Today after school, my classroom turned into a bit of a Chinese culture club. Four Chinese students stayed after school as well as a few hispanic students and an African student. They were all diligent with their work and were just finishing a snack, I allowed the atmosphere to become more relaxed. I was showing some pictures and started my favorite thing to do which is open up my Chinese notebook and ask for assistance. The students know as soon as I open up this notebook and if there is only one student near me, it is only a matter of seconds before all Chinese students are hovering over giving me lessons in pronunciation of my tones and adding other commentary. Shortly after that, other students (of a variety of linguistic backgrounds) will usually also become intrigued and come over to see not only what I am learning, but also to try to learn something themselves. I must say this has been probably the most unexpected, but delightful results of Chinese learning.
Last week one of the students wrote a song in Chinese for me. My teacher did not recognize the song so she asked if I could learn the tune from my students. I asked the students if they could sing the song while I recorded it on my computer. They all came together and began practicing, with a few giggles here and there, but also some genuine enthusiasm for the task at hand. The other students of course became more and more intrigued and even offered to go to another teacher to find a recording device when I was having trouble with the audacity program on my computer. The Chinese students were excited to sing the song and felt connection to each other through this shared cultural memory and the other students were excited to learn and hear it as well. I think these are the moments that international exchange programs, ESOL teachers, and any one else working in international education strive for.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Class 5
Adult learners:
Although many of the strategies and lessons that my teacher uses with us are lessons that are also used on the elementary age Chinese learners, tonight was a lesson that reminded me of the difference between adult and young learners. We began a discussion about some Chinese history involving the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta soldiers and that discussion ended up taking about an hour and half of the class. Everyone was thoroughly engaged, asking questions, and wanting to continue the discussion. We enjoy the stimulation of intellectual discussion that we at least have some frame of reference or comfort zone with. By this I mean that we have all studied history and world events and are able to hold a dialogue about this. This is a "safe/comfortable" zone whereas practicing Chinese is so foreign, new, and scary for us. You could feel the nervous jitters in the room slowly fade away as people became immersed in the cultural discussion. With young learners, it is quite the opposite (or so I imagine from what I can remember and what I observe). Chinese and language learning are a safe/comfort zone that children do not have many fears about. They take language for what it is and do not get scared or question the logic. If you were to begin a discussion of Chinese history with a group of second graders for example, this would be the time they would feel perhaps nervous, disinterested, or some combination of the above. So, even though adult learners and young learners may be able to utilize some of the same strategies in language learning (motions, repetition, songs, etc), we have much different attitudes about learning and where our comfort zone is.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Tonight in class I realized that I am one of only very few people who has a chance to practice Chinese with native speakers outside of class. This reminds me of how fortunate I am and makes me think that I should be moving at a move advanced level or at least retaining more with all of this extra practice. As a language learner and speaker of Spanish, I have numerous opportunities for practice, but realize that this is not the same case for Chinese learners. I am, curious, however, about how my abilities would fare in a more authentic situation. Every experience I have had has still been geared toward language learning, so I have little opportunity to practice in a truly authentic environment. I do occasionally listen when I hear my students talking with each other,but so far have not been able to make much of this.
Although many of the strategies and lessons that my teacher uses with us are lessons that are also used on the elementary age Chinese learners, tonight was a lesson that reminded me of the difference between adult and young learners. We began a discussion about some Chinese history involving the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta soldiers and that discussion ended up taking about an hour and half of the class. Everyone was thoroughly engaged, asking questions, and wanting to continue the discussion. We enjoy the stimulation of intellectual discussion that we at least have some frame of reference or comfort zone with. By this I mean that we have all studied history and world events and are able to hold a dialogue about this. This is a "safe/comfortable" zone whereas practicing Chinese is so foreign, new, and scary for us. You could feel the nervous jitters in the room slowly fade away as people became immersed in the cultural discussion. With young learners, it is quite the opposite (or so I imagine from what I can remember and what I observe). Chinese and language learning are a safe/comfort zone that children do not have many fears about. They take language for what it is and do not get scared or question the logic. If you were to begin a discussion of Chinese history with a group of second graders for example, this would be the time they would feel perhaps nervous, disinterested, or some combination of the above. So, even though adult learners and young learners may be able to utilize some of the same strategies in language learning (motions, repetition, songs, etc), we have much different attitudes about learning and where our comfort zone is.
