I believe that teaching is successful only when students are able to relate what they learn to real life. This is the basis for the motivation to learn and for learning to be meaningful. It is what we commonly referred to as “putting into practice what one has learnt”。
Should Chinese-language teachers continue to concentrate on getting students to pass examinations and not on expanding the relevance of the language to their lives, the language may one day just be abandoned altogether by them.
To most students and adults, just how useful is the Chinese language in their day-to-day lives？
Well, they can speak Mandarin at home and when they meet and mingle with their friends and others； read Chinese comic books, newspapers, entertainment weeklies and advertisements； watch Chinese movies or television programmes and news； listen to or sing Mandarin pop songs； write simple notes or letters in Chinese etc……
In concrete terms, we need to pick and choose from real life things that will fascinate students, like comics, entertainment magazines and television programmes, and turn them into interesting and appropriate teaching material with specific objectives.
Not only will this meet the aim of teaching, it will also have a knock-on effect - stimulate students' interest in spending time outside the classroom on their own on reading Chinese books and watching Chinese TV programmes.
overcome psychological barrier
Take comics for example. For students whose standard of Chinese is extremely low, getting them to read a short essay is already a tall order, let alone reading a book. Comic books, I believe, are effective instruments in helping them to overcome the psychological barrier in reading Chinese books.
We can also get students to share their thoughts on the comics. This will provide them the opportunity to hone their verbal skills as well as get other students interested.
The next step will be to introduce students gradually to comics that have greater depth, such as those based on swordfighting novels by Louis Cha and Gu Long and comic versions of Chinese literature classics by Tsai Chih Chung. Eventually, we can guide them towards reading Chinese books.
Success or failure hinges on the choice of books. Reading should be a joy and not a chore. If students were forced to read books according to the preferences of teachers, this could backfire and they would likely end up hating the Chinese language even more.
To get the best result, it is necessary to find the most appropriate teaching material and method to match the levels of the students and what they need.
Teachers can also make good use of television programmes. Some years back, when “My Fair Princess” was being shown, I made the novel on which the drama series was based the subject for a reading contest.
As expected, within a week, some students had finished reading the novel which has three volumes and were happily talking about the story with others. This prompted students less keen in the beginning to also start reading in order to join in the discussion.
The same can be said about movies. For instance, students can be asked to describe the expressions and feelings of the male lead of local production Home Run before and after he crosses the finishing line. This will be much more effective than asking students to create something out of nothing.
Newspapers are a main source of complementary reading. By and large, teachers who are concerned with examinations are in the habit of asking students to read more serious news and noting down their reactions. Alternatively, they may come up with a “pick the right word” or “fill in the gaps” exercise with the aim of getting students to learn more new words.
In fact, this can be made a lot more lively and interesting. Teachers can adopt a “modular approach” by getting students to follow up on a particular news event, for example, the Bali terror attack, the murder trial of the maid said to have caused her female employer's death in a fire, the Slim 10 court case and the National Day Parade. Students who monitor reports on the same event will be able to consolidate on what they learn as the words used are likely to be similar.
Opportunities must be created for students to apply what they learn. Students can be asked to assume the role of anyone mentioned in the news and write a letter to someone related to him or her or vice versa. The maid can, for example, write to her parents or the other way round.
When it comes to incidents for which the truth is shrouded in mystery, a good example is the SilkAir crash some years back, students can be asked to use the background information to engage in various forms of creative writing.
make use of computer technology
Even computer technology can become an important teaching tool. Interesting language games can help students build up unconsciously on what they have learnt as they indulge in computer games. The effect will be far better than asking them to memorise books on buidling vocabulary.
Having read the many examples cited, I believe teachers will raise a common question： Where can they find the time to do all these when they cannot even go through all the textbooks with the students？
Indeed, in most schools, while what I have mentioned can be tried out occasionally, to implement them in full and systematically will mean coming up with lots of complementary teaching material and new programmes, something which is almost impossible unless more time is alloted or some textbooks are done away with. This issue is beyond the ability of an individual - it depends on the foresight and the drive of the school leadership.
Actions speak louder than words. I hope members of the Chinese-language teaching profession can take the initiative to put their minds to the task - come up with concrete and effective solutions that can help Chinese-language teaching out of its present woeful state.
The Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union can take the lead in the joint efforts. While organising events such as essay-writing competitions and speech contests can promote the learning of Chinese, only a small number of students stand to benefit from them. Tackling the problem from the way the language is taught will have more substantive impact and greater effect.
