Improve Chinese Proficiency - Lead By Example!
My boy was poor in MT oral at first. Here's what I did to improve his oral:
1. Speak to him in MT.
2. Read a story in MT.
3. Expect him to speak to you in MT.
4. Get him to read a MT story aloud to you everyday.
Practice makes perfect. The only way to improve our speech is to speak MT on a daily basis. I will set aside half an hour everyday to read a MT story to my children. I will then ask them to read the story aloud to me. From there, they can learn to recognise new words, the correct pronounciation and build up their confidence.
Children tend to shun subjects that they are least competent in. By getting them to read aloud to you in MT gives you the chance to correct their pronounciation and at the same time, as day goes by, you will realise that your child will be more competent in his oral skills.
I kill three birds with one stone. I choose MT story books that teaches values and morales. For eg: 品德故事，爱心故事. I find them very useful. Each book comprises of several stories. Each story is kept short in order not to let the child feel bored and challenged.
My children learn about values and morales, learn new words and their comprehension improved greatly too after some time. I will always ask them questions after they finished reading the story to me. When they are reading, I will correct them on the pronounciation and I will read the story to them again and highlight the words that they need to take note. For instant, when the sentence ends with a !, I will read in a more high-pitched tone to emphasize the emotions of the author.
I teach my children the correct way of expressing the story instead of reading in a flat tone.
They will pause for 1 second after each comma, 2 seconds for full stop, exclamation marks and question mark.
We must teach our child the different tone and expression in reading the story. All these has to be explained to the child and in no time, your child can read very well.
For a start, do not choose books that are beyond your child's standard. Start easy. You don't want to scare your child with those tiny words and thick books. I choose books with colourful pictures and with hanyu pinyin to arouse their interests.
It is ok for them to be dependant on hanyu pinyin for a start. As days goes by, they will be able to recognise the words.
Be patient and you will be amazed at how proficient your child is.
The keyword is we, as parents must make an effort to spend some time with them everyday to give them a good headstart. I treasure this moment as it enables me to bond with my children.
My children are now able to converse in MT more confidently than before.
P.S: We are an English speaking family too. But I make it compulsory for everyone to converse in MT when it is MT time. My children do not have any tuition. I believe in spending quality time with them. I did the same for English. And I am happy to say that both my children are effectively bilingual.
We, as parents, must set a good example to the children, I started off by speaking MT to my DH and I expect him to do the same. I will correct DH if he is incorrect in his usage of words and pronounciation. Our children will start to speak MT in a more comfortable way when the parents are involved too. We walk the talk. We must be willing to invest time and effort in our children. We cannot just leave everything to the tutor and teachers to bring up the results of our children.
No one knows our children better than anyone. If you are willing to invest just 30 minutes each day reading with your child, you will be pleased with the results that follow!
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I am very concerned about
I am very concerned about the standard of Chinese our children is exposed nowadays.
Especially when there is so many changes and with so many parents complaining that our standard of Chinese is too high for our children.
We don't have this problem during our days. My parents did not complain that the Chinese syllabus is too difficult.
By bringing the standard down, will it really benefit our children in the long run?
Will it come to a stage when the future generations will not even be able to recognise Chinese words and not able to speak Mandarin?
if all english speaking
if all english speaking chinese family follow what you did, then chinese subject will not be a big headache.
thanks for sharing
If I may, I'd like to
If I may, I'd like to suggest to parents that if you are able to record your child's reading, its a helpful tool to use when giving feedback. In fact, don't give the feedback, see if they can hear it for themselves and realize their mistakes, if they have made any.
I used to do that when teaching and got my 'O' level kids to produce recorded versions of their reading for EL. We used to have fun during feedback time. The kids knew that it was for their own good and they were 'sporting' when it came to admitting to their mistakes ie flat tone etc..
Heyya autumnbronze, this was what i did for my students too.
Case of great minds think alike, no?
It does work an impact on them to do better the next round.
I also use the recordings to show the parents how their children
have improved from the first time they joined in up to their current
level of fluent reading... The parents find it helpful since they cannot
be in my lessons together with their children and some children can be
shy when asked to read properly in the presence of their parents.
Most definitely
Quote Case of great minds think alike, no?
Unquote
Oh most definitely buds, most definitely erhem erhem
Hey buds_hubs, Don't
Hey buds_hubs,
Don't worry.
I am very experienced..kekeke
I will aim properly then cut...hahahaha
Just want to comment that
Just want to comment that recording really help improving the oral skill. My kids were alittle shy at first but they were surprised to hear that they really sounded "flat" and boring when we play back the recording.
I have encourage them to record their readings using their mobile phones as and when they feel like it and play back and re record until they are happy with the recording.
I tried to read
I tried to read Chinese storybooks with DD and DS as well, except that it is on a less regular basis and certainly not every night
. At least, now I know I should persist.
Another thing that you may like to try is San Zhi Jin and Tang shi. My DD loves learning them! Helps to learn new words too.
I did think of that. Will
I did think of that. Will introduce it to them simultaneously. Di zi GUI
is very good too!
Thanks
Great Tips!!
Especially like the part about you correcting DH on his incorrect usage of words & pronounciation....
Reminds me of buds.. always correcting me on my pronounciation..Sigh.
Thats when I suddenly switch to some "Hokkien" words to cut her off!!
Cheers!
Haha . My hubs can't cut me
Haha .
My hubs can't cut me off with other languages as
I am better in languages and dialects.
He is the one kana cut..... Wahahaha
Careful what you cut hor!!
Kiasimom..
I refer to your last comment "He is the one kana cut...Wahahaha!"
Sounds a little scary leh..
Careful what you cut hor!!
Hope muffins is not reading this!
Cheers!
Thats what buddies are for lah ...
Thats what buddies are for lah
Wow, autumnbronze, That's a
Wow, autumnbronze,
That's a fantastic idea to record their readings so that I can playback to them and they can hear for themselves their readings.
I believe both my children will love the idea and we will be in for a sure good time!
Thanks for the suggestions :-)
Useful Tips
Kiasimom,
Thank you. The tips are really useful
Yes, I do agree that with oral reading practice, you have to go further and do the necessary pauses and adjust the tone accordingly.
If I may, I'd like to suggest to parents that if you are able to record your child's reading, its a helpful tool to use when giving feedback. In fact, don't give the feedback, see if they can hear it for themselves and realize their mistakes, if they have made any.
I used to do that when teaching and got my 'O' level kids to produce recorded versions of their reading for EL. We used to have fun during feedback time. The kids knew that it was for their own good and they were 'sporting' when it came to admitting to their mistakes ie flat tone etc..