The Students

To start off, we must understand students are mostly complete beginners. Put yourself in their shoes to imagine your first-day attending say a Russian or Greek lesson. How would you feel?

You might not have any idea of how the language works! You might even have some preconceptions that Mandarin is a very difficult language to learn, as it is a tonal language with a challenging writing system. You might find the sounds very alien and difficult! You might be full of curiosity and questions! The same thing is going through your students’ heads.

The key thing is to show students it’s actually EASY to learn Chinese, for example, only 409 syllabi, could be easy to read and speak with Pinyin! So in no time, they can conduct a conversation in Chinese already. At the same time, Chinese characters are fun! They have stories behind them. We won’t teach them different Hanzi and how to handwrite each Hanzi at the beginner stage.

Lastly, remember to ask students to use Quizlet flashcards, and our review podcasts after class to revise. And encourage students to submit audio homework each week into their class group! This is very motivating to the class as a group.

We use our own course books for students. Make sure to read and understand all our material thoroughly before each lesson. This process will equip you with the required subject knowledge and confidence.

1) Main textbook: Discover Chinese 1, includes 10 lessons.

2) Pinyin coursebook: Pinyin 1 Tune it Right, includes 10 lessons.

3) Hanzi coursebook: Hanzi Level 1 Book A, including 10 lessons.

4) Digital material: Course Kahoot, Pinyin Kahoot, Hanzi Quizlet, Review podcasts.

Please request access to Zoho folder below

The Materials

Fluency Main Course

Our fluency coursebook has a standard format, which includes 3 main sections – Tutorial, Fluency practice, Immersion. Each lesson has a standard format – tutorial 导入, story 读对话, comprehension 阅读理解, CQ Boost 文化小知识, vocab workshop 解释新词, grammar workshop 语法学习, assessment 测试, fluency practice 口语练习, homework 作业, immersion 课后听看.

At the back of the book, there are all answers to the lesson, especially where grammar points were explained properly. Make sure to read this part beforehand, so you know how to explain to students without confusing yourself or over-explaining certain concepts.

Our sample teaching plan offers an overview of a sample lesson flow, but teachers are encouraged to treat each lesson with their own creativity and with reference to students’ needs.

• Allocate about 15 minutes each lesson for Pinyin ideally at the beginning.
• Often follows the format of ‘teacher tutorial, student drill and Kahoot assessment’
• Encourage students to say it out loud and say it one by one
• Always give them positive confirmation when they say it right
• Correct students’ pronunciation by repeating the right pronunciation, finding a similar pronunciation in their native language, giving them useful tips. But do it with care. Do not make them feel they are stupid or slow to learn.
• Pinyin 1 aims to teach all of the syllabus in Chinese, so make sure to follow lesson by lesson closely, don’t miss out the Songs, the games.
• There are some rules that you might not be aware of，for example, 一 / 不的变声，三声变调, make sure you look it up first.

Pinyin

Hanzi

• Allocate 10 – 15 minutes each lesson for Hanzi ideally at the end
• Hanzi Level 1 books are designed to guide students to demystify, explore and get a feel of Hanzi. By using visual images, storytelling and history tracing, we aim to showcase that Hanzi are not chaotic, meaningless pictures. Rather, Hanzi was created with much rational thinking behind it. Oftentimes, students find this process fascinating.
• Book A will aim to teach students the 4 different types of Hanzi and how to understand 60 of them.
• Print out each lesson’s character writing square blocks (田字格) and encourage students to write and learn. This can be either done in class or as homework.
• Hanzi Quizlet Live group game can be used as an assessment at the end of a lesson, or as a useful reviewing tool.

Before the first lesson

• Well prepared – material reviewed, teaching plan done, joined all of the digital resources, collected all of the books, tested your computer with screen etc.
• No need to be nervous. Remember you are equal to the students, they will be just as friendly as you can imagine.

During the first lesson 

• If it’s a new class, you don’t see all students joining your what’sapp group, please invite them verbally. You can say this to let them understand the importance of joining the group:

“Please join our class what’sapp group, it’s a study group created for us, I will be sending you learning material lesson by lesson, review podcast after each lesson, and your homework submission would be within the group too. It’s also useful when we have tech issue, or running late etc. “

• If you want to use Quizlet for your first lesson, some of your students might not have it, please instruct them. (See Quizlet section above)

After each lesson 

• Learning team will send students links and instructions to download App and material etc.
• It’s highly recommended to send students homework and the lesson Review Podcasts right after the lesson. Most students wouldn’t necessarily download the podcasts themselves, also it helps students who are absent to make up the lesson. By sending it right after the lesson, it helps the students to create a habit to listen to it. It’s proven to HELP them a lot to retain the words learnt, and listen better.

Homework 

• We encourage students to submit audio homework at beginner stage. 
• Homeworks are prescribed already in our coursebooks, feel free to add more work to them if necessary.
• Give them encouragements when they do. As teachers, you will find yourself super proud of their progress each time you hear their homework.

Before & After Class