Focused and Fun

Wanling Zhong

Teacher - Chinese (Mandarin)

Our Year 7 Chinese (Mandarin) students are settling well into their studies.  Some of our newest students already have experience with learning and/or speaking this language, while others are studying Mandarin for the first time.

Learning a new language can be very daunting, but it doesn't have to all hard work and no fun!  Using a range of approaches,  ideas and resources to deliver curriculum is important as it helps students remain engaged and encourages them to take more responsibility for their individual learning. 

An excellent example of this is our Year 7 students learning to sing and dance to a Chinese song!

The lyrics of the song are repetitive and relate to the topic we are currently learning including numbers, pronouns, and words that describe direction (left, right, up, down etc). 

The lyrics describe the dance movements, so students learn to sing the song and perform the dance movements at the same time. As they sing and dance along, the music speeds up and the activity becomes harder - but also a lot of fun!   Engaging in this type of activity is designed to help students understand and remember the key Chinese vocabulary they are singing. And it works - so we have embedded this activity into our classroom routine. Every second lesson at the end of the class we sing and dance to revise our work!

Incorporating music into the classroom is a simple and engaging way to expose students to the culture associated with the target language, because when listening to a song they are exposed to rich vocabulary and cultural content.  This activity also actively builds the students’ listening and comprehension skills, and it really hooks students' interest and attention, giving them a 'fun' goal to strive toward. 

And I have to say, they are gathering some pretty good dancing skills too!