The Issue Of Discrepancy Of Teaching And Learning Putonghua In Universities

Putonghua is a compulsory course for many colleges and universities,it has difference from students’ mother-tongue teaching.College Putonghua is a language training course that includes,listening,speaking,reading and writing,as a comprehensive language training.Teaching staff often face challenges when conducting Putonghua courses,such as,different learning needs of students,suitability of the teaching curriculum and how to cater students’ learning needs with different language proficiencies.This research is done with an aim to explore a suitable teaching content,mode,methodology and strategy to cater the different learning needs of students and help them to progress further in Putonghua study.Currently,the major problems in College Putonghua teaching includes:firstly,difference in Putonghua proficieny level of college freshman.In order to prevent complication of administrative arrangement,all freshman that are assessed to take the compulsory Putonghua Enhancement Programme,have to take both the "Foundation Putonghua" and "Intermediate Putonghua".As a result there are huge disparities in students’ Putonghua discrepancy within the same class.This causes difficulties for teachers to come up with suitable teaching content;to coordinate classroom activities;potentials in losing students’ interest in learning.Secondly,students lack motivation to learn.The compulsory Putonghua courses from Education University of Hong Kong are not credited;there exist students’ misconception towards Putonghua that,it is regarded as a dialect by some,and hence refuse to learn Putonghua in defense of preserving Cantonese as local dialect;besides,most Putonghua courses are scheduled at a sub-optimal time of the day.Thirdly,the class sizes are comparatively large,which tends to overlook students’ individuality and impede the rolling out of differentiated teaching.This study attempts to identify the connotation and characteristics of differentiated teaching through the study of Chinese and foreign literatures,to identify different types and attributions of learners’ learning differences,and to understand the impact of differentiated teaching on university Putonghua teaching,and then to explore effective Putonghua teaching strategy based on learning differences.This study consists of six parts,which includes introduction and five chapters.The introduction explains origin of the research,and through a reflection on College Putonghua teaching(principly targeting Putonghua teaching in Education University of Hong Kong)and referencing on respective research material on differentiated teaching,to determine the objectives and approach of this study.In the language education policy published by Education University of Hong Kong in 2012-2013,which sets graduation target for students to achieve a certain level of Putonghua proficiency.This is undoubtedly a big challenge to teachers.Hence,one of our scope of study is to explore methods to ensure all students can pass their exit requirement of Putonghua.The first chapter discusses the implication of differentiated teaching on College Putonghua teaching.It will through the understanding the underlying principle and context of differentiated teaching,to identify and the discuss the causes and types of individual learning needs,and hence the implication of differentiated teaching on College Putonghua teaching.The second chapter explores the testing tool used for diagnosing college freshmen’s Putonghua proficiency.It will reveal the development of such testing tool,display the test content,reliability and effectiveness of the "Tertiary Putonghua Test(TPT)"①,and explain how it has been utilized to filter and divert freshmen.The third chapter is about the design of university Putonghua teaching content based on learning differences.The principle and structure of the university Putonghua course,and the different levels of teaching content selection reflect the different teaching philosophy and ideas.The pilot of these new teaching materials has gained recognition and appreciation from experts,teachers and students.The fourth chapter discusses how to develop and apply the university Putonghua self-study resources,and to take care of the learning differences of learners.This includes the origin for self-study resources development;design and development of online and offline university self-study resources,organization of self-study resources,competence development planning,and the characteristics of online/offline self-study resources.The fifth chapter discusses the university Putonghua teaching strategies based on learning differences,focusing on four major areas.First,to strengthen the connection between the teaching content and the previous knowledge of the students,such as preparing activities to meet the life experience of the learners,by making full use of the Cantonese knowledge that students already acquired,and learn by comparing it with Putonghua.Second,take care of individual differences when teaching a group of students,such as guiding students to construct Putonghua language knowledge based on their language levels,takes care of learning differences by using scaffolding instruction,takes care of student levels through teaching interactions,and strengthens individual guidance in group teaching.Third,targeted approach to students of different language levels,such as optimizing the teaching results through the university Putonghua test,allowing students to understand their Putonghua level as soon as they enter school,and understand their gap with university clearance requirement,so that students can have clear goals when they are taking Putonghua courses.By making use of Putonghua learning evaluation to optimize teaching,all university Putonghua assessment is a combination of progressive assessment and summative assessment.We can identify the language level of students by using assessments in listening competency,Pinyin and oral speaking level.The purpose of the assessment is to allow students and teachers to continuously reflect and improve in the process of learning and teaching.Assessment allows students to understand the strengths and weaknesses of their Putonghua learning and understand their next goal.Based on the feedback from assessment,students can improve learning and find better ways to achieve their goals.Evaluation can also allow teachers to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student in their Putonghua studies,and to provide timely assistance and effective feedback,which allows students to understand how to improve their learning.In addition,make full use of classroom feedback to optimize teaching and learning.An effective feedback is answering three questions.The first question is the goal,what kind of knowledge students need to learn;the second question is the gap,how far is the student from this goal;the third question is the method,which is how can students close the gap;fourth,to provide a variety of learning models,for example:Putonghua clinic,Putonghua workshop,student tutor counseling,and self-learning mode,etc.