Chinese language is a new territory for many whose first language use an alphabetic system such as English. Instead of combining letters to form words, Chinese language uses strokes to form characters. The commonly used Chinese characters alone contain 3000 words. Not only that, Chinese is yet another tonal language with four different tones, commonly marked with accent marks, additionally unmarked represents the neutral tone. The accent marks are only available unfavorable PinYin to represent the pronunciation. The word sh for instance, can have different meanings depending on its tone. The first tone sh can mean poetry or wet or teacher. The second tone sh can mean ten or time or genuine. The third tone sh can mean history or to start or to cause. Finally tone sh can mean yes or room or matter. In essence, are usually many similar sounds with different meanings. As a few fact, a Chinese linguist in the 20th century Zhao Yuanren composed a 10-line classical Chinese poem using only the sound shi.
Next, it isn’t always possible to guess the pronunciation of a character. The character for wood, for instance, is pronounced mu. The character for forest, which is composed of two-character for wood, is pronounced lin. Although in this example the pronunciation isn’t related, the concept the characters are able to. On the contrary, when the pronunciation can be related due to similar root character, the meanings are not necessarily related.
PinYin itself, although alphabetized, is not pronounced the unique way as the alphabetic sounds. There are unfamiliar sounds with regard to u with an umlaut () that sounds like a mix of I and u. Like as much as possible unfamiliar, it can cause uncertainty and fright. Thus, knowing the challenges learners face is the initial step in devising effective learning strategies that directly affect their language success.
The Strategies Usually Learn Chinese Characters
Prof Ko-Yin Sung of Chinese Language Study from Utah State university conducted a hunt amongst non-heritage, non-Asian Far east learners and uncovered interesting results which could help future learners in forming a complete study plan. Her study revolves all through most used often Chinese character learning strategies and how those strategies affect the learners’ ability in understanding and producing the sound and the writing of the Chinese personas.
The study finds that among greatest twenty most regularly used strategies, eight of these are dealing with when a character is first introduced to learners. These include:
1. Repeating the character several times aloud or silently.
2. Writing the character down.
3. Noting how the is utilized for context.
4. Noting the tone and associating it with pinyin.
5. Observing the character and stroke order.
6. Visualising the character.
7. Experiencing the explanation of the.
8. Associating the character with previously learned nature.
The next six strategies are often increase learners’ understanding for this newly introduced character.
9. Converting the character into native language and finding a similar.
10. Looking in the textbook or dictionary.
11. Checking if the actual character already been used early.
12. Finding out how very good used in conversation.
13. Using the character in sentences orally.
14. Asking how to say hello in chinese the type could provide in content.
However, learning strategies commence to diminish beyond those two learning stages. There are only three strategies for the memorising newly learned character.
15. Saying and writing the character at the same time frame.
16. Saying and picturing the character in mindset.
17. Imply sound, visualising the character shape and meaning.
And tend to be : only one strategy applied in practising new characters.
18. Making sentences and writing them out.
And new characters are reviewed with these two strategies only.
19. Writing the characters many time intervals.
20. Reading over notes, example sentences and the textbook.
Of the twenty strategies mentioned above, four are simply to be most significant in increasing learner’s skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing of the actual characters. Some strategies are:
Writing the characters down
Observing the stroke order
Making association with a similar character
Saying and writing the repeatedly
Discussion
A research by Stice in 1987 showed that students only retained 10% of the things learned from what they read, 26% from the things they hear, and 30% from what they see. While studying modes are combined, newer and interesting . improvement to learn retention is noted. Learning retention jumped to 50% when seeing and hearing are combined, and even higher at 70% when students repeat the materials these kind of are learning, and learning retention is at the highest at 90% when students repeat the materials they are learning as they do a single. Simply reading the characters aren’t enough. Learners must associate the sound with the characters, develop a connection with the characters to make them memorable, and practice recalling the newly learned characters.
Study means that recalling new characters learned improves learning retention and reinforces understanding the concepts of. One way the proper this will be by using an app for instance The Intelligent Flashcards. Amounts . flashcard app is designed for the New Practical Chinese Reader textbooks, making it convenient evaluation characters on such basis as chapters. Not only does it show stroke order animation, it furthermore accompanied by native speaker sound files, making this app so much more convenient that another app with regard to Anki. With Anki, although user could add personal notes on it, the sound file isn’t available and must be imported through another app.
Another important learning method to incorporate is observing any characters are widely used in situation. This can do by observing real-life conversations to add to the textbook and audio files conversation. Usually interesting to remember that pupils studied in the abovementioned research were hesitant to adopt the educational strategies recommended by the instructors, for instance watching Chinese TV shows or listening Chinese song selections. There could be many reasons why you are this. The structure of the shows or songs may not appeal to your learners.
Associated with this program is not as convenient. And additionally if the shows could possibly be accessed online, rarely is it subtitled in a choice of both Chinese and English which will make the shows more useful to beginner learners in acquiring the language. Also, most among the very popular Chinese Tv shows fall into the historical genre, which is a favourite on the list of Chinese, such as The Empress of China. However, the language spoken in this particular type of TV show is a bit more complex than the contemporary spoken Chinese.