Children and Adults
Differentiation in Teaching Chinese as a Second
language — A Methodological Overview
Qi Wang
Abstract
Language teaching should take
account of the individual differences
and different learning styles of learners. Among the individual differences, age difference is a critical factor. Children
have different characteristics from adults in language learning.
Language teaching method should be applied to varying learners
differentially. This paper examines the significant difference between children
and adults in terms of language learning style from the respect of pedagogical
psychology. Based on its findings, this paper suggests effective teaching
methods which are angled at children and adults respectively. In reference to observations on the author’s
personal teaching practice, this paper also calls into question some common beliefs
regarding the Chinese teaching method, and brings forward the author’s
independent considerations and opinions.
____________________________________
0. Introduction
Like teaching any other second language, teaching Chinese as a second language needs to follow the rules and regulations of second language teaching. Based on my experience of teaching Chinese as a second language, language teaching must accommodate differences in learners’ characteristics of learning language. For example, the age of the learner is a critical factor for language teaching outcome. Language teaching experts have done a lot of research on ways age affects teaching outcome. But studies on this aspect are still ongoing because there are many issues that have not been well addressed and scientifically tested, and therefore have no clear and solid conclusions.
In recent years,
more and more educational institutions have offered Chinese as a second
language classes in the
1. Different Learners’ Characteristics between Children and Adults
1.1. Physiological Characteristics
Children are physically underdeveloped and have not matured biologically. According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, children have a neurological advantage in learning languages.[1] They can acquire language more easily because of the “plasticity” of their brains.[2] Their speech organs are more flexible than those of matured adults. They have the advantage in leaning a new language because it is much easier for children than for adults to utter the new language with an accurate pronunciation and intonation. On the contrary, adults are more biologically matured, but their speech organs are less flexible. Their pronunciation of a second language is strongly affected by their first language. Because of the age effect, adults are physically limited in reaching native-like pronunciation and intonation.[3]
1. 2. Cognitive Ability
Children’s cognitive ability is under developed. Malcolm Knowles’ pedagogy and andragogy theory maintains that children tend to be dependent thinkers and learners and therefore need teacher to direct what, when, and how a subject is learned and conduct tests on that has been learned. Adults’ cognitive ability is more developed. Compared to children, adults are more independent and self-directed in the sense that they are able to cognize what they are learning through their own initiative. [4] According to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, Children rely principally on sensory experience for reflecting and acquiring knowledge,[5] and they mostly understand things directly or through audio visual aids and other sensory inputs. Since Adults are more cognitively mature,[6] they are better able to use their ability of abstract thinking to comprehend knowledge indirectly and inferentially.
1. 3. Span of Attention
Children have shorter attention span and can be distracted easily. Teaching methods for children must be designed with their short attention span in mind. Teachers need to intensively increase interests in their course content in order to attract children’s attention. Personal interests and academic motivations are important factors to attract adults to learn. Adults tend to have longer attention span and better focus on what they have been learning.7 Class instruction hours should be set shorter for children than for adults.
1. 4. Faculty of Memory
Children’s memory is more mechanical. They do not have access to the memory techniques and other strategies. Children have short-term visual memory and forget things quickly. It is difficult for them to retain memory over a long period of time.[7] For adults, the persistence of memory is different from individual to individual. But adults’ memory is mainly comprehensive and imaginative. They have greater memory storage. Although the faculty of memory for adults becomes weaker as they age, the permanence of memory is much better for adults than for children.
1. 5. Study Ability
With regard to language learning, children have better ability to recognize and imitate sound. They are more attentive to phonology. Adults’ ability to recognize and imitate sound differs from individual to individual. Yet, adults excel at generalizing, synthesizing, and analyzing and have better control over grammar. They are more attentive to syntax.[8] Children are less self-disciplined and self-directed for study. They need a teacher’s guidance and push. Adults are more self-controlled and self-motivated; they tend to apply more strategies in learning and have developed good study habits.
