Chinese Class Plan

How Languages Are Meant to Be Learned traditional Language Education has failed Traditional language education is widely ineffective because it takes an academic, easily assessable, and easily testable approach. It traditionally focuses on teaching grammar first and then vocabulary—for the most part ignoring pronunciation and intonation. Students prepare to take tests that don’t assess their ability to use and apply language concepts. Instead, it tests their understanding of grammar concepts and vocabulary. Students often are unable to speak fluidly worrying about using correct grammar. They also speak with strong accents because they never learned proper pronunciation. This Writing causes the students to have little confidence in speaking the language they learned.

Reading

Learning Languages Naturally

The methods I have developed are based on my experience learning three foreign languages, including Chinese, and teaching ESL and Chinese. It is based on natural Listening learning methods or, in other words, how children learn their native language. Children learn first by listening and imitating the sounds they hear. It starts as baby talk and slowly develops into real words. It is only later that a child learns to read and write. As we grow and learn more, then our understanding of language becomes deeper, and we are able to speak, read, and write fluidly.

Speaking

So in my program, I teach pronunciation and intonation first using actual words to model correct pronunciation and intonation. This builds a good foundation for learning vocabulary words. Vocabulary words are likewise modeled in sentences thus building a foundation for sentence structures and gramGrammar mar. As pronunciation grows, so will vocabulary, and as vocabulary grows, so will grammar till the student masters the language. Sentence Structure The program starts with listening skills and then speaking. The speaking is modeled by first listening to correct speech and pronunciation. Reading and writing is taught so students can read the language they are learning and write the characters. This is especially important with

Vocabulary Pronunciation

Chinese because it has a complex writing system. Recognizing characters is the first step and also learning radicals and the pictures contained in the characters. As the st udents start to master character recognition, stroke order and writing will be taught. Creating a Foreign Language Environment (Immersion) Material in the lessons is learned best through the students’ ears because the students are able to retain the information better when the language is listened to. In addition, it teaches better listening comprehension and pronunciation. By listening to sentence and grammar structures often, students are able to recognize whether something sounds “right” rather than having to understand lots of rules to know what is correct. So the class will provide a lot of audio material so students can learn effectively.

Practice Makes Perfect Much like sports, when language skills are taught, they must be practiced not just once but over and over until mastered. Because of this, students will be required to do exercises daily during and after class. These exercises will require them to practice grammar, sentence structures, vocabulary, and even pronunciation. Line Upon Line

In learning a new language, review and repetition are essential. So that students retain new concepts and vocabulary, they will not only be introduced once, tested on, and then forgotten. Instead, after a new concept or vocabulary list is introduced, it will be reviewed multiple times. Then as new items are added to the lessons, these old items will continue to be included so that students do not forget them. Each time old items are reintroduced and pracThe best way to learn a language is by living in a ticed, they will be used in a different way so that country where that language is spoken and being students are not only forced to review them, but the students will also gain a better understanding immersed by it. But as that is not possible, the students will be required to immerse themselves of how they fit into the language overall. in the language by speaking it in class and listening to audio recordings daily.

Written by Jeremy Scott Peters Edited and Designed by Jillena O’Brien