Dear Sophia and anyone else interested,
There are definite differences in the present Edexcel exams for GCSE,
which your friend's school may be unaware of and have therefore set the
challenge of Grade A in GCSE Chinese in a year. In my experience, this
would be extremely difficult.
Apologies to anyone if you think I'm teaching youto suck eggs, but,
briefly...
Japanese has two phonetic scripts (hiragana and katakana) as well as
kanji (characters). You can get away with only writing in the scripts
at GCSE level.
The biggest difference in the exams for the two languages at the
moment is in the writing papers. Just a few examples; Q1 in Japanese
asks the candidate to write a list of 5 items in a certain category (eg
things in your school bag, or things you talk on holiday). You can
write anything within reason to achieve the marks. Q1 in Chinese asks
you to write the characters for specific pictures. Sometimes you need
to provide verbs and nouns, sometimes measure words too, but always
specified by the picture stimulus - no choice.
Q4 in Japanese always has two choices for the extended writing.
Questions differ slightly year by year, but the themes are almost
always the same - either a descriptive piece or a piece focussing on
the past tense. you have a reasonble chance at preparing students very
well for this. Q4 in Chinese is one question (no choice) and could be
on anything - there is no link year by year. This means that if your
candidate doesn't understand the question, they don;t have another
choice that they may be able to answer.
Q3 in Japanese gives candidates a chance to get quite a few marks just
for getting the letter / postcard format correct (date, greetings,
name, etc). In Chinese sometimes you respond to an Email, sometimes a
note, sometimes a letter. Emphasis is not placed on letter-writing
skills and knowledge at all.
These are just some of the reasons why it is easier to gain a higher
grade at GCSE in Japanese than in Chinese.
Also, because Japanese uses phonetic scripts, when candidates read
text out loud they can often understand the meaning from their
listening skills, but the same does not apply to Chinese since there is
no link between the sounds and the written characters. Another reason
that it is easier in Japanese is, as you mentioned Sophia, there are a
lot of 'loan words' taken from English, so if you hear them you can
easily guess their meaning. There are some in Chinese, but far fewer
than in Japanese at this level of language learning.
I hope this helps explain the disparity in the exams a little.
Michelle
----Original Message----
From: [log in to unmask]
Date: 29-Nov-2007 12:32
To:
Subj: Re: Mission Impossible?
Dear Mandarin Teachers, I'm so glad this topic "Mission
Impossible" has come up. As a matter of fact, someone I know dearly
(lives near London area) is been challenged by thier Head of Modern
Languages about the time taken for pupils to achieve GCSE Chinese for
grade A in one year!!! The Head said if their Japanese teacher has
claimed and achieved that a small group of high achievers year 11
students (non-Japanese backgrround) took Japanesse in one year (2 hours
a week after school activity) and got their GCSE all grade A, so why
cannot the Chinese teachers offer the same package. The Japanese
teacher also claimed that there is a shortcut to achieve that, i.e.
teach them a lot of exam skills and memorising wordlists and do loads
and loads of past papers. I told them that the Japanese has a lot of
"loan words" similar to the Western languages, therefore can be picked
up by English speakers quicker than
picking up the Chinese/characters. Would any of you have other
insights and stronger points - my friend doesn't want to push or cram
in the students too much but the school wants to use "one year for GCSE
Chinese" as a selling point. Please help!!! Thank you. Kind
regards, Sophia
george zhiyuzhao <[log in to unmask]> wrote: .hmmessage
P { margin:0px; padding:0px } body.hmmessage { FONT-SIZE: 10pt;
FONT-FAMILY:Tahoma } in my school plan, my students who are british
students without any chinese knowledge are going to take GCSE within
two years. time is not enough but still possible having good result in
two years.
so, be confident.
george
> Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:56:04
+0000
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Mission Impossible?
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> I would say it depends very much on the students' ability,
commitment
> and timetabled hours as to how possible it is for them to achieve
good
> grades at GCSE. If they have no Chinese background, but are
committed
> and willing to put in a lot of effort independently, reviewing
> characters regularly, then it is not impossible for them to do well
at
> this level.
>
> We teach all non-Chinese pupils at KLB School from Y7 to Y13. The
> students opt to take the language and are generally very
enthusiastic
> and willing to learn. Mandarin shares the same curriculum time (10%)
as
> all of the other languages - 4 hours a fortnight in Y7, 5 hours in
Y8,
> 6 hours in Y11.
>
> Our experience has shown that with 5 years of lessons, very able
and
> committed pupils can achieve the higher grades, and less well
committed
> pupils achieve lower grades, in line with the amount of effort they
put
> in.
>
> Michelle
>
> ----Original Message----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Date: 29-Nov-2007 08:18
> To:
> Subj: Re: Mission Impossible?
>
>
>
>
>
>
> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
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> w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
> shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
>
>
>
>
>
>
> st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> I have five non-native students taking
> GCSE in 2004 after three years from year 9 &#8211; year 11 and
four
> achieved A*,
> one was one percent from A*. I have twelve students
going to take GCSE
> this
> coming summer and I expect them to do very well. The students have
two
> and half
> hours of lesson time each week and it should be enough to bring
anyone
> non-natives to GCSE level, in my opinion. We use GCSE for Chinese.
> We are a little too negative ourselves,
> sometimes!
>
> Yan
>
>
>
>
>
> From:
> Mandarin Chinese Teaching
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of ru
lan
> Sent: 2007å¹´11æ28æ¥ 22:07
> To:
> [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Mission Impossible?
>
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> My school is planning to introduce Mandarin up to GCSE level. I was
> asked if
> I could take Year 9 pupils from beginner's level to GCSE in 3 to 3.5
> years. My initial response is it will be very difficult and it
might
>
be
> impossible even the kids are very bright (a selective school with
very
> outstanding GCSE and A Level results). At the moment I am
> investigating if this
> is a difficult mission but achievable, or simply an impossible
> mission.
>
> As far as I know, it normally takes around 4 to 5 years to take
> beginners
> to GCSE level. Kids from a Chinese background can take
> shorter time while non-native speakers will take longer. Definitely,
> I will get more teaching hours (at least 4 lessons per week) and
> select
> students based on their language capability, enthusiasm and study
> skills. I
> will also try to keep the class size to around 10.
>
> Could you please voice your opinion?
>
> I would also like to know how GCSE Mandarin is taught in your
school
> in terms
> of years taken, number of lessons, selection of students, class
size,
> text
> books etc.
>
> Thank you for your help!
>
> Lan Ru
>
>
>
>
>
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..............................................................................................................................
> Michelle Tate
> Head of Oriental Languages
> Katharine Lady Berkeley's School
> Wotton-under-Edge
> Glos. GL12 8RB
>
> Tel: 01453-842227
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> ..
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..............................................................................................................................
Michelle Tate
Head of Oriental Languages
Katharine Lady Berkeley's School
Wotton-under-Edge
Glos. GL12 8RB
Tel: 01453-842227
Email: [log in to unmask]
..
