✍🏻🗣️📖 "Write and Speak Lesson": A Personalized Chinese Vocabulary Book for Children ❗
Kiddo is six years old and moved from Hong Kong to Canada with his mother last year. With most of his kindergarten classes held online due to COVID-19, his exposure to Chinese characters has decreased, resulting in weaker word recognition skills. Aside from reading storybooks 📚, what can be done to teach children how to recognize words?
📍One way to try with children is the "Write and Speak Lesson"! As the name suggests, the "Write and Speak Lesson" involves writing down what children say in words✍🏻. According to Dr. Wong Kit-ching, a Chinese education scholar, the approach centers on guiding children's oral🗣️ expressions based on their interests, and then having adults write them down in written form📝. Simply put, it's a transition from "I write my heart" to "parents write my heart." This approach is scientifically sound and can build children's confidence in word recognition and writing.
"Write and Speak Lesson" is suitable for children of different ages✔️. Preschool children can start with increasing their vocabulary first. When they have a certain level of word recognition, they can use articles to express more ideas.
Dr. Wong adds that when children use oral language to express themselves, they already have a recognition of the "sound" and "meaning" of the language. The "Write and Speak Lesson" is precisely to help children establish the "form" of the language. At the same time, because the children already have the foundation of "sound" and "meaning," they can better focus on learning the "shape" of the characters, making the process of character recognition easier. On the other hand, she suggests that "Write and Speak Lesson" is a good parent-child activity👪 because during the process, parents and teachers can listen👂 and understand the child's thoughts and feelings, and accompany them in their growth.
Reference
黃潔貞 （2005）寫話課：急需納入本港的語文課程。語文教學雙月刊第二十九期/二零零五年四月
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