of taking advantage of the technologies available.

It is also important to note that the approach discussed here will not prevent accelerated learners from being able to write Chinese by hand. In fact, this approach may provide an effective way of differentiating in a classroom that includes students with different proficiency levels in Chinese. Those with higher levels of proficiency can spend time focusing on handwriting, formation of characters, using more traditional dictionaries, etc that will enhance their experience while those with lower levels of proficiency can focus on reading and writing at higher levels that prove the most practical and are the most commonly used..

Once the goal is clearly defined, we can look at how this all begins.

Back to the Beginning

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten should be focused on speaking and listening.[4]  As students progress, they will also learn to recognize characters with no attempt to have them learn how to write them. This recognition will result in students being able to read very simple books by the end of Kindergarten.

Once students begin to recognize characters and read short, simple stories, they may begin to try and write stories of their own.  This could entail trying to copy characters they are able to recognize. During this stage, there should be no effort to get the students to use proper stroke form or order.  This stage is akin to the stage of creative spelling in English.

The Difficult 2nd Stage

The most difficult stage is the early writing/pinyin stage.  This usually occurs in 1st and 2nd grade.  The first semester of 1st grade provides the introduction to proper stroke formation and an introduction to stroke order.  By the end of the semester, students should be able to form all strokes correctly, know the names of the strokes, and be able to replicate a limited number of characters.  During this time they will also be learning to recognize more characters although they will not be able to replicate them.

Students will begin to write more during this period but may continue to use creative characters.  Since students will not have learned pinyin yet, this will be the most difficult time for students to create short written stories or narratives.  The should not be stressed in this period.  Different approaches such as dictating stories to an adult who write them down for the student, having small boxes of characters for the students to chose, having character walls as guides for the students, or having stamps and ink pads for the students to use.

In the second semester of grade 1, students will learn hanyu pinyin.[5] This tool will give students the ability to transcribe stories that are spoken in Chinese onto paper, although it should not be confused with writing stories in Chinese.  Students will still practice proper stroke formation and order with a limited number of characters while increasing both oral Chinese and character recognition, but adequate progress in pinyin is very important so students can begin to transcribe Chinese conversations, stories, etc.

Second grade shows a continuation of the areas presented in 1st grade but emphasis changes.  Students should have a strong grasp of strokes (including formation, order and name) and a solid grounding in pinyin.  More focus will be given to the latter in second grade.  In addition, students should begin to write in increasing number of characters with pinyin replacing the former use of created characters.

Characters that have been learned should include proper basic form and order.  It should be expected that students will begin to write characters they have not learned to write but have learned to recognize.  This should be encouraged and might be accompanied with pinyin if the student realizes he may not know the character with complete accuracy.

There will be a significant increase in what the students read.[6]  This will include a focus on increasing the range of characters the student recognizes.  Students might have some self made book of characters that provides the sound (pinyin), the properly formed character (although not practiced to solidify in memory in most cases), and a definition.  They can be arranged for ease of access by group or alphabetically by pinyin.

With the increasing use of pinyin based dictionaries, these should be available for student use.  More advanced students may have a greater understanding of the different elements of the character and could use more traditional dictionaries.

Becoming More Advanced

In 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades the students continue with many of the same approaches, although at increasing levels of difficulty.  Pinyin should be used as a tool rather than being taught.  Students should be learning “character” attack skills[7] that will enable them to become more independent readers.  These include such things as identifying the part of speech, anticipating what meaning is expected, using the radical as an indicator of the meaning, establishing any phonetic hint that is included, etc. 

During this period the students will also be introduced to electronic devices such as dictionaries and the computer.  This will enable the student to draw more effectively on character recognition and enable the student to write and read more sophisticated texts.  Students should demonstrate they are able to enable a computer for Chinese and use a Chinese word processing software.  They also need to be able to use both an electronic and a pinyin based dictionary.  Advanced Students may demonstrate they are able to use more traditional devices.

The Middle School

 It is during middle school that the students should be writing and reading at a much higher level than under the old system for teaching Chinese.  The major written Chinese work of the student will be in Chinese at this level.  Major assessments such as the AP and STAMP tests are computer adapted already.  While students will still write simple stories and papers by hand, the most important work will be with the computer.

At this level the student should be reading at a much higher level as well.  This is at the heart of the program.  If students are able to read more sophisticated material they have a chance to write more sophisticated material.  Students can be assessed in authentic ways.  They may be required to carry on an email conversation (or some other system such as texting or chatting).  Students can write a major paper and use it as the centerpiece of a presentation with power point or some other visual aid.  Advanced students can be required to write by hand more often.

What are the Drawbacks?

This radical approach carries with it certain drawbacks.  Some elements of the language that were traditionally taught will be lost.  It is important to question whether it is the responsibility of immersion programs to maintain some of the elements that will be lost or whether it is really necessary to maintain them at all.[8]

Students will not be able to write as many characters.  On the other hand, they will probably be able to write most of their own high frequency words because doing so will make their life easier.  This will allow for handwritten notes when necessary.

Students may lose the origin of the characters.  Is this a necessary benchmark for all students? One of the problems in Chinese classes is often how to meet the needs of students who are at very different levels of Chinese.  If we can get all students to read and speak at relatively high levels, the more advance students can still continue to study the more traditional aspects of Chinese writing.

 

 


[1] Throughout this paper the term “replicating” refers to copying or writing a single character by hand. The term “writing” refers to composing sentences, paragraphs, essays. Etc.

[2] Students graduate from CAIS at the end of the 8th grade so I use their preparation for high school as the goal.

[3] Hanyu Pinyin will be referred to as pinyin from this point on.

[4] For simplicity, henceforth I will use the term speaking to include both speaking and listening. Speaking also implies accurate tone replication when speaking.

[5] This fits with the CAIS model. Students learn English phonics in first grade so pinyin is held until much of English phonics is mastered. This is done to help avoid some confusion over the same symbols that have different sounds in both English and pinyin.

[6] At CAIS we introduce students to traditional characters first. This is a reflection of our history. Whatever character set is introduced, it is strongly suggested that students be familiar with both traditional and simplified systems by the 8th grade.

[7] Character attack skills are analogous to word attack skills in English while taking into account different clues that exist in characters.

[8] At one time the slide rule was master of the engineering department.  It has now been completely replaced by the calculator which is more accurate and faster (and less expensive).  There are still archaic societies that promote saving the slide rule, but its role as a necessity in engineering is over.  This raises what is the role of the computer in writing Chinese.