Teaching Tip: TCSL- How to Write Down Chinese Characters

Name:

Xiang Ling, Huang

Economy:

Chinese Taipei

School:

ChiaPei Elementary School

Subject:

Foreign Language: Chinese, TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language)

Tip:

Due to marriage relationships, more and more immigrants settle down in Taiwan in the recent decade. These immigrant spouses encounter some problems when living their lives in Taiwan, such as seeking for employment, educating their own children, understanding Taiwan’s culture and so forth. If these immigrant spouses possess adequate language ability, they can fit in Taiwan’s society smoothly. As a result, every city and county government sets up Chinese recognition classes to meet their demands. Something needs to be explained clearly is that these classes are normally opened in primary schools; therefore, more and more primary school teachers throw themselves in the field of teaching Chinese to immigrants, namely, teaching Chinese as a second language. I am a primary school teacher; meanwhile, I am also studying the Master's Program in TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language). Consequently, I have opportunities to participate in following teaching research programs, including working as an editor of the Lai-Qu Chinese teaching material and a lecturer of the workshop on teaching Chinese to immigrants. In addition, I had published relevant studies as well. The teaching tips in this article are all collected from the research results in past two to three years.

The most difficult obstacle for many people who learn Chinese is to learn Chinese Characters. What confuses many teachers who teach Chinese as a second language is how to teach learners to write down Chinese Characters that look like pictures. Before the teaching of Chinese Characters being launched, teachers have to help learners establish the following concept – the Chinese Character is basically an ideographic writing system, which is very different from alphabetic writing system. Each Chinese character usually represents many different meanings, but its pronunciation can’t be recognized by reading it. When learners develop the basic knowledge about Chinese Characters, teachers can guide them to detect the correlation between Chinese Characters and their meanings by using “pictographs.” For example, “?” represents the sun and “?” means the river in Chinese. Normally, learners show a lot of interest in those stories about pictorial characters. Next, teachers can perform the teaching of component parts of Chinese Characters (bù jiàn). Taking learners’ Chinese names as teaching materials, teachers can instruct learners the manner to decompose and compose Chinese Characters. For instance, “?” can be decomposed into “?” and “?,” and “?” and “?”can be composed into “?.” At the same time, teachers integrate the stroke order of writing Chinese Characters with their teaching arrangements. Learners can recognize Chinese Characters by writing them. The following teaching program of Chinese Characters can be related to various kinds of materials and resources, such as Chinese signboard, restaurant menus, tickets, etc. Practicing in this way helps learners gain more knowledge about Chinese Characters in their daily lives. However, one more difficulty that learners have to overcome is that Chinese pronunciations include five tones, which means that different tone represents different meaning. When tone teaching is carried out, teachers can use gestures to help learners understand the pitch and the length of each Chinese Character. Besides, a comparison between their mother tongues and Chinese is highly recommended. Likewise, a country like Vietnam in Southeast Asian also uses the tone system, but that of Vietnamese characters is different from the Chinese one. Learners will thoroughly understand the rules of Chinese tone system through comparisons and discussions.

Based on my experiences of teaching and research, learners can fully complete their second language (i.e. Chinese) acquisition if their language abilities of their mother tongues or first language have been considered along with their learning of Chinese as a second language. Furthermore, owing to different learning cultures and patterns from different countries, teachers who teach Chinese as a second language need to take this point into consideration when they are guiding learners to acquire Chinese. Learners can remember and use Chinese Characters flexibly only by continuously writing them with a great quantity. Accordingly, teachers must build the Multiple ZPD for learners when they are not accustomed to frequently practicing writing Chinese Characters.