Course development project
Cheng Candice Li
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Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
A Training Course for Teaching Chinese in State College
Course Development Project
Course development project
Cheng Candice Li
Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
A Training Course for Teaching Chinese in State College
1. Introduction
2. Framework for Course Development Components
a. Needs Assessment
b. Determining Goals and Objectives
c. Conceptualizing Content
d. Selecting and Developing Materials and Activities
e. Evaluation
f. Consideration of Resources and Constraints
3. Course Syllabus
4. Course Schedule
5. Sample Lesson Plans in Details:
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Methods of teaching Chinese as a foreign language
3.1 Teaching Chinese pronunciation
3.2 Teaching Chinese characters
7.1 Designing classroom activities
7.2 Designing lesson plan
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1. Introduction
My Reason for Developing This Course
From the perspective of language market globally, now that China is the
world’s second largest economy, it’s no surprise that a booming
language immersion program has seen a 300 percent growth in demand
for Mandarin Chinese. Generally, China’s emerging market standing
makes Mandarin an especially attractive language. Mandarin Chinese is
the most popular first language on the planet. It beats out English by 5
million speakers. And it’s the second most popular language used on the
Internet.
From my own experiences, since I have been in major of Teaching
English as a Second Language for half a year as a graduate student, my
own knowledge combined with my understanding of teaching another
language enlightens me to explore more in teaching about both theory
and practice. Teaching Chinese has similarities with teaching English in
that they are consistent in some teaching methods that I can make full
use of what I have learned in TESL in teaching Chinese. For me, since
Chinese is my native language so I am more confident in utilizing it. I
enjoy tutoring Chinese because I find the work itself rewarding. I enjoy
the sense of palpable achievement at the end of a class when the tutee
spoke out a sentence which she just learned from me. I would even be
happier than her about her progress! However, I find it sometimes
difficult to instruct my tutee about Chinese pronunciation for that
Chinese is a tonal language—in which the same combination of
consonants and vowels can be pronounced totally different ways, which
makes it look difficult than other language. Although I am fluent enough
in Chinese and have a good mastery of teaching methods, it sometimes
confuses me about how to best tutor my student, considering the
different situation between teaching Chinese and English.
My course will act as a guidance and support for teachers or tutors who
teach Chinese in State College. I expect the majority of my students to
have a high proficiency in Chinese (including those who are not Chinese,
but fluent in Chinese), and have little problems in understanding and
communicating in English.
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2. Framework for Course Development
a. Needs Assessment
In order to get a better understanding of my students’ needs, I will make
use of three needs assessment tools: questionnaire and classroom
observation. By finding out my students’ background information, such
as their English proficiency, their previous teaching experiences, their
motivation to teach Chinese, and their personal characteristics, I can
take them into account when designing my course to offer them better
instructions.
Questionnaire
Basic information
Name:
Native Language:
Home Country:
Main Language spoken now:
Other languages spoken now:
Which Chinese dialects can you speak (ex. Cantonese, dialects in
Shanghai, northeastern parts of China...):
Education Information
College or University you attended (name, location, graduation date):
How many years have you learned English:
How long have you been in USA?
Standard English examination you have taken (scores, date):
Employment Information
Previous employment (company name, position, location, date):
Have you taught or tutored Chinese before (school name, date):
Learning Information
1. Why do you want to teach Chinese in USA?
2. What do you think your biggest challenge will be as a Chinese teacher
in USA?
3. What do you expect to learn from this course?
4. How do you feel about teaching students Chinese in English in the
future?
5. How much time in a week will you prefer to spend on homework of
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this course?
6. Do you like working individually or with others?
7. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
8. What kind of teacher would you like to be?
b. Determining Goals and Objectives
Through lectures, discussions, teaching demonstrations and a variety of
language teaching related activities, students will gain professional
knowledge on teaching Chinese, such as criteria for effective lesson
planning, preparation for teaching materials, teaching methodologies,
the use of technology in the classroom, and criteria and methods for
assessment. Specifically, following objectives are included:
1. Mastery of some English vocabularies and expressions frequently
used in classroom situation.
2. Familiarity with different teaching methods.
3. Mastery of the process of teaching Chinese listening, speaking,
reading, writing, and grammar separately.
4. Familiarity with the ways of how to evaluate and assess students’
learning progress.
5. Mastery of the methods to design activities and exercises.
c. Conceptualizing Content
Generally, I will divide my course into two parts: theories of teaching
Chinese, and practice of teaching Chinese. For the theories of teaching
Chinese, I will offer students some basic knowledge of language
instruction, such as second language acquisition and Chinese
curriculum design. Besides, some specific methods of Chinese teaching
will be informed to students, such as teaching Chinese tones, teaching
Chinese reading. As for the practice of teaching Chinese, students will
observe at least one real Chinese class, and practice teaching a lesson to
their classmates.
1. Some basic issues about language instruction
1.1 Teaching methods
1.2 Teaching aids
1.3 Principles for selecting and developing instructional materials
1.4 Criteria and method for assessment including AP testing
1.5 Design classroom activities
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1.6 Design and development of effective lesson plan
2. How to teach Chinese
2.1 How to teach the four tones/ pronunciation:
Pinyin
BoPoMoFo
Yale
Guoyu Ruomazi
2.2. How to teach Chinese characters
2.2.1 What system to use: traditional or simplified
2.2.2 When to introduce characters
2.2.3 How to teach Chinese characters step by step
2.2.4 How to help students memorize characters
2.3 How to teach grammar
2.4 How to teach listening
2.5 How to teach speaking
2.6 How to teach reading
2.7 How to teach writing
2.8 How to teach Chinese culture
3. Current trends of language teaching
4. Classroom observation and practice of a real teaching
d. Selecting and Developing Materials and Activities
I will create activities such as role paly, watching YouTube, practice in
pairs which will be organized around practice of Chinese teaching, in
order to create opportunities for students to better communicate with
Chinese learners in English. My purpose of activities is to introduce a
concept of teaching or examine a skill needed for teaching.
