Featuring... - Northern Territory Schools

Page 8For those of you wondering how we are going with our language learning …herewith some reflectionsLanguage Learning ExperienceLearning a language, we know, takes time, commitment and energy. We weredetermined that our expectations about learning Chinese, Mandarin to be moreprecise, during our 11 week stay were realistic. We knew that, although exposedto the language, it would not just sink in through osmosis. We knew that we would need feedback in the form ofexplicit teaching to help us internalise what we were hearing and, besides, 11 weeks was not very long. Nevertheless,we hoped that our language learning would be a positive and rewarding experience and that it hasbeen.Lauren has undoubtedly experienced the greatest exposure to the language. (Unfortunately, this prime opportunitywas not accompanied by any specific teaching to make the most of such a situation.) At school, Lauren hasbeen able to hear language being used in real contexts. Much of it goes over her head but she has been activein formulating her own hypothesis as to what some words mean, and she has tested out some of these when ithas been possible. Lauren tells of the delight of her friends when she was brave enough to ask them theirnames in Chinese. She was also able to tell me in the shop what ‘mei you’ (don’t have it) meant and used thiswhen she had to tell her Science teacher that she didn’t have the text. Lauren loves the choral reading of storiesin pin yin although she can only pick out a word or two. Mathematics has been a subject where she can useher previous knowledge to give clues about the meaning and, as a result has learnt some measure wordsamongst other terminology.With only two weeks to go, Lauren’s language learning seems to have accelerated and she is trying out a fewmore phrases and committing more to memory. This is not because she is about to go home but rather because,after a number of weeks of attaining small gains in understandings here and there, some random piecesof knowledge are finally beginning to fit together like a jigsaw.The boys’ half day at Kindergarten for five days each week gave them the opportunity to hear language relatedto classroom commands, eating lunch, playing and singing. The teacher has tried to teach them a few words(this week - nose, hands, eyes, lunch and water) and takes delight in their progress. It is hard to gain a sense ofwhat they have learnt as our language discussions have not been so in depth with the boys. They do sometimessay something about what they have heard from a conversation. They certainly learned the word for ‘twins’ veryearly on as we hear this said at least 20 times each day as we walk to school. As a result, they sense there issomething special about being twins – at least in China.Kevin’s situation of being isolated in the ‘Australian Room’ at school has lead to very little exposure to language.He has however made use of his badminton time and been an active learner whenever he has been outand about with one of the teachers.I too have been isolated and frustrated as a learner of Chinese. Daily I found myself being asked about the childrenwhen walking to school so I turned to the Lonely Planet Dictionary to learn some specific words. I occasionallytried to ask someone at the Kindergarten to read out the pin yin for me to help with pronunciation and I, likeKevin, tried to take the opportunity to ask about language when out and about with the teachers from theschool.I could at least establish the fact that I was from Australia, had three children, one girl and twin boys, 7 and 4years old. Occasionally I was able to go a bit further and communicate that we lived in Shanghai, the childrenwere going to school and we were teachers. This of course depended on how much language support I wasgiven by the person I was talking to. I remember how victorious I felt when the taxi drivers started understandingwhen I said the name of our street. (In fact, I have grown so confident that I no longer cling dearly to thepiece of paper with our address written down.)