How to teach the difference between 书面语 and 口头语?

[herradw]

Hi,

I'm a Mandarin teacher outside of China (US) teaching students without Chinese language or cultural background.

I find it quite difficult to deal with the difference between the oral and written language in Mandarin.

Any ideas how I can help students to learn the way of written expression since it is so different from speaking?

Hoping for your input!

[skylee]

在中文角請用中文。

[verita]

what about only teaching them spoken Chinese and leaving the written Chinese until later? I found Chinese quite scary at the beginning and if you make students learn characters, tones, grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation at the beginning you will have enough of a problem to keep them interested. Dont make your life even harder by introductiong 书面语

[tooironic]

I guess if you're teaching beginning and intermediate learners then you probably won't be teaching much 书面语. Probably most, if not all, of the vocab you cover will be neutral register or 口语. So I don't see what the problem could be.

[skylee]

為何大家選擇以英文在中文角討論呢？ 難道普通話教師懂得教書面語、口頭語卻不能寫中文？

[imron]

说得很对。这个话题本来就不该放在中文角里。我已经把它移到Reading and Writing Skills去了

[Hofmann]

If I were you I'd first tell them about register to give them a framework in which to place these vocabularies, and also explain clearly and exactly what 書面語 is and how it contrasts with 口語. You might also want to include Literary Chinese in your comparison as well.

And don't exaggerate the difference. Most of the time, it's just a difference in vocabulary.