What I have suggested are not brand-new ideas. Many have in fact already been put into practice, in most cases by the effort of individual teachers. What is lacking is thus comprehensive and systematic implementation of these proposals.
I hope more Chinese-language teachers will be able to discard old baggage and free themselves from deep-seated ideas, be bold enough to innovate to make Chinese language dynamic and relevant to life and to bring about a brighter future for Chinese-language teaching.
。The writer is Singapore Sports School's HOD for Mother Tongue. He was formerly HOD for Chinese Language in a SAP school and vice-principal of a secondary school.
成功的教學(xué)必須讓學(xué)生把所學(xué)的知識與現(xiàn)實掛鉤,并能在現(xiàn)實生活中應(yīng)用。這樣,學(xué)習(xí)動機(jī)才能成立,學(xué)習(xí)才會有意義。這也即所謂的“學(xué)以致用”。
如果華文老師仍只專注于幫助學(xué)生準(zhǔn)備考試,而不著眼于擴(kuò)大華文在學(xué)生生活中的“版圖”,那華文總有一天會在他們的“地圖”上消失！
對一般學(xué)生和成人而言,華文在現(xiàn)實生活中究竟有什么用途呢？在家庭、社交場合、公共場所以華語與人溝通,讀華文漫畫、報紙、廣播周刊、廣告等,看華語電影或電視節(jié)目、新聞,聽或唱華語流行歌曲,寫簡單的便條與書信等。如果學(xué)生能經(jīng)常做到這些,即把華文當(dāng)成他們的生活用語之一,那華文教學(xué)才算是真正成功。
具體地說,我們要從日常生活中酌量選擇學(xué)生喜歡的東西,如漫畫、廣播周刊、電視節(jié)目等,設(shè)計成有趣而且目標(biāo)明確的教學(xué)活動,這樣,不僅能有效達(dá)到該堂課的教學(xué)目標(biāo),也能產(chǎn)生“余震”,激發(fā)學(xué)生在課余主動去接觸這些華文讀物或節(jié)目。
排除心理障礙
在此,以漫畫為例具體說明。對于華文程度低落的學(xué)生而言,要求他們看一篇短文,已是十分痛苦的事,更別說是一本書。我們深信漫畫是協(xié)助他們克服閱讀華文書籍心理障礙的有效工具。
此外,也可要求學(xué)生分享閱讀某些指定漫畫的讀后感,這既能訓(xùn)練說話能力,也能引起其他學(xué)生的閱讀興趣。
接著,老師便可按“循序漸進(jìn)”的原則,引導(dǎo)學(xué)生看較有深度的漫畫,如：由金庸或古龍的武俠漫畫、蔡志忠漫畫、中國歷史故事漫畫等。后,才順勢將他們引導(dǎo)向閱讀純文字的華文書籍。
這里,書籍的選擇是成敗的關(guān)鍵。閱讀應(yīng)是一種享受,不是一件苦差。如果老師仍然按自己的喜好選書逼學(xué)生讀,那只會弄巧反拙,讓學(xué)生更憎恨華文。了解學(xué)生的程度與需要,選擇適合的教材與教學(xué)法,才能取得佳的教學(xué)效果。
另外,電視節(jié)目也是一個讓老師“借力”的好地方。記得幾年前,當(dāng)電視剛播映“還珠格格”時,我便以其原著作為全級閱讀比賽的指定書籍。不出所料,在一個星期內(nèi),便有一些學(xué)生把三本書讀完,并在校內(nèi)熱烈討論,樂在其中。這也對其他原本興致不高的學(xué)生產(chǎn)生影響,推動他們?nèi)ラ喿x以加入討論。
善于借助電視節(jié)目的魅力來推廣閱讀計劃,就能事半功倍。此外,電視節(jié)目或電影也可成為作文教學(xué)的好材料。例如,以《跑吧孩子》中男主角抵達(dá)終點(diǎn)前后的片段,要求學(xué)生集中描寫人物的外表、動作與心理活動,這會比要學(xué)生憑空想像來得有效。
報章也是課堂輔助教材的主要來源。一般上,老師們喜歡選用較嚴(yán)肅的新聞?wù)n題,要求學(xué)生寫讀后感,這是為配合會考要求。再不,便是設(shè)計成選詞填充之類,以增加學(xué)生的詞匯量。其實,新聞教學(xué)可以是生動有趣的。
為取得更佳效果,老師可以采取單元的概念,每個單元讓學(xué)生閱讀多篇同一類新聞的報道,如：峇厘島恐怖襲擊、紅山女傭燒死女主人、Slim 10訴訟案、國慶慶典等。由于同一類新聞所使用的語言文字大同小異,學(xué)生追看一系列的報道后,便能鞏固所學(xué)。
“學(xué)”后就得制造“用”的機(jī)會。老師可以要求學(xué)生以新聞中任何一個角色的身份,寫一封私函給一個與“他”有關(guān)的人,或反過來以與“他”有關(guān)的人的身份寫信給“他”；如女傭?qū)懡o父母,或父母寫給女傭。
遇到真相撲朔迷離的新聞,可以要求學(xué)生以新聞為背景進(jìn)行創(chuàng)作,如多年前的勝安空難,學(xué)生便運(yùn)用豐富的想像力,以偵探、推理、遺書、劇本等形式寫出了精彩的故事。
充分利用電腦科技
電腦科技也將是輔助我們教學(xué)的重要工具。由于學(xué)生都熱愛電腦游戲,若能多設(shè)計一些有趣的語文游戲,讓學(xué)生在玩的過程中不知不覺地鞏固所學(xué),其效果遠(yuǎn)比死啃詞語手冊來得有效。
讀了上述例子,相信很多老師會不約而同地問：課文都教不完了,怎么會有時間做這些呢！的確,在一般學(xué)校,上述教學(xué)法偶爾為之尚可,但若要全面而有系統(tǒng)的進(jìn)行,就必須引進(jìn)許多課外輔助教材并設(shè)計種種活動；除非是增加課時或刪減課文,否則是很難做到的。這個問題并非個人能力所及,而得視領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層的遠(yuǎn)見與魄力了。
以目前的情況來看,具體的行動似乎較有意義。希望華文教育界的有識之士主動集合起來,集思廣益,制定出具體有效的解決方案,讓華文教學(xué)走出困境。在這方面,華文教師總會可扮演領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的角色。主辦作文比賽、演講比賽之類的活動,固然能促進(jìn)華文的學(xué)習(xí),但受益的學(xué)生畢竟有限。若能從教學(xué)方面著手,就能起實質(zhì)而廣泛的作用。
其實,以上的一些建議并非什么創(chuàng)見,教育界早已有人在做了,只不過多數(shù)都是個別老師在行動,欠缺全面而有系統(tǒng)的貫徹。希望會有更多華文老師擺脫傳統(tǒng)的包袱與固有的成見,大膽地嘗試,努力使華文“活”起來,讓華文教學(xué)有一個較光明的明天！
