Teach Chinese to Very Young Learners: Pathways to True Differentiated Instruction

How do you teach very young learners when they hardly know how to speak? How would you design your lessons when you have a group of students with varying ages? This article is going to show you the magic of true Differentiated Instruction (DI) in a pre-K to K setting where students age from 4-month to 5 years old. Modification of teaching materials based on specific classroom situation will also be discussed to help teachers meet various learners’ needs.

Assessing young learners’ language acquisition could be difficult since they are still developing their cognitive skills. However, teachers could immerse young learners in the target language where they could imitate and learn naturally. Considering young learners’ short attention span, singing songs and playing games help draw their attention and keep them engaged.

Toddlers: Modeling, Group Work, & Individual Work

For toddlers, I would recycle the Number Claps game and make minor modification. Instead of me doing all the speaking and actions, I ask my students to clap their hands for certain times while I speaking the number of clap times. In this activity, I follow the  “I-we-you” sequence,  meaning the teacher demonstrates first, then students work in groups, and finally students break down to take turns doing individual work. I often facilitate turn-taking by playing “hot potato” (击鼓传花).

Students love the game and they are more motivated to participate. Teachers can also use effective strategies to facilitate turn-taking and manage their classrooms better. For example, positive narration could be a good instructional strategy where teachers praise a student’s positive behavior and motivate other students to behave accordingly. Teachers can use a teddy bear as motivation by saying: “I will give the talking teddy bear to the student who turns their listening ears on.”

Kindergarteners:  Interactive Activities

Kindergarteners are able to handle a variety of interactive activities as they are more cognitively and linguistically developed. To modify and add to the game Number Claps, teachers can ask students to take initiatives in clapping.

The game works as follows: everyone closes eyes, one student claps his/her hands for no more than 10 times, and another student states the number of claps in Chinese. The key of the activity is to practice numbers in Chinese, and teachers could review numbers in future lessons as well. For example, whenever I bring in multiple pictures to class, I would ask my students to count the pictures with me in Chinese.

Constantly reviewing what have been learned is vital for language acquisition. The “i+1” theory (Krashen, 1988) shows that the teacher should help students make one step forward on the basis of their previous level. Thus creating engaging activities that are a little bit challenging for kindergarteners will help with their learning.

Differentiated instruction is a concept that can be flexibly incorporated into various contexts. For language teachers, how to twig, modify, and upgrade your material to suit different learners’ needs is key to the success of learning. If you have any great ideas about teaching Chinese to pre-k and kindergarten students, feel free to leave a comment and let me know!

References

Krashen, S. D. (1988), Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning, Prentice-Hall International.

   The teacher claps and speaks the number at the same beat.

   一 (Clap once)

   二、二 (Clap twice)

   三、三、三 (Clap three times)

   … …

   十、十、十、十、十、十、十、十、十、十（Clap ten times）

Twig one: Students clap according to the number the teacher speaks.

Twig two: Everyone closes eyes, and one student claps while others listen and state the number.

 About the Author

Want your child to speak and use Chinese based on state-adopted curriculum? Better Chinese Plus is the home version of our state-adopted program with video and personalized instructions. The learning pathway provides a clear alignment with the ACTFL proficiency standards. Each lesson is powered by patented technologies to help your child more effectively learn characters, vocabulary, and expressions. Each video lesson is moderated by at least 2 teachers with different styles. Each lesson practice is individualized by AI to ensure acquisition of language skills. Our program leverages technologies to provide the most effective hybrid solutions for your child. You can add physical books to remind them what they are learning as well as empowering them with what they know. Connect with a BC+ Sherpa to further help your child through structured guidance. Sign-up for 14 days for free. Learn, retain, and enjoy learning Chinese anytime!