Practice And Exploration Of Differentiation Teaching Of Chinese Characters

In recent years, individual differences is a hot spot in the field of psychology, education and teaching Chinese as a second language.Cognitive style, such as learning styles and individual differences etc, has attracted more and more attention in research. However, although learners’ diverse learning needs and individual differences make the classroom teaching difficult for teachers, there is very few research on differentiated instructions for learners in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.I worked as a Chinese teacher teaching for a period of eight months in the University of Edinburgh and the Confucius Institute for Scotland. I found that the undergraduates in the University of Edinburgh and the students from the Confucius Institute for Scotland both show diversity needs and they are very differentiated in readiness level, learning interest and learning style, which is a great challenge for a teacher to coordinate the class internal differences.In order to solve this problem, I draw on the concept of differential teaching and differentiated teaching strategies, which were applied in teaching Chinese character class in the University of Edinburgh, and explored differentiated mode of Chinese character class.On this basis, the differentiated instructions of Chinese characters were improved and extended to the Chinese character classroom of the Confucius Institute to research on how to apply differentiated teaching strategies to enhance each learner’s interest in learning Chinese characters as well as to meet the students’ diversity needs. I hope there’s some inspiration in the thesis for those classrooms in which students show diversity readiness, interest and learning profile.The thesis is divided into four chapters:Chapter1is the summary of study history which was composed of two parts. The first part will give an overview of the definition, the principal and theoretical basis of the differentiated instruction to identify the differentiated teaching philosophy. The second part will outline the second language teaching which focuses on differentiated instruction definition and strategies as well as some research on students’ individualities in teaching Chinese as a second language field.Chapter2is the design of the differential teaching of Chinese characters. It will give a brief introduction of Chinese characters courses in both the University of Edinburgh and the Confucius Institute. And based on the analysis of students’ individual differences, learning goals, learning context and homework will be differentiated and a variety of teaching activities will be taken in the course design to promote exchanges and cooperation among students. During the course, the collective lectures, individual counseling, group counseling will be combined in the form of classroom organization.Chapter3is the feedback and analysis. It will make a description and analysis of the implementation process of teaching Chinese characters. On the basis of reflection, differentiated instructions are improved and it will provide feedback on the effectiveness of teaching. Eventually differential teaching will be assessed through questionnaires, interviews and so on.Chapter4proposes the conclusion and suggestion. The thesis emphasis on differential teaching philosophy which is to seek the great development of each student. The teaching content of Chinese characters can be layered, and a variety of teaching methods can be used for students with different cognitive styles. Differential classroom organizations of Chinese characters for overseas students may be a combination of collective learning, individual learning, group learning and cooperative learning. Groups help to promote information exchange between the students to form a friendly and peaceful atmosphere of the class.