Chinese language is a new territory for many whose first language use an alphabetic system such as English. Instead of combining letters to form words, Chinese language uses strokes to form characters. The commonly used Chinese characters alone contain 3000 approach. Not only that, Chinese is one more tonal language with four different tones, commonly marked with accent marks, many years . unmarked represents the neutral tone. The accent marks are only available when using PinYin to represent the pronunciation. The word sh for instance, can have different meanings depending on its tone. The first tone sh can mean poetry or wet or teacher. The second tone sh can mean ten or time or genuine. The third tone sh can mean history or to start or to cause. Lastly tone sh can mean yes or room or matter. In essence, there are many similar sounds distinctive meanings. As a a couple of fact, a Chinese linguist in the 20th century Zhao Yuanren composed a 10-line classical Chinese poem using only the sound shi.
Next, it isn’t always possible to guess the pronunciation of a mother nature herself. The character for wood, for instance, is pronounced mu. The character for forest, that is composed of two-character for wood, is pronounced lin. Although in this example the pronunciation can’t be related, the concept of the characters would be able to. On the contrary, when the pronunciation can be related due to similar root character, the meanings aren’t necessarily related.
PinYin itself, although alphabetized, is not pronounced the same way as the alphabetic sounds. There are unfamiliar sounds for example u with an umlaut () that sounds like a combination of I and u. Like all things unfamiliar, it will result in uncertainty and fearfulness. Thus, knowing the challenges learners face is the initial step in devising effective learning strategies that directly affect their language satisfaction.
The Strategies Used to Learn Chinese Characters
Prof Ko-Yin Sung of Chinese Language Study from Utah State university conducted a hunt amongst non-heritage, non-Asian Eastern learners and uncovered interesting results which could help future learners in forming a helpful study blueprint. Her study revolves round most frequently used Chinese character learning strategies and how those strategies affect the learners’ ability in understanding and producing the sound and the writing of the Chinese heroes.
The study finds that among very best twenty most regularly used strategies, eight pros are involved in when a personality is first introduced to learners. These include:
1. Repeating the character several times aloud or silently.
2. Writing the character down.
3. Noting how to say hi in chinese the is found in context.
4. Noting the tone and associating it with pinyin.
5. Observing the character and stroke order.
6. Visualising the letter.
7. Following the explanation of the type.
8. Associating the character with previously learned character.
The next six strategies are which is used to increase learners’ understanding belonging to the newly introduced character.
9. Converting the character into native language and finding a similar.
10. Looking in the textbook or dictionary.
11. Checking if the new character is used previously.
12. Discovering this how these kinds of used in conversation.
13. Utilizing the character in sentences orally.
14. Asking how the could be utilized in lines.
However, learning strategies start to diminish beyond those two learning periods. There are only three strategies moved to memorising newly learned avatar.
15. Saying and writing the character at one time.
16. Saying and picturing the character in your head.
17. Imply sound, visualising the character shape and meaning.
And presently there only one strategy used in practising new characters.
18. Making sentences and writing them out.
And new characters are reviewed along with two strategies only.
19. Writing the characters many instances.
20. Reading over notes, example sentences and the textbook.
Of the twenty strategies mentioned above, four are simply just to be most significant in increasing learner’s skills of speaking, listening, reading, and writing of the new characters. The 4 strategies are:
Writing the characters down
Observing the stroke order
Making connection to a similar character
Saying and writing the smoothness repeatedly
Discussion
A research by Stice in 1987 showed that students only retained 10% of how they learned from what they read, 26% from the things they hear, and 30% from what they see. When learning modes are combined, newer and interesting . improvement in mastering retention is noted. Learning retention jumped to 50% when seeing and hearing are combined, and even higher at 70% when students repeat the materials yet learning, and learning retention is in the highest at 90% when students say the materials built learning as they quite do something. Simply reading the characters aren’t enough. Learners must associate the sound with the characters, create a connection when using the characters to make them memorable, and practice recalling the newly learned characters.
Study points too recalling new characters learned improves learning retention and reinforces understanding the concepts of. One way allow your this is by using an app for example The Intelligent Flashcards. Amounts . flashcard app is suited for the New Practical Chinese Reader textbooks, making it convenient to review characters created from chapters. Not only does it show stroke order animation, it is also accompanied by native speaker sound files, making this app so much more convenient that another app while Anki. With Anki, although user can add personal notes on it, the sound file is not available and should be imported through another app.
Another important learning process to incorporate is observing any characters are used in situation. This can be done by observing real-life conversations to supplement the textbook and audio recordings conversation. Usually interesting to remember that trainees studied typically the abovementioned research were reluctant to adopt the training strategies recommended by the instructors, for instance watching Chinese TV shows or listening Chinese movies. There could be many options for this. Design and style of the shows or songs cannot appeal on the learners.
To be able to this program is quite a bit less convenient. And additionally if the shows could be accessed online, rarely draught beer subtitled in both both Chinese and English which makes the shows more useful to beginner learners in receiving the language. Also, most of this very popular Chinese Tv fall into the historical genre, which is really a favourite among the Chinese, regarding The Empress of Asia. However, the language spoken in this particular type of TV show is good deal more complex towards the contemporary spoken Chinese.