Multicultural Children's Garden Efficient Teaching of Chinese : Theory and Practice

Abstract

Non-Chinese speaking kindergarteners in Hong Kong are usually faced with huge diffi- culties in learning Chinese attributing to inadaquacy of resources, teaching materials, and experiences by kindergartens and their teachers. Desegregation between Chinese speaking and Non-Chinese speaking had been strongly advocated by the Equal Opportunities Commission for years, however, some new issues were created even with the best intention. To solve the above problem, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust and institutions in collabo- ration designed intervention programmes, embedded with large scale research, in supporting non-Chinese speaking preschool education. Among the many intervention programmes, this study focused language learning theories and effective teaching. Research methods included on-site observation, video recording of lessons, interviews with principals and teachers, and children assessment of their language learning. aracters, the Liu shu and the Shuo wen chich tzu, and orthographic standardization. Language development of non-Chinese speaking kin- dergarteners was tracked longitudinally in each of their pre-school years that composed of four language assessments. Significant improvement of language learning results was ob- served during the three years, which proved the effects of learning theories and teaching practices. This study also consolidated ten language learning theories for the purpose of integration of Chinese speaking and non-Chinese speaking in the same classroom. Practical exemplars were also included. Educators could make ready use of them with minimum resources. This study aimed to share our theories as well as results of our practices with academics and practioners.

Key words : Effective Teaching, NCS preschoolers learning Chinese as a second language, Language learning theories, Practical exemplars

香港的非華語幼稚園生，學習中文時遇上了很多困難，因老師及學校都缺乏資源、教材及經驗去面對挑戰。近年，香港平等機會委員會強力建議本地生與非華語生一起上課，原意非常好，但亦產生了一些新問題。為了解決上述困難，香港賽馬會慈善基金及參與機構設計了大型的研究及實踐項目，推動非華語幼稚園教育。項目眾多，本研究集中在語文教學理論和有效教學。研究法包括，課堂即時觀察、課堂錄影、校長教師訪談、學生語文學習評估。

 本研究跟蹤了非華語幼兒從幼兒班到高班的語文學習發展，並進行了四次語文評估，學生三年的語文成績有明顯的增長，可見教學理論和教學實踐有顯著的效果。本研究亦統整了十種語文教學理論，這些理論都非常適合香港本地生和非華語幼兒共同上課之用， 亦摘取了多個實踐範例，這些範例都是簡易可行，無需投入大量資源。本研究精要報告理論和實踐成果，以供學界參考。

關鍵詞: 有效教學，非華語幼兒學中文，教學理論，實踐範例