When you think of teaching your child Mandarin Chinese from scratch, you may feel like you are looking at a construction site at its initial stage. It is muddy, messy, and intimidating. Yet, you know that a structure is going to stand tall on the very same site months or years later. It is hard to imagine that your child could one day be fluent in speaking Mandarin and proficient in Chinese writing. But with well-informed pedagogy and consistency, your child will get there. Here are some helpful principles for teaching your child Mandarin Chinese.
1. Immersive Learning
The idea of the immersive learning method is to immerse yourself in situations where, by design, you have to use the target language. Applying this to learning Chinese, a Mandarin-speaking environment is the most conducive. Because everywhere you are in is a classroom. In a restaurant, you need to order in Mandarin. In a grocery store, you see only Chinese labels. On the streets, you see only sign boards in Chinese. This primes you to pick up Chinese more quickly.
The lack of an immersive learning environment explains why learning Chinese could be challenging in Singapore.
Although a substantial proportion of the population is ethnic Chinese, the day-to-day communications are in English. Therefore, the responsibility of creating an immersive learning environment falls on the parents’ shoulders. If you would like to know some of the ways you could do this, check out this article.
2. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve & Spaced Repetitions
Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve (or simply ‘the forgetting curve’) tells us that our memory of a new thing we have learned fades over time. Spaced repetition tells us that repeated exposure with multiple-day intervals in between solidifies the memory and turns it into knowledge that remains with us.
These are especially applicable to learning Chinese. Because much of the vocabulary acquisition relies much on memorisation and less on understanding a certain logic. These explain why intense short-term boot camp-styled learning does not work well for learning Chinese. It needs to be a planned learning process over a period. Do not rush.
3. Theory of Multiple Intelligences
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.” This famous quote may or may not have come from Albert Einstein. But it brings out the concept of multiple intelligence.
The Multiple Intelligences theory explains that we humans have different types of intelligence. It challenged the traditional view that focuses on a single type of intelligence, the general intelligence, which only focuses on cognitive abilities. It introduces another eight types of intelligence: verbal-linguistic (word smart), logical-mathematical (reasoning smart), visual-spatial (picture smart), bodily-kinaesthetic (body smart), musical (music smart), interpersonal (people smart), intrapersonal (self-smart), and naturalist (nature smart).
Mainstream classrooms employ the more traditional linguistic or logical methods of instruction. But one size does not fit all. If your child does not learn well under the traditional methods, try incorporating other methods, like pictures (spatial intelligence), music (musical intelligence), social experience (interpersonal intelligence), and an experience in the outdoors (naturalist intelligence).
4. Theory of Gamified Learning
“Learners learn best when they are also having fun.” That is the core belief of the Gamified Learning (GL) theory.
Like how video games intrigue children, young learners show similar levels of engagement when the game-based elements are incorporated into learning materials. This is relevant today more than ever before. Because today’s digital-native young learners are exposed to game-based elements in the toys and games that they play from a young age.
An example of gamified learning: At LingoAce, our pre-school learners immerse in animated stories with our own original characters, Tigo and Duoduo. They get to know new friends with Tigo, and learn new words with Duoduo. Each lesson is just like a different episode from a cartoon TV show.
This may not be as easy to replicate yourself at home. But there are multiple choices of gamified learning materials that you could obtain from the market as well as learning service providers that incorporate gamified learning in the curriculum.
5. Total Physical Response (TPR)
The last thing a child could do in the traditional classroom is to make excessive movements. But the Total Physical Response (TPR) method says that creating physical movements to define words, phrases, and sentences help learners make connections to them.
An example of how you apply TPR in teaching your child Chinese: Say you want to introduce飞机 (fēi jī, which means “aeroplane” in Chinese). You first enunciate the pinyin “fēi jī”. Then, you make a gesture of a flying aircraft and mimic the sound of a roaring engine. Now, get your child to repeat after you. This helps your child pick up the new word by connecting it to the gesture and the sound.
By involving the auditory and physical senses, your child develops a deeper impression of the new word. Repeating it from time to time makes the impression and learning lasts.
Teaching Mandarin Chinese is no easier than learning it. It takes continued commitment, well-informed pedagogy (such as the five principles shared above), and passion to make it work. We are here to make it work together with you.
At LingoAce, each 55-minute lesson is a product of over 100 hours of curriculum creation, courseware production, mock teaching, teacher training, and quality control (QC) rounds. You may enjoy a free trial lesson with us here.
