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Chinese Words Learning and Training

For students who learn Chinese language in China, words are the basic and important thing to learn. We will discuss some methods to study in the following parts. To cultivate the overseas students’ ability of differentiating the words and ca[ability of using language in accordance with the context, teachers can help students learn Mandarin by the blank-filling game.

Firstly, teacher writes down a long sentence with several blanks. For example, “昨天我们去(1)了一个展览,展览会上的工艺品件件都很(2),尤其是小王买的这个台灯,又美观,又(3)”. Then, teacher asks students to write their own answers on their exercise books. To help them study Chinese, teacher will ask students to answer the questions in order. If there are different answers, teacher should make proper comment on it. Generally speaking, there will be more than one answer. For example, the blank (3) of the sentence above can be filled with “大方”, “实用”, “别致”, “便宜”, etc. In order to encourage students learn Mandarin in China, teacher can write different answers on the blackboard to make comparison and comments.

It is really important for students who learn Chinese in China to understand the meaning of the word. To stimulate their interest to remember the words’ meanings, teacher can teach by finding the corresponding English words. At the Chinese school in China, this method begins with two groups of words. One group is Chinese words on one side of the blackboard, while another group of words are English words on the other side to list the meanings of the Chinese words. But the English words should be disordered. Then students are supposed to find the matching meanings. The words could be printed on a little piece of paper handed out to the students. And the number of the words should be proper about fifteen. This exercise is a little challenging but interesting for students who learn to speak Chinese.

Another way of training could be finding the antonyms. Divide students into two groups with the equal number. Before starting learning Mandarin Chinese, both groups of students should prepare some pairs of antonyms. Then, the first one student of group one say a word like “宽”. The student one of the team B should answer the question immediately with “窄”. And the student 2 of group B answer to student 2 of group A. After finishing the first round, change the role of asking and answering.

It might be two or more answers such as “高——低、矮;伤心——高兴、快乐、喜悦、欢欣、开心……”. When this happen, the more antonyms found, the more points got. It is good for students who study in China to enhance their learning initiative.

To improve students’ ability of reacting the meaning of the words, we can train it by analogizing with antonyms. This can help students find out how to study Chinese with antonyms. The teacher firstly speaks the former part of the sentence to students. After listening carefully, students are supposed to find out the corresponding words in limited time. To train students to study Chinese with effectiveness, they should answer the questions rapidly in limited time. For example, students should complete the sentences if the teacher says “糖是甜的,盐是……,药是……”, “山高,海……”, “春天暖,夏天……,秋天……,冬天……”, “我花钱精打细算,他花钱……(大手大脚)”, “比赛结束了,获胜者喜笑颜开,失败者……(愁眉苦脸、垂头丧气).

Of course, this method can be processed between students. Divide students into two teams, one responsible for the former parts, another for the left parts. This approach is also beneficial for training students’ rapid reaction. The effective strategies mentioned and discussed above are beneficial for teachers to practice students’ ability to understand the words’ meanings and to put the words into use in daily conversations. 

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