Practice, Practice, Practice
Tonight in class I realized that I am one of only very few people who has a chance to practice Chinese with native speakers outside of class. This reminds me of how fortunate I am and makes me think that I should be moving at a move advanced level or at least retaining more with all of this extra practice. As a language learner and speaker of Spanish, I have numerous opportunities for practice, but realize that this is not the same case for Chinese learners. I am, curious, however, about how my abilities would fare in a more authentic situation. Every experience I have had has still been geared toward language learning, so I have little opportunity to practice in a truly authentic environment. I do occasionally listen when I hear my students talking with each other,but so far have not been able to make much of this.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Class 4
Feelings:
Today I felt some of what Krashen would describe as the affective filter for learning a second language. I also recognized some patterns in my emotional reaction to class as well as reactions of other students. I always begin the class excited, but also a little fuzzy on what I remember from last class. The first thirty minutes or so I find myself struggling to get into the heart of things and take myself away from my other daily worries. Just as I begin to get confident, I feel like that is when a whole series of new information is presented or that the teacher goes through the material very quickly. When new words or information is just being introduced or we are only being exposed to it, I feel a sense of frustration because I want to know all of the logic and understand every word. I find, however, that when we return to that subject, I feel more confident because I have already been exposed to it. By about the second hour, I usually feel my most positive experience. Today this was when we practiced a basic song that we had learned one time before and kept singing it inserting a new subject. The teacher played away on her harmonica and we were as a class able to keep up with the words, in my opinion, pretty well. It was one of the first times that I felt that the language was coming with some sort of ease and was not such a forced feeling of expression. I do also remember how much I enjoyed learning Spanish through song, so if only I could find the Chinese version of Shakira, I would be all set!
Repetition:
I think I remember hearing a statistic something like middle school students need to hear a word 20-30 times before they own it and use it properly. I feel like it takes about 50-75 repetitions of a word in Chinese, along with a picture, along with a song, along with a gesture until I finally embrace the word as my own. After that I must repeat it in my head in the car the whole way home and hope that it will stick with me until the next day when I can impress (or try to impress) my students with my newfound skills. By the end of class today I did realize that I do know more words than I originally believed I did when I see them in print (pinyang of course, not the Chinese characters)or even hear them orally. Sometimes with my students I think that because we have only had 5-10 vocabulary words in a week and have reviewed them a few times it should be simple to remember them. Now I see that it truly is necessary to repeat them and provide several contexts. For some reason, the word for restaurant was familiar to me since the beginning even though I don't have any memory of ever seeing it before. This word was probably only presented 2-3 times in class, but I always recognize it right away. I guess I have my priorities straight! Yum!
Language as a way of viewing the world:
One of the things I enjoyed about learning Spanish was coming upon the realization that language truly is a way of seeing the world and that there are so many different ways to do this. For example, in Spanish I always enjoyed the expression "tengo ganas de...." I have the desire to... which seemed to be much more fitting than anything else I could find in English. Also in Spanish, sentences are usually longer. Although it can be a cultural or individual thing, overall in Spanish it is more common to use phrases like "mi amor (my love), mi vida (my life) or querida (dear one) that we in English usually only reserve for loved ones. I am beginning to find that Chinese, as well, has its own unique way of describing and interpreting the world. For example, the characters all have a logic. When the character for tree is repeated, it means woods. When one line is added to big, it means sky. There is no gender in words or past tense. You describe these things by the words you choose. Slowly this is giving me a window into another culture and way of viewing the world.
Today I felt some of what Krashen would describe as the affective filter for learning a second language. I also recognized some patterns in my emotional reaction to class as well as reactions of other students. I always begin the class excited, but also a little fuzzy on what I remember from last class. The first thirty minutes or so I find myself struggling to get into the heart of things and take myself away from my other daily worries. Just as I begin to get confident, I feel like that is when a whole series of new information is presented or that the teacher goes through the material very quickly. When new words or information is just being introduced or we are only being exposed to it, I feel a sense of frustration because I want to know all of the logic and understand every word. I find, however, that when we return to that subject, I feel more confident because I have already been exposed to it. By about the second hour, I usually feel my most positive experience. Today this was when we practiced a basic song that we had learned one time before and kept singing it inserting a new subject. The teacher played away on her harmonica and we were as a class able to keep up with the words, in my opinion, pretty well. It was one of the first times that I felt that the language was coming with some sort of ease and was not such a forced feeling of expression. I do also remember how much I enjoyed learning Spanish through song, so if only I could find the Chinese version of Shakira, I would be all set!
