Take a look at these Level 1 YCT Readers. It's a set of 15 books, based on 80 characters.
The Hanban folks are not saying that if you memorize these 80 characters and their singular meanings that then you will have mastered Level 1. No. You must master the meanings of these 80 characters as they are used in these 15 storybooks.
And sure, at this level, these are "See Spot Run" types of "stories." But that is also part of the point.
Nonetheless, 80 characters combine for far more meaning that must be comprehended than just memorizing the 80 characters by themselves.
Hey, linguists and Chinese language educators out there - your message is being twisted on the ground by parents who don't know any better. When you count characters like this, then people who don't know the language are putting the characters on placemats and throwing them in front of their kids to help them "memorize" these characters.
These same parents are not engaging their kids in stories and contextual situations wherein those little kid brains are engaging in whole language. Yeah, I bet you didn't see that one coming. But that is what is happening. So the kids cannot hold on. They cannot keep it together as they get older. And then everyone is disappointed when the kid is 10, 11, 12 years old and all he/she can do is spit out a few - very, very few - characters and short phrases, but not much complete, rich thought.
The counting leads to some kind of weird obsessive-compulsive disorder that does not translate into greater engagement. Only counting.
No comments:
Post a Comment