Should Chinese-language teachers continue to concentrate on getting students to pass examinations and not on expanding the relevance of the language to their lives, the language may one day just be abandoned altogether by them.
To most students and adults, just how useful is the Chinese language in their day-to-day lives？
Well, they can speak Mandarin at home and when they meet and mingle with their friends and others； read Chinese comic books, newspapers, entertainment weeklies and advertisements； watch Chinese movies or television programmes and news； listen to or sing Mandarin pop songs； write simple notes or letters in Chinese etc……
In concrete terms, we need to pick and choose from real life things that will fascinate students, like comics, entertainment magazines and television programmes, and turn them into interesting and appropriate teaching material with specific objectives.
Not only will this meet the aim of teaching, it will also have a knock-on effect - stimulate students' interest in spending time outside the classroom on their own on reading Chinese books and watching Chinese TV programmes.
overcome psychological barrier
Take comics for example. For students whose standard of Chinese is extremely low, getting them to read a short essay is already a tall order, let alone reading a book. Comic books, I believe, are effective instruments in helping them to overcome the psychological barrier in reading Chinese books.
We can also get students to share their thoughts on the comics. This will provide them the opportunity to hone their verbal skills as well as get other students interested.
The next step will be to introduce students gradually to comics that have greater depth, such as those based on swordfighting novels by Louis Cha and Gu Long and comic versions of Chinese literature classics by Tsai Chih Chung. Eventually, we can guide them towards reading Chinese books.
Success or failure hinges on the choice of books. Reading should be a joy and not a chore. If students were forced to read books according to the preferences of teachers, this could backfire and they would likely end up hating the Chinese language even more.
To get the best result, it is necessary to find the most appropriate teaching material and method to match the levels of the students and what they need.
Teachers can also make good use of television programmes. Some years back, when “My Fair Princess” was being shown, I made the novel on which the drama series was based the subject for a reading contest.
As expected, within a week, some students had finished reading the novel which has three volumes and were happily talking about the story with others. This prompted students less keen in the beginning to also start reading in order to join in the discussion.
The same can be said about movies. For instance, students can be asked to describe the expressions and feelings of the male lead of local production Home Run before and after he crosses the finishing line. This will be much more effective than asking students to create something out of nothing.
