How to stimulate learning interest in the new GCSE Eva Bunnage Head of Chinese City