As for the course materials, I will use the following ones as they could
give students a systematic knowledge of Chinese teaching:
•Fu, Haiyan (2007). Chinese Essentials: What and How to Teach and
Learn in K-12 Chinese Classrooms. Beijing Language and Cultural
University, China.
•Everson, Michael & Xiao, Yun (2008). Teaching Chinese as a Foreign
Language.
•Hadly, Omaggio (2004). Teaching Language in Context (3rd edition).
• Shrum, Judith & Glisan, Eileen (2005). Teacher’s Handbook:
Contextualized Language Instruction (3rd Edition).
In addition, in order to meet all of my instruction needs, I will choose
some resources from internet, such as video clips on YouTube.
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e. Evaluation
Since this course is a combination of instruction of teaching theory and
practice of real teaching, I will assess students’ progress in these ways:
weekly assignments, practice teaching, and anonymous rating scale and
teacher evaluation.
1. Assignments:
Based on some reading materials assigned weekly, students will be
asked to write weekly assignments either in English or Chinese, and
must be typed and submitted through email. The weekly assignments
will be:
a. Write a 3-page reflection paper on your own curriculum design and
teaching pedagogy.
b. Write a 2-page reflection of the essentials of a Chinese teacher in the
U.S. classroom which should cover the following: a) What are the
specific issues such as instructional management, target-language use,
meaningful activities, cultural integration, assessment, classroom
climate, materials, etc. b) What are the tips on how to plan for dynamic
and engaging Chinese lessons. c) How to differentiate good language
teaching from bad. d) What’s your insight and perspectives on how to
deliver student-centered Chinese classes that are interactive and fun?
c. Prepare for a 5 minutes teaching with interactive technology in
teaching Chinese.
d. Write one page outline of a lesson plan.
e. Write a 2-page paper on how to teach in a K-6 emersion Chinese
language program? How to design and teach an immersion Chinese
class?
f. Write an outline including difficulties you are facing in Chinese
teaching.
g. Write a paper (7-10 pages) summarizing the whole session: What
have you learned? How to apply what you’ve learned into your teaching
practice? What theories and methods you’ve learned in this session that
you’d like to apply in your future teaching? Why and why not?
2. Practice teaching
During the last weeks of this course, the whole process of teaching
Chinese will be reviewed, and then each student will be given an
opportunity to observe at least one Chinese class. After that, each of
them will be asked to give a real teaching to their classmates to examine
their learning. And they could get suggestions from their classmates and
teachers after their teaching. Finally, students will meet their teacher
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individually to have a discussion about the practice teaching, to find out
their strengths and weaknesses.
3. Rating scale and Teacher evaluation
After the whole session of this course, an anonymous rating scale and
teacher evaluation will be given to students, in order for teachers to
know what the students’ biggest progress is, and the effectiveness of this
course.
Rating scale for effectiveness of this course
5=very effective
4=effective
3=average
5
Content of this course as a whole is
Activities in this course are
The usage of class time is
Skills you learned in this course are
Exercises of this course are
Assignments of this course are
Evaluation methods of this course
are
Materials used in this course are
2=not effective
4
3
1=useless
2
1
Teacher evaluation
1. What did you like the most about this course?
2. Please comment on the instructor
3. What was the most interesting/useful thing you learned in this course?
4. Which of the classroom activities you found most engaging and useful?
5. What are your suggestions on improving the instructor’s teaching?
f. Consideration of Resources and Constraints
This course will be given on campus, so I can expect the usage of
computer to access to website, the projector to make my presentation
clearer to students, and blackboard to make illustration of my points of
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view.
Since most of my students will be university students or university
graduates students who have experienced high education, I won’t be
worried about their ability to use modern techniques to complete this
course, and actually it is required for them to know how to use those
techniques for better service their students in the future, such as the
ability to search for information online, design PowerPoint, pose
questions and submit assignments online. As for the constraint, I’m
afraid that since this is a course designed for professional purposes,
some of my students might have this course while work during daytime,
which means they don’t have enough time spent on doing my
assignments. So I will consider different situations individually.
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Course Syllabus
Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
A Training Course for Teaching Chinese in State College
Spring 2013
Class time: Tues and Thurs
7:00-8:00pm (for 2 months)
Tel: 814-777-5916
Office: Department of Applied
Linguistics, Spark30*
Cheng Li, Instructor
Classroom: Hammond Build
305
Email: cxl478@psu.edu
Office Hour: Weds
3:00-4:30pm
Course Description
Through lectures, discussions, teaching demonstrations and a variety of
language teaching related activities, pre-service and in-service Chinese
language teachers will gain professional knowledge on teaching Chinese
language, such as criteria for effective lesson planning, preparation for
teaching materials, teaching methodologies, the use of technology in the
classroom, and criteria and methods for assessment.
Course Goals and Objectives
1. Mastery of some English vocabularies and expressions frequently
used in classroom situation.
2. Familiarity with different teaching methods.
3. Mastery of the process of teaching Chinese listening, speaking,
reading, writing, and grammar separately.
4. Familiarity with the ways of how to evaluate and assess students’
learning progress.
5. Mastery of the methods to design activities and exercises.
Reading Materials
Required Text Book:
• Fu, Haiyan (2007). Chinese Essentials: What and How to Teach and
Learn in K-12 Chinese Classrooms. Beijing Language and Cultural
University, China.
• Everson, Michael & Xiao, Yun (2008). Teaching Chinese as a Foreign
Language. Cheng& Tsui
This book will be published in June, 2008. Now it is on re-order sale.