Newspapers are a main source of complementary reading. By and large, teachers who are concerned with examinations are in the habit of asking students to read more serious news and noting down their reactions. Alternatively, they may come up with a “pick the right word” or “fill in the gaps” exercise with the aim of getting students to learn more new words.
In fact, this can be made a lot more lively and interesting. Teachers can adopt a “modular approach” by getting students to follow up on a particular news event, for example, the Bali terror attack, the murder trial of the maid said to have caused her female employer's death in a fire, the Slim 10 court case and the National Day Parade. Students who monitor reports on the same event will be able to consolidate on what they learn as the words used are likely to be similar.
Opportunities must be created for students to apply what they learn. Students can be asked to assume the role of anyone mentioned in the news and write a letter to someone related to him or her or vice versa. The maid can, for example, write to her parents or the other way round.
When it comes to incidents for which the truth is shrouded in mystery, a good example is the SilkAir crash some years back, students can be asked to use the background information to engage in various forms of creative writing.
make use of computer technology
Even computer technology can become an important teaching tool. Interesting language games can help students build up unconsciously on what they have learnt as they indulge in computer games. The effect will be far better than asking them to memorise books on buidling vocabulary.
Having read the many examples cited, I believe teachers will raise a common question： Where can they find the time to do all these when they cannot even go through all the textbooks with the students？
Indeed, in most schools, while what I have mentioned can be tried out occasionally, to implement them in full and systematically will mean coming up with lots of complementary teaching material and new programmes, something which is almost impossible unless more time is alloted or some textbooks are done away with. This issue is beyond the ability of an individual - it depends on the foresight and the drive of the school leadership.
Actions speak louder than words. I hope members of the Chinese-language teaching profession can take the initiative to put their minds to the task - come up with concrete and effective solutions that can help Chinese-language teaching out of its present woeful state.
The Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union can take the lead in the joint efforts. While organising events such as essay-writing competitions and speech contests can promote the learning of Chinese, only a small number of students stand to benefit from them. Tackling the problem from the way the language is taught will have more substantive impact and greater effect.
