Bilingual Q & A 15: Analysis and sharing of the success and failure of overseas children learning Chinese (the significance/value of the Lele series)
Foreword:
For Chinese children who have immigrated or were born overseas, although they do not know the local native language, their parents are not eager to teach them because they know that their children are "immersed" in the local native language environment every day and will naturally learn to speak it as time goes by. Learn the local language and reach native level.
However, when it comes to "teaching children" to learn a language and language that is "not the local mother tongue" in the hope of reaching the mother tongue level, both the theories and methods are still in full bloom, with different opinions, and there is no conclusion on its effectiveness and efficiency, because for a long time, the effectiveness of learning has been The environment and teaching methods vary from person to person, and the methods and results of success or failure are not based on any large amounts of data and statistics.
How to teach overseas children to learn Chinese has become a hot topic recently because more and more people
—-》Overseas parents, they themselves or the grandparents who help take care of their children are very good at Chinese and strongly hope that their children can learn Chinese well.
—-》Overseas second- and third-generation Chinese parents, because their Chinese is limited, also strongly hope that their children will learn Chinese well.
—-》Non-Chinese parents, as China becomes stronger or becomes more interested in Chinese culture, also hope that their children will learn Chinese well.
Although these parents have such expectations, they suffer from the lack of standard methods and teaching materials, and do not know how to help their children "successfully" learn Chinese and reach the level of native Chinese. There are often cases of failure or giving up halfway.
Analyze and share:
Based on my many years of experience in teaching Chinese to children overseas, I have written the following insights to provide reference to these caring parents and teachers, hoping to help them "successfully" achieve their goals.
1. First define the criteria for success
***Listening, speaking, reading, typing, and writing must complete the first four, and each indicator reaches the standard of 75 points (a full score of 100 points for each item), which is considered qualified.
*** can only listen and speak fluent Chinese, even if it reaches 100 points, but cannot read or read, it does not count as meeting the standard. Four necessary conditions/items, if any one of them does not score 75 points, it is not considered to be up to standard.
***You may not be able to "write" Chinese characters, but you can use the computer Pinyin/Zhuyin input method to "type" characters. If you complete the written expression standard of 75 points, you will meet the standard. (Children can be encouraged to learn to write, but it is not a necessary condition for reaching the standard)
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#1]
2. Three related factors that affect the success or failure of overseas children learning Chinese:
(A) Factor 1: Parents’ attitude
Parents’ long-term support, encouragement, affirmation, attention and appreciation of their children’s attitude towards learning Chinese is the key.
Don't underestimate children. Although they don't express it directly, they clearly perceive the various expectations and attitudes of their parents.
In other words, if parents do not have this expectation, or know that they cannot devote so much time and energy, it is best not to force their children to study. There is no right or wrong in such a decision, it is just a choice.
I often compare learning Chinese with learning piano, because the two have many similar situations and conditions:
(a) There are many, many children who want to learn piano or learn Chinese out of temporary interest. Sometimes it may also be due to the expectations of parents and grandparents who require children to learn piano/learn Chinese.
(b) However, how many children give up halfway? Or destroy the parent-child relationship for this?
(c) Both of the learning processes - "neither has short-term results, - -" both require almost daily practice, - - "both require continuous company and encouragement from parents. —-" It will take a few months at the fastest to see a little progress. If you persist every day, you will have some results after a year and be able to read a picture book with a lot of text/play a short piece of music. —-》After two or three years of hard work, you can read simple text-only books/play longer pieces. —-》After this stage, you still need to continue reading/practicing, and gradually move towards completely independent reading/learning to play more difficult pieces. During this period, if you give up during any period, it will be easy to "return to zero".
After establishing the above foundation, you need to continue reading/playing the piano for at least 5 or 6 years before you can freely choose your favorite reading materials/tracks, complete your goals, and enjoy it!
Obviously, this process is a test for parents and children. Each child is good at different things. Not every child likes to read and play the piano. Adults can encourage and support, but if they are too reluctant, will the gains outweigh the losses? Parents need to observe and understand their children before making appropriate decisions.
There are definitely advantages to learning a language well, but it does not mean superiority. Not every overseas child must learn another language. He may be good at sports, painting or music. It will help if he chooses something he is good at doing. They grow up happily.
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#5]
(B) The second factor is the speaking method, providing a natural speaking environment and creating an environment where people can hear Chinese every day.
B-1. Children live overseas in an environment where Chinese is not their native language. Overseas children learn the local language in school. Regardless of whether local languages (such as English, French, German, Spanish) are easier than Chinese, at least they have a "geographical advantage", and the school and social environment are all favorable conditions. In such a language environment, it is basically disadvantageous to guide children to learn Chinese. Therefore, what parents should strive for is: strive to create a native-like speaking environment.
