Using a teacher with a graded reader

[suMMit]

I was thinking about using one of my Italki teachers to work through a Chinese Breeze book with me. Basically I was thinking to have him go through each page and ask me comprehension questions and "why do you think" type questions. The thing I dont want is him "explaining" grammar or vocab-I simply want to use this a base of something to talk about and discuss. Any suggestions? Anyone donr this?

[DavyJonesLocker]

i would suggest that a page of a graded reader does not provide the basis for enough discussion.

When I went through my text books I had all the words and grammar points of that chapter printed out . Then we would discuss the topic at hand, some topics are dull naturally but a book like Standard Course series provides a wealth of worthy topics. As we discussed the topic, we would mark off the words. We had a rule that we should cover about 80% - 90% of the words (some just don't fit in well to the conversation), all the grammar points and 10  - 20 words from previous chapters . 

 

It was mentally draining actually but I found it probably the most productive Chinese learning experience. The onus seems to be on the student to do this though as many teachers just aren't that motivated. I find unless the conversation is structured and pre planned  it just ends up as two people chatting in Chinese. A fair bit of preparatory work needs to be done before hand (for example noting the difference between 无论，不管 ， 对于 v 关于， etc )

 

 

[mungouk]

2 hours ago, suMMit said:

Basically I was thinking to have him go through each page and ask me comprehension questions and "why do you think" type questions.

 

I do this with my italki teacher for all the dialogues and texts in the standard course textbook.

They look like this:

 

 

First we review the new words by the side of the text, then I try to read the text out loud. Teacher prompts me if I can't remember any hanzi.

 

Next she reads the text in short chunks and I repeat: teacher - student - teacher - student etc. so I can hear the tones and make sure I'm pronouncing correctly.

 

Then she'll ask me if I understood the text. (Answer is usually: 差不多, but I don't get hung up on understanding every single word.) If I have any grammar questions this is when I pick that up.

 

Finally she'll ask me several comprehension questions about the text: Why did this person say that?  According to person X, why shouldn't you do Y?  And so on.

 

This might not be to everyone's taste, but it works for me. Actually I think these texts are one of the more useful parts of the textbook (and they come with MP3 audio too).

 

[suMMit]

What i am struggling to find is something to do with an extra online teacher thats not a textbook (i already work through a textbook with a teacher), but is also not just "ok, here i am lets talk for an hour".

[roddy]

Look at the format of various speaking exams for some ideas, maybe get some mock exams to work through. For example, A2 level DELE (Spanish) oral exam is, roughly...

 

1) 3-4 minute monologue on an everyday topic - holidays, work, friends, hobbies
2) 2-3 minutes describe a photo - again, it's an everyday thing, a restaurant, a library...

3) 2-3 minute roleplay in the setting of the photo - ask the library staff about joining, complain to a waiter your food is late
4) Discussion with a friend to reach an agreement on where you'll go on holiday, what to do at the weekend.

The first three sections you have sight of at the start of the exam, then 15 minutes to prepare, jot down notes. 

 

With a teacher, you maybe do the prep before starting, let the different sections overrun their allotted time, let the monologue become a discussion with the teacher asking questions to keep you talking, do error correction between sections, go back and look at ways you could have improved.... It all depends on how talkative you can be (make stuff up. Low-level speaking is awfully dull if you stick to reality), but there's plenty to do there.

 

You could adapt the ideas from a graded reader too. 

1) You recap the last few pages you read. 

2) Relate it back to personal experience - has this happened to you?

3) Roleplay a scene

4) What should the characters do now? What might happen next?

 

If possible, train the teacher to progress through various stages of questions to lead you on, from concrete to abstract. "What happened in the book" to "Has this happened to you" to "Is this common in your country".

 

 

[mackie1402]

9 hours ago, roddy said:

Look at the format of various speaking exams for some ideas, maybe get some mock exams to work through. For example, A2 level DELE (Spanish) oral exam is, roughly...

 

This is a really useful idea. When I was looking for ideas to practise speaking Chinese, I found very little online. However, if you search activities for speaking English, you get thousands of results! There are tonnes of resources online for learning English and activities to practise speaking, but they work just as well for any language. You can see which ideas you like, then use those to practise Chinese. 

[suMMit]

@mackie1402 @roddy

 

yeah, i can see where both of those are good ideas, but i cant spend that amount of time prepping for my own chinese lessons. i also think using english lesson materials could lead to problems withoutb a lot of forethougt

[mackie1402]

27 minutes ago, suMMit said:

i also think using english lesson materials could lead to problems withoutb a lot of forethougt

 

Not English materials so to speak, but games, quizzes, role plays etc, all to help you practice your target language. But I see what you mean, when you're paying for classes, you don't want to be spending all your time doing the prep as if you're the teacher, but sometimes only you really know what you want. 

[suMMit]

@mackie1402 yeah i think sometimes, if i had particular point to work on or i had more energy/time to devote, i would do that

 

 

[suMMit]

I was thinking along the lines of this(with the attached sample):

 

teacher: 明明和真真怎么了?

me: 他们不见了

teacher: 明明几岁?

me: 明明今年8岁

teacher: 真真在学几年级?

me: 他正在学1年级

etc

 

I could

*read in advance, try to answer with the book closed -only looking back to check details. 

*make the questions and the teacher answers

*expand a bit ie. "teacher: 小学以后学生学什么?" (or however that wuestion would be formed)

*I could ask questions that i find interesting "在中国学生学习机年?"

*obv teacher can correct pron, grammar, vocab

 

 

There's 50 pages of this， all of the grammar and vocab is exactly at my current production level， i can follow a semi-interesting story.

 

Im not sure the downsides other than finding a teacher willing to do it.

[roddy]

That makes sense. You could also do the question asking, and use different scenarios - change the names, dates, they’re sick, they’re going on holiday. 

[PerpetualChange]

I'm doing something kind of similar. My teacher has given me a textbook for Taiwanese junior high students, and we're working through it together. I would imagine the readings are fairly authentic (been trying to break out of the graded reader box for awhile) and provide a lot more insight on things to explore down the line without the teacher (i.e., I liked this author, or that era of history). Luckily the readings are also pretty short, with the subsequent pages being mostly grammar explanations, vocab lists, and discussion prompts. 

[abcdefg]

On 12/10/2019 at 1:00 PM, suMMit said:

Anyone done this?

 

I've done it and found it helpful. The only problem was that my teacher hated Chinese Breeze, or at least the book we were using. She kept telling me "That's fake Chinese." Wanted me to use native content instead. The reason I preferred the Chinese Breeze book was that I could listen to the dialogues on my own (the CD's were included) and practice saying things right on my own in between sessions with the teacher. I could also do the short "self tests" that were included at the end of each chapter.