Dear Liz,
I teach in a grammar school, where the pupils are selected by 11+ test, or in
other words, they are quite able pupils. Even though, it is not easy for them
to get the top grade in the GCSE Chinese exam. My pupils start to learn
Chinese
from year 7 onwards, and they do another language at the same time, French or
German or Spanish. By the end of year 9, they choose GCSE options, and about
one third of them will carry on doing Chinese for another 2 years before they
take GCSE Chinese exam. Therefore, my students taking the exam have
five years
of learning before GCSE exam. This is so because Chinese is put in the same
position as other language courses in my school, and the hours allocated to
each language is the same on the timetable. Even after five years of
learning,
some students find it hard to get a fairly good grade, C? or D?, or E?,
although
some of the very able ones are able to get A or B grade. It really depends on
various factors. I remember the exam board also suggests that if you want to
get a good grade in GCSE Chinese, you need to learn it properly for
five years,
which I understand as that Chinese should at least have the same hours of
learning as other foreign languages on school timetable.
Considering the difference between Chinese and other modern languages
taught in
school, it certainly takes longer time for students to learn and memorise the
characters, as it is really two processes of learning in terms of pinyin and
characters. If you only have three years to prepare your students for GCSE
exam, I think it will be very tough for you and for your students.
However, it is not completely impossible for some extremely able and hard
working students to get a fairly good grade in three years time,
although can't
be guanranteed to have grade A. My reasons are
1)you start from year 9 and with a small group of able students,
obviously they
are more mature and well motivated, and small group can work more efficiently;
2)year 9 students have had experience of learning foreign languages,
which will
help their ability in understanding different cultures and languages.
However, it will not be an easy job for you. Keep them highly motivated and
work hard will be very important. On the other hand, the fact is that your
students are doing Chinese as an extra subject while they are already
doing two
other languages, so, it will not be an easy job for them either. They
will have
to be prepared for hard work and possible extra time / twilight
sessions in the
final year before the exam.
Asset language Chinese will be an alternative if your students want a
certificate/qualification in Chinese. They have different levels and in
individual skills. You can enter your students for a level suitable for them,
in any of the four language skills; listening, speaking, reading and writing
can be tested separately.
I have been using Chinese for GCSE books since September 2003. I find it is
good because it covers the vocab and sentence structures required in the
syllabus; I find it not good enough because there are not enough exercises nor
students workbook for students to practise what is learned. So, I have to
spend a lot of time to prepare my lessons with supplementary materials. There
are several sets of textbooks available now from Heath and Cypress book
companies. You may find something suitable for your own situation.
Hope this is of some help to you.
Regards
Lisa Wang
Quoting Liz Garner <[log in to unmask]>:
> Firstly, can I thank those of you who replied about short-term Chinese
> courses, the information was really useful.
>
> I teach at a comprehensive in Essex and we are introducing Chinese into
> the curriculum in September for year 9 children, who study French and
> German in addition (our school is a language college). It will be an
> elective subject, the group will be small with hopefully quite capable
> students. Do you think it too ambitious to try to complete a GCSE in 3
> years? I am also looking at Asset languages as a possible alternative.
>
> Secondly, which textbooks do you find most useful? I have copies of Ni Hao
> and Chinese for GCSE, but would also be interested in other books. I am
> told that Ni Hao Books 1 to 3 cover all GCSE vocab, but it seems to
> contain a lot more as well. Might this be overburdening students?
>
> I would be grateful for any feedback. I am very enthusiastic about
> starting the course, but don't want to give too high expectations.
>
> Liz Garner
>
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