Blog Four

Blog Four consists of two parts. In part one I’ll talk about the Chinese writing learning and teaching. In part two I’ll talk about the present writing teaching in colleges in China.
Part 1
I used questionnaire as the data collection methods to gather information as the program came to the end. At the beginning I used the Writing Attitude Survey downloaded from the writing-oriented website, which I later thought was not so appropriate to Chinese language learners. This time I gave them five questions to answer. Most students gave positive answers. Writing helps them to recall the characters and to be confident with the ones they know and helps them to realize the ones they need to work on. Some students agree that writing simple passages is a good practice to learn Chinese writing.
A few students gave contradictory answers. They want to learn more about Chinese writing but they don’t like writing simple passages. I said these to them: “There is not shortcut to learn Chinese language. As long as you spend time memorizing the words and phrases and reciting the passages, you can be successful learners.”
Over the course of the past several weeks of Chinese characters’ writing, students now have a vocabulary of 150-200 words. They have begun to write in more complete simple sentences and they have begun to edit their own work.
Most of them do love writing Chinese characters. It’s easy for students to talk about the writing content in the peer conference. When reading they can usually recognize them, but when it come to writing it is hard to remember all the strokes. Students would forget the characters or miss one part of the character. I have introduced some effective ways to them, for example, using flashcards, dividing the characters into different parts and more exposure to the words, etc. Sometimes I asked them to write pinyin (pronunciation) first, then they could think about the characters. However, unlike the English words, the Chinese pronunciation has no direct association to the characters.
When I asked them what type of genre they would like to try, they told me they Some students said they would try diary entries, poems and short stories. My students enjoyed getting familiar with the new words , phrases and simple sentences in simple Chinese songs.
When learning lesson four and Lesson five, I asked students to write two questions “What do you feel like doing at this weekend?” “What would you like to drink?” I let students brainstorm the different activities they would participate at the weekend and different drinks they prefer to drink. Students all have a notebook on which they write some useful expressions and sight words. Students are advised to review what they wrote occasionally.

Conclusions
It is a good practice to provide the writing format to the students because of the students’ unfamiliarity with the language. Actually, it is a kind of prompt. Or it is a kind of graphic organizer with more prompts. Students will be more encouraged and stimulated to write in this way.
Mini-lesson and peer conference are effective too. With the feedback from the teacher and their peers, students should be ready for their final drafts. The transformation of the writer-reader role provides students with the opportunity to judge their writing from the perspective of the audience.

Future implication
Because my students’ vocabulary is not large enough to write different genres, I just ask them to write about themselves, their families and their hobbies. At the present stage, it’s important for them to learn some important sentence patterns. Next semester, they will learn some other genres and students can have more opportunities to write.

Part 2
Let me say something about the present writing teaching approach in China.
After learning English for years, many students often end in failure when required to compose a piece of writing in English. Students complain that they lack ideas and cannot think of anything interesting or significant enough to write.
A characteristic teaching of writing proceeds this way: The teacher first of all teaches students some “skills” or “techniques” for composing, and then assigns a topic for them to write with after class. He corrects grammatical errors in their writing and offers a grade, and occasionally some superficial comments. The teaching of writing is in a sense more form-centered, and little attention is given to most important considerations such as purpose of writing, its audience and the process of writing. Having difficulty in composing, students often feel worried and some even lose heart in writing because they don’t know how to write a composition and they don’t learn writing skills from others, which affects the quality of teaching English writing. In writing, a teacher can neither supervise the students’ actions, nor find the errors in organization and content immediately, nor know the pressure and anxiety involved in writing. This practice seriously hinders the development of writing competence. In the long run it frustrates both English teachers and the vast English learners.
Chinese students write in English but think in Chinese way. It’s common to see the inappropriate sentences written by Chinese students in their writing. Example one: My friend Tony died in a traffic accident. Example Two: I like green color. In the first example, the student is confused about the choice of the word between “die” and “kill”. In the second example, we can see the negative transfer of the Chinese language on English writing.
Actually there are quite a lot negative transfers from the Chinese language. Chinese verbs can be put in constant use in a chronological order, without any change in form or tense. In English, however, one sentence, no matter how long or complex, permits only one predicate verb except the verbs in parallel. Most students are theoretically aware of the rule, but not in real writing.
What’s more, the pressures of the CET (College English Test) and the College English curriculum force English teachers to focus their attention on grammatical rules, linguistic accuracy and students’ final “piece of work” instead of functional language skills. Due to students’ low level proficiency, time constraints and low motivation, writing still remains a rather weak point.
The product approach is always criticized to attach too much importance to the final products than the process approach. More and more EFL teachers in universities or colleges in China are shifting or trying to shift from a product-based approach to a process-focused approach in their teaching of writing as the latter may contribute towards activating students’ thinking and creating ideas for a writing task. However, there are some difficulties why process approach is not efficient and popular in China: first, EFL environment is quite different from ESL environment; second, non-English majors in China are not willing to write on one hand and cannot adapt themselves to the new teaching method on the other hand; third, syllabus for non-English majors in China have not put enough emphasis on writing teaching, which is still examination-oriented and teachers are also not willing to risk performing the new approach in practical teaching.

