Chinese for Tomorrow
面向未来的汉字教学
Dr. Wayne Wenchao 何文潮教授
Presentation recording part 1
Presentation recording part 2
Presentation recording part 3
【Abstract】This talk will mainly discuss how to solve the problem of teaching Chinese characters in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Chinese character is the most difficult for the American students learning Chinese. The inherent features make the Chinese characters difficult to recognize, read and write for the American students. Also because of the insufficient instructional hours allowed in teaching, it becomes obstacle in learning Chinese. After years of research and teaching practice, the author found the best way to solve this bottleneck problem is to use computer to largely replace hand-writing Chinese in teaching and learning, that is what we call “Computer Chinese”. In the talk, the author will introduce a few research projects related to “Computer Chinese”, and special features of the textbook series Chinese for Tomorrow, and how the students at URI apply “Computer Chinese” approach in Chinese Level 1, 2 and 3. Based on this introduction, this talk will further discuss “Computer Assisted Language Learning” (CALL) in Chinese instruction, and the role of “Computer Chinese” in Proficiency-Oriented teaching in the Chinese Flagship Program at URI. The presentation will show a few frequently used APPs in teaching, and ends by showing the results of the standard tests by URI Flagship students, which proves that the new way of teaching Chinese character leads to a new direction, a new way in raising effectiveness and efficiency of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.
Dr. Wayne Wenchao HE is Professor of Chinese, Director of The Chinese Language Flagship Program, and Head of the Chinese Section at the University of Rhode Island, Major Professor of Ph.D. in Education Program. Before he joined the faculty of University of Rhode Island in 2010, he taught Chinese at New York University (NYU), 1994-2006, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point (2006-2010). In addition to teaching Chinese at all levels, he also worked with many colleagues in the Chinese language teaching field in the US to develop the new five-skilled approach in teaching Chinese including listening, speaking, reading, writing and computing. In 2007 and 2008, he led the team to have published the six volumes textbook series, Chinese for Tomorrow employing the new five-skilled approach. In 2010 and 2012, he published Structures of Mandarin Chinese for Speakers of English I & II with Beijing University Press. In the more than thirty years of teaching career, he published 18 academic books and textbooks in teaching Chinese as a foreign language as well as dozens of scholastic papers. He serves on editorial board of several academic journals. He actively participated in organizing the 1st-15th International Conference on Chinese Pedagogy. His research interests include using technology in Chinese language instruction, Chinese pedagogy, Chinese grammar, discourse analysis and pragmatics.
本讲座主要讨论的是海外中文教学中的汉字教学问题。汉字是美国学生学习中文的难点。由于汉字本身的特点，造成了汉字难认、难读更难写，加上课时严重不足，成为中文学习的障碍。经过对各种方法的研究和尝试，最后发现解决汉字教学瓶颈的最好办法就是教学中使用电脑电写汉字，即“电脑中文”。在讲座里作者将介绍有关“电脑中文的”几个研究，为“电脑中文”设计的《走向未来》课本的一些特色，目前罗德岛大学中文一、二、三年级使用“电脑中文”的情况。 在此基础上，本讲座将进一步阐述中文教学中用电脑科技辅助教学的问题，“电脑中文”对罗德岛大学中文领航项目以水平能力为导向的教学(Proficiency-Oriented teaching)所起的不可或缺的作用，并介绍我们教学中常用的一些APP，最后用领航学生过去几年的水平能力标准测试结果证明以“电脑中文“为基础的汉字教学法，为我们提高中文教学的效果和效率指出了新的方向，开辟了新的道路。
何文潮博士是罗德岛大学古典与现代语言文学系中文教授、教育学院博士生导师、国家中文领航项目主任、中文部主任。到罗德岛大学之前曾先后任教于纽约大学和西点军校，除担任各年级教学，他和美国中文教学届的许多同事开发了听、说、读、打、写五种技能的教学方法，并于2007，2008年主编出版了五种技能的教科书，《走向未来》系列教材，于2010、2012年主编出版了句型结构为主的《中文语法快易通》和《中文语法步步高》，在三十余年的教学生涯中出版了18部中文教学方面的专著和教材，以及数十篇论文，并担任多家中文教学杂志的编委和顾问，积极参与了从第一届到第十五届的国际汉语教学学术研讨会的组织工作。他的主要研究兴趣为运用科技手段进行汉语教学，中文教学法与教学语法,以及语用和篇章分析等。