International Mandarin Education: Teaching and Learning for non-academic purposes 非学历国际汉语教学的教与学

1. International Mandarin Education: Teaching and Learning for non-academic purposes非学历国际汉语教学的教与学 By Dr. Lily Chen University of Sheffield, UK 6 April 2019

2. 非学历国际汉语教学 • Non-degree • Non-certificate • Non-qualification • Non-curricular Students learn Chinese for business, for traveling, for ice breaking when meeting with Mandarin-speaking people, for the experience of learning a foreign language, for their interest in China/ Chinese culture, for fun…..

3. 非学历国际汉语教学的特点 The features of international Mandarin education for non-academic purposes： • Variety of learners:（motivation, level, age, educational background, etc.） • Limited contact hours （normally 1-2 hours a week; course length from one to three months to six months or a year） • No predesigned curriculum • Lack of appropriate textbooks or teaching materials • Almost no research can be found on teaching and learning for non academic purposes However, whatever the motivations for a learner to learn Chinese as a foreign language, if they are to be taught effectively they will still need to learn the language elements and language skills of the target language.

4. What do we teach in a TCFL class? 1 Characters and words • Learn about characters /words: • What a word means • How to say a word • How to write it • Strokes and radicals • Its use in context • Grammatical patterns

5. What to teach? 一般来说，一个词的学习有三个部分。每个词都有它的语意（its semantic meaning (lexical)），语法意义（its grammatical function and usage (grammatical)）和引申义（its rhetorical meaning (rhetorical)）。一个词的这三种意义既是分开又是相互联系的。 例如: 花 – 1.a)flower, blossom; b)Noun; c) rhetorical meaning as in ‘花一样的女孩儿’,‘火花’。 2.a) spend, expend, cost; b) Verb; c) rhetorical meaning as in ‘花了我一年的心血’。 Lily Chen 2008, 关于非学历对外汉语教学的几点思考 在谢大孔子学院中文教学研讨会上的发言

6. What to teach? 2 Language patterns • Groups of words: the combination, collocation of words etc • Grammatical patterns: Part of the speeches of words, different word orders (Subject, Predicate, Object) as well as marked Chinese word order. • Functions: Language grouped by what it’s used for. The ‘functions’ selected for study in TCFL coursebooks are often clusters of language different in forms but similar in purpose. 你好！吃了吗？遛弯儿呢？

7. Four stages of teaching new language patterns: 1) Exposure to language: • To ensure that students have the chance to meet new language, whether it consists of individual words, word groups, patterns within sentences or texts and talks we need to plan plenty of exposure so that students can encounter it in any or all of the following places: • In mini-context such as lists, at the back of coursebooks and their units, in their notebooks, spoken by the teacher or by fellow students • In short constructed spoken or written texts including one meaningful sentence or exchange, or other short texts deliberately under or just at the level of the students • In elaborated or supported texts, i.e. original authentic texts • In longer and in increasingly unsupported stretches of discourse • In a variety of channels such as radio, TV, films letters etc.

8. Four stages of teaching new language patterns: 2)Noticing: While working on words, groups of words, grammatical patterns and functions, plan to teach students how to notice their form, meaning and use. This will reinforce what is already happening at an unconscious level and also encourage students to branch out and do more learning on their own. It starts a useful habit. When planning your work on ‘noticing’, you‘ll need to include how things look, how they sound, what they mean and how they work in context. • Noticing form – The look • Noticing form – The sound • Noticing meaning e.g 他写得好吗？ Develop students’ awareness of all the above (how things are presented, how they sound, what they mean and how they work in context. Noticing form- the look, the sound, noticing meaning)

9. Four stages of teaching new language patterns: 3) Remembering (or Mental storage) • Repetition • Matching exercises • Grouping /ordering items • ……

10. Four stages of teaching new language patterns: 4)Use and refinement The fourth type of work you will need to plan is use and refinement. By trying to recall language and use it, learners will be able to gauge whether they have really noticed and learnt the form, meaning and use. If they find they have not, they can try to improve on all these points. • Tests • Writing, talks and presentations • Reading and listening comprehension • Rewriting or restating events, ideas, etc… • Personal reflection • …….

11. What to teach? 3 Language skills • Listening • Speaking • Reading • Writing • Literature • Culture

12. What to teach? • 3 Study skills • Organisation of time, place and materials • Ways of consulting reference works, e.g dictionaries and ways of using resource rooms and libraries • Knowing what’s required of you in a particular task, making decisions about what to work on, when and how • Preview, review and overview • Motivating yourself, improving your confidence, being active by asking questions • Assessing your own progress, the methods etc. (Tessa Woodward, 2001, Planning Lessons and Courses - Designing sequences of work for the language classroom CUP)

13. How to Teach? Setting up a course Setting up a new course implies a skilful blending of what is already known about language teaching and learning with the new elements that a group of learners inevitably bring to the classroom: their own needs, wants, attitudes, knowledge of the world, and so on. (Janice Yalden, 2000, Principles of Course Design for Language Teaching CUP

14. Where to get information about your students：from the sending institutions, past and present teachers, parents…What to know about the students: - The number of the students, - Names, - Sex ratio, - Age range, - Mother tongue, - Nationality, - What other language do they speak?- Target language level- Student perceptions of their own competence- Profession and/or interest- Books and materials already used- Learners’ target situation- Educational background - View of the course Who are the students?

15. How do students learn and so how can we teach?Four main ways students can learn and be taughtFinding out for yourself: In this way of learning there is a natural setting for the exposure to the new and the learner does the noticing, pretty much on their own.Things made plain: Things are plain when something is explained successfully.Periphery learning: In this type of encounter with new ideas, there is no conscious attempt by students to notice or learn anything. But after being exposed to new material, they find that they know it. For example, we all absorb music or lyrics without trying or remember advertising slogans without wanting to. Use and refinement: Using and refining what you’ve started to understand is also called ‘conscious practice’. It involves trying out any new understanding in increasingly varied contexts to check what has been learnt, its applicability and whether and fine-tuning or further learning is necessary.

16. Some common instructional sequences found in coursebooks and on teacher training courses- Test, teach, test- Pre-, in-, post-, stages for receptive skills- PPP ( Presentation, practice, production)- TBL (task-based learning)-......

17. What are our freedoms and constraints?Factors that we have to bear in mind when we plan lessons and coursesExternal variables: type of organisation, type of class, the unpredictability of working with people, …The internal variable: ourselves: strength and weakness in ourselves, ……(Tessa Woodward, 2001, Planning Lessons and Courses- Designing sequences of work for the language classroom CUP)

18. Thank you!谢谢!