Chapter Three

Reflection on Mini Lesson

Before the class I talked about taking a video for my mini-lesson and asked my students whether they would like to be in the video, but almost half of the students gave me a negative answer. I respected their choice. However I think it is a pity that you can’t see my students and my conferring to students while they are doing the group work. Anyway, you can hear my students’ echoing to my questions and our interactions in the video.

In the mini lesson, I think I am clear-minded. I know the purpose of what I am doing. I introduced the steps for the revision of the writing: the title; the correct writing of family members; the correct writing of profession; the concluding sentence; the punctuation; the peer conference; revision of writing. I made smooth transitions from one topic to another. I paused sufficiently after the questions to allow students to respond. I also provided cues or rephrasing to encourage students to answer difficult questions. I walked around as a facilitator while students were doing pair work. I wrote legibly and clearly on the chalkboard.

As to my strengths, I think I defined the new term in a descriptive way, such as the Chinese word for “wife”. I mentioned punctuation, which sometimes can be ignored by some teachers.

As to my growth areas, I think I may use handouts and audiovisual aids in the future. I will encourage students more by praising them for the work that is done well. Praise is a vital component in a student’s motivation and progress. The choice of words could be better when I was giving the lesson.

If I do this session again, first I will ask one of the students to read aloud his draft and then others students give their comments. Secondly, I will give students more encouragement and help them to be confident. Thirdly, I will do the model writing, which is helpful to students in getting a better understanding of structure and meaning of the characters. I will try to put the students in the video as well next time so that I can see students’ reactions on video and reflect on them.

I believe the students get a better idea of what they are going to do after the mini lesson and I am learning a lot from the lesson as well.

The English Version:


My family and I


My name is Elise. I have four members in my family, my dad, my mum, my elder my brother and me. My mum is a businesswoman. My dad is a cleaner. Both my brother and I are college students. My brother and I live in the dorms. I work in the “Subway” restaurant. I like orange things. My dad is a German. He likes drinking coffee. I love my family.


Day One- Students are asked to tell the reasons for learning Chinese language, an old and “difficult” language. Some give intrinsic reasons: It’s a pleasure to learn. It’s important to learn. Others give extrinsic reasons: I will do business with Chinese. I will get a job in China. I have some Taiwanese friends.
Students learned the first Chinese “ni hao”, which means hello.
Students greet each other by saying “ni hao”.

Day Two- Think Together- Take notes on some simple characters. The Chinese language is written without the use of an alphabet. It is written using characters. (Show examples) Characters were originally little drawings that represented ideas and mono-syllabic. Students form an idea that Chinese characters are pictographs which are composed of strokes.

Day Three –Take notes and practice.
The students will practice the 11 basic strokes for Chinese language writing. Introduction to basic rules about stroke order for students to follow. Students share their insights of writing the strokes, which is very different from the English alphabet.

Day Four –Practice writing simple characters.
Students learn how these strokes are placed within different characters. The strokes and components are not placed at random, there still is some basic rules applied. Students began to practice writing simple characters such as 山(means mountain), 火(means fire), 木(means tree).

Day Five – Learn more new words and practice writing simple sentences.

Warm-up activity- students greet each other by saying “ni hao”, which means hi.
Students learn more new words and begin to learn simple sentences. Students get to know that most Chinese sentences’ structure is “subject+verb+object”. Students practice writing sentences like “I am a American. You are a Chinese.”

Day Six –Memorization and practice.

Students are asked to write the new words on the flashcards. Then students are asked to do visualization for the new words and sentences on the flashcards and blackboard.

Day Seven Pre-Write (in writing section)
Draw at least 3 characters about family members.
Students are given a topic to write “My home and me”.

Day Eight-Think together- based on student need
Students conferring. Read the pre-write to the partner and get suggestions. Think alone: How do I move from my pre-write to my draft?

Day nine- Mini-lesson-Model Editing piece.
What are the steps I take to edit my work?
Think Alone-Students will edit their draft and do the revision. Teacher will conference with each student giving a positive, asking a question, and offering a suggestion. Students will edit and revise their work utilizing a checklist.