1. 6. Self Consciousness
Most children do not feel nervous about attempting to use a new language, even when their proficiency is quite limited. They are not afraid of taking the risk of making mistakes. They don’t always monitor their second language speech as adults do. Children tend to have more awareness of being noticed and praised by teacher and peers. On the other hand, adults have more self-consciousness; they have pride and a deep need to feel respected. The majority of them fear of risk-taking. Adults are often embarrassed by their lack of mastery of the language.[9] They make every effort to avoid making mistakes. According to Stephen Krashen, language “monitor” and “filter” are mostly problematic for adults to learn a second language.[10]Adults tend to set a higher value on long term practical language skills than on instant performance.
1. 7. Motivation for Study
Young learners may lack extrinsic motivation to learn a second language. Their daily immediate needs rely mainly on their native language. They learn a second language based on instant interest or the need to participate fully with their peers.[11] Adult’s learning second language is more life-oriented and they are more likely to feel the need to learn a language for a practical reason such as economic survival or academic success, [12] and thus they tend to work harder in school.
2. Major Methodologies for Teaching Chinese as a Second language
Historically speaking, the grammar translation method, the direct method, Audio-Lingualism, Communicative Language Teaching, Total Physical Response, Silent Way, the Natural Approach, Suggestopedia, and so forth, have taken turns being popular in the second language teaching profession and still are the major methodologies that have been widely practiced in second language teaching.
Every language
teaching method has its advantages as well as shortcomings. In practical
teaching activities, a teacher should choose an appropriate method based on
his/her own teaching circumstances. One method may be used in full or in part, and
different methods can be partially combined in order to take advantages of
each. For a teacher, the most important task is to arrange
his/her teaching by choosing a method or combining various methods into one
that is best fit to the learners’ learning style. Teaching Chinese in non-Chinese
speaking countries, such as the North American countries, is subjected to the
limitations of language environment and classroom teaching hours. The students
have less exposure to Chinese language than those who study abroad in mainland
3. Characteristics of Teaching Chinese Language to Children
3. 1. Teaching Contents and Teaching Materials
Teachers should
use textbooks or teaching materials specifically compiled for children.
Teaching contents need to fit the characteristics of children who are living in
It’s also worth
noticing that in some classrooms in
3. 2. Fully Utilizing Vivid Teaching Materials
Children process and absorb language generally through sensory input and experiences. Pictures, audio and video CDs, and slide shows can serve as teaching aids to attract children’s attention and interests. When using these materials, teacher should keep in mind that he/she should use the most needed and most helpful ones, the simpler the better. Because children’s focus is easily distracted by the non-language related settings in the materials, it inevitably affects teaching efficiency. Since children seem to learn faster by imitating their peers rather than adults, teachers should take this factor into consideration when making teaching materials of audios or videos for class use. Inviting students who have Chinese origins and great popularity in class or school to make video or audio teaching materials would be a good idea. Materials made this way would make classroom teaching more attractive and more efficient. Cartoon images that children are familiar with can also be employed in teaching materials. Since children are interested in learning things from a cartoon image they love, teaching outcome from such method would be ideal.
3. 3. Design Communicational Situations which Children are Interested to Participate in
From a design perspective, dialogs composed
based on children’s characteristics and going on between children are good sources
to stimulate children’s desire for using Chinese to meet their communication
needs. For example, the teacher could create such a scenario: Suppose a Chinese
boy/girl just came to the
3. 4. The Use of TPR
Total Physical Response (TPR) was created by James Asher in the 1960s. He obtained inspirations from children’s first language acquisition in which children’s comprehension ability is normally far in advance of speaking ability and, furthermore, their learning usually goes together with physical activities. TPR emphasizes: (1) Listening should be learned before speaking; (2) The learning of listening should be accomplished by a lot of physical involvements; (3) The learning environment should be stress-free and anxiety-free. TPR teaching methods used a large number of vivid image tools as teaching materials. Many physical activities and performances interacted by teacher and students are involved in TPR teaching. Students are placed in a relaxing classroom, learning language with their five senses stimulated at once though all the sensory inputs and activities. The teaching outcome from TPR is very obvious and ideal. Therefore this approach is widely preferred by language teachers around the world. I believe that TPR is very suitable for teaching a second language to younger learners since it meets their interests for fun.
