Issues of Studying Chines as a Second Language - Essay Example

? REPORT ISSUES IN STUDYING CHINESE AS A SECOND LANGUAGE (CSL) A CASE STUDY OF A JAPANESE BY PRESENTED Contents Contents 2 1.Introduction 2 2.Barriers to Learning Chinese that may be encountered by the Japanese Student 3 3.0 Difficulties in Teaching and Leaning Grammar in this context 5 4.0 Strategies to Overcome the Grammar Issues and Difficulties 7 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations 8 6.0 List of References 9 1. Introduction Many Chinese Second Language students (CSL) encounter various difficulties in learning Chinese, especially during initial stages. This requires tutors in this area to do extra instructional work to make lessons more meaningful and less confusing and overwhelming to students (Beckett & Haley, 2000). An example of a language learner is a Japanese student who migrates to China to do further studies in World history. He has limited knowledge in Chinese language, but finds that all lessons are taught in this language. Undertaking Chinese language lessons will enable him sharpen his linguistic skills and make the learning process much easier. He will also converse effectively with Chinese students and make meaningful social relationships with them. Importantly, he will be able to learn about the differences in Japanese and Chinese cultures and will have an opportunity to fit himself well into the new Chinese culture (Beckett & Haley, 2000). However, he is likely to encounter various kinds of barriers including; Cognitive load Cultural load Language load Learning load This paper examines these barriers in the context of the Japanese student, issues and difficulties in teaching and learning of Chinese language, and the context and strategies available for teachers to overcome these difficulties in facilitating effective learning. 2. Barriers to Learning Chinese that may be encountered by the Japanese Student As mentioned, one of the barriers that this student may encounter is cognitive load. This refers to the number of concepts contained in the Chinese text or lesson. As Meyer (2000) explains, the level of cognitive load experienced by a Chinese student is determined by his or her familiarity with the content of Chinese lessons, or with the concepts being taught. The Japanese learner has limited entry knowledge about Chinese language; he will have to be introduced to new, unfamiliar concepts. Additionally, he will have little basis on which to draw conclusions or interpret linguistic clues in order to make informed guesses about the meanings of the tutor’s instructions or text. In other words, the student is likely to experience heavy cognitive load in the learning process. Another barrier that he may encounter is cultural load. According to Meyer (2000) the relationship between language and a learner’s cultural background determines the amount of effort that is needed in the learning process. Usually, the meanings and uses of words are related to their cultural and linguistic settings and often, differ in different cultural settings. The amount of cultural knowledge that is needed for a language learner to understand the meanings and uses of words, which are not explicitly explained to the learner is called cultural load. For instance, the substance water is represented by different labels in China and Japan and also exists in different scenes and settings. Though it exists in both Japanese and in Chinese languages, it has no similar meaning across both languages (Meyer, 2000). Therefore, words may exist in both cultures, but are used in different circumstances and settings. The barrier here is that the Japanese learner is likely to derive meanings and uses of such words from Japanese language and culture, even though they have different meanings and uses in China. The Japanese learner is also likely to come across unfamiliar words in text during tutor’s instructions. These words may contain long trail of syllables, they may have cumbersome pronunciations, or the manner in which they may be strung together to form sentences and paragraphs may be confusing to the student. Exposure the student to such words, sentences and paragraphs is known as heavy language load. When confronted with heavy language load, the Japanese student is likely to grow weary and abandon the task of processing words, sentences or paragraphs (Meyer, 2000). This also makes it much difficult for them to learn. The final barrier that the Japanese student may experience is the learning load. This is the level of a tutor’s expectations of how a student is going to apply the language in learning activities. In brainstorming, for instance, he is expected to rely on minimal clarifications and on few visual examples to make spontaneous comment and responses to questions that are fast-paced. As with any other student, the Japanese learner will experience difficulties in following such activities given that he has limited knowledge of many words that he may encounter in the process (Meyer, 2000). 