The Practice of LL Teaching: A Concrete Plan : Applied to the Teaching of the Chinese Language

Abstract

The following is a report based on my practical teaching of Chinese in the freishmen's class for the past half year (Oct. 1961 to Mar. 1962), chiefly based on the method of the third and the fourth stage (B course or the course of application) mentioned in my last paper, "An Essay on Better Functioning of Audio-Visual Education" (Language Laboratory Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 57-61). The basic type of the L.L teaching can be compared to a "rotatory motion", by which the four human functions- hearing, speaking, reading and writing- may be developed. In order to enlarge and make perfect this rotation, the following sorts of application must be taken into account: 1. Melody <length+pitch-expression of feelings> a) Acoustic training in children's songs; folk songs; operas; recitations; etc. b) Stage play in Chinese, with differences in sex (male and female); age (young and old) ; profession (learned and unlearned); etc. 2. Rhythm <length+stress=expression of actions> a) Tempo drill: short and slow〜quick; long and slow〜quick; quick〜 quicker; etc. b) Application: sentences for application; theses→ antitheses; choice from among some sentences; dictation〜writing dictation; etc. 3. Harmony <length+pitch-fstress=grasping of ideas> a) Variety and paraphrasing: smaller → bigger; fewer→ more; shallower → deeper; lower → higher; debate; etc. b) Construction (or Arrangement) : synthesis → analysis; diffusion → unification; etc. In making above-mentioned applications, the sound recording (on the part of the teacher and the student) of the "Romanized Newspaper" (Hanyu Pinyin Bao) as teaching material; is desirable to be used, disk music and the "Picture Story" (Lianhuan-Hua Bao) thrown on to a screen by means of lantern slides or film strips, and lastly an examination method exclusively by means of a tape.