STUDY CHINESE EXPERIMENT (ongoing!)

METHOD

My Chinese study attempts include – at a “Beijing university”, several “private language schools”, self-taught, taught by my landlady, taught by a Chinese teacher friend, private 1-to-1 lessons and several language learning websites!

Typical teaching methods that I have been exposed to include (current experience): rote memorisation, drills, repetition and following the text book with little deviation.

Typical teaching methods I am used to (past experience): using authentic materials, a mixture of communicative activities, real-life dialogues, group-work based on personal interests etc.

RESULTS

Feeling inside the classroom – I am not learning what I want to say

Feeling outside the classroom – I am unable to express myself

Motivation to continue studying – Low (no “Reward”)

CONCLUSION

I feel my progression has been comparatively slow (to other languages I have studied) due to the fact that what I want to learn is not presented to me in a way that suits my learning style. However, I hesitate to say that Chinese is “hard” or “difficult”. I think that it is more the methods used to teach me that make Chinese “seem” difficult, rather than the subject itself is hard.

RECOMMENDATIONS

– Understand communicative teaching methods from the Chinese teacher perspective

– Discuss the value of understanding learning styles with Chinese teachers

– Better understand the role of the teacher in China

– Better understand my own learning styles, strategies and preferences

LIMITATIONS

This experiment is based on one person’s experience, (me!), and by no means represents every students’s experience of learning Chinese in China. Of course, everyone’s learning style is different. My point is that being aware of, and sensitive to, different learning styles, will help teachers to not only transfer their knowledge in a way that is easily and effortlessly understood by all students, but also motivate their students to continue their “difficult” studies.