Click the following URL to get information
http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/teacher_education_chines
e_foreign_language
Recommended Books:
• Hadly, Omaggio (2004). Teaching Language in Context (3rd edition).
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• Shrum, Judith & Glisan, Eileen (2005). Teacher’s Handbook:
Contextualized Language Instruction (3rd Edition).
Policies
Late Work
All assignments are expected on the due date. If you are unable to meet
specific deadlines please discuss this with the instructors at least a day
ahead to receive extension. Otherwise late work will not be accepted.
Attendance
You are expected to fully participate in every class session. Unexcused
absences or tardy will be calculated into your points. If you will be late or
absences please inform the instructor so that an excused absence and/or
tardy can be issued.
Class Demeanor Courtesy
Because students may not share the same opinions on different topics in
this class, it is important that we remember to respect the opinion and
ideas of others. We expect all students to show respect and courtesy for
all members of this class at all times.
Assessment and Evaluation
Attendance and class participation 10%
Weekly assignments 50%
Practice teaching 40%
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Course Schedule
Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language
A Training Course for Teaching Chinese in State College
1.1
Topic Introduction
Objectives 1. Break the ice, and students and teacher will
get to know each other.
2. Give students an introduction of this course.
3. Arouse students’ interest in learning how to
teach Chinese.
4. Get some background information about
students.
Activity Watch a video and make students summarize
the traditional Chinese teaching methodology
1.2
Topic Methods of teaching Chinese as a foreign
language
Objectives 1. Students will have a basic knowledge of
teaching methods of foreign language in a
historical overview.
2. Students will know the differences between
these teaching methods, and will have the ability
to choose the right ones when teaching Chinese.
2.1
Activity Practice teaching by using a proper teaching
method
Topic Utilizing teaching aids and selecting teaching
materials
Objectives 1. Bring some teaching aids to students and
explain how to use them.
2. Students will know the principles for selecting
and developing instructional materials
Activity
2.2
Bring some teaching materials and make
students classify them by different teaching
purpose, and give their reasons.
Topic Criteria and method for assessment
Objectives 1. Students will be introduced about some basic
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knowledge of the criteria for assessment
2. Students will grasp several methods for
assessment.
Activity Divide students into groups and make each
group discuss and present a method to assess
one specific course.
3.1
Topic How to teach Chinese tones/pronunciation
Objectives 1. Help students review their previous
knowledge of Chinese pronunciation, such as
Pinyin and tones.
2. Give them systematical information about
Chinese pronunciation.
3.2
Activity Make students work in pair to discuss and
practice to each other the best way they think to
teach Chinese pronunciation.
Topic How to teach Chinese characters
Objectives 1. Students will get to know the basic
information about Chinese characters.
2. Students will grasp some methods to teach
Chinese characters and design their own
methods.
4.1
Activity Give students some Chinese characters and ask
them to come up with stories, to make their
teaching more creative and interesting.
Topic How to teach Chinese culture
Objectives 1. Familiarize students with some common
Chinese culture knowledge, and help them make
their known knowledge more systematic.
2. Give students some examples to show them
how to illustrate Chinese cultures, which is
totally different from Western ones.
Activity Divide students into groups and give each group
a traditional topic of Chinese culture, like
Chinese festivals, Chinese folk stories, and make
them to think of a good way to teach that topic.
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4.2
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Topic How to teach Chinese grammar
Objectives 1. Students will know some basic information
about Chinese grammar.
2. Students will learn some methods to teach
Chinese grammar.
3. Some examples of ways of making grammar
teaching more interesting will be taught to
students.
Activity Discuss with partners about how to help
Chinese learners master the grammatical points.
5.1
Topic How to teach Chinese listening
Objectives 1. Students will be introduced about some
formats of listening comprehension.
2. Students will learn how to combine the task
of speaking with listening.
5.2
Activity Discuss with group members, and prepare two
listening activities.
Topic How to teach Chinese speaking
Objectives 1. Some techniques for teaching speaking will be
introduced to students, such as personalized
questions, word associations, group puzzles,
debates, and storytelling.
2. Familiarize students with some example
speaking materials for Chinese learners, make
them know how to use them
6.1
Activity Present one way of teaching Chinese speaking
as group work.
Topic How to teach Chinese reading
Objectives 1. Students will know some ways of reading,
such us scanning, skimming, and total
comprehension, and know the differences
between them.
2. Students will know the different ways to
teach reading to Chinese learners in different
levels.
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6.2
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Activity Give students two pieces of reading material,
one for intensive reading, and one for extensive
reading. Ask students how would they teach
Chinese learners? What would they do to check
their students’ comprehension?
Topic How to teach Chinese writing
Objectives 1. Students will learn the different tasks about
writing, such as description with visuals, peer
editing, extensive note-taking, and dialogue
journals.
2. Students will be taught about some methods
to teach Chinese writing.
Activity Divide students into groups, and each group will
be asked to think about and present one writing
activity to task one technique in writing.
7.1
Topic Designing classroom activities
Objectives 1. Students will realize the importance of
classroom activities in Chinese teaching.
2. Students will master the procedure to design
an effective activity.
3. Students will grasp several frequently used
activities in Chinese classroom.
7.2
Activity Divide students into 3 to 4 groups, and each
group will be given a topic to teach, basing on
that topic, they will design an activity to teach.
Topic
Designing Lesson Plan
Objectives 1. Students will learn basic components of a
lesson plan.
2. Students will be able to create a lesson plan
of the course they would like to teach.
3. Students will learn some common
expressions used in Chinese classrooms and
think about some expressions by themselves.
Activity Students will brainstorm a specific Chinese
course they would like to teach, and discuss
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8.1
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with their partner about one part of lesson plan
for this course, such as teaching objectives,
teaching materials, evaluation method, etc.