3. 5. Issues That Cannot Be Ignored in Using a Variety of Teaching Methods for Children
3. 5. 1. Many teaching methods emphasize a relaxing and pleasant learning environment, in which students do not feel they are being taught. The purpose of this is to create a first language-like acquisition environment for learners to get better results. But in reality, this expected outcome is hard to achieve. Although childhood is optimal to learn language because of children’s “plasticity of their brains”[13] and superiority in the flexibility of the speech organs, it may still be impossible for them to achieve native-like second language proficiency. Limited class teaching time and the lack of exposure to target language may be the blame of the unfavorable result. Since children’s abilities to acquire a second language naturally cannot be over estimated, teachers’ efforts should be devoted to improving formal class teaching in order to make it more effective.
3. 5. 2. In letting children play while learning, the teacher should bear in mind that the purpose of this is to learn, not to play. Teachers should assess the learning outcome after playing (games, for example).
3. 5. 3. Many teachers like using folk songs, nursery rhymes and short poems as teaching aids for children. Since children are more attentive to prosody, [14] encouraging children to sing Chinese songs or read aloud Chinese poems is certainly acceptable. But teachers should be aware that these cannot be considered as systematic and regulated language forms. It is commonly observed that some parts of the sentences in a prosodic form may be omitted and others use informal language. Singing or reciting of these can be an enticing way to arouse learning interests but cannot be considered a way of learning because the language communication ability cannot be really mastered from such learning activities.
3. 5. 4. Electronic teaching tools like television, VCRs, DVDs and computers can provide sensory inputs for intuitive learning. But electronics lack immediate intimacy with people and in-person feelings. Screens often separate learners from the teaching setting. In-person teaching and learning are more intuitive and can easily attract children’s attention. Children can be more involved in real-life learning environment in which they can really participate.
4. Characteristics of Teaching Chinese Language to Adults
4. 1. Contents of Language Courses
For adult beginners, contents of a language course should first aim at meeting emergency communicative needs and practical uses. When constructing a textbook, first consideration should be given to sentences for basic needs of daily life abroad: for example, the immediate needs for foreigners who first come to a target language country are things related to food, clothing, living, and transportation. They need to have survival communication skills in the target language. In class teaching, students should have a quick mastery of using Chinese to ask questions like when, where, what, who, why, and how and give simple answers. Chinese folk songs, poems, rhymes and games can serve as auxiliary activities for warming up or relaxation, not for major subjects of study.
4. 2. The Use of Teaching Tools and Class Teaching Ethics
Teaching tools like electronic facilities, material objects and pictures are also helpful for adults to achieve better understanding of a second language. Images are good aids for adults to deepen their impressions and memories. Since adults have more matured cognitive abilities, there is no need to elaborate concepts that are obvious. For example, when talking about balls, the teacher does not have to bring all kinds of balls to classroom. When learning the word “sleep”, it is not necessary to bring a picture of a sleeping person. Adults’ maturity for general understanding should be respected. Teaching ethics should be kept in mind when a teacher conducts a class. Otherwise, students may feel sick of being childishly treated and thus develop resistant attitudes towards the teacher.
4. 3. Leave Some Space of Teaching for Students
In teaching
Chinese as a second language, teachers should not act like a language authority
or expert to carry all the “Atlas Burden” on his/her own shoulder.[15]
Teachers should realize that adult students have better ability of abstract
thinking, and they need to use more grown-up teaching strategies to gear their
lessons toward adult learner. Teachers should leave some problems for students
to solve by themselves. For example, when a student raises a question, the teacher
may let another student to answer it first. If no student can give the correct
answer then teacher can provide his or her answer or explanations. During
teaching, if the teacher gets a sense that students have already mastered some
concepts, then he/she should put these concepts aside even though the teacher
has planed to teach the aspects. This way the teacher can save valuable class time for information that the
students need to learn more deeply.
