Teach and Learn Chinese for Beginners

Is Teaching Chinese to Beginners Difficult?

For a new Chinese language teacher, there are many things that he or she need to learn. For example: do the beginners need to learn Chinese characters other than “谢谢,” “你好” and other expressions used in daily dialogue? What textbooks should the learners use? How do I arrange the courses? How to teach Chinese to beginners? It is normal to feel difficult at first. As time goes by, you will find that teaching Chinese is a rather very pleasant experience.

    Is teach Chinese to beginners difficult?

We could say that teach Chinese to beginners requires a lot of work. Because the students are often like a blank sheet of paper, and the Chinese language is rather difficult. As teachers, you need to help them have a systematic understanding of the Chinese language, which includes phonetics, vocabulary, grammar, and Chinese characters. At the same time, teachers should raise students' interest in learning, and choose appropriate textbooks for the students. All of this demands a lot of effort and time on the part of the teacher.

However, there are certain ways to make the teaching experience easier. For instance, many institutes have training programs for new teachers. After going through such a program, teachers will have no trouble teaching Chinese to beginners.

Characteristics of Beginners

1. Their motivation for learning Chinese is not very strong. Many of them are learning Chinese just for fun, and the tuition is not expensive.                 
2. They often don't like to review what they have learned.
3. They usually only want to learn enough Chinese for them to live and work in China.
4. If they lose interest in the way, they will quit.

Several types of Chinese learners: 

1. Working in China;
2. Studying in China;
3. Interested in Chinese culture;
4. Making friends with Chinese;
5. Housewife;
6. Kids studying Chinese at the request of their mother;

The principles of teaching beginners Chinese include:

1. Focus on practicality;
2. Pay attention to pronunciation and spoken Chinese;
3. Lay down the primary grammar system, but don't spend too much time on it;
4. Don't focus on Chinese characters;
5. Talk about topics that students like in class;
6. Teach the standard language, do not teach slangs, idioms, and classic Chinese. In addition, you can also teach some popular words, but the words must be short and easy to understand;
7. Don't overload our students with the homework. Try to complete lesson objectives as much as you can in the classroom, including practice. And don't leave Chinese writing and reciting tasks as homework;
8. The teaching atmosphere should be lively and humorous;
9. Tell students that what he or she is learning in class is the simplest Chinese. Because when students are communicating with their friends, they'll find that they still can't fully understand.

What should you teach beginner Chinese learners?

Overall

1. Pinyin is critical and teachers should pay the most attention to it. Otherwise, the students may give up.
2. The text in the textbooks should be practical.
3. A bit of Grammar (pay more attention to practice)
4. No Chinese characters. However, if students want to learn, you can teach them some basic ones.

The following is the content of the 50-60 hours' course for beginners. In general, the following material includes the most common scenes in real life. If you want to learn the next 50 to 60 hours, the material is similar, but the discussion content is more advanced, and vocabulary and grammar are more difficult.

According to content:

1. Be a guest, learn how to say hello, polite expression, and ask questions about the food;
2. Numbers, quantifiers, Telephone Numbers and “有” (verb) sentence;
3. Know friends, introduce themselves, family members, names, country, profession, and telephone;
4. Taxi, and position words;
5. Today, tomorrow, yesterday and someplace words;
6. What to do and some common verbs;
7. Time;
8. Week, date;
9. Money, shopping, market, supermarket, fruit, vegetables, daily necessities, shopping malls, clothes pants shoes;
10. Go to restaurants, restaurants, cafes, bars;
11. Call to cancel appointments, call cancel appointments, make phone reservations, and tell the location of our home;
12. Introduce our own room, around and around;
13. The means of transportation;
14. Talking about the weather;

According to grammar: 

The following is the content of 50-120 hours' course for teaching Chinese to beginners:

According to content:

1. Pick up a person and send a person. Tell the accurate date and time and make the schedule;
2. When you go to a restaurant, we talk about restaurants, why, what we order;
3. Weather, compare the weather in our country and China, and what we often do under the specific weather;
4. Shopping, talking about quality, what to buy, price reduction;
5. What do we like, why do we want and how do we want it? Compliment others;
6. Travel, Where to travel, make trips, and how to buy tickets;
7. Medical treatment, body parts, description of appearance;
8. Feelings;
9. Do all kinds of cards and use all types of cards. (if the demand is not high enough)
10. Festivals, national holidays and Chinese festivals;

According to grammar:

Many textbooks have a different focus, but they generally cover the language points listed below:

1. Usage of "过";
2. V+O+ "了," indication something has happened, or the situation has changed;
3. Directional complement;
4. Time complement;
5. Structure of "就……才"
6. A complement of frequency;
7. Usage of "着";
8. Difference between "就" and "才";
9. Particle structure "地";
10. Adj reduplication;
11. Result complement;
12. Pivotal sentence;
13. Potential complement;
14. Comparative sentence;
15. "被" sentences;

What's listed above is commonly used grammar, and the related words, and special sentences. The book "Short-term Spoken Chinese", widely used by beginner Chinese learners, is one of a series of textbooks which cover 5 different levels from elementary level to advanced level.

How to teach Chinese to Beginners?

1. Teaching methods: Repeat -- question and answer -- substitution -- performance

Turn the text into a language wheel. Use a language theory to explain grammar and sentence patterns. Repeat mechanical exercises to help students master and form conditioned reflex. Take the language wheel and move on to the next step. Let students practice what they have learned in situational conversations. Then enter the stage of consolidation. Teachers need to devise different situations and let the student grasp different meanings of different words.

2. Teaching pictures preparation

Pictures are important for communication between teachers and learners. Pictures will save a lot of time and are Pictures are important for communication between teachers and learners. Pictures will save a lot of time and are very useful in explaining language points. Teachers need to prepare at least three example sentences for each grammar point, five best, it need a lot of work. Students need to use grammar points when making sentences. Generally speaking, the method is to give students a few keywords, a situation, and let students use the language points that they have learned to make sentences.

3. A-B Dialog

Teachers could simulate scenarios in daily life in class and let students play different roles. Teachers should encourage students to talk to each other or initiate dialogues between teachers and students. Scenarios include:

• Take a taxi
  
• Buy clothes
  
• Ask the way
  
• Travel together
  
• Discuss hobbies
  
• And so on

The teaching methods for teaching different types of students: 

1. Working in China – focus on business Chinese.
2. Housewife – focus on daily Chinese.
3. Travel in China – take the students to tourist attractions and teach them spoken Chinese.
4. Kids studying in China temporarily – play with the kids, and assign homework.
   

Points of attention: 

1. about grammar—don't focus on what and why, but focus on usage and practice.
2. about Chinese culture—don't teach difficult topics such as Confucius, and Mencius.
3. maintain a causal atmosphere and avoid politics.

How to learn Chinese?

The tips mentioned above are very useful for teachers teaching Chinese to beginners. For beginner Chinese learners, there are also many tips and methods that could make their learning experience easier. Pronunciation is very important for Chinese learners, especially beginners. Learners should spend a considerable amount of time to practice the pronunciation and engage in dialogues with teachers who can speak Mandarin well. Generally, learners should find teachers who have the appropriate certificates for teaching Chinese as a second language.

Related resource: How to learn Chinese