(This article is a real teaching case, and the student's name is a pseudonym)

Enrollment in waveChinese

Dad does not understand Chinese, but mom knows a little Chinese. They live in Hong Kong and return to their hometown in Canada every summer vacation. When he first took Chinese online classes with me, Dennis was a gentle and shy five-year-old boy who was in kindergarten.

His mother is an English teacher who has taught in a primary school in Hong Kong for many years and has a lot of experience in language acquisition and teaching. She considered the requirements of primary school for writing skills in advance, and bought a booklet for Dennis to practice writing Chinese characters, guiding him to write a little every day.

This time, she found me to prepare for Dennis' primary school admission interview, and took three online Chinese classes with me a week.

Although Dennis' kindergarten provides a small amount of Chinese environment, when I tested his Chinese level, I had to judge it as "near zero foundation".

First Chinese class

On July 2, 2020, in the first Chinese class, I led Dennis to read a picture book and practiced the names of 18 animals in the book.

Because Dennis was young and couldn't concentrate for a long time, I talked to him about the Lego train in his hand and taught him to say "Lego", "orange train" and "two drivers" in Chinese. These three words seem simple, but they actually contain two grammatical points.

"Use Lego to attract a little boy who likes Lego" is my usual trick, so in the third session, I used the Lego blocks I prepared in advance to teach Dennis five colors.

Finally, we returned to the topic and picked up the animal picture book. However, this time I pointed to the animals and he answered "like" or "dislike". Class is over! For five-year-old Dennis, it is great to be able to communicate with the teacher on an electronic device for 50 minutes!

For him, the most important thing at the moment is to develop a habit of attending Chinese classes regularly, and to be interested in the Chinese teacher and listen to the teacher carefully.

In order to strengthen learning habits, review after class, and cultivate the habit of reading Pinyin, I designed a page of simple picture-connecting homework for Dennis. Under the guidance of his mother, he completed it very well. Although the lines he drew were crooked and looked like lively little earthworms, it can be seen that he likes drawing lines.

Free "play" Chinese class

Since the content of each Chinese class needs to be adjusted according to Dennis's acceptance level, I always prepare the necessary items before class, such as furry dolls, plump fruits, bright vegetables, or a few impressive beautiful pictures, etc.

There should be some small surprises in each Chinese class, which is interesting for children. For teachers, the most terrible thing is that students lose interest in what they are going to learn.

Days passed by, and I used hundreds of children's picture books collected at home to teach Dennis many interesting Chinese words and phrases around some basic grammatical structures, and helped him strengthen his memory through homework after class.

Of course, in addition to teaching basic Chinese grammar and words, I also helped Dennis prepare for the admission interview questions. Later, he successfully passed the Chinese conversation test in the interview.

Don't forget, Dennis's mother is a language expert. Although the content of each picture-connecting homework is very simple, she always prints it out in time and guides Dennis to do it seriously. She has never forgotten it. As a parent, her cooperation is perfect. She trusts me completely and never makes any suggestions.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step

In the beginning, because his mother was not at home, his father always sat next to Dennis to accompany him in class. After a few weeks, his father sat on the sofa a few meters away. After a few months, Dennis no longer needed his father to accompany him. He could attend class independently and learned to check the messages I sent.

As he became more familiar with me, Dennis's performance in class became better and better, and he could often stay focused throughout the Chinese class. His listening and reading skills are constantly improving.

What about Chinese speaking ability? The fact is that although Dennis's listening skills are improving, he can repeat the words or short sentences I say in a standard way, and can also answer my questions with simple Chinese words, but he never speaks them together. In other words, he can't speak yet.

It doesn't matter! Because his mother is an English teacher, she is patient enough, and I am patient enough. We all know that as long as the vocabulary and grammar are accumulated to a certain level, speaking is natural, and not speaking shows that the ability is not enough.

Chinese picture books and English picture books

Dennis's mother pays great attention to her child's language learning. She bought the Chinese graded picture books from the Qingtian Education Center in Hong Kong a long time ago - the "I Can Read" series. This set of Chinese picture books has beautiful pictures and interesting stories. There are 12 books in each level, a total of 8 levels, that is, 96 picture books. Unfortunately, due to her limited Chinese proficiency, she only taught her child to read a few of them. It would be a pity to leave such a good teaching material unused! In addition, Dennis is a child who loves reading, so we started the journey of picture book reading.

It doesn't matter if you are tired of reading Chinese picture books. I also use English picture books, such as the famous "Oxford Reading Tree". Its stories are more classic, and the simple and delicate pictures hide little secrets that can only be discovered by careful observation. Therefore, whether it is five, six, seven or eight years old, children can be attracted by it. Who can not love telling stories by looking at pictures? From time to time, they will be amused by the "easter eggs" hidden in the book.

Three Chinese classes per week- good habits in the first year

Since Dennis always attends classes on time and completes homework on time, three Chinese classes a week have become his unshakable habit.

As he gets more and more familiar with me, Dennis gradually becomes active and sometimes naughty, but he is a very polite boy.

As the saying goes, "The secret of success is persistence day after day." Dennis has always maintained the habit of taking Chinese classes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

We read Chinese picture books from the fall of 2020 to the fall of 2021. As the content of the books became more and more complicated, the amount of homework I gave Dennis increased to 3 pages from time to time. In a year, he completed nearly 150 homework assignments.

Second year

Depending on the solid habits developed in the first year, the tacit understanding between me and Dennis has become higher and higher. After saying hello to each class, Dennis always takes out the Chinese homework I gave him and reads it aloud. Homework is the key content of the previous Chinese class, and I always try to make it interesting.