4. 4. The Use of Communicative Approach for Adult Learners
When teaching Chinese as a second language for adult students, the communicative approach should be given much attention. Its advantage is that its teaching process is based on real-world communicative function. What have been taught is closely related to students’ daily communicative needs. Instead of providing explicit interpretation of grammar or language forms from the textbook by the teacher, this approach insists on letting the students try to conceive grammar and language forms through contextual meaning. That way, students can get a better understanding through their hard and thorough thinking. Thus the students’ impression about the language can be deepened and their memory therefore can be enhanced. Because they have the opportunity to do their own analyzing, generalization, inference and integrating, students are expected to discover the truth by themselves which could arouse their interests to solve language problems.
But the communicative
approach has its shortcomings. Especially in colleges and universities in
4. 5. Providing Adult Learners with Theoretical and Background Information about the Target Language
Adults have stronger logical thinking skills, they try to understand things first and then imitate or memorize them. If they are not clear about the theoretical background of a certain language phenomenon, psychologically and physically they may refuse to conceive the language forms. I have experiences that most of my adult students came to ask me for explicit theoretical explanations about many language forms. Adult students not only want to know how to say it, but also want to know why say it this way or that way. The more advanced the students, the stronger the demand will be for detailed explanation. Although the latest language teaching methodologies disagree with explicit explanations of language forms, when students show their intention to know about language forms, teachers should provide an answer, otherwise students would either think that the teacher probably does not have enough language knowledge or attribute it to the target language itself for not having a systematical grammar. Accumulation of such confusion could disappoint the students and the students could even lose interest to continue their study.
4. 6. Saving Students’ Face
Adult students have stronger self consciousness and are more conservative than children. When speaking second language, adult learners tend to put their error “filter” or “monitor” up more often than children do. Some of them always hesitate to speak Chinese in front of the class, worrying that if make a mistake, they would be very embarrassed. Teachers should be fully aware of this situation and try to reduce students’ anxieties and tensions as possible as they can. Teachers’ strategy should take encouraging students as a basic principle of prompting teaching. At the beginning, the teacher should not correct them too harshly. As long as they can speak out, the teacher should praise them even they have made a few mistakes. The teacher should not push students who cannot speak aloud at first, but should allow them more time to be silent and pay attention. Allowing the most anxious students to take the last turn to speak would be a thoughtful way to lessen students’ anxieties. In general, teacher should support students with a manner of “you can do it”; especially to those who feel ‘I can’t do it’.
4. 7. The Use of TPR Method in Teaching Adults
TPR method has come into popularity and has been widely adopted by teachers because it is easy for teachers to manipulate and it can make the classroom lively. TPR advocators have stated that this method can not only be used for but also be of great benefit to students of all ages. TPR has great value in teaching language to children. Although its value cannot be ignored for teaching adults as well, it would be wise to use it with caution and consider its possible consequences before proceeding. One of my colleagues, who is an excellent Chinese teacher, has such an experience: One day, he taught Chinese directional complements, such as “Verb 上来 (up),”, “Verb下去 (down)”, to students. Hoping to help students to understand the language structure well, he jumped up and down from a desk many times, trying to express his idea the TPR way. He therefore sweated a lot. Although the classroom had a hilarious atmosphere at that moment, later on, students wrote in their course evaluations: “The teacher did not need to demonstrate by jumping up and down, because we are not kindergarten kids.” Another disadvantage of TPR shows that the teachers’ excessive physical movements often alter students’ attention and distract their focus from the content of learning to something unimportant. Therefore, unnecessary or less thoughtful TPR activities could be a waste of class time and unworthy of teacher’s efforts.
4. 8. An Outlook on Error Correction
Tolerating students’ mistakes is reflected on all the latest language teaching theories. These theories believe that it is very hard and even impossible for learners to acquire the perfect (near native or native) level in learning second language. As long as the mistakes do not affect the meanings they are going to convey, the communicative goal is seen to be achieved. If teacher correct students too harshly or too often, it may be frustrating students’ learning enthusiasm. However, by examining them though a reality test, we can see that these theories contain some conflicts.
