Reading is a good way to test whether foreign learners can understand Chinese language or not when they study Chinese. Besides the reading comprehension with passages, the method to practice reading skills can be correction by giving a sentence with which one error is set. This lesson will train the comprehension ability by correction.

For example, after reading the sentence “正好是大夏天，热得人都喘气不过来，心里又烦恼，都不知道该怎么办才好”, students who learn Mandarin are supposed to correct the wrong part. It is easy for learners to understand the meaning. So “喘气不过来” should be corrected as “喘不过起来” because “喘气” is a verb-object construction. We can say “喘了一口气”.

The sentence “我们拥有同样的智慧和才干，甚至在其他方面我们比那些城里的学生特别好” is a comparative sentence. “特别好” means “very good”, but here should be “better” so teachers in Mandarin language courses will tell you that you should change it into “好得多”.

When students see “比” when they learn Chinese in China, they should know it is a comparative construction. In this situation, we don’t use adverbs of degree like “特别”, “非常”, “很”, “十分”, “格外” and “尤其”. But we can add “得多” and “多了” to express the comparative result.

Let’s move to another one “以我的经验，这时我们只要再等一会儿，如果只等三分钟，肯定会有新的线索出现”. Learners who study in China know that “只等三分钟” indicates the time is very short. According to the context, we can correct “如果” as “即使” or “哪怕”.

The next one is “今天的长城有6700多公里，相当一万三千多里，所以又叫做‘万里长城’”. When foreigners come to learn Chinese language in China, they often confused with “相当” and “相当于”. If “相当” need to take objects, it should add “于”, the common structures are “X和Y相当” and “X相当于Y”.

Let’s take a look at “要活着，就人必须要阅读。但是，人们必须通过学习阅读才能到达阅读的自由王国”. It’s a long sentence, but it is needless to understand the meaning. We know “要X，就Y” means “if X, then Y”. “就” is an adverb of correlation function. So students in Chinese language school should place the subject “人” before “就”.

When foreigners go to school to study Mandarin, they will find that many Chinese words carry different meanings together with different collection. So it make it more difficult remember all meanings of certain words. The next question is about the word “起来”.

In the begging of the sentence “比起来其他公司，我们公司目前的状况怎样？我们是否取得了更大的进步？”, “比起来” intends to compare with something else. The point that learners in Mandarin language courses in China should know is that when the directional complement “起来” takes objects, the construction should be “verb+起+object+来”. So the first clause should be “比起其他公司来”.

Providing practice like this to improve their language skills is a beneficial way to teach Mandarin language. In this process, teacher should explain the grammatical points in detail to ensure students can understand and remember firmly. If necessary, they can explain the meaning if the whole sentence.

The importance of this practicing way is to train learners’ ability of finding the error and correcting them when reading. So it is not just reading comprehension, but also an improving approach.