Teaching Methods - in Chinese

[Harvey]

Hello everyone.

I went to a trial lesson at a local Chinese language class here in Japan, and it brought me a shocking reminder about something I have been taking for granted.

This class the teacher literally spent 85% of the time speaking in Japanese! The students hardly had a chance to speak! Even simple things like, "question #1 is... " would be said in Japanese. Ridiculous!

I really enjoy learning in classes in which the class is taught entirely in the target language. Even if it is a beginner class.

What schools do you guys know of in China that teach in this, total immersion fashion? I actually expected that they -all- would be, since they have international enrollement and not all students can be expected to speak English.

Any tips appreciated!

[盤古]

From my experience at BLCU, all classes (at least middle & upper level ones) are all taught in Chinese.

I honestly don't see how the classes could be taught in another language considering each student speaks a different language.

The textbooks BLCU uses only has definition for vocabulary in English and Japanese though, which I find quite strange as South Koreans make up a good portion of the students, I'm pretty sure more than Japanese students and probably more or at least the same as the number of English-speaking students.

[Zhende ma?]

Hey Harvey, glad to see you are taking your first steps! In China (at least universities) everything is in Chinese from the beginning. They can't assume Japanese/Koreans/Vietnamese etc. all speak English and they want to immerse you anyway. You'll get what you want (maybe too much!) The materials are in Chinese too though there can be English translation of vocabulary.

[Russ]

In the very beginning too? For a complete beginner?

[johnmck]

When I came to France I knew virtually no French and took a beginners course that was totally in French. I remember at first sitting in grammar classes not understanding one word that was said or written. Suprisingly it worked, although having some basic French beforehand would have been very useful.

[Harvey]

In the very beginning too? For a complete beginner?

Yeah! Trust me, it's the only way to go. I was in France for a bit as well and did Alliance Francias, they also do only French all the time for the lessons. It works! You end up making this face a lot at the beginning But after a few trials the stuff really sticks!

Glad to hear that all the courses in China are taught in the target language! Nice.

[Russ]

Hehe, sounds like an adventure.

Although I do agree with johnmck that having some basic Chinese beforehand would be very useful. I don't want to end up playing guessing game in class like we did in our Spanish beginner course .

[wix]

In the very beginning too? For a complete beginner?

When I studied for a certificate in Teaching English as a foreign language one of the most informative and useful learning experiences on the course was a Latvian lesson. The lesson lasted one hour and was conducted entirely in Latvian. It was amazing how even though no-one in the class knew a word of Latvian the teacher was able to effectively teach everyone a short conversation in Latvian.

When I went to Taiwan I was lucky to find a teacher who adapted ESL teaching methods to teaching Chinese. (She was an English teacher by profession). All the students in the class were also English teachers, so they understood the importance of speaking only Chinese in class. It was very difficult at times, but the results were fantastic!

Unfortunately teaching methodologies for Chinese remain stuck in the dark ages. Hopefully as the number of people learning Chinese as a second language increases over the next few years new teaching methods and materials will be developed.