There are many different types of students who are learning Mandarin in China. The student situations are quite complicated for some new Chinese teachers. To be a qualified teacher of Chinese language learning program, you should learn about the students more deeply. Today we will provide some analysis on one of the student situations and give you some suggestions to help your teaching of the Chinese language learning program.
As for the students who have never come into contact with Chinese language, have no Chinese foundations at all and the completely zero beginners, you must have sufficient psychological preparation. Just as the old saying goes, “all things are difficult before they are easy.” Every language will be painful to learn at the beginning. And Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world. (Although it is not the most difficult one, it is close to the group which is the most difficult to learn.)
If you meet this kind of students at the first time when you become the teacher of Chinese language learning program unfortunately, I suggest you that never tell the students, “You know? Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world!” You can just imagine that if someone told you, “English is one of the most difficult languages and people can seldom learn it well.” How much enthusiasm will you keep studying English?
Therefore, what you need to do is to eliminate the fear of students to Chinese language. As the teacher of Chinese language learning program, you should tell students some words which can increase their motivation of study.
Some teacher of Chinese language learning program may ask that what kind of words can have this effect.
“In fact, Chinese is quite easy”, the teacher should tell the students who are learning Mandarin in China like this. Chinese is difficult in some parts, but not all the aspects. Actually, as for some of the characteristics of Chinese language, it is quite easy to learn and even easier than English or some other languages of Indian and European language family.
For example, Chinese language has no changes of tense. People who have learnt English will probably remember that it was very hard to learn these tenses at the beginning of studying English. The verb “go” has to transform into “goes, going, went, gone, have gone” in different situations. Many people who have been using English for many years may not master the usage of tense very well. But learning Chinese in theChinese language learning program will not be disturbed by this kind of troubles. For example, the three sentences: “我今天去学校。” “你明天去学校。” “他昨天去学校。” The students of Chinese language learning program can easily find that although the three sentences are present tense, future tense and past tense respectively, the verb “去” needs no changes at all. From this aspect, Chinese is not difficult.
Another example is that Chinese language has no the concepts of “number”. Some students of the Chinese language learning program don’t understand this meaning. That is to say, nouns will be the same no matter it is singular form or plural form. 橘子 in the phrases “一个橘子” and “十个橘子” has the same form. You needn’t to put –s at the end of the plural form of 橘子, or care about the troublesome things that to add –es at the end of some nouns or transform –y into –i and add –es at the end of the word. You can tell the students of Chinese language learning program these characteristics. They will feel easier to learn Chinese language.
In summary, to teach the students with zero foundations of Chinese, you should let them feel that Chinese is not difficult at all and increase their confidence and enthusiasm in learning Chinese.