The tide of globalization makes it essential for everybody riding the tide to pick up a second, or even a third, language. The advancement of information and communication technology is partly responsible for bringing the tide and it also changes the way a second language can be acquired. This forum invites learners and will-be-learners, experts and nonexperts, to present and discuss views on how is best to learn a second language in the 21st century and beyond.
Allen (2008) observed that up to 95% of Chinese writing is done electronically by Taiwanese. On the other hand, students, especially at the beginning level, hardly spend time on word processing because teachers require them to write their homework by hand. In Chinese culture, good handwriting skills are still held in high esteem, and a person’s handwriting is often linked to her or his character. But does that mean that students should sacrifice precious time to memorize characters, time that otherwise could be used in a better way? From my experience, there are three major ways of how teaching Chinese characters is implemented in Chinese classes. The classical method is to let students memorize the character of every word the student learns. Another approach is to divide words into those that students need to be able to write and those they only need to pronounce (that is, know their Pinyin). And finally, for students who only want to learn some basic conversation skills, characters are completely omitted. The goals of students and teachers should decide on how much time is to be spent on writing characters, one should not blindly follow a textbook or some outdated assumtions. I think that characters are a central part of the Chinese language, and not to learn how to write at all would be more a hindrance to achieve high proficiency. From my experience, I agree with Adam that learning to write radicals (部首) and components (部件) is very helpful to learn new characters, and that someone who is serious about learning Chinese should spend the time memorizing them.
Allen, Joseph (2008). Why Learning to Write Chinese Characters is a Waste of Time: A Modest Proposal. Foreign Language Annals. 41.2, 237-51.
In this paper, Schindelin describes six aspects of learning Chinese characters and ways to teach characters that go beyond simple memorization and repetitive writing. I will first summarize her main points and then give suggestions for further research.
What makes Chinese different from other L2s (from the perspective of a German native speaker) is the writing system. The complexity and large number of characters pose a big obstacle and reading and writing skills of advanced learners often stay behind their speaking and listening skills.
Schindelin identifies six aspects of learning Chinese characters: Motor aspect: Students need to learn the correct alignment and components of characters and how to fit them in a square. They need to train the control of their hand muscles, eye-hand coordination and graphic memory. Aspect of recognition: Recognition is important for the ability to read, but also to write in order to check if the character is written correctly. Aspect of information retrieval: For reading, lexical information, that is, the pronunciation and meaning, has to be activated. For writing, it is the activation of graphic information. The aspect of analysis is the identification of components and strokes. For reading, this means that a character can only be recognized if the components can be recognized; and for writing, characters can only be written if their components can be written. Phonemic aspect: Generating the correct pronunciation of the retrieved lexical information of a recognized character. Meta-language aspect: Theoretical knowledge of characters and the function of their components.
For teaching Chinese characters, she supports the mixing of characters and Pinyin (teaching only simple characters with high occurrence, all other words in Pinyin) and the teaching of oral and written skills simultaneously, but separated (splitting courses into oral and written classes in the beginner level) but dismisses the 語文並進 approach (simultaneous learning of pronunciation and writing of every word that appears in the textbook).
I don’t agree with the aspect of analysis, because, except for the beginning level, it is not necessary for reading English words to analyze every single letter. In fact, the word is recognized as a whole and omitted or exchanged letters often not noticed. This should be also true for reading Chinese characters if the same mental processes are involved. Secondly, I would have liked to read more about different strategies for L1 and L2 learners and if L1 strategies can be applied on L2 strategies. Lastly, writing on a computer and its application in the learning process is another aspect that becomes ever important in a century where writing is predominantly done electronically.
Schindelin, Cornelia (2012). Schriftzeichen lernt man am besten Strich für Strich? Aspekte der Schriftzeichendidaktik. Chun, 27, 5-21.
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ReplyDeleteDear阿贊, 我聯想到以前小學學書法的記憶, 老師都會要我們毛筆要拿對姿勢, 每一筆每一畫要寫得越慢越好, 我很沒耐性, 越寫越快, 霹靂啪啦就寫完了!
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ReplyDelete我想到以前寫書法真的是件耗費心力的事，想要寫好總是不太容易，感覺像在畫畫卻又不是，真是不太容易!