4. 8. 1. To Wwhat
Eextent the
Sstudents
are Cconsidered
to havehave
Rreached Ttheir
gGoal of Ccommunication?
Students learn Chinese in order to work with or deal with the Chinese people. The goal is very clear: that is, to communicate with the Chinese people. But what are the criteria by which one can judge whether or not a student has reached his or her goal? According to many of the latest language theories, as long as a native speaker can understand what the student speaks and writes, the student is considered to have achieved his/her goal of communication. The problem is who will be regarded as the standard Chinese native speakers in term of judging the learner’s communicative ability? Most Chinese teachers are native speakers. Can their understanding represent other native speakers’ understanding? It is doubtful. In my opinion, even though the Chinese teachers can understand what the student speaks, it does not necessarily mean that the student has reached the communication goal. Chinese teachers may have taught Chinese for years and their ears have been used to learners’ accents. It is easy for them to understand what the students say. Outside the classroom, the ordinary Chinese may not be used to the students’ foreign accents. Since Chinese is an intonation language, if students’ pronunciation or intonation is not correct it will certainly affect communication outcome.
It may be worth
citing an experience when I taught Chinese in a university in mainland
We cannot expect students to reach the native speaker level. But if we have tried our best to correct their mistakes, students could reach a 70% or 80% of the accuracy. If we think 80% accuracy is enough, then the students may only reach a 45% or 55% of the accuracy. It is like an old Chinese saying: “If you are seeking the best, you will get the moderate, if you are seeking the moderate, you will get the poor.” (“取法其上，得乎其中；取法其中，得乎其下。”)
4. 8. 2. Do Tteachers’
iIdeas Eequal
to Sstudents’?
Teacher would think that not
correcting the students’ errors too strictly is doing a favor for the students.
But students may not take this as a favor. Although adult students are self-conscious
and have a fear of risk-taking, they, on the other hand, always have the intention
to do better or pursue perfection. From their point of view, provided that they
have entered the learning process, they should try their best to get the best
learning result and also expect teacher to be a good judge for their learning
performance. If the teacher does not correct them or corrects only a little,
students would take their success for granted. They would think they do not have
problems. It may be not until they go to
5. Conclusions
By and large, for children and for adults, teachers should care about students’ unique characteristics in learning Chinese as a second language. For children, adult methods do not fit. For adults, the teacher should not treat them as children even though their second language level is very low and their speech is like baby talk. Teacher should realize that the immaturity of language does not mean the immaturity of cognition. All Chinese teachers should keep these two aspects in mind when teaching different groups of learners; otherwise, the teaching goal can not be achieved successfully.
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Language (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967).
[2] Wilder Penfield and Lamar
Roberts, Speech and Brain Mechanisms
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959).
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Language (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1967).
[4] Malcolm Knowles et al., Andragogy
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[5] Jean Piaget, The
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translated by Margaret Cook (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1955).
[6] Patsy M. Lightbown and
Nina Spada, How Languages Are Learned,
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7 Hector
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Setley, Taming the Dragons: Real Help for
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[9] Patsy M. Lightbown and Nina
Spada, How Languages Are Learned, second
edition (Oxford: UK, Oxford University Press, 1993).
[10] Stephen Krashen, Principles and Practices in Second language
Acquisition (Oxford: UK, Pergamon Press, 1982).
[11] Robert C. Gardner and Wallace E. Lambert Attitudes and motivation in second language learning (Rowley, MA: Newbury House, 1972).
[12] Richard Schmidt, Deena Boraie,
and Omneya Kassabgy, “Foreign Language Motivation: Internal Structure and External
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(Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 1996): 14–87.
[13] Wilder Penfield and Lamar
Roberts, Speech and Brain Mechanisms
(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1959).
[14] Brigit Harley, Joan
Howard, and Doug Hart, “Second language Processing at Different Ages: Do
Younger Learners Pay more Attention to Prosodic Cues to Sentence Structure,” Language Learning 45, no. 1 (1995):
43-71.
[15] James F Lee and Bill VanPatten,
Making Communicative Language Teaching Happen (