Teaching L2 Chinese to Young School Students-Beyond Classroom : Schematic Development in the Process of Learning L2 Chinese: Classroom-Based Research

This is a book reporting a study to investigate primary school students' interest and persistence in learning L2 Chinese, the areas of difficulty in learning Chinese and what can be done in teaching to help children deal with the difficulties in learning the language and at the same time build up useful learning skills. Various research activities were designed to obtain information to address these issues. The findings from the research activities suggest that L2 Chinese and the Chinese characters could, without detriment to other aspects of the curriculum, be introduced to the students from the early stages of primary schooling, with benefits for students' confidence and enthusiasm. The findings also suggest that young children attained problem-solving and independent learning skills in the process of learning new Chinese characters and sentences and were confident in using their attained skills to learn new language items. The outcomes were consistent with the notion that children formed schemas and updated their schemas in different situations. Based on these findings, a sketch of a possible pedagogical scheme is provided for L2 Chinese learning.