Hundreds of international students from all over the world come to Nanjing University to study Chinese each semester. The come from a wide range of first languages, their attitudes to what constitutes language proficiency differ and their absolute proficiencies across the four areas of aquistion reading, writing, speaking and listening, vary significantly.
The optional diagnostic test tested freewriting, without prompts, and reading, which was marked on multiple choice. Remarkably, the results of the test, i.e. which class we were assigned to, was finished the following morning. Unfortunately the speed and efficiency of the testing process makes it quite a blunt instrument. There are three levels which have lower and upper divisions between them, so six altogether. Beginners upper and lower, Intermediate upper and lower, Advanced upper and lower.
The classes comprise of 80% listening, 15% reading and the rest divided between writing and speaking. The class I ended up in is comprised of western learners of Chinese, not exclusively English speakers, who can generally speak and listen with confidence, and often find the classes too slow, and students from Asian backgrounds that cannot understand the teacher, but are able to write and read to a relatively high level. For both groups there are serious inadequacies in the class. I wouldn?t want to move any higher because my writing and reading are still quite undeveloped, but the classes, while taught almost entirely in Chinese, are too easy to understand, and can be repetitive.
What can the school do?
The first step is to test listening, which is by far the most crucial skill for students in teacher centered classrooms. The next step would be to group students based on their different strengths and weaknesses rather than just the mean average of their ability. If students are already capable listeners but poor writers they should have curriculum which compensates for this, by?focusing?more on writing. Productive uses of language, such as writing are useful not simply for their own sake, but tend to also have a strong impact on their more passive?counterpart. For example, the best way to?recognize?Chinese characters is to learn how to write them. ?Spending time speaking has a positive impact on listening ability. Unfortunately our course focuses mainly on listening and reading, and which this is easier to administer, it doesn?t necessarily help students as much as speaking and writing practice do.
Like this:
Be the first to like this.
Source: http://danednie.com/2012/10/05/difficulties-of-streaming-students-at-nanjing-university/
leslie carter aaron carter sister pfizer signing day 2012 football gasland college football recruiting bjork
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন