Make Chinese Learning More Effective and Less Frustrating

Wendy Lin
Chinese teacher
Woodbridge School Dist

The teaching strategy focuses on the distinct features of the non-phonetic Chinese language. The teaching process should include two steps: listening and speaking first, and reading and writing later. When the objective is clear and the learning is based on previously learned content, students should feel less frustrated.

點 線 面 “Gradually Expanding” teaching strategy will be mentioned.

In order to make Chinese easy to learn and practical for immediate use (motivation), grammar should be replaced with patterns or rules. By applying patterns, learners can easily expand their usage and communicate more flexibly.

Some Features of Chinese language that can make Chinese learning easier:

I. Easy to expand:

A. With numbers: 1 ~ 10 = 1 ~ 99

B. By adding an additional word:

a. Adding month, day, or weekday before or after a number for dates

b. Adding “people” after a nation to indicate nationality, and adding “language” to indicate a foreign language

II. Use of question words:

A. Such as 嗎

B. The way to form a question word: PW + NW = QW

Such as 有沒有 是不是 好不好 高不高…

III. Easy to convert a statement to a question or the other way around

Students’ work will be demonstrated and the material used in the teaching will be introduced as well as the activities used for emphasizing reading, writing, speaking, or listening.