B-2. Chinese-speaking parents, one of them, or grandparents must insist on "communicating all in Chinese" with their children. After the children hear it to a certain level, they will naturally change quantitatively and then qualitatively. In the end, they will naturally communicate with the adult in Chinese. [Refer to Bilingual Q&A#9]
B-3. If the parents do not speak Chinese, or are both non-Chinese, they may consider hiring a Chinese teacher/nanny to communicate, play games, activities, do sports, etc. with their children entirely in Chinese several times a week. You can also try to find "playmates" who are of the right age and can speak Chinese and play together from time to time. If you really have no idea, you can always watch Chinese cartoon videos or electronic picture story books. [Refer to Bilingual Q&A#8]
The above suggestions are nothing more than allowing children to "naturally immerse" themselves in their mother tongue environment and listen to the natural mother tongue. This kind of learning (oral language input) is the most natural "mother tongue input" for children and does not require any translation from other languages. , directly input and hear Chinese, children will naturally receive it immediately. Over time, children will "naturally output", speak Chinese with correct pronunciation, and express the correct meaning. (Even if the words are not clear or correct at first, after a few exercises, the children will naturally adjust. This is their natural "talent").
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#2]
### Reminder of failed examples:
—-》Many children have elders from across the generation who help raise them, but most of these grandparents cannot stay with the children for 3, 5, or even 7 or 8 years? As a result, without a long period of consolidation and continuous practice, it will be very difficult for their Chinese to successfully reach the standard, because the characteristics of children's language acquisition are: they learn quickly and forget quickly! It is common for all efforts to be wasted.
—-》Many parents, even if they stay with their children every day, are not persistent enough. As their children’s English improves, parents give up this persistence very early, and gradually go from listening and speaking Chinese to only listening but not speaking, and finally The state of not hearing or telling. How many people often insist on "parent-child reading" in Chinese with their children? Without input (listening to everyday spoken language and stories), how can one expect output (speaking and reading Chinese)? Is it possible to meet the standards?
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#5]
(C) Factor 3: Provide effective methods and interesting and age-appropriate reading materials for Chinese language learning
The method of getting started with Chinese language is the key. To this end, we have produced appropriate reading materials:
————》Lele series of 300 books and matching reading pens.
[Reference Series Q&A#2]
C-1. Lele method:
***Happy reading and literacy, read story books to learn 1000 Chinese characters.
***Let children taste the "joy" of reading, listen to and read 300 stories by themselves through "repetition", listen to and read the words in the story books over and over again, and truly learn to read "by hearing and seeing".
C-2. LeLe Series 300 storybooks (textbooks):
*** is the "introduction" to Chinese reading. Children love reading storybooks.
Inspire children to read and become literate, entice children to like reading, entice children to read more and more, and enjoy reading for a lifetime.
*** Three steps to literacy, knowing 3 words
選擇同主題故事書——》1閱讀+2閱讀+3再閱讀；或者—》1閱讀+2字卡複習+3再閱讀。
[Reference Series Q&A#7]
C-3. Features of LeLe Book Series:
***Physical books and reading pens, not e-books facing the screen
***Read as you click, you don’t necessarily need an adult to accompany you, feel free to click and read more at any time.
***Elementary stories are phrases, intermediate stories are sentences, and advanced stories are paragraphs. Read them step by step to learn words.
***The stories are interesting and the content is age-appropriate. After reading 300 books, you can recognize 1000 words and easily connect to other picture books, and finally switch to reading pure text books.
### Compare other methods and textbooks:
Adults (parents or grandparents) often insist on their own methods and teaching materials to teach overseas children to learn Chinese.
For example:
——Insist on reciting ancient prose, ancient poetry, the Three Character Classic, etc. These materials have nothing to do with the child’s own life.
Relevance, emphasizing recitation, does not require understanding of the content, does not care about interest, and does not emphasize learning motivation. As an overseas
It is a starting material for children. Successful examples are rarely heard.
Compared with local language textbooks, which are rich and interesting, they naturally
They choose to "not learn" Chinese, not to mention that they understand that knowing the local language is enough to communicate with others without any hindrance. Where does the "motivation to learn Chinese" come from?
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#1] [Refer to Bilingual Q&A#6]
——-Insist on word card recognition, first read a few hundred words boringly, because word cards are the connection between glyphs and pronunciation.
Except for concrete words, the meaning of the words cannot be expressed, so the person will recognize many words, but may not be able to read them.
[Reference Bilingual Q&A#4] [Reference Series Q&A#5]
------Insist on learning the phonetic symbols or Chinese Pinyin first. This not only requires a period of time to learn the phonetic symbols, but also
And it is easy to form dependence. Once there are no phonetic symbols, reading ability will be immediately affected.
[Reference Bilingual Q&A#10] [Reference Series Q&A#3]
——Insist on reading and writing at the same time, or insist on not being able to read but not write. We have to admit that practice writing
Chinese characters are very "time-consuming". It is not as simple as the 26 English letters. Practicing writing can indeed
"Depriving" children of some game time will also reduce reading time and slow down the improvement of their reading ability.
After children learn to read local language storybooks, their "Chinese reading ability" will be left far behind.
Because they will never "take the initiative" to pick up Chinese reading materials again.
Conclusion:
The goal of Lele's efforts is nothing more than to cultivate children's "Chinese reading ability" "before" "local language reading ability", because only in this way can we better ensure that children become "successful" bilinguals and meet the standards.
[Refer to Bilingual Q&A#1] [Refer to Bilingual Q&A#3]Continue reading: