【双语对照】让华文活起来！

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让华文活起来！
Make Chinese language come alive!
谢宝泉BY Seah Poh Chua

　　
　　I believe that teaching is successful only when students are able to relate what they learn to real life. This is the basis for the motivation to learn and for learning to be meaningful. It is what we commonly referred to as “putting into practice what one has learnt”.

　　Should Chinese-language teachers continue to concentrate on getting students to pass examinations and not on expanding the relevance of the language to their lives, the language may one day just be abandoned altogether by them.

　　To most students and adults, just how useful is the Chinese language in their day-to-day lives?

　　Well, they can speak Mandarin at home and when they meet and mingle with their friends and others; read Chinese comic books, newspapers, entertainment weeklies and advertisements; watch Chinese movies or television programmes and news; listen to or sing Mandarin pop songs; write simple notes or letters in Chinese etc......

　　In concrete terms, we need to pick and choose from real life things that will fascinate students, like comics, entertainment magazines and television programmes, and turn them into interesting and appropriate teaching material with specific objectives.

　　Not only will this meet the aim of teaching, it will also have a knock-on effect - stimulate students' interest in spending time outside the classroom on their own on reading Chinese books and watching Chinese TV programmes.


overcome psychological barrier


　　Take comics for example. For students whose standard of Chinese is extremely low, getting them to read a short essay is already a tall order, let alone reading a book. Comic books, I believe, are effective instruments in helping them to overcome the psychological barrier in reading Chinese books.

　　We can also get students to share their thoughts on the comics. This will provide them the opportunity to hone their verbal skills as well as get other students interested.

　　The next step will be to introduce students gradually to comics that have greater depth, such as those based on swordfighting novels by Louis Cha and Gu Long and comic versions of Chinese literature classics by Tsai Chih Chung. Eventually, we can guide them towards reading Chinese books.

　　Success or failure hinges on the choice of books. Reading should be a joy and not a chore. If students were forced to read books according to the preferences of teachers, this could backfire and they would likely end up hating the Chinese language even more.

　　To get the best result, it is necessary to find the most appropriate teaching material and method to match the levels of the students and what they need.

　　Teachers can also make good use of television programmes. Some years back, when “My Fair Princess” was being shown, I made the novel on which the drama series was based the subject for a reading contest.

　　As expected, within a week, some students had finished reading the novel which has three volumes and were happily talking about the story with others. This prompted students less keen in the beginning to also start reading in order to join in the discussion.

　　The same can be said about movies. For instance, students can be asked to describe the expressions and feelings of the male lead of local production Home Run before and after he crosses the finishing line. This will be much more effective than asking students to create something out of nothing.

　　Newspapers are a main source of complementary reading. By and large, teachers who are concerned with examinations are in the habit of asking students to read more serious news and noting down their reactions. Alternatively, they may come up with a “pick the right word” or “fill in the gaps” exercise with the aim of getting students to learn more new words.

　　In fact, this can be made a lot more lively and interesting. Teachers can adopt a “modular approach” by getting students to follow up on a particular news event, for example, the Bali terror attack, the murder trial of the maid said to have caused her female employer's death in a fire, the Slim 10 court case and the National Day Parade. Students who monitor reports on the same event will be able to consolidate on what they learn as the words used are likely to be similar.

　　Opportunities must be created for students to apply what they learn. Students can be asked to assume the role of anyone mentioned in the news and write a letter to someone related to him or her or vice versa. The maid can, for example, write to her parents or the other way round.

　　When it comes to incidents for which the truth is shrouded in mystery, a good example is the SilkAir crash some years back, students can be asked to use the background information to engage in various forms of creative writing.


make use of computer technology


　　Even computer technology can become an important teaching tool. Interesting language games can help students build up unconsciously on what they have learnt as they indulge in computer games. The effect will be far better than asking them to memorise books on buidling vocabulary.

　　Having read the many examples cited, I believe teachers will raise a common question: Where can they find the time to do all these when they cannot even go through all the textbooks with the students?

　　Indeed, in most schools, while what I have mentioned can be tried out occasionally, to implement them in full and systematically will mean coming up with lots of complementary teaching material and new programmes, something which is almost impossible unless more time is alloted or some textbooks are done away with. This issue is beyond the ability of an individual - it depends on the foresight and the drive of the school leadership.

　　Actions speak louder than words. I hope members of the Chinese-language teaching profession can take the initiative to put their minds to the task - come up with concrete and effective solutions that can help Chinese-language teaching out of its present woeful state.

　　The Singapore Chinese Teachers' Union can take the lead in the joint efforts. While organising events such as essay-writing competitions and speech contests can promote the learning of Chinese, only a small number of students stand to benefit from them. Tackling the problem from the way the language is taught will have more substantive impact and greater effect.

　　What I have suggested are not brand-new ideas. Many have in fact already been put into practice, in most cases by the effort of individual teachers. What is lacking is thus comprehensive and systematic implementation of these proposals.

　　I hope more Chinese-language teachers will be able to discard old baggage and free themselves from deep-seated ideas, be bold enough to innovate to make Chinese language dynamic and relevant to life and to bring about a brighter future for Chinese-language teaching.


