Theory Of Controlled Practice Method In Senior Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language Limitations And Improvements

The controlled drill method is one of the most popular teaching methodologies around the North American area. It is widely applied by Harvard University, Princeton University, and Columbia University’s Chinese teaching as its advantage in saving time and energy and in fully making use of class time to practice students’ Chinese. And it was often seen in the drill class session in most of the colleges, and plays a significant role in strengthening students’ understanding and applying of Chinese language.However, we have to admit that the current drill method is not very suitable for senior class teaching, in which a great number of problems like the rash of literary language, the lack of interests among students, the inflexibility of textbook begin to emerge. Therefore, an adjustment in drill methodology is urgently needed.In this article I present the Columbia University summer project in Beijing (CIB) as an example to illustrate the current problems in senior class teaching and deeply analyze the particularity of the senior class teaching, which includes:The foreword illustrates the meaning of this topic, which is the contradiction between the current drill method and the actual needs in teaching practices.The second chapter takes CIB program as an example to analyze the typical mode of controlled drill method and to summarize both the advantages and problems of current drill method. A detailed analysis is also given in this chapter to illustrate the characteristics of the senior class teaching.The third chapter put forward a package of revised drill method, which is to apply circumstance and context approaches to combine the individual knowledge together. In this chapter, some real cases are given to illustrate the main principle, specific process and steps of the revised drill method.The fourth chapter discusses the advantages and effects of the revised method, and summarizes the requirement of teachers.Conclusion.In the view of drill method, this article goes deep into the practice problems emerged in the senior class teaching, which hopefully will provide inspiration for the future TCFL work both at home and abroad.