Building Discourse Literacy in Chinese

Dr. Claudia Ross, College of the Holy Cross, MassachusettsDr. Meng Yeh, Rice University, TexasPei-Chia Chen, University of California, San Diego.

National Chinese Language Conference, San Francisco, CA April 14-16, 2011

Routledge Course in Modern MandarinLevels 1 and 2 (Ross, He, Yeh, Chen)

Building Blocks of LiteracyWordsCharactersSentence level syntaxSentence level connectors : because, if, but, etc.Discourse connectors: first, then, finally, on the

other hand, in contrast, etc. Cultural conventions (examples later)Awareness/control of the different morphological

and discourse conventions of written and spoken language

How to Introduce CharactersChoice 1: Introduce characters as students

learn vocabulary (the standard approach) AND

Give students enough time to master recognition and production.

Minimal development of other literacy skills

Choice 2: Introduce characters as students learn vocabulary (the standard approach) BUT

Move forward on other literacy skills.Insufficient control of characters leads to

inability of students to complete tasksFrustration, stagnation, student reliance on

Romanized (typically pinyin) form, etc.

Choice 3: Stagger the introduction of characters, Pace introduction to learning speed

Support character introduction with instruction about the characters (scaffold the task)

Integrate learned characters into all subsequent activities

Devote more time to the development of higher level literacy skills

Students continue to add characters as they continue to develop literacy skills

• Meng Yeh: From Character to Reading Comprehension – the Development of Reading Literacy in Chinese

• Pei-Chia Chen: Building Written Literacy Skills in Chinese

• Claudia Ross: Unpacking and Repacking Chinese Literacy – The Spiralling and Scaffolding of Chinese Literacy Skills

Meng Yeh

Scaffolding (psychologists Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky)

Instructional Scaffolding1. Student ownership of the learning event. 2. Appropriateness of the instructional task.3. A structured learning environment. 4. Shared responsibility. 5. Transfer of control.

(Applebee 1986)

2. Appropriateness of the instructional task. Tasks build upon the knowledge and skills the student already possesses, but should be difficult enough to allow new learning to occur.

3. A structured learning environment. Provide a natural sequence of thought and language, thus presenting the student with useful strategies and approaches to the task.

Successful and Culturally Accurate Performance of Communication Tasks

Foundation knowledgeSkills: vocabulary, sentence-level and discourse-

level structureCultural: the “script” : the participants, role-

defined behavior, possible and expected outcomes

Difference between target script and American script

Making a Hotel Reservation

旅行社： Qīng 年旅行 shè ，您好。大为： 您好。我想到上海去玩儿几天，请您帮 dìng

旅馆和来回的机票。旅行社：好。请问，你打算什么时候走？大为： 后天走。旅行社：后天是二月二十二号星期一。哪天回来？大为： 星期五，一共在上海 dāi 四天。旅行社：几个人？要 dìng 几间房间。大为： 两个人， dìng 两间房间，最好离外 tān 近一

点、 jiāotōng 方便的旅馆。我们是学生。经济 xíng酒店就可以。

旅行社：好，我帮您看一看。

Foundation skills: structureNP description: 来回的机票 jiāotōng 方便的旅馆Time words 后天走 ( 后天，前天，昨天，今天）Phrase order: location + Action 在上海 dāi 四天。Distance ：旅馆离外 tān 近。AND distance used to describe nouns (greater

complexity): 离外 tān 近一点的旅馆

Build Foundation Skills – S levelTake advantage. (Use and structure note 28.3)Here is a list of places that Xiao Zhang’s cousin

hopes to visit while she is in Asia, along with something she hopes to do in each place. Write a sentence in Chinese for each situation, saying that she wants to take advantage of the time that she is in that place to do each thing.

a. travel in Shanghai: see the Bundb. see her older brother in Beijing: eat famous

Beijing Roast Duck

4. Not as good. (Use and structure note 28.5) Answer each question with 不如 , saying that the first choice is not as good as the second, and then translate your answers to English.

a. 你觉得蓝色的 kù 子和黑色的 kù 子一样吗？• Answer:

_______________________________________________________________

• English: _______________________________________________________________

b. 在中国学中文和在美国学中文一样吗？• Answer:

_______________________________________________________________

• English: _______________________________________________________________

5. Focus on the purpose or beneficiary (Use and structure note 28.9) Translate the following sentences to English.

a. 你应该为了你的 jiāng 来而用功学习。English:

___________________________________________________________________

b. 他为了 duànliàn 身体而参加 jiàn 身房，可是参加了以后，只去过两、三次。

English: ___________________________________________________________________

Build Foundation Skills - Discourse LevelMini-dialogues.

a. A: 这个周末很多商店大打折，有的店打三折、有的打五折。 B: 真的吗？那 _______________________(chèn... 机会 )

b. A: 你那么会做菜，做几个好菜请我吃吧！ B: ________________________________ 。 (A 不如 B)

c. A: 这个旅馆怎么样：离车站十分钟，单人间，可是加床不要钱。

B: 听起来不错，如果 _______________ 。 ( 再好不过了 )

d. A: 这么大的 pizza 你一个人吃得完吗？ B: 当然吃不完。 _________________ 。 (X 分 zhī Y)

Foundation Skills: Culture

Talking about acceptable and unacceptable options: 我们是学生。经济 xíng 酒店就可以。

Making requests of people in service positions: 请您帮 dìng 旅馆和来回的机票。 NOT the

American “script”: “can I reserve a room” 我可以不可以。。。

Assisted Production Task: Describe a process

Form a cohesive paragraph. a. 他们帮你找到旅馆以后，你可以问一问房间里

有没有 kuān 带上网。b. 这样你的旅馆就 dìng 好了。c. 你先告诉他们你打算住几天，和你想住什么样

的房间。d. 最后你还可以问一下住旅馆的钱 hán 不 hán 早

饭。e. 在中国打电话 dìng 旅馆很方便也很容易。f. 你觉得都可以了以后，你再把你的 xìn 用卡的

号 mǎ 告诉他们。g. 如果有， kuān 带是不是 miǎnfèi 。h. 另外你可以跟他们说你想住在城市的什么地方。

Assisted Production Task: Describe a process

Form a cohesive paragraph. a. 他们帮你找到旅馆以后，你可以问一问房间里

有没有 kuān 带上网。b. 这样你的旅馆就 dìng 好了。c. 你先告诉他们你打算住几天，和你想住什么样

的房间。d. 最后你还可以问一下住旅馆的钱 hán 不 hán 早

饭。e. 在中国打电话 dìng 旅馆很方便也很容易。f. 你觉得都可以了以后，你再把你的 xìn 用卡的

号 mǎ 告诉他们。g. 如果有， kuān 带是不是 miǎnfèi 。h. 另外你可以跟他们说你想住在城市的什么地方。

Moving between written and spoken conventions – What do you need to know to make sense of these?

Travel package jargon. a.机加酒两人同行一人半价机 - 飞机加 – 加州酒 – 酒店两人 – 两个人同行 – 一起旅行一人半价 – 一个人半价

b. Xìn 用卡机 chǎng miǎn fèi 接送。Xìn 用卡机 chǎngmiǎn fèi接送

如果你用信用卡。。。从。。。到接送 Reinforce understanding of the Cultural

importance of this concept

谢谢大家！