Learning Chinese Through Rhymes, Review Of A New Textbook
Nursery rhymes play an important role in the cognitive and linguistic development of children (Syamalakumari, 2009). Teaching rhymes help children not only develop their language skills (Crystal, 1996), but also predict their literary skills in the future (Bryant and Bradley, 1985). Teaching rhymes in L2 classes is especially helpful with L2 learners’ mastery of difficult sounds in the target language (Marks, 2009). In addition, it will make the learning of the target language easy and interesting (Cheung, 2007). Dr Zhou’s Rhymes for Learning Chineseattempts to put all these into practice by providing Non-Chinese Speaking Background (NCSB) learners with an opportunity to develop their linguistic skills in Chinese in a fun way.
Dr Zhou’s Rhymes for Learning Chineseconsists of 120 rhymes divided into 4 volumes of which the first covers the topics of greetings, self, family, schooling, character learning, nature and numbers; the second pets, nationality, sports, friendship, food and hobbies; the third daily routines, festivals, colour, clothing and shopping; and the fourth weather, arts, birthday, finding the way, travelling and holidays. All these rhymes are specially designed for NCSB learners to learn Chinese as a Second Language (CSL). They are most suitable for lower and upper primary levels, but can be used at the lower secondary level as well.
This series of textbooks has a few special features. Each volume contains a DVD and an MP3 CD which can be played in the classroom as well as on an MP3 player. The latter will make access to audio files more convenient and portable. However, there are times when the teacher may be frustrated by the slow loading of the rhymes and the animated pictures stored in the DVD.
Another feature is that unlike the traditional Chinese textbook, Dr Zhou’s Rhymes for Learning Chinese contains an English-Chinese Vocabulary List as well as a Chinese-English Vocabulary List at the end of each volume. This will make cross-referencing much easier and it is most suitable for young NCSB learners as they can check the English meaning of each rhyme directly. In addition, the English-Chinese Vocabulary List provides learners with extra Chinese phrases which make it possible for those who are more advanced in the target language to learn extra vocabulary.
This series of textbooks has a high-quality finish with glossy colour papers bound in a hard cover, which makes the book more attractive to young learners and most importantly, durable for the learners of this age group. All the texts are in colour with big fonts accompanied with beautiful illustrations, which makes reading more attractive and the texts much easier to follow.
In the back cover of each volume, there is a website given which provides teachers with more audio-visual teaching demonstrations and other relevant information about teaching rhymes in Chinese. This is particularly useful for teachers who are planning to use this series of textbooks for their own students. Before trying out, teachers could browse the website and review the video clips provided to see what other teachers have done previously in relation to the teaching of rhymes in Chinese. Accompanied to this series of textbooks, there is also a teachers’ guide which provides more information on the teaching of rhymes in Chinese.
Dr Zhou’s Rhymes for Learning Chinese is not only suitable for NCSB learners in day schools but also for those studying at ethnic and cultural schools in urban centres and rural regions at the weekend. This series of textbooks could be an ideal resource material used in conjunction with other grammar-focused textbooks to promote performance-based language learning or used for Chinese Cultural Day or Open Day.
In conclusion, I highly recommend Dr Zhou’s Rhymes for Learning Chinese to anyone who teaches NCSB learners but find it difficult to motivate their learners in engaging them to learn this challenge but also very rewarding language.
References
Bryant, P. and Bradley, L. (1985). Children’s Reading Problems. Oxford: Blackwell.
Cheung, W.M. (2007). Teaching Chinese and English in Hong Kong kindergartens: pedagogical approaches in early bilingual education. Congresshalle Saarbrucken.September 2007. Available: www.fruehkindlichemehrsprachigkeit.de/…/abstractcheungwai.pdf
Crystal, D. (1996). Language play and linguistic intervention. Child Language Teaching and Therapy. Vol.12, No.3, pp.328-344.
Marks, J. (2009). Methodology: teaching rhythm and stress with Chinese students. Available:http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?docid=146402
Syamalakumari, B. (2009). Creating and teaching nursery rhymes in Indian languages. Available: http://www.languageinindia.com/aug2003/syamalarhymes.html
About the Author
Dr Guanxin Ren teaches Chinese at Ruyton Girls’ School in Melbourne. He can be contacted at reng@ruyton.vic.edu.au. For his other publications on Chinese language teaching, see Babel, 43,3, 2009; Babel, 42,2, 2007; NZALT Conference Proceedings (Refereed Section) 2006; Babel, 39, 1, 2004; Languages Victoria, 8, 1, 2004; and Babel, 37.3, 2003.
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