3.0 Difficulties in Teaching and Leaning Grammar in this context According to Al-Mekhlafi & Nagaratnam (2011) CSL tutors are faced with numerous options for giving grammar instructions. However, there are various difficulties encountered by both teachers and students with regard to grammar instruction in a CSL context. Al-Mekhlafi & Nagaratnam (2011) noted that there have been little efforts by teachers and students in many parts of the world to investigate and find solutions to the difficulties encountered with regard to grammar instruction. Teachers in CSL classes apply and implement theoretical methods recommended to them by school systems without taking into account the difficulties that they encounter and those that are encountered by the learners. In some cases, they are not aware of the difficulties that hinder student’s learning and hardly select methods that would lead to fewer problems and difficulties to the learners. Various studies have shown that students encounter difficulties in learning characters, tones and their meanings in CSL context (Teng, 1997; Xing, 1998; Xing, 2003; and Xing, 2006). In fact, a study conducted by Xing (2006) found that 45% of CSL learners in China give up learning due to the in learning Chinese characters. There are three aspects that CSL students need to learn namely; how to write characters, their meanings and pronunciation or tones. This presents a high level of complexity that makes learning of CSL challenging. For instance, an American learner undertaking Chinese language may experience problems due to dissimilarity of character between Chinese language and American English (Xing, 2006). Unlike in other languages such as English, French and German, lexical meanings are distinguished using tones in the Chinese language. Different tones for the same word can often leads to different meanings. This makes it difficult for learners whose languages do not use tones to learn Chinese language (Xing, 2003; Xing, 2006; and Teng, 1997). Though the Japanese and Chinese languages use similar characters and tones, the meanings and pronunciation of many words are different. This tends to be a hindrance for Japanese students to learn Chinese language (Xing, 2006). According to Xing (2006), the difficulty encountered in learning characters and tones in CSL contexts often leads to a negative attitude towards grammar instructions among students. For most CSL students, learning grammar is understood to refer to the learning of grammar rules, or having intellectual understanding of grammar. They perceive grammar as a set of instructions that allow or disallow language use (Tao, 2005). From teachers’ perspectives, grammar understanding provides a basis on which students can effectively build knowledge and use the language. They believe that prescribed rules encourage adherence and provide some security. Larsen-Freeman (2002) asserted that teachers and students conceive grammar as a set of instructions that are repressing rather than liberating. Widdowson (1990) argues that this is a wrong conception of grammar and proposes that teachers and students should adopt a better approach that sees grammar as one of the various resources that are available in language that help learners to write and communicate. They should always check on how grammar relates to what they write and say and how they expect CSL students to interpret what the Chinese language uses and focuses on. On the other hand, Burgess and Etherington (2002) and (Borg, 1999) focused on students’ expectations. In their studies, they found that teachers believe that CSL students favour explicit teaching of grammar due to feelings and expectations of insecurity. Burgess and Etherington (2002) noted that since 1970s, their attention has been shifting from teaching grammar with greater emphasis being given to getting CSL students to communicate. However, grammar has been a de-motivating force in understanding language and communicating fluently among CSL students. Often, the students find difficulties in understanding and in the use of the rules of grammar. In some cases, they are able to learn and understand the rules, but they are not able to apply them in practical situations. Odlin (1994) found that most CSL learners have difficulties in internalizing rules of grammar even where they have been taught to them extensively. 4.0 Strategies to Overcome the Grammar Issues and Difficulties There are various strategies that a teacher of CSL students can adopt to overcome the issues and difficulties stated above in CSL lessons. To start with, it is essential that grammar teaching approach be both implicit and explicit. As Ellis (1994) explains, grammar teaching should not be restricted to analysis of written documents. Rather, it should also be provided in context or in an implicit manner by examining living speech. To incorporate this approach, a teacher can provide function-based lessons in which grammar is applied in context after undertaking grammar-based lessons. Secondly, positive attitude can be cultivated through making students understand that grammar is a liberating rather than a constraining force Meyer (2000). This can be supported by allowing students to pursue topics of their interest. However, as Meyer (2000) points out, this should be allowed only for topics that are valuable for learning. In other words, it is important that student’s interests be broadened through a creatively selected