Topic Current trends of language teaching
Objectives Students will know some information including
the followings: National Standards for Foreign
Language Education, what are included in the
Chinese standards, what are the 5 Cs
(Communication, Cultures, Comparisons,
Connections, Communities), how they are
related to Chinese language instruction, What
the three modes (Interpretive, Interpersonal
and Presentational) are.
8.2
Topic Classroom observation and practice of a real
teaching
Objectives 1. Students will have an opportunity to practice
what they have learned to real teaching.
2. After the real teaching, students will find the
gap between the theory and practice, and also
find their problems in teaching.
Activity Students will share with their classmates about
what they learned during the real teaching, also
get some advice if they have some confusions in
their teaching.
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Lesson Plan 1.1
Introduction
A. Objectives:
1. Break the ice, and students and teacher will get to know each other.
2. Give students an introduction of this course.
3. Arouse students’ interest in learning how to teach Chinese.
4. Get some background information about students, such as their English
proficiency, their teaching experience by questionnaire.
B. Lesson Overview:
1. Teacher and students’ introduction
2. Course information: course goals, objectives, and students expectations
3. Basic information about teaching Chinese as a foreign language
4. Activities for breaking ice and arousing interest in teaching
C. Materials and Tools:
1. Blackboard and chalk: for students to present their concepts of teaching
Chinese as a foreign language.
2. PowerPoint: for teacher to introduce this course about its objectives,
syllabus, evaluation, and requirements, as well as to give students some
basic information about teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
3. Handouts of some abbreviation vocabularies about teaching Chinese as
a foreign language.
4. Video clips for classroom activities.
Traditional Chinese Teaching Methodology
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlCJGQZkwM.
5. Questionnaire to get students’ background.
D. Instruction:
Topic
Procedure
Ice
break
Teacher and students introduce themselves briefly to
activities
the whole class.
(15-20
minutes)
Then teacher will divide the students into groups of four
or five people by having them number off. Tell the newly
formed groups that their assignment is to find ten things
they have in common, with every other person in the
group. This helps the group explore shared interests
more broadly. Tell the groups that one person must take
notes and be ready to read their list to the whole group
upon completion of the assignment. Ask for a volunteer
to read their whole list of things in common first. Then,
ask each group to share their whole list with the whole
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group. Because people are your best source for laughter
and fun, the reading of the lists always generates a lot of
laughter and discussion. This team building icebreaker
takes 10 – 15 minutes, depending on the number of
groups. To keep the activity to ten minutes, after seven
minutes of brainstorming together, tell the groups that
the lists they have created are perfect, no matter how
many items they have.
Course
information
(10 minutes)
Basic
information
about
teaching
Chinese as a
foreign
language
(10 minutes)
Video
watching
and
activities
(15minutes)
Questionnai
re
(5 minutes)
Teacher first presents the course objectives and syllabus,
and then students will be welcome to have a discussion
of what they expect to learn from this course, why they
would like to learn this course and why they want to
teach Chinese in the future.
Provide students some basic information about teaching
Chinese as a foreign language, such as its history,
difficulty, current situation, and future development.
Watch video
Methodology
of
Traditional
Chinese
Teaching
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udlCJGQZkwM.
Make students summarize the traditional Chinese
teaching methodology mentioned by the author, and
express their own opinions.
Guide students to complete background information,
and answer their questions about this course.
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Lesson Plan 1.2
Methods of teaching Chinese as a foreign language
A. Objectives:
1. Students will have a basic knowledge of teaching methods of foreign
language in a historical overview.
2. Students will know the differences between these teaching methods,
and will have the ability to choose the right ones when teaching Chinese.
B. Lesson Overview:
1. Present the knowledge of foreign language teaching methods, and
discuss the advantages and disadvantages of them.
2. Teaching method activity.
C. Materials and tools:
1. PowerPoint will be used to illustrate the teaching methods of foreign
language teaching.
2. Handout of information found online:
Methodologies in Foreign Language Teaching
http://www.linguatics.com/methods.htm
3. Video clip:
Accelerated Learning for Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWI2xwglWA
D. Instructions:
Topic
Procedure
Methodolo
Teacher presents students a brief historical overview of
gies in
methodologies in foreign language teaching by
Foreign
PowerPoint, and asks students what their understanding
Language
of these methods is. Methodologies in Foreign Language
Teaching
Teaching http://www.linguatics.com/methods.htm
( 25minute)
Then teacher show a video clip to students Accelerated
Learning for Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWI2xwglWA
And asks students to summarize then main features of
this kind of leaning method.
Discussion Based on the information above, students have had a
(10 minutes) basic knowledge of methodology of second language
teaching, but it is more important for them to know how
to use them in real teaching, or recognize which foreign
language teaching methods can be best used in teaching
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Activities
(25minutes)
20
Chinese. So they will be asked to discuss the questions in
the following: What are the advantages and disadvantages
of these language teaching methods? Which methods do
you think can be best used to teach Chinese, and which
ones are not? Why do you think so?
Students will be divided into 3-4 groups, and each group
will be given a topic to practice teaching, like number
from 1 to 10, how to say a week from Monday to Sunday.
Each group will choose a teaching method which they
think is suitable to the content they teach, and before
presenting their teaching, they should give others reasons
why they think that kind of teaching method is useful for
their topic.
Related materials
An approach is a set of assumptions about the nature of language and
language learning, but does not involve procedure or provide any details
about how such assumptions should translate into the classroom setting.
Such can be related to theory.
There are three principal "approaches”:
The structural view treats language as a system of structurally related
elements to code meaning (e.g. grammar).
The functional view sees language as a vehicle to express or accomplish a
certain function, such as requesting something.
