| Recently in the United States, there have been more and more students electing to study Chinese. However, because this is a relatively new trend and there are many nuances of the Chinese language that are much different than the traditionally chosen European languages, American teaching methods for Chinese are also quite preliminary and seems have a lot of room for improvement, as well as a need to be better tailored to American students’particularities. American students generally view oral Chinese as an integral skill in learning the Chinese language, but difficulties with tones and structure can prove to be a weakness many American students have. Despite the fact American students tend to be very willing to improve their oral Chinese and many times are more outgoing than students of other nationalities, difficulties in these areas of oral Chinese can put American students behind, especially those just arriving to China from America where they have only experienced teaching methods used in the U.S that thus far seem unable to sufficiently address these key problems. As an American student, I began to try to find a teaching method that is more suited teaching Americans oral Chinese.This thesis also briefly analyzes the characteristics of American Chinese language education, which by the way does not have a specific oral Chinese class.The average American student’s characteristics and learning habits will also be summarized, among those being they are generally adept and keen to openly express themselves, more easy to accept and adapt to lively, interactive activities and more prone to accept oral communication education methods. This thesis will also touch upon a comparison of Chinese oral language education in China, and the American oral Chinese education methods.This thesis will then continue on to analyze task based language teaching (used often in China) and its use when adopted towards improving specific aspects of oral language (accuracy, fluency, complexity). Task based language teaching is a type of teaching method where the teacher educates through guiding the language learner via the process of completing tasksin the classroom. Task based language teaching’s principle lies in the process of completing and the completion of the "task" that was designed by the teacher towards a specific learning goal. This teaching method can be separated into broad and narrow approaches, and there are also linguists who divide it into the three stages of pre-task, task-cycle, and language focus (also called post-task). Furthermore, task based language teaching can also be split into eight task categories according to certain differences based on the task. There are also some examples on how to tailor and carry out classes based around the improvement of these points as well as the student’s language proficiency level.This thesis includes a detailed survey of American students in China that have also studied Chinese in the U.S., and the results of the survey will help reveal specifics of to what degree the task based language teaching method is used in the China and the U.S., American students’ reactions to this method, and what effect they feel it has on their oral Chinese skills. The survey’s results do show that task based teaching is both welcomed and approved by American students of the Chinese language, and also importantly, the students strongly believe it is an effective method for improving oral Chinese skills.By comparing the differences between Chinese and American oral Chinese teaching, researching the theories of task based teaching and its implementation in the teaching of oral Chinese, discussing theories of prominent scholars in the fields of language education, language acquisition and linguistics, as well as taking into account the experiences of American students of Chinese in China, this thesis strives toillustrate how the task based teaching method is a very practical and efficient teaching method for American students of oral Chinese. |
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