Since it is difficult for overseas students to learn Chinese language, we need to check the learning result frequently. It is very important for those who learn Chinese in China because it can help them to consolidate what they have learned before.
The first technique of checking the learning result to be discussed is “free conversation”, which is processed by dividing students into groups and having free conversation with the words of grammar points teacher assigned. This is often used in Chinese language school.
For instance, the teacher gives students some words such as “属”, “出生”, “生日”, “打算”, “过”, “准备”, “举行”, “参加”, “祝”, etc. Then the students study in China are supposed to make free conversation in groups start with these words like “你属什么？”, “你哪一年出生？”, “你的生日是几月几号？”, “你打算怎么过生日”, etc.
After teachers just teaching students the new words, we need to take an effective measure to help students who learn Mandarin consolidate their memory. The game of spelling contest is a good way to help them master the words just learned.
Let me explain further to show how teachers use this way in Mandarin learning courses. Teachers first write each morpheme of the words on the cards with different colors, making two playing cards. Then hand out them to two different groups of students and ask one student of team A show the card and the other find the card with the morpheme can match the former card.
To encourage students to study Chinese initiatively, teacher can score the point when the students get the right answers. After all cards are displayed, the team with the highest scores will win the game.
To explain it more clearly, I’ll take on example to show how it works to help learn Chinese language. For the words “新鲜、呼吸、透气、惭愧、见闻……”, teacher will make two packs of poker with “新、呼、透、惭、见……” and “鲜、吸、气、愧、闻……” respectively. Students should find the right one to combine with the given one to form one complete word.
What often troubles teachers when they teach Mandarin language is that the students usually learn by mechanical memorizing. To solve the problem, the following method is designed to help them learning by understanding.
After teaching the new words, teachers ask students to choose one word just learned to explain with his or her understanding and the others will guess the word. During the process of guessing, students are allowed to communicate and discuss and teachers can give hints and make comments. This method often used in Mandarin learning courses in China because it can not only deepen students understanding but also practice their spoken language.
To illustrate this approach further, the following part will take some words as example to show the practicing way before you go to school to study Mandarin. The words are “独立”, “恋恋不舍” and “接受”.
The students can explain the words with his or her understanding or demonstrate the context like this:
① 每个人长大了，不能总是依靠父母，应该像小鸟一样，自己飞了。
② 离别时，我们总是很难过，流眼泪，很不想离开对方。
③ 麦克对玛丽一见钟情后，一直在追求玛丽，追求了四年后，玛丽感动了，最后她怎么样呢？
After listening to these explanation and context, students will guess the words “独立”, “恋恋不舍” and “接受”. Of course, teachers should group them according to the number of students or the words.
In this article, three efficient methods are discussed to check the learning results and help them consolidate the words and grammar points just learned.