The interactive view sees language as a vehicle for the creation and
maintenance of social relations, focusing on patterns of moves, acts,
negotiation and interaction found in conversational exchanges. This
approach has been fairly dominant since the 1980s.
A method is a plan for presenting the language material to be learned
and should be based upon a selected approach. In order for an approach
to be translated into a method, an instructional system must be designed
considering the objectives of the teaching/learning, how the content is to
be selected and organized, the types of tasks to be performed, the roles of
students and the roles of teachers.
Examples of structural methods are grammar translation and the method.
Examples of functional methods include the oral approach / situational
language teaching. Examples of interactive methods include the direct
method, the series method, communicative language teaching, language
immersion, the Silent Way, the Natural Approach, Total Physical
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Response, Teaching Proficiency through Reading and Storytelling and
Dogme language teaching.
A technique (or strategy) is a very specific, concrete stratagem or trick
designed to accomplish an immediate objective. Such are derived from the
controlling method, and less directly, from the approach.
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Lesson Plan 3.1
Teaching Chinese tones/pronunciation
A. Objectives
1. Help students review their previous knowledge of Chinese
pronunciation, such as Pinyin and tones.
2. Give them systematical information about Chinese pronunciation.
A. Lesson overview
1. Presentation of basic information about Chinese pronunciation.
2. Improve students’ awareness of significance of Chinese dialects.
3. Activity to practice teaching Chinese pronunciation.
B. Materials and tools
1. Handout of information about Chinese pronunciation.
2. PowerPoint used to illustrate Romanization system, Chinese dialects,
and Chinese pronunciation.
C. Instruction
Topic
Romanization
system
(10 minutes)
Chinese dialects
(15 minutes)
Procedure
Provide students information of Romanization
system, and ask them to think about the advantages
and disadvantages of it.
Present students about different dialects in China,
and make them aware of the great influence of their
own dialects will be on their students when they
teach Chinese.
Particularly, an important dialect in China will be
introduced: Cantonese, since there are Chinese
learners preferring to learn Cantonese rather than
Mandarin.
Watch a video about differences between Mandarin
and Cantonese
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfCqUx-c-ig
Chinese
pronunciation
(20 minutes)
Familiarize students with three main parts about
Chinese pronunciation: a) Initials, Medials, Finals;
b) Combinations; c) Tones.
Present students about information of Pinyin
systematically, although most Chinese could
recognize it now, they might be not able to
illustrate the whole system exactly since they
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Activities
(15 minutes)
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learned it long time ago when they were little
children.
Make students work in pair to discuss and practice
to each other the best way they think to teach
Chinese pronunciation.
Related material
Here is a chart of the 37 sounds of Mandarin
http://mandarin.about.com/od/pronunciation/a/How-To-Pronounce-Ma
ndarin-Chinese.htm
Pinyin
Explanation
similar to 'b' in the English 'boat' - softened
b
to approach a 'p' sound
similar to 'p' in the English 'top' - with
p
more aspiration
m
same as 'm' in the English 'mat'
f
same as 'f' in the English 'fat'
similar to 'd' in the English 'down' d
softened to approach a 't' sound
similar to 't' in the English 'top' - with more
t
aspiration
n
similar to 'n' in the English 'name'
l
similar to 'l' in the English 'look'
similar to 'g' in the English 'go' - softened to
g
approach a 'k' sound
similar to 'k' in the English 'kiss' - with
k
more aspiration
similar to 'h' in the English 'hope' - with a
h
slight rasp as in 'loch'
similar to 'j' in the English 'jeep' - tongue is
j
positioned below lower teeth
similar to 'ch' in the English 'cheap' q
tongue is positioned below lower teeth
similar to 'sh' in the English 'sheep' x
tongue is positioned below lower teeth
zh
similar to 'j' in the English 'jam'
ch
similar to 'ch' in the English 'cheap'
sh
similar to 'sh' in the English 'ship'
r
similar to 'z' in the English 'azure'
z
same as 'ds' in the English 'woods'
c
similar to 'ts' in the English 'bits'
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s
(y)i
(w)u
yu
a
(w)o
e
(y)e
ai
ei
ao
ou
an
en
ang
eng
er
similar to 's' in the English 'see'
similar to 'ee' in the English 'bee'
similar to 'oo' in the English 'room'
purse your lips and position the tongue
high and forwards
similar to 'ah' in the English 'Ah-hah!'
similar to 'or' in the English 'bore'
similar to 'er' in the English 'hers'
similar to the English 'Yay!'
similar to the English 'eye'
similar to 'ei' in the English 'weigh'
similar to 'au' in the English 'sauerkraut'
similar to 'ou' in the English 'dough'
similar to 'an' in the English 'fan'
similar to 'un' in the English 'under'
a Mandarin 'a' followed by the 'ng' sound
like in the English 'sing'
a Mandarin 'e' followed by the 'ng' sound
like in the English 'sing'
a Mandarin 'e' with the tongue curled back
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26
Lesson Plan 3.2
Teaching Chinese characters
A. Objectives
1. Students will get to know the basic information about Chinese
characters.
2. Students will grasp some methods to teach Chinese characters and
design their own methods.
B. Lesson overview
1. Introduce basic information about Chines characters
2. Present students some methods to teach Chinese characters, and give
them examples to illustrate these methods.
3. Guide students to make use of some teaching methods to better
illustrate the process of teaching Chinese characters.
C. Materials and tools
1. Handout of information about introduction to the principles underlying
our Chinese Character Course http://remembr.it/learn-chinese-characters.htm
2. Video clip: The story of Chinese character ren
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIj9N2313w
3. PowerPoint to illustrate story-telling method.
D. Instruction
Topic
Procedure
Introductio Give students some information about Chinese
n of
characters, and help them figure out the questions like:
Chinese
What system to teach-traditional or simplified? When to
characters introduce characters? How to help students memorize
(20minutes) characters?