·The writer is Singapore Sports School's HOD for Mother Tongue. He was formerly HOD for Chinese Language in a SAP school and vice-principal of a secondary school. Translated by Yap Gee Poh.
　　成功的教学必须让学生把所学的知识与现实挂钩，并能在现实生活中应用。这样，学习动机才能成立，学习才会有意义。这也即所谓的“学以致用”。

　　如果华文老师仍只专注于帮助学生准备考试，而不着眼于扩大华文在学生生活中的“版图”，那华文总有一天会在他们的“地图”上消失！　　

　　对一般学生和成人而言，华文在现实生活中究竟有什么用途呢？在家庭、社交场合、公共场所以华语与人沟通，读华文漫画、报纸、广播周刊、广告等，看华语电影或电视节目、新闻，听或唱华语流行歌曲，写简单的便条与书信等。如果学生能经常做到这些，即把华文当成他们的生活用语之一，那华文教学才算是真正成功。

　　具体地说，我们要从日常生活中酌量选择学生喜欢的东西，如漫画、广播周刊、电视节目等，设计成有趣而且目标明确的教学活动，这样，不仅能有效达到该堂课的教学目标，也能产生“余震”，激发学生在课余主动去接触这些华文读物或节目。


排除心理障碍


　　在此，以漫画为例具体说明。对于华文程度低落的学生而言，要求他们看一篇短文，已是十分痛苦的事，更别说是一本书。我们深信漫画是协助他们克服阅读华文书籍心理障碍的有效工具。

　　此外，也可要求学生分享阅读某些指定漫画的读后感，这既能训练说话能力，也能引起其他学生的阅读兴趣。

　　接着，老师便可按“循序渐进”的原则，引导学生看较有深度的漫画，如：由金庸或古龙的武侠漫画、蔡志忠漫画、中国历史故事漫画等。最后，才顺势将他们引导向阅读纯文字的华文书籍。

　　这里，书籍的选择是成败的关键。阅读应是一种享受，不是一件苦差。如果老师仍然按自己的喜好选书逼学生读，那只会弄巧反拙，让学生更憎恨华文。了解学生的程度与需要，选择最适合的教材与教学法，才能取得最佳的教学效果。

　　另外，电视节目也是一个让老师“借力”的好地方。记得几年前，当电视刚播映“还珠格格”时，我便以其原著作为全级阅读比赛的指定书籍。不出所料，在一个星期内，便有一些学生把三本书读完，并在校内热烈讨论，乐在其中。这也对其他原本兴致不高的学生产生影响，推动他们去阅读以加入讨论。

　　善于借助电视节目的魅力来推广阅读计划，就能事半功倍。此外，电视节目或电影也可成为作文教学的好材料。例如，以《跑吧孩子》中男主角抵达终点前后的片段，要求学生集中描写人物的外表、动作与心理活动，这会比要学生凭空想像来得有效。

　　报章也是课堂辅助教材的主要来源。一般上，老师们喜欢选用较严肃的新闻课题，要求学生写读后感，这是为配合会考要求。再不，便是设计成选词填充之类，以增加学生的词汇量。其实，新闻教学可以是生动有趣的。

　　为取得更佳效果，老师可以采取单元的概念，每个单元让学生阅读多篇同一类新闻的报道，如：峇厘岛恐怖袭击、红山女佣烧死女主人、Slim 10诉讼案、国庆庆典等。由于同一类新闻所使用的语言文字大同小异，学生追看一系列的报道后，便能巩固所学。

　　“学”后就得制造“用”的机会。老师可以要求学生以新闻中任何一个角色的身份，写一封私函给一个与“他”有关的人，或反过来以与“他”有关的人的身份写信给“他”；如女佣写给父母，或父母写给女佣。

　　遇到真相扑朔迷离的新闻，可以要求学生以新闻为背景进行创作，如多年前的胜安空难，学生便运用丰富的想像力，以侦探、推理、遗书、剧本等形式写出了精彩的故事。


充分利用电脑科技


　　电脑科技也将是辅助我们教学的重要工具。由于学生都热爱电脑游戏，若能多设计一些有趣的语文游戏，让学生在玩的过程中不知不觉地巩固所学，其效果远比死啃词语手册来得有效。

　　读了上述例子，相信很多老师会不约而同地问：课文都教不完了，怎么会有时间做这些呢！的确，在一般学校，上述教学法偶尔为之尚可，但若要全面而有系统的进行，就必须引进许多课外辅助教材并设计种种活动；除非是增加课时或删减课文，否则是很难做到的。这个问题并非个人能力所及，而得视领导层的远见与魄力了。

　　以目前的情况来看，具体的行动似乎较有意义。希望华文教育界的有识之士主动集合起来，集思广益，制定出具体有效的解决方案，让华文教学走出困境。在这方面，华文教师总会可扮演领导的角色。主办作文比赛、演讲比赛之类的活动，固然能促进华文的学习，但受益的学生毕竟有限。若能从教学方面着手，就能起实质而广泛的作用。

　　其实，以上的一些建议并非什么创见，教育界早已有人在做了，只不过多数都是个别老师在行动，欠缺全面而有系统的贯彻。希望会有更多华文老师摆脱传统的包袱与固有的成见，大胆地尝试，努力使华文“活”起来，让华文教学有一个较光明的明天！


·作者是新加坡体育学校母语部主任，曾担任特选中学华文部主任和中学副校长