ReplyDelete給Yahsin and Gloria H: 阿贊講的問題不是用毛筆的問題，而是寫字的問題，吧？
Delete我想他們會講毛筆，是因為圖片是有人在寫毛筆字吧！
Delete我聯想到剛學會寫字的自己
ReplyDelete對於還不知道寫字要由上往下由左往右時
寫字就是在畫字，畫著像文字的圖
在小學時，小學老師在教寫字時，
ReplyDelete總是要我們舉起小手，
跟著老師一筆一劃地寫，
老師常常會派寫生字的作業，
像是一個字要寫一行或半行，
剛開始寫時，就好像在刻字，
不過，即使很努力寫也不一定寫得好，。
不過，相對於非漢字圈的華語學習者，
我們在開始學寫字前，
其實早就已經常常在接觸漢字了，
非漢字圈的華語學習者大多是沒什麼漢字的概念，
對他們而言，
每個漢字就如同一幅畫，
要如何教導他們書寫漢字，
我想也是在華語教學界相當重要的議題，
如果是要有系統地教，
我想或許從部件著手是個不錯的開始，
讓學生先從部件開始學習，
以及區分相似部件的不同，
不過，即使老師能有系統地教，
學生也不一定願意花那麼多的時間去學習，
因為在日常生活中，
需要寫中文的機會應該也不多吧，
比方說像簽名？
其他時間，大多可以打字吧？
Allen (2008) observed that up to 95% of Chinese writing is done electronically by Taiwanese. On the other hand, students, especially at the beginning level, hardly spend time on word processing because teachers require them to write their homework by hand. In Chinese culture, good handwriting skills are still held in high esteem, and a person’s handwriting is often linked to her or his character. But does that mean that students should sacrifice precious time to memorize characters, time that otherwise could be used in a better way?
ReplyDeleteFrom my experience, there are three major ways of how teaching Chinese characters is implemented in Chinese classes. The classical method is to let students memorize the character of every word the student learns. Another approach is to divide words into those that students need to be able to write and those they only need to pronounce (that is, know their Pinyin). And finally, for students who only want to learn some basic conversation skills, characters are completely omitted. The goals of students and teachers should decide on how much time is to be spent on writing characters, one should not blindly follow a textbook or some outdated assumtions.
I think that characters are a central part of the Chinese language, and not to learn how to write at all would be more a hindrance to achieve high proficiency. From my experience, I agree with Adam that learning to write radicals (部首) and components (部件) is very helpful to learn new characters, and that someone who is serious about learning Chinese should spend the time memorizing them.
Allen, Joseph (2008). Why Learning to Write Chinese Characters is a Waste of Time: A Modest Proposal. Foreign Language Annals. 41.2, 237-51.
In this paper, Schindelin describes six aspects of learning Chinese characters and ways to teach characters that go beyond simple memorization and repetitive writing. I will first summarize her main points and then give suggestions for further research.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes Chinese different from other L2s (from the perspective of a German native speaker) is the writing system. The complexity and large number of characters pose a big obstacle and reading and writing skills of advanced learners often stay behind their speaking and listening skills.
Schindelin identifies six aspects of learning Chinese characters:
Motor aspect: Students need to learn the correct alignment and components of characters and how to fit them in a square. They need to train the control of their hand muscles, eye-hand coordination and graphic memory.
Aspect of recognition: Recognition is important for the ability to read, but also to write in order to check if the character is written correctly.
Aspect of information retrieval: For reading, lexical information, that is, the pronunciation and meaning, has to be activated. For writing, it is the activation of graphic information.
The aspect of analysis is the identification of components and strokes. For reading, this means that a character can only be recognized if the components can be recognized; and for writing, characters can only be written if their components can be written.
Phonemic aspect: Generating the correct pronunciation of the retrieved lexical information of a recognized character.
Meta-language aspect: Theoretical knowledge of characters and the function of their components.
For teaching Chinese characters, she supports the mixing of characters and Pinyin (teaching only simple characters with high occurrence, all other words in Pinyin) and the teaching of oral and written skills simultaneously, but separated (splitting courses into oral and written classes in the beginner level) but dismisses the 語文並進 approach (simultaneous learning of pronunciation and writing of every word that appears in the textbook).
I don’t agree with the aspect of analysis, because, except for the beginning level, it is not necessary for reading English words to analyze every single letter. In fact, the word is recognized as a whole and omitted or exchanged letters often not noticed. This should be also true for reading Chinese characters if the same mental processes are involved.
Secondly, I would have liked to read more about different strategies for L1 and L2 learners and if L1 strategies can be applied on L2 strategies.
Lastly, writing on a computer and its application in the learning process is another aspect that becomes ever important in a century where writing is predominantly done electronically.
Schindelin, Cornelia (2012). Schriftzeichen lernt man am besten Strich für Strich? Aspekte der Schriftzeichendidaktik. Chun, 27, 5-21.