Repetition:
I think I remember hearing a statistic something like middle school students need to hear a word 20-30 times before they own it and use it properly. I feel like it takes about 50-75 repetitions of a word in Chinese, along with a picture, along with a song, along with a gesture until I finally embrace the word as my own. After that I must repeat it in my head in the car the whole way home and hope that it will stick with me until the next day when I can impress (or try to impress) my students with my newfound skills. By the end of class today I did realize that I do know more words than I originally believed I did when I see them in print (pinyang of course, not the Chinese characters)or even hear them orally. Sometimes with my students I think that because we have only had 5-10 vocabulary words in a week and have reviewed them a few times it should be simple to remember them. Now I see that it truly is necessary to repeat them and provide several contexts. For some reason, the word for restaurant was familiar to me since the beginning even though I don't have any memory of ever seeing it before. This word was probably only presented 2-3 times in class, but I always recognize it right away. I guess I have my priorities straight! Yum!
Language as a way of viewing the world:
One of the things I enjoyed about learning Spanish was coming upon the realization that language truly is a way of seeing the world and that there are so many different ways to do this. For example, in Spanish I always enjoyed the expression "tengo ganas de...." I have the desire to... which seemed to be much more fitting than anything else I could find in English. Also in Spanish, sentences are usually longer. Although it can be a cultural or individual thing, overall in Spanish it is more common to use phrases like "mi amor (my love), mi vida (my life) or querida (dear one) that we in English usually only reserve for loved ones. I am beginning to find that Chinese, as well, has its own unique way of describing and interpreting the world. For example, the characters all have a logic. When the character for tree is repeated, it means woods. When one line is added to big, it means sky. There is no gender in words or past tense. You describe these things by the words you choose. Slowly this is giving me a window into another culture and way of viewing the world.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
3 classes of Chinese
This first post will be a summary of my motivation for taking Chinese lessons, my experiences as a language learner, and my students' reaction for the first 3 classes. From here on out, I will try to write on a more regular basis so as to capture the essence of the experience.
My motivation:
I am a native English speaker who learned Spanish through high school and college study as well as several trips and studies abroad in Spanish speaking countries. I am currently working as a middle school ESL teacher and have a Master's degree in Secondary Education. As I was learning about second language acquisition, several times I thought about my own experiences as a language learner. If there was one regret that I had, it was that I never documented my language study or what my first attempts at Spanish sounded like. The first time I became near fluent in Spanish was during my semester abroad in college when I studied in Argentina. I know that I started with an Argentine Spanish accent, but I can barely do this accent now if I am trying to do it. I also remember very little about my language learning process. The one thing that really stands out for me was that I used the strategy of self talk in the beginning stages to train my mind to think in Spanish. When I was walking down the street, I would describe the world around me by talking in my and using as much Spanish as I could. I would force myself to use only Spanish in public spaces, but also in the private space of my head.
So now here I am in 2008 and have decided that I would like a new challenge and also to test myself once again as a language learner. After learning about theories of second language acquisition and dealing with English language learners all day, I am putting myself to the test as a language learner once again. I am documenting it for personal reasons such as better understanding myself as a learner and also to take a deeper look at the strategies that I utilize. I hope that others too will benefit from this window into the mind of a language learner.
Why Chinese?
My motivation:
I am a native English speaker who learned Spanish through high school and college study as well as several trips and studies abroad in Spanish speaking countries. I am currently working as a middle school ESL teacher and have a Master's degree in Secondary Education. As I was learning about second language acquisition, several times I thought about my own experiences as a language learner. If there was one regret that I had, it was that I never documented my language study or what my first attempts at Spanish sounded like. The first time I became near fluent in Spanish was during my semester abroad in college when I studied in Argentina. I know that I started with an Argentine Spanish accent, but I can barely do this accent now if I am trying to do it. I also remember very little about my language learning process. The one thing that really stands out for me was that I used the strategy of self talk in the beginning stages to train my mind to think in Spanish. When I was walking down the street, I would describe the world around me by talking in my and using as much Spanish as I could. I would force myself to use only Spanish in public spaces, but also in the private space of my head.