What I have suggested are not brand-new ideas. Many have in fact already been put into practice, in most cases by the effort of individual teachers. What is lacking is thus comprehensive and systematic implementation of these proposals.
I hope more Chinese-language teachers will be able to discard old baggage and free themselves from deep-seated ideas, be bold enough to innovate to make Chinese language dynamic and relevant to life and to bring about a brighter future for Chinese-language teaching.
。The writer is Singapore Sports School's HOD for Mother Tongue. He was formerly HOD for Chinese Language in a SAP school and vice-principal of a secondary school.
成功的教學(xué)必須讓學(xué)生把所學(xué)的知識與現(xiàn)實掛鉤,并能在現(xiàn)實生活中應(yīng)用。這樣,學(xué)習(xí)動機(jī)才能成立,學(xué)習(xí)才會有意義。這也即所謂的“學(xué)以致用”。
如果華文老師仍只專注于幫助學(xué)生準(zhǔn)備考試,而不著眼于擴(kuò)大華文在學(xué)生生活中的“版圖”,那華文總有一天會在他們的“地圖”上消失！
對一般學(xué)生和成人而言,華文在現(xiàn)實生活中究竟有什么用途呢？在家庭、社交場合、公共場所以華語與人溝通,讀華文漫畫、報紙、廣播周刊、廣告等,看華語電影或電視節(jié)目、新聞,聽或唱華語流行歌曲,寫簡單的便條與書信等。如果學(xué)生能經(jīng)常做到這些,即把華文當(dāng)成他們的生活用語之一,那華文教學(xué)才算是真正成功。
具體地說,我們要從日常生活中酌量選擇學(xué)生喜歡的東西,如漫畫、廣播周刊、電視節(jié)目等,設(shè)計成有趣而且目標(biāo)明確的教學(xué)活動,這樣,不僅能有效達(dá)到該堂課的教學(xué)目標(biāo),也能產(chǎn)生“余震”,激發(fā)學(xué)生在課余主動去接觸這些華文讀物或節(jié)目。
排除心理障礙
在此,以漫畫為例具體說明。對于華文程度低落的學(xué)生而言,要求他們看一篇短文,已是十分痛苦的事,更別說是一本書。我們深信漫畫是協(xié)助他們克服閱讀華文書籍心理障礙的有效工具。
此外,也可要求學(xué)生分享閱讀某些指定漫畫的讀后感,這既能訓(xùn)練說話能力,也能引起其他學(xué)生的閱讀興趣。
接著,老師便可按“循序漸進(jìn)”的原則,引導(dǎo)學(xué)生看較有深度的漫畫,如：由金庸或古龍的武俠漫畫、蔡志忠漫畫、中國歷史故事漫畫等。后,才順勢將他們引導(dǎo)向閱讀純文字的華文書籍。
這里,書籍的選擇是成敗的關(guān)鍵。閱讀應(yīng)是一種享受,不是一件苦差。如果老師仍然按自己的喜好選書逼學(xué)生讀,那只會弄巧反拙,讓學(xué)生更憎恨華文。了解學(xué)生的程度與需要,選擇適合的教材與教學(xué)法,才能取得佳的教學(xué)效果。
另外,電視節(jié)目也是一個讓老師“借力”的好地方。記得幾年前,當(dāng)電視剛播映“還珠格格”時,我便以其原著作為全級閱讀比賽的指定書籍。不出所料,在一個星期內(nèi),便有一些學(xué)生把三本書讀完,并在校內(nèi)熱烈討論,樂在其中。這也對其他原本興致不高的學(xué)生產(chǎn)生影響,推動他們?nèi)ラ喿x以加入討論。
善于借助電視節(jié)目的魅力來推廣閱讀計劃,就能事半功倍。此外,電視節(jié)目或電影也可成為作文教學(xué)的好材料。例如,以《跑吧孩子》中男主角抵達(dá)終點(diǎn)前后的片段,要求學(xué)生集中描寫人物的外表、動作與心理活動,這會比要學(xué)生憑空想像來得有效。
報章也是課堂輔助教材的主要來源。一般上,老師們喜歡選用較嚴(yán)肅的新聞?wù)n題,要求學(xué)生寫讀后感,這是為配合會考要求。再不,便是設(shè)計成選詞填充之類,以增加學(xué)生的詞匯量。其實,新聞教學(xué)可以是生動有趣的。
為取得更佳效果,老師可以采取單元的概念,每個單元讓學(xué)生閱讀多篇同一類新聞的報道,如：峇厘島恐怖襲擊、紅山女傭燒死女主人、Slim 10訴訟案、國慶慶典等。由于同一類新聞所使用的語言文字大同小異,學(xué)生追看一系列的報道后,便能鞏固所學(xué)。
“學(xué)”后就得制造“用”的機(jī)會。老師可以要求學(xué)生以新聞中任何一個角色的身份,寫一封私函給一個與“他”有關(guān)的人,或反過來以與“他”有關(guān)的人的身份寫信給“他”；如女傭?qū)懡o父母,或父母寫給女傭。
遇到真相撲朔迷離的新聞,可以要求學(xué)生以新聞為背景進(jìn)行創(chuàng)作,如多年前的勝安空難,學(xué)生便運(yùn)用豐富的想像力,以偵探、推理、遺書、劇本等形式寫出了精彩的故事。
充分利用電腦科技
電腦科技也將是輔助我們教學(xué)的重要工具。由于學(xué)生都熱愛電腦游戲,若能多設(shè)計一些有趣的語文游戲,讓學(xué)生在玩的過程中不知不覺地鞏固所學(xué),其效果遠(yuǎn)比死啃詞語手冊來得有效。
讀了上述例子,相信很多老師會不約而同地問：課文都教不完了,怎么會有時間做這些呢！的確,在一般學(xué)校,上述教學(xué)法偶爾為之尚可,但若要全面而有系統(tǒng)的進(jìn)行,就必須引進(jìn)許多課外輔助教材并設(shè)計種種活動；除非是增加課時或刪減課文,否則是很難做到的。這個問題并非個人能力所及,而得視領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層的遠(yuǎn)見與魄力了。
以目前的情況來看,具體的行動似乎較有意義。希望華文教育界的有識之士主動集合起來,集思廣益,制定出具體有效的解決方案,讓華文教學(xué)走出困境。在這方面,華文教師總會可扮演領(lǐng)導(dǎo)的角色。主辦作文比賽、演講比賽之類的活動,固然能促進(jìn)華文的學(xué)習(xí),但受益的學(xué)生畢竟有限。若能從教學(xué)方面著手,就能起實質(zhì)而廣泛的作用。
其實,以上的一些建議并非什么創(chuàng)見,教育界早已有人在做了,只不過多數(shù)都是個別老師在行動,欠缺全面而有系統(tǒng)的貫徹。希望會有更多華文老師擺脫傳統(tǒng)的包袱與固有的成見,大膽地嘗試,努力使華文“活”起來,讓華文教學(xué)有一個較光明的明天！