The students are all beginning learners of Chinese language. It is true that Chinese is more difficult than English. All Chinese characters build up from basic strokes. The simplest ones have only one stroke while the more complex ones can have more than 20-30 strokes.
First I let students practice writing the simple strokes, such as a dot, a dash and a line. I explained that the strokes are to be written in the right order and in the right way. It is important to follow those rules. Later a few students told me that they had a “feeling” for how to write it. Chinese characters have no association with the pronunciation system, which is very different from English. So I emphasize the main learning strategy again and again: memorization and practice.
Students are not used to the structures of the Chinese characters. Some words consist of the right part and the left part. Sometimes students would forget either the left part or the right part. What’s more, a few students forget to add the last stroke. Considering the students’ weakness, I ask the quick learners to share their insights and experiences, which was very helpful and informative to others. At the beginning of the class, I spend about five minutes help students refresh the new words and phrases. Normally I would write the new words and phrases on the blackboard and ask students to identify them.
The second week when I read the assignments students turned in, I found that the students’ handwriting looked much better than the first week. I know most students are following the rules. Students begin to be aware of the strategies: drills and practice.
What curriculum material will I use to support the strategies and techniques chosen? I would use of motivational material that is at the student’s instructional level (books, magazines), I would discuss the book by previewing and predicting, I would read the book to and with the students and raise some questions, I would organize some activities of sight words, pattern books and flashcards. It is a pity that the language classroom has no access to internet. I can’t show students some PPTs and video clips about the language points and the structure of the words.
As to the possible instructional grouping options that will be used with the students, I think pair work or two large groups will be my choices.
The course is about an introduction to the study of reformed Mandarin Chinese, including the teaching of basic vocabulary, calligraphy, conversation and cultural material. So I gave a brief introduction to Chinese culture as well. The material is based on a survey which was commissioned by the Blue Ocean Network in spring 2009. The title of the news report is Survey reveals Americans know little about China. Before I gave the news report about the survey to students, I had them brainstorm “China” by asking them questions like “How much do you know about China?” Then students were divided into three groups to have a group discussion about six questions I prepared for them. One student from each group gave a report to what answers they found to the questions. After the brief introduction of different aspects of Chinese culture, I think students are better motivated to write and they can have a wider variety of topics to write as well.

Writing is a Life-Long Learning Process

In my classroom, writing instruction means that teaching students writing strategies, and having students know that writing is a process of growing meaning.

I think teachers should have a kind of passion. If the teacher has no passion, students won’t be motivated and inspired to learn. Teachers are to kindle the sparkles in the students. Teachers should involve the students in the classroom activities. As the great ancient Chinese educator Confucius declared: What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand.

The physical layout of my classroom can be broken down into two main parts. One section of the room will be for researching information using physical sources such as reference books, books on topics in general, maps, posters, calligraphy, etc. I will try to make my classroom a rich print one. Another section of my classroom will be used for technological purposes. I will find good writing sources from the internet and share with students. Unfortunately, there is no access to internet in the classroom and there are no computers. I have altogether 16 students, one of whom is an international student from Kenya.

How do I establish conditions which my students will want to write? First of all, I will encourage students to use notebooks as frequently as possible. The notebooks can record lots of things they notice and wonder about, their memories and ideas, their favorite words and responses. There are different entries on the notebooks. Students can look for something that feels alive on the notebooks before they begin to write. Secondly, I think students can have the motivations to write if they can choose different genres to write. Thirdly, I will encourage students to do the digital writing. At the IT age, students love to go online and meet new friends. I will guide students onto the way of setting up a blog or finding a pen pal. Students can post what are interested or what they want to say on their blogs. They can send emails to their pen pals. Fourthly, I think it is also a good idea to provide students a writing format. I will let students know the beginning sentences, the transition and the ending sentences. Last but not the least, I will have students divide into groups and give topics to different groups. Students will have group discussion in which they are encouraged to disagree and challenge the thinking of their partners. Then students are going to write down their comments and opinions. This purpose of writing activity is achieved through discussion and giving comments on the different subjects.

When I was a kid, I didn’t have much access to the reading materials. However I was lucky that my mom made a living by leasing the black and white picture books. There were hundreds of them, including Journey to the West, Dreams on the Red mansion, Romance of the three Kingdoms, etc. I read most of the books during my spare time. However, the picture books only had a few simple illustrations, which enabled me to be more like a visual reader.

Now when I am writing something, I would like to write expository texts. As to how to teach students writing strategies effectively, I think it is a good idea to adopt the process approach. If the process approach is adopted, there should be pre-writing stage, writing stage, revising stage and rewriting. For example, the teacher uses a brainstorming activity to ensure good thinking because there will be no good writing without good thinking. Activities can be designed for students to make an outline. And it is better for them to make two drafts. When the students finish the first draft, the teacher can give some suggestions for peer or group editing and then ask the students to write the second draft. Self-assessment, reading before writing and peer teaching are also good writing strategies students can try. The teacher should help the students gather materials and generate ideas, monitor the writing process, and make sure students’ writing are to the requirement.