So now here I am in 2008 and have decided that I would like a new challenge and also to test myself once again as a language learner. After learning about theories of second language acquisition and dealing with English language learners all day, I am putting myself to the test as a language learner once again. I am documenting it for personal reasons such as better understanding myself as a learner and also to take a deeper look at the strategies that I utilize. I hope that others too will benefit from this window into the mind of a language learner.
Why Chinese?
- More people in the world speak Mandarin Chinese than any other language.
- Challenge
- To gain insight into Asian language and culture to better understand my students
- My school district offers a free course for teachers!
Class and my experience as a learner:
The only word I knew before class in Chinese was "Ni hao" hello. Little did I realize before class that I was probably not saying it correctly according to the tones. We spent our entire first class just focusing on the 4 tones of Chinese. My teacher used exaggerated pronunciation and hand motions to help us follow along and hear the difference between the tones. In music I am what most people would call tone deaf, so I was actually amazed to see that by the end of class I could distinguish between the tones when she quizzed us with words. Of course she was still saying them in a very exaggerated form, but it was a small victory. Our teacher was previously a special education teacher and so she will often incorporate sign language into the lesson by using the sign for the word at the same time that she is saying it in Chinese. I generally have considered myself a visual learner, but Ifind this kinesthetic addition to be extremely helpful. The other technique that I have found extremely helpful is a listening exercise. Every now and then the teacher asks us to put our heads down and repeat after her. I find this time to be soothing and a good practice for my ear to get used to hearing Chinese without the complication of trying to look at the spelling and worry too much about how I am pronouncing the words. I would be curious to see if my best pronunciation comes out of these times when I am letting my ear hear and then I repeat the words. After 3 classes, I basically know how to say hello, I am a teacher, I love you, and the numbers 1-10. This brings me to the next topic.
My students' reaction
I feel so fortunate that every day I work with at least a few students who are Mandarin Chinese speakers with whom I am able to practice my new language skills and also listen to their pronunciation and tones. This part of the learning process has also been a fascinating experience on so many levels. It feels like some of my students have taken me on as their project! When I first told them I was learning Chinese they seemed indifferent or perhaps did not believe it. After the first class I came in and told them the words for "I am a teacher" which if I used the wrong tones for would come out as "I am a mouse". Thankfully they all understood my attempts at using this line. I must admit, however, that given the context it was not necessarily due to my pronunciation but more due to the fact that I would have no reason to say "I am a mouse". They were surprised and delighted all at once. Each one of them responded by repeating the words for me so that I would hear the correct tonal pronunciation. If I would not repeat it correctly, they would continue to say it until I would do a better job. One student even went so far as to launch into a discussion (using his beginner level middle school English abilities) about the 4 tones in Chinese, draw characters on the board and use the same basic hand gestures as my teacher to make sure that I understood the tones correctly.
The other students became interested and would then also try to repeat the words that I was learning and proceeded to ask the Chinese students to write more words on the board or teach them other words. My students come from diverse backgrounds, but the most common language spoken is Spanish. There are several other teachers in the building who speak Spanish as well as teachers who speak Korean, Arabic, Italian, and German. As far as I know, I am the first teacher to attempt Chinese and both Chinese and non-Chinese speakers seemed intrigued by my interest and attempts. It has certainly stirred up a lot of student interest about Chinese in and around the classroom.
As I have said, I believe that my students have taken me on as their project. Almost every day when I walk in the room they have written something on the board in Chinese characters and are eager to tell me how to say it and what it means. I am not quite sure if this is because they are eager to teach me, they are missing their language and like the excuse to be able to write and use it, feel now that their language is being validated by the teacher, or because they are being diligent students and fulfilling the teacher request to practice Chinese.
Prior to last week's class my teacher told us to know the numbers by the next class. I told my students that I had a quiz on the numbers and they would listen carefully and help me practice until I got it right. Another Spanish speaking student saw me practicing and asked if she could borrow my notecards to copy them and learn it as well. The day after class, one of the students who was helping me came up first thing and asked how my quiz went. We didn't really have a quiz, but instead just used the numbers for class activity. She was pleased to hear that I was able to remember them all for class.
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