Details
Target Audience (Age): Primary School, Middle School
The 2nd edition of Easy Steps to Chinese is especially de-signed fornon-Chinese background students, who are learning Chinese as a second/foreignlanguage. The series can be used by secondary school students as well as fifthand sixth graders in primary schools.
This series will help students establish a solid foundation of Chinese in terms ofcharacters, words, sentences and grammar through natural and gradualintegration of language, themes and culture. The simultaneous development oflistening, speak-ing, reading and writing is especially emphasized. Theultimate aim is to help students develop communication skills in Chinese inreal-life situations and express their viewpoints appropriately, precisely,logically and coherently.
The series consists of seven books in three stages:
Stage1 (Books 1, 2, 3): the focus of this stage is to establish a solid foundationthrough the learning of pinyin, characters, vocabulary and grammar. The aim isto help students foster an interest in learning Chinese and develop skills inusing simple Chinese for communication.
Stage2 (Books 4 and 5): the focus of this stage is to learn more vocabulary andgrammar so that students are able to use the language functionally whencommunicating with people in real-life situations.
Stage 3 (Books 6 and 7): the focus of this stage is toprovide students with authentic materials, and help them develop com-municationskills. It is believed that when the time comes, the students will be confidentin expressing their viewpoints pre-cisely, appropriately, logically andcoherently in both oral and written forms.
About the Author
Ms. Yamin Ma has an M.Ed. in Curriculum Design and Instruction from Queen'sUniversity, Canada. She used to teach English at both secondary and universitylevels in Shanghai (China), Hong Kong (China) and Kingston (Canada) for over 10years and has taught Chinese at primary and secondary levels in Hong Kong(China) for more than 20 years. Ms. Ma has been the Head of the ChineseDepartment in Island School (located in Hong Kong, China) for over two decadesand has taught IGCSE, AS/A-Levels and IB Language B courses.
Ms. Ma is an expert in the field of Chinese language teaching and learning, andauthor of two Chinese textbook series, which have been bestsellers worldwidefor 20 years. Ms. Ma will continue to offer training and workshops to teachersof Chinese around the world.
Editorial Review
Inorder to meet the students' needs to prepare for various exams and to achievegood grades, the core vocabulary, gram-mar and requirements of various examsare taken as reference when designing the series. Some unique features of this series:
Pinyin appears on top of characters at an early stage and is gradually removed as thestudents develop their Chinese profi-ciency. The teaching of pronunciation withcorresponding exer-cises is designed systematically and scientifically.
The series stresses the importance of teaching basic strokes and compound strokes,stroke order, radicals and character structures. Character writing exercisesare provided to reinforce the learning of characters.
In order for the students to better understand and more easily memorize the new wordsand phrases, an attempt has been made to ensure that only one character in eachphrase is new, and only one meaning of this new character is given. For eachlesson, new words and phrases are listed generally according to the order thatthey appear in the text; however, some phrases containing the same characterare listed together for ease of learning.
Vocabulary expansion is made possible through a good under-standing of the meaning of eachcharacter in a phrase. Some of the words that appear in earlier stages arerepeated and prac-ticed in later stages to reinforce and consolidate the learning.
Grammatical rules are explained in a simple manner, followed by practice exercises incontexts.
Themes are varied and relevant to students' real life, and are carefully selectedaccording to students' age group, interest and level of Chinese in each stage.
Listening exercises are evenly spread out in each lesson. The listening script uses thesame topic and vocabulary as in the lesson, while adding some new words thatappropriately chal-lenge the students.
Speaking exercises take various forms that are interesting and relevant to students'life so that the students are able to develop communication skills in real-lifesituations.
Reading materials cover a wide range of topics, such as daily life, humanities, arts,history, geography, new technology, en-vironmental protection, etc. The themesof reading are varied and the texts are authentic in nature.
Writing training starts at the outset and remains afocal point throughout the series. The students are expected to use differentstyles and apply what they have learned in the course to write appropriately,precisely, logically and coherently.
Suggestion
For Arabic-speaking teenagers (fifth and sixth graders and secondary schoolstudents) who are learning Chinese.
With three periods, approximately three hours, per week, most students will be ableto complete one book within one academic year. Fast learners can spend less than a year completingone book.
How to use this series:
Stress the importance of character structure when teaching new words. Knowing themeaning of the character in phrases will help students guess the meanings ofnew vocabulary that they encounter later on.
Emphasize the importance of having a good grasp of the new vocabulary and content of eachlesson. At the same time, the teacher should create opportunities for thestudents to functionally use what they have learned.
Draw students' attention to the texts in each lesson, as the texts are samples fororal and written work. The teacher should explain explicitly the formats andrequirements of different text styles. The oral and written exercises can bemodified to suit students' levels.
Select exercises in the Textbook and Workbook to match with your teaching plan. Allthe exercises provided can be modified or expanded according to students'abilities and levels of Chi-nese.
Besides the Textbook and Workbook, theseries includes additional materials such as exercises for specific languageskills, revision books for exams, Teacher's Book, and digital resources, aswell as word cards, picture flashcards, lesson plans and test papers.
Makegood use of the supplementary resources provided. The teaching suggestions inthe Teacher's Book and the answers to the exercises in the Textbook andWorkbook are just for reference.
Pace the course according to your teaching plan. Asthe series is continuous and ongoing, each book can be taught within any timespan.
