Instructor: Date: Textbooks for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language (Essay Sample)

Name: Course: Instructor: Date: Textbooks for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language According to Oxford Dictionary of contemporary English, a teacher is defined as a professional with sufficient training to identify the most appropriate resource materials, design his or her approach to concepts and present the same in a manner that is best meets the student's needs. As pointed out in the introductory definition, therefore, a fundamental function of a teacher is looking for the most appropriate resource materials, and for the case of teaching Chinese as a second language, a textbook best befits the definition of the most suitable resource material. Since in most cases Chinese is taught as a Foreign Language, there are numerous books on the market, some written by competent and qualified persons while others have been hurriedly prepared to fill existing entrepreneurial gaps. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the teacher to choose a textbook that does not only present the best methodology and approach to teaching but also handles in detail all the fundamental course requirements. This paper will in thus seek to compare two textbooks that can be used to teach Chinese as a foreign language. The first book is called "Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Pedagogical Grammar" written by Janet Zhiqun Xing and the second text is called "Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System" written by William McNaughton and revised by Jiagen Fan. The comparison will majorly deal with the level to which the text meets students needs, alignment to course goals, teachers guide, and content organization, and order. "Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System" written by William McNaughton and revised by Jiagen Fan a simplified version of the frequently used characters in the Chinese language in their traditional forms. As if not enough, the book the book has a collection of mnemonics to help students memorize Chinese sounds hence perfect in their spoken language. Finally, this text also introduces students to the standard Hanyu Pinyin Romanization. Although from an overview the book looks like it’s meant for beginners, it is a valuable and compulsory possession for all students of Chinese language especially those who want would wish to develop the most traditional and native accent of the language. The author of the book is aware that students of Chinese language often have pronunciation issues; one can effectively write in Chinese but fail to produce the tonal sounds of the language as required. As a result, therefore, the author of the text offers stepwise and practical approaches to help such students learn the Chinese language in a more simplified manner, often developing a curiosity to explore further. I chose this book particularly it teaches on how to speak and write in the Chinese language simultaneously. On the contrary side, "Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Pedagogical Grammar" by Janet Zhiqun Xing befits the definition of instructional material that can be used by both teachers as well as students. A fundamental concern of the test is that it recognizes and capitalizes on the relationship between and language and culture and goes on to present the teaching and learning of the Chinese language from a cultural point of view. According to the author, learning a foreign language becomes simplified once the learner understands and appreciates the native culture of the foreign language in context. The approach to discourse, characters and tonal aspects of the Chinese have been presented in a manner that can be understood by students regardless of their fluency in the Chinese language. My choice of this book was because the text does not only provide guidelines for teachers of the Chinese language but subsequently offers theoretical and most practical content such as pronunciation and word order in a sentence; aspects that of the great essence when learning a foreign language. There is also a contrast between the two texts I chose in terms of content organization and structure. For instance, the book "Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Pedagogical Grammar" written by Janet Zhiqun Xing is divided into a total of 8 chapters with each chapter dealing with a particular aspect of the learning and teaching of the Chinese language. The first four chapters of the book are meant for teachers of the Chinese language. These chapters discuss the teaching methodologies for efficient content delivery, the actual content to be taught at different levels of fluency (beginners, intermediate, and advanced), and the most appropriate additional teaching resources to emphasize key concepts in speaking and writing in the Chinese language. The last four chapters are meant for learners as they majorly deal with how to understand the Chinese language. These sections give guidance on the pronunciation and sentence construction. Here, the author emphasizes that a sentence is the basic functional unit in the Chinese language and thus every sentence must make sense. The last chapter can be thought of as an evaluative chapter; it contains an overview of the entire book and seeks to establish whether the content in the previous chapters had been mastered. The arrangement and organization of content in the book takes a sequential order and thus beneficial to both teachers and students. For instance, depending on personal ability of the student, one can easily choose on which chapter to read so as to get certain information. Similarly, teachers can easily pick out certain chapters that are meant to impart particular pronunciation or writing skills and therefore prepare their lecture sessions basing on the key objectives intended. On the other hand, the text "Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System" written by William McNaughton and revised by Jiagen Fan is divided into three distinctive parts. The first section of the book is specially meant for beginners as it deals with writing system and study methods. Here, the author introduces the learner to the "Chinese Alphabet" where each tonal sound of each character in Chinese is given. The last two parts are practical sections that present the learner with the various exercises and tasks while characters in the Chinese language alongside their pronunciation and how discourse is created in the Chinese language. Comparing the two textbooks, the organization in "Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System" written by William McNaughton and revised by Jiagen Fan is not as logical as in the earlier text. Although there seems to be some organization in content, one can easily tell that the book is majorly concerned about training on how to speak and write in the Chinese language in all the three sections. Language isn’t all about writing and reading but also involves an extensive understanding of the different structures and diction that constitute the language. In fact, since language is dynamic when viewed regarding context, confining oneself to only speaking and writing the basic characters might present a shallow understanding of the language. The organization of the content in the two books is what gives them the various pros as viewed from both a student’s as well as teachers point of evaluation. "Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language: A Pedagogical Grammar" is divided into eight chapters which can further be grouped into two broad categories: student centered and teacher centered. The major pro of this distinct order of content arrangement is that each of the users can easily pick out the sections that concern them as well as evaluate their level of understanding by assuming either role. By the earlier statement I tend to imply that on opening the content page of the book, both a student and the teacher can easily identify their area of concern. After that, a student, for instance, can assume the role of a teacher, turn to the section meant for the teacher and think of how best could he or she present such information if he or she were a teacher. Similarly, a teacher can also assume the role of a student and think of how students would understand the content contained in the book. This helps both the teacher and the students to think in tandem, a situation that significantly increases class participation and content retention capacity amongst students. Another pro of this text lies in the fact that the author appreciates the relationship between culture and language. Culture is defined by people and language and therefore, it is different to separate the two; culture and language. Presenting the two while trying to teach Chinese will help students understand certain aspects of the language that aren’t inherently phonetic but rather have cultural attachments. The second text, "Reading and Writing Chinese: A Comprehensive Guide to the Chinese Writing System" has one major pro, the numerous practical and theoretical approaches to speaking and writing the Chinese language. Learning a foreign language seems so abstract without tangible and practical aspects of the language. Hence in this book, the author doesn’t only explain the difference between the alphabet in the English language and the characters in the Chinese language, he goes a notch higher in presenting practical examples to drive the point home. Using such illustrations doesn’t only make it easy and interesting to learn Chinese language but helps the learner to infer the difference...