What’s a good Chinese textbook for a US high school class?

November 19th, 2007 by Mark

6 Responses to “What’s a good Chinese textbook for a US high school class?”

1. 1 Bryan Says:
   November 19th, 2007 at 2:00 pm

   My first course used “Integrated Chinese”, which I really hated. My teacher recommended we also buy the “Communicating in Chinese” books as a supplementary course, and actually I really enjoyed it so much more. It is broken into a reading/writing text and a listening/speaking text. The listening text uses pinyin only so it was useful in the beginning when we were focusing purely on pronunciation. It uses dialog models for teaching Chinese communication skills like most speaking/listening texts. It also has reference pinyin charts in the back which was helpful in the beginning when I was trying to make sense of all the different combinations of sounds.

   The writing text offers both simplified and traditional characters in the same text so you can just pick one way and go with it. My teacher was from Taiwan so we used traditional, but I learned to use both forms with the book. Rather than a bunch of dialogs simply written out in Chinese, it uses signs, hand-written notes, forms, et cetera to introduce Chinese as a written language. I really liked this approach actually.

   Both texts also incorporate some basic culture as well, but if you need to focus more on culture you’ll probably be better off bringing in your own content. I have yet to see a good integrated text about language and culture outside of “Taiwan Today”, which is an intermediate text, and like the title says, focuses on Taiwan.

   I will say one thing though, this book does require that the teacher help to steer the students in their studies. Had I not had an instructor helping me along the way I probably would not have liked this series.

   Here are the links to the texts from the publisher:
   http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/OnlineCatalog.asp?catalog=891229#section891313

   Writing & Reading Text:
   http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780887101786

   Listening & Speaking:
   http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780887102066

   Workbook with audio:
   http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300109344

2. 2 v Says:
   November 22nd, 2007 at 11:49 pm

   Learning the tones properly requires a real committment. if the students are just dabbling, then the course should be more about exposure to the fun aspects of Chinese- maybe leading some of the students to want to get serious in college courses. If i were the teachers i would be doing simple songs that would appeal to highschoolers, calligraphy using characters like sun, moon, mountain, etc that are close to the original picture, and maybe simple Q/A with local recent immigrant Chinese coming into the classroom to do language exchange. tones could be taught with games just identifying which tone was being spoken as the first step.

3. 3 Emma Lee Says:
   March 16th, 2008 at 12:12 am

   Hi,

   I am a Mandarin Chinese instructor at Thayer Academy near Boston for two years. I’ve been teaching non-native speakers since 1996. I majored in Chinese Literature at Fu-Jen back to 80′. I also authored three books on Learn Mandarin Chinese Series: through Chinese Proverbs, through Chinese Children’s Songs, and through Children’s Songs from Around the World. They are all written in Pinyin, Zhuyin, simplified and traditional characters, and another Romanization system that most English speakers prefer. Please visit my website http://www.sinonexus.org to preview the books.

   Recently, I am working on a textbook into four volumes suitable for high school and college level. It is very different from many textbooks talking about the life in China and Taiwan, but the life here in the US and the life of an overseas Chinese. I am more concerned about American kids convey his/her life and thought to a Chinese person in Mandarin than another way around. (Not all Chinese listen and speak English fluently) American students will learn Chinese life style when they study or live there.

   Ten students with me for two years had picked up 500 characters, whether they can retain their characters is up to their continuing study in college. They might not correctly pronounce it (without the aid of Zhuyin), but they can read traditional text. However, they are honor students, very smart with determination.

   Chinese is different but not difficult. Tones usually take more time to excel than characters, if student is not tone deaf. Practice makes perfect. If they can spend two hours at football or soccer practice, they should do the same in Chinese, only 30 minutes a day “consistently”.

   Everything takes time. Before one can speak and write fluently, one has to read and listen intensively and extensively. I am sorry to tell you that there is no short cut in learning any second language.

   Thank you for having this website for those who are interested in the Chinese language.

   http://www.sinonexus.org

4. 4 Mark Says:
   March 16th, 2008 at 5:29 am

   They are all written in Pinyin, Zhuyin, simplified and traditional characters, and another Romanization system that most English speakers prefer.

   I’ve never met any English speakers who prefer MPSII. Pinyin is standard.

5. 5 John Says:
   May 14th, 2008 at 9:16 pm

   Anyone want to share information on the best DVD you have used that accompanies a textbook?

6. 6 Mark Says:
   May 15th, 2008 at 12:54 am

   I haven’t used any.

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