I will use the information found online to illustrate some
feature of teaching Chinese characters: Learn Chinese
Characters An introduction to the principles underlying
our Chinese Character Course
http://remembr.it/learn-chinese-characters.htm
Visual
Method
(10 minutes)
Show students the video of:
The story of Chinese character 人
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIj9N2313w
Story-tellin
g method
Make them realize the advantage of visual method to
teach Chinese characters.
Introduce students to the story-telling method to help
Chinese learners write the Chinese characters:
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(10minutes)
27
Most Chinese characters have a "radical"plus some other
"parts" or "components". The stories were created by
combining (1) the "meaning" of the Chinese character,
and (2) the"radical" and (3) all the other "parts" of the
character.
Upon telling the story, Chinese learners can remember
how to write the character immediately, even though it
may have up to 20 strokes. This story-telling method
really works. Even students who could not write before
were able to after hearing the stories.
Activities
(20minutes)
Give students some characters and ask them to come up
with stories.
Related materials
http://remembr.it/learn-chinese-characters.htm
Focus on Basic Components
To teach Chinese Characters, you should start with the most basic
components first. Although Chinese Characters are written as a series of
strokes, they are more logically thought of as consisting of one or more
basic components. So before students try to remember more complex
characters they must first make sure they have a good grasp of the basic
components.
As mis-recognising characters is a major problem for beginning students,
teachers should start by focusing on making sure students can distinguish
similar looking basic components. Beginning students for example might
not realize that the characters mù and ěr here are actually two different
characters, not the same character written differently.
Likewise, the difference between these characters is subtle but very
important so it’s useful to see them all together and to study them all at
the same time.
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28
These characters are also easily confused and teachers need to make sure
students get passed that confusion as early as possible.
Learn Characters as Part of Their Phonetic Series
Once students have a good grasp of the basic components they can start
looking at characters that share a common phonetic root (ie. sound the
same or similar). Using the picto-phonetic method these characters are
easy to remember and by grouping those like this student can learn whole
groups of characters at a time.
Sometimes the picto-phonetic methods works really well, like in these
characters that are all based on the character fāng.
Other times like you have seen it works well although there is some
phonetic drift.
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29
Characters Together
Finally, students should also study easily confused characters together.
These characters for example have no real relationship to each other.
However, they are likely to be confused with each other by beginning
students. Learning them together helps students differentiate between
them so that they won’t confuse later on.
As you can see, the order in which students learn Chinese Characters is
going to make a big difference in how quickly they can learn them.
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Lesson Plan 7.1
Designing classroom activities
A. Objectives
1. Students will realize the importance of classroom activities in Chinese
teaching.
2. Students will master the procedure to design an effective activity.
3. Students will grasp several frequently used activities in Chinese
classroom.
B. Lesson overview
1. Introduction of classroom activities about its role and the procedures to
design classroom activities.
2. Illustrate several effective activities in Chinese classroom.
3. Activities to arouse students’ creativeness to design effective classroom
activities.
C. Materials and tools
1. PowerPoint to introduce basic information about designing classroom
activities.
2. Handouts of steps to design classroom activities, and effective
classroom activities examples.
D. Instruction
Topic
Introduction of
classroom
activities
(10 minutes)
Example
activities used
when teaching
Chinese
(25 minutes)
Activities
(25minutes)
Procedure
Give students some basic information about classroom
activities, such as the importance of classroom
activities, the steps of how to design a classroom
activity.
Introduce some interesting and effective activities in
Chinese learning classrooms. See the materials below.
Instruct students to play some of these games
together, to experience the role of activities.
Divide students into 3 to 4 groups, and each group will
be given a topic to teach, basing on that topic, they will
design an activity to teach.
Related materials
1. How to Design Classroom Activities
http://www.ehow.com/how_7858098_design-classroom-activities.html
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Instructions
1. Focus activities around your standards. If an activity isn't reinforcing a
standard, then it may not be very useful.
2. Address multiple learning styles within your activities. Students learn in
a variety of different ways. The more learning styles you address, the
greater likelihood that you will be able to convey the concepts that you are
teaching. Design activities that allow students can engage all of their
senses.
3. Use strategies that can be evaluated for student understanding. When
students participate in a classroom activity observe their participation and
gauge whether or not they comprehend the material.
4. Plan activities that are appropriate for students' ages and ability levels.
If your activity is too easy, your students may become bored. If it is too
difficult, they may grow frustrated.
5. Design activities that move toward higher levels of learning. Bloom's
Taxonomy illustrates various levels of comprehension. While
remembering facts may be important at times, analyzing, evaluating and
creating are more complex forms of learning.
2. Project for Developing Chinese Language Teachers New York
University
A. around the world (环游世界) by Lu Li
This is my students’ favorite game to play. Everyone gets a chance to play
in the game. It integrates learning with fun and competition. The game
can be used for a variety of purposes. The example I am giving here is for
reviewing characters.
Procedure:
1
6
2
7
3
4
8
5
9
10
1. S1 leaves his seat and stands besides S2. T shows the 1st character,
whoever gets it right moves to standing besides S3.
2. It continues in this way until somebody goes back to his own seat,
meaning that he has gone “around the world”！
B. Hitting game by Amy Chau
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Procedure: This can be a small or big group activity (2-6). Each group
receives a set of cards, containing either pictures or Chinese
characters. All cards are spread on desk face up. Each time, the teacher
calls out a name of the picture or Chinese character, the students hit the
card. Whoever hits the right card first, the person will keep the card until
the turn is over. At the end, the students are encouraged to count the
cards that he or she wins in Chinese, and records the score. The person
earns the highest score will be the winner.
