Learning beyond the classroom

Effective language learning requires much more than sitting in a classroom to learn new words and grammar rules. Authentic language learning can be only achieved from daily practice in your normal life, just like how you learn your mother tongue.

At the end of last semester, one Year 9 Chinese class did an oral task with Chinese native speakers in China Town. They conducted an interview with Chinese tourists/migrants in Chinese. The whole process of the task included creating a questionnaire in Chinese, practising the interview questions with peers and teachers, inviting a Chinese native speaker and conducting an interview in pure Chinese language. It is not an easy task at all, but they did it. It was observed that the Chinese interviewees were surprised by the students’ language capabilities and, more importantly, their strong willingness to learn. The students also gained great confidence for their future learning when they heard the interviewee say “your Chinese is excellent. I understood all of it!” (in Chinese) at the end of the interview.

A Year 10 Chinese class participated in a “teleconference” with an extremely enthusiastic Chinese language learner, Brian Jackson on 27th June. Brian is 66 years old. He is a former air traffic controller and a trainer of air traffic controllers. He retired last year and since then started to learn Chinese. Brian talked to the students about his former experience in China and his current study schedule and approach to learning Chinese. He studies six days a week, 3-4 hours of self-learning every day and practises speaking with different Chinese people who he found online and from his study group. Brian also demonstrated his Chinese skill by telling a story in Chinese. Hard to believe he has only been learning Chinese for one year. Our students could understand most of the story. At the end, Brian encouraged the class with an often used Chinese saying “hao hao xue xi” (study hard). The “conference” was performed via a Skype video call. Technology helps us open the window to a broader world. We should make the most of it for our learning.