and implemented curriculum. A teacher should also express passion for grammar since it helps in generating interest among students. Meyer (2000) argues that a passionate teacher’s lessons open new interests and reflections among students which may lead to a positive attitude towards grammar. Apart from generating positive attitude, this may highly motivate CSL students to learn grammar and to communicate effectively. In addition, there are several ways in which a teacher can minimize difficulties in understanding Chinese characters and tones. First, a learner should be exposed to the Chinese language for a long time so that he or she can naturally start to notice difference with his or her native language (Loke, 2002). According to McDonald (1999), tutors should always speak in Chinese during lessons. As well, all text resources should be written in Chinese. During the initial stages, students undertaking CSL may be taught different tones for different words through imitation. Tutors should explain the meanings of different tones. According to Liu (1998), rewriting and explaining of vocabularies can help to lighten this difficulty. This involves breaking them down and explaining them in ways that are comprehensible to the learners. A teacher can present grammar vocabularies at the start of a lesson and define them. Different texts may also be availed to learners containing vocabularies but varying in reading difficulty and linguistic complexity. 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendations Japanese students undertaking CSL encounter various difficulties in the process of learning. The barriers that a Japanese student undertaking CSL in China may face include cognitive load, language load, learning load and culture load. The issues and difficulties emerge in the teaching and learning of grammar include problems with learning Chinese characters, tones and their meanings, negative attitude towards grammar among students and lack of application of implicit approach by teachers in teaching grammar. This report has also examined several strategies available for teachers to overcome or minimize these difficulties. As noted, learning Chinese is often problematic for second language learners. However, adoption of the right approaches can lead to greater success. Drawing from this paper, it is recommendable for teachers to come up with methodologies and approaches that will help in cultivating positive attitudes among students. Secondly, school curriculums should allow for implicit teaching of grammar, alongside the explicit approach. Further, language immersion and imitation can help to address the difficulty encountered by students in learning characters, tones and their meanings through the use of Chinese language in texts and by tutors’ talk. Finally, it is essential for tutors to strive to always understand the learning difficulties encountered by learners undertaking CSL and find the best solution in order to maximize student learning. 6.0 List of References Al-Mekhlafi, A, M. & Nagaratnam, R. P . 2011. Difficulties in Teaching and Learning Grammar in an ESL Context, International Journal of Instruction. 4(2), 69 - 92 Beckett, E., and Haley, P., 2000. Using Standards to Integrate Academic Language into ESL Fluency. The Clearing House, 74(2), 102-104. Borg, S., & Burns, A. 2008. Integrating Grammar in Adult TESOL Classrooms. Applied Linguistics. 29,  456–482. Burgess, J. and Etherington, S. 2002. Focus on Grammatical Form: Explicit or Implicit? System, 30, 433-458. Ellis, R. 1994. The Study of Second Language Acquisition, Oxford University Press, Oxford Larsen-Freeman, D.,2002. The Grammar of Choice. In E. Hinkel and S. Fotos (Eds.) New Perspectives on Grammar Teaching in Second Language Classrooms. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, New Jersey Liu, Y. (1998). Integrating Structure, Meaning and Function in Language Teaching [in Chinese]. JCLTA, 33(3), 51–62. Loke, K. (2002). Approaches to the Teaching and Learning of Chinese: A Critical Literature Review and a Proposal for a Semantic, Cognitive and Metacognitive Approach. JCLTA, 37(1), 65–112. Meyer, L., 2000. Barriers to Meaningful Instruction for English Learners. Theory into Practice, 39(4), 228-236 McDonald, E. (1999). Teaching Grammar Through Text: An Integrated Model for a Pedagogical Grammar of Chinese. JCLTA, 34(2), 91–120. Odlin, T. (Ed.). (1994). Perspectives on Pedagogical Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tao, H. (2005). The Gap Between Natural Speech and Spoken Chinese Teaching Material: Discourse Perspectives on Chinese Pedagogy. JCLTA, 40(2), 1–24. Teng, S.H. (1997). Towards a Pedagogical Grammar of Chinese. JCLTA, 32(2), 29–39 Xing, J.Z. (1998). Pedagogical Grammar of Chinese: Perspectives on Discourse and Pragmatics. JCLTA, 33(3), 63–78. Xing, J.Z. (2003). Towards a Pedagogical Grammar of Chinese: Approach, Content and Process. JCLTA, 38(3), 41–68. Xing, J.Z. (2006) Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language – A Pedagogical Grammar, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Widdowson, H. G.,1990. Grammar and Nonsense and Learning. In H. G. Widdowson, Aspects of Language Teaching Oxford: Oxford University Press Read More