Materials: small cards with either pictures or Chinese characters.
C. Character stroke relay race by Mary Ma (Fieldston)
1. Divide class into 2-3 groups, with each group 6-8 persons
2. Each group stands in line, away from blackboard/whiteboard several
feet
3. Name a character and start the relay
4. Each member writes one stroke then passes the chalk/market to the
next one
5. Whichever team finishes the character gets one point
6. Keep practicing 3-5 characters then calculate the points
7. The team with most points is the winner
D. Hangman--Pinyin Word Game by Pinying Yeh
Hangman is a paper and pencil guessing game for two or more players.
One player thinks of a Chinese word and the other tries to guess it by
suggesting Pinyin (letters) and tone marks.
Procedure: The word to guess is represented by a row of dashes, giving
the number of letters. If the guessing player suggests a letter which occurs
in the word, the other player writes it in all its correct positions. If the
suggested letter does not occur in the word, the other player draws one
element of the hangman diagram as a tally mark. The game is over when:
The guessing player completes the word, or guesses the whole word
correctly.
The other player completes the diagram:
This diagram is, in fact, designed to look like a hanging man. Although
debates have arisen about the questionable taste of this picture, it is still in
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33
use today. A common alternative for teachers of young learners is to draw
an apple tree with ten apples, erasing or crossing out the apples as the
guesses are used up.
The exact nature of the diagram differs; some players draw the gallows
before play and draw parts of the man's body (traditionally the head, then
the torso, then the left arm, then the right arm, then the left leg, then the
right leg).
Some players begin with no diagram at all, and drawing the individual
elements of the gallows as part of the game, effectively giving the guessing
players more chances.
Materials: blackboard and chalk, or paper and pencil
E. Quick Story by Lei Tang
Steps:
1. The teacher prepares in advance some topics (e.g. words the students
have learned recently) and writes them down, one topic per sheet.
2. The teacher assigns a number to each student and writes each number
down on a separate sheet. The lass are divided into two teams, the
odd-number team and the even-number team.
3. The teacher puts three piles of paper on the table: one pile for topics,
one pile for odd numbers, and one pile for even numbers.
4. The teacher draws a sheet from the topic pile, shows it to the students,
and asks them to think of three sentences about the topics. After a few
seconds, the teacher then draws a number from the odd-number pile. The
student whose number is drawn must immediately say his/her sentence
s/he says, the team earns two points. If that student says nothing, but
other members of her/his team do have something to say, they can do so,
with the team receiving on point for each correct sentence.
5. The teacher then draws another topic and an even number, and the
other team takes its turn to get some points.
The game ends when all the expressions are used or when the
predetermined time is up. The team with the most points is the winner.
F. What Could the Question Be? By Lei Tang
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Steps:
1. The teacher devises a two-person dialogue in Chinese (either Pinyin or
characters) in which speaker A asks ten questions and speaker B gives ten
answers to those questions. The teacher then prepares a handout on
which only speaker B's answers appear.
2. The teacher distributes the handouts and gives the students from five to
ten minutes to "create" a dialogue based on the answers given.
3. The teacher can either grade the student-devised dialogues outside of
class or have several students read their dialogues aloud, with the whole
class correcting and commenting on the questions.
3. The students who prepare the best dialogue are the winner.
G.
Passing the Message by Lei Tang
Steps:
1. The teacher selects a sentence (at the students' proficiency level) and
whispers it into the ear of the first player, making sure that no other
player can hear it.
2. The first player then whispers the sentence s/he heard to the second
player, and so on.
3. After hearing the sentence, the last player says it aloud so that everyone
can hear it. The teacher then says the original sentence aloud.
4. The fun part of this game is that, after passing through several mouths,
the last sentence is often quite different from the original one.
H. Speedy Character Game by Lynn Lin
This game is designed for middle school to high school or students who
are learning to write characters to practice character writing and
recognition.
Materials: Blackboard or dry erase board with makers or chalk.
Procedures: After studying vocabulary from a new lesson you can play
this easy game with them.
Divide students into two groups. (This part is a bit tricky, as we all know
not all students are at the same levels, so you may want to keep the teams
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35
“fair” by putting students of all levels in each group. This is also important
because if one group is obviously more dominant in writing, then the
other team will most likely give up, very easily)
Prior to playing, you may want students to review their characters, or go
over the characters with them so it’s relatively fresh in their minds.
Assign each student in teach team a number 1-10 or however many
students there are.
Tell students the Rules
RULES:
Each student will go against the other student with the same number, 1
vs1, 2vs 2s etc. Each student has 10 seconds or LESS to write the
CORRECT character(s) and pinyin on the board. Point will be awarded to
the student who is both correct and fast. The team with the most points
wins the game. Remind students that it’s about team work.
Teacher will call out different vocabulary and two students will be at the
board writing. If there’s some sort of “he said she said” it’s up to the entire
class to decide who will receive the point. If they cannot come to an
agreement then the teacher can just call out a new word to “make up” for
that turn.
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Lesson Plan 7.2
Designing Lesson Plan
A. Objectives
1. Students will learn basic components of a lesson plan.
2. Students will be able to create a lesson plan of the course they would
like to teach.
3. Students will learn some common expressions used in Chinese
classrooms and think about some expressions by themselves.
B. Lesson Overview
1. Introduce the components of a lesson plan and the procedure to design
a lesson plan.
2. Activity to make students brainstorm a lesson plan.
3. Present students some frequently used classroom expressions.
C. Materials and tools:
1. PowerPoint to introduce basic information about lesson plan
2. Handouts of components of a lesson plan, and classroom expressions.
3. Blackboard and chalk for activities.
D. Instruction
Topic
Lesson Plan
(15minutes)
Activity
(20 minutes)
Classroom
expressions in
both
English
and Chines
Procedure
Provide students some basic information about lesson
plan, such as how to develop a lesson plan, what a
well-developed lesson plan is like, how to set an
objective, how to select lesson plan material, and type
of assignments.