In fact, his mother has read it with him once, and the reading in class is both a test and a review again.

Of course, sometimes we will talk about the items he wants to show me or the new English books he just borrowed from the library before getting to the point. Sometimes we talk about the MTR operation map posted on the wall, sometimes we talk about the roller coaster he just took, and sometimes we talk about the various new potted plants his mother bought.

This habit of sharing fresh and interesting things has been maintained, which has established a friendship between us.

Sometimes, his mother would help Dennis write the Pinyin for the Chinese words he couldn't read, but since his mother didn't understand Chinese and wrote it by looking up the dictionary, it was inevitable that she would occasionally write the wrong pinyin for polyphones. I would take the opportunity to explain to Dennis and suggest that he correct his mother's "little mistake", but he always shook his head and refused. I didn't force it. After all, it's normal for a six-year-old child not to want to write.

By Christmas 2021, after a year and a half of Chinese study, Dennis had taken 188 online Chinese classes, his Chinese level had improved greatly, and he was tired of reading picture books. So we studied some texts in the first volume of the Chinese textbook for first-grade primary school students in China, such as "Shadow", "Tail", and "Raindrops". Because Hong Kong primary school students learn traditional Chinese characters, we read traditional Chinese characters.

July 2022 is here, and Dennis has been studying Chinese for two years. Mom bought one set after another of expensive picture books from the Qingtian Education Center in Hong Kong, and we finished reading them all.

The third year

From July 2020 to October 2022, it is the third year that Dennis has been learning Chinese. We tried to read several popular picture books for Chinese children, but Dennis found it a little difficult to accept. First, they were childish, and second, the words were difficult to understand. So, we started to learn some texts in Taiwan's second-grade Chinese textbooks. These texts are short, concise, and quite interesting. For example,

To the Mouse

Yan Ni

I like you -

The clever eyes,

The pink little ears,

Although you like to do bad things,

But I still like you.

If I go to your kingdom,

I must make you wash your face and take a bath,

And teach you to work hard,

Don't be sneaky.

I also want to introduce you to a friend -

Its name is cat.

Time is silent, waiting for flowers to bloom

In addition to Chinese picture books, we also started reading some English books that Dennis and his mother borrowed from the library, of course, we discussed in Chinese.

In April 2023, three months later, Dennis will have studied Chinese for three years, and he still has two classes a week. At this time, Dennis is in the third grade of elementary school.

Because he has been taking online Chinese classes with me, his first and second grade school Chinese textbooks are very easy. I have never paid attention to his school Chinese textbooks. And under his mother's careful management, his handwriting is very beautiful and his Chinese grades are also excellent.

Good news! After studying Chinese seriously with me for three years, plus Chinese classes at school, one day, Dennis finally spoke Chinese sentences! Although it was just the simplest sentence, it was a big step for the reserved and sensitive Dennis. Both his mother and I were surprised. As the saying goes, "Every child has a blooming period, just wait for the flowers to bloom." But when patience pays off, the flowers finally bloom, and the days that have been paid have become shining.

Fourth Year

Dennis has been learning Chinese with me for four years. He has completed nearly 400 homework assignments.

But in the third grade, the difficulty of Dennis's school Chinese textbook suddenly increased. So we had to shift the focus to his textbook.

Although their school uses self-compiled Chinese textbooks, the third-grade Chinese textbook is relatively difficult. There are more new words in the text, and more abstract words, such as "be present", "consult", "declare", "dense", "fascinated", etc.

Every time I test Dennis's mastery of words, he often only gets 40 to 50 percent right. Fortunately, he did not get discouraged. So my teaching task changed to help him master the school Chinese textbook.

In addition to school Chinese textbooks, we have also been reading advanced picture books from the Qingtian Education Center in Hong Kong. I have to say that the language advancement design of this publishing house is very reasonable. It has built a magnificent bridge between children whose mother tongue is not Chinese and Chinese learning. Although the price is a bit expensive, 12 thin picture books cost more than 250 Hong Kong dollars.

New Problems

As the level increases, the difficulty of the content increases, and the high-level picture books become thicker and thicker. It often takes almost a whole class to finish one book. This is very demanding for a nine-year-old child. Dennis doesn't want to read. He always refuses loudly in Chinese, "Don't read that!"

Adding the homework that must be read every time, it is really a bit difficult to read Chinese for fifty minutes in one breath.

So, I added some interesting class sessions, such as talking by cartoon pictures, guessing Chinese riddles, translating Chinese jokes, and doing a few HSK3 test questions. Dennis' Chinese level at this time is between HSK level 3 and level 4.

HSK is the only official Chinese test for all adult Chinese learners, with a total of six levels.

Of course, the "main course" still needs to be arranged. "Easy steps to Chinese" is a set of Chinese textbooks popular overseas, starting from zero foundation, with a total of eight levels. Its level 8 is close to HSK level 5.

We started to learn "Easy steps to Chinese·book 4" in traditional Chinese. At this time, I was more familiar with Dennis. Before class is over, I always asked him, "How would you rate this Chinese story?" Maybe because each lesson is written in large font and relatively short, he rated it six points. A six point score was good enough for the "picky" Dennis. I felt relieved that I finally had the right Chinese learning materials.

Epilogue

At the end of August 2024, Dennis returned to Hong Kong after his summer vacation in Canada to prepare for the fourth grade.

From July 2, 2020 to August 31, 2024, from the age of 5 to 9, he took a total of 404 online Chinese classes.

We are also conducting the fifth year of online Chinese classes as usual. "The more ploughing and weeding, the better the crop", and we look forward to his further progress.