Students will brainstorm a specific Chinese course
they would like to teach, and discuss with their partner
about one part of lesson plan for this course, such as
teaching objectives, teaching materials, evaluation
method, etc.
Provide students some expressions used in Chinese
classroom. Ask them to read after teacher, to imitate
the procedure of familiarizing Chinese learners of
frequently used classroom expressions.
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37
(10 minutes)
Activity
(15minutes)
Students will be asked to think about more
expressions used in Chinese classroom, and share
them first with their partners, then practice on their
classmates to examine if there is any problem of the
expressions they wrote.
Related materials
While there are many formats for a lesson plan, most lesson plans contain
some or all of these elements, typically in this order:

Title of the lesson

Time required to complete the lesson

List of required materials

List of objectives, which may be behavioral objectives (what the
student can do at lesson completion) or knowledge objectives (what the
student knows at lesson completion)

The set (or lead-in, or bridge-in) that focuses students on the
lesson's skills or concepts—these include showing pictures or models,
asking leading questions, or reviewing previous lessons

An instructional component that describes the sequence of events
that make up the lesson, including the teacher's instructional input and
guided practice the students use to try new skills or work with new ideas

Independent practice that allows students to extend skills or
knowledge on their own

A summary, where the teacher wraps up the discussion and
answers questions

An evaluation component, a test for mastery of the instructed
skills or concepts—such as a set of questions to answer or a set of
instructions to follow

A risk assessment where the lesson's risks and the steps taken to
minimize them are documented.

Analysis component the teacher uses to reflect on the lesson itself
—such as what worked, what needs improving

A continuity component reviews and reflects on content from the
previous lesson
Expressions in Chinese class 汉语课堂用语
qǐnɡ dǎ kāi dì sān kè
请
打 开 第 三 课
Please open lesson 3
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Cheng Candice Li
qǐnɡ fān dào dì sì yè
请
翻 到 第 四 页
Please turn over to page 4
wǒ men xiān lái xué xí shēnɡ cí
我 们 先
来 学 习 生
词
Let’s start with the new words
xiàn zài wǒ men xué xí zhè yí kè de yú fǎ
现
在 我 们 学 习 这 一 课 的 语 法
Now we’re learning the grammar of this lesson
qǐnɡ xiān ɡēn wǒ dú yí biàn
请
先
跟 我 读 一 遍
Please read after me once first
qǐnɡ ɡēn wǒ dú
请
跟 我 读
Please read after me
nǐ nénɡ xiān dú yí biàn zhè ɡe duì huà mɑ ？
你 能
先
读 一 遍
这 个 对 话 吗 ？
Could you please read this dialogue first?
nǐ nénɡ bǎ zhè ɡe duì huà xiān dú yí biàn mɑ ？
你 能
把 这 个 对 话 先
读 一 遍
吗 ？
Could you please read this dialogue first?
wǒ méi tīnɡ dǒnɡ zhè jù huà
我 没 听
懂
这 句 话
I don’t understand this sentence
nǐ nénɡ zài shuō yī biàn mɑ ？
你 能
再 说
一 遍 吗 ？
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Could you repeat it again? Pardon me?
qǐnɡ zài shuō yī biàn
请
再 说
一 遍
Pardon me?
xiàn zài rànɡ wǒ men lái jiě shì zhè ɡe duì huà ，
现
在 让
我 们 来 解 释 这 个 对 话 ，
Now let’s explain this dialogue,
nǐ nénɡ yònɡ “ dānɡ rán ” zào jù mɑ ？
你 能
用
“ 当
然 ” 造 句 吗 ？
Could you use “dang ran” to make up a sentence?
xiàn zài ， wǒ men kāi shǐ zuò jué sè bàn yǎn 。
现
在 ， 我 们 开 始 做 角 色 扮 演 。
Now, let’s do the role paly
wǒ jǔ ɡè lì zi
我 举 个 例 子
I’ll make up a sentence, I’ll give an example
duì bù qǐ ， wǒ dǎ duàn yí xià ！
对 不 起 ， 我 打 断
一 下 ！
Excuse me for interrupting!
duì bù qǐ ， wǒ yǒu yí wèn
对 不 起 ， 我 有 疑 问
Excuse me, I got a question
qǐnɡ wèn ， “ shǒu dū ” shì shén me yì si ？
请
问 ， “ 首
都 ” 是 什
么 意 思 ？
Excuse me, what does “shou du” mean?
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40
hái jì dé “ shǒu dū ” shì shén me yì si mɑ ？
还 记 得 “ 首
都 ” 是 什
么 意 思 吗 ？
Do you still remember what “shou dou” means?
rànɡ wǒ men xiū xi 10 fēn zhōnɡ
让
我 们 休 息 10 分 钟
Let’s take a break for 10 minutes.
10 fēn zhōnɡ hòu jiàn ！
10 分 钟
后 见
！
See you 10 minutes later
jīn tiān wǒ men xiān jiǎnɡ dào zhè ér
今 天
我 们 先
讲
到 这 儿
Let’s call it today
zhè yí kè wǒ men hái méi yǒu jiǎnɡ wán ， xià cì wǒ men jiē zhe jiǎnɡ
这 一 课 我 们 还 没 有 讲
完 ，下 次 我 们 接 着 讲
We haven’t finished this lesson, let’s continue it next time
qǐnɡ xià kè hòu ， zì jǐ chōu shí jiān duō fù xí yí xià
请
下 课 后 ， 自 己 抽
时 间
多 复 习 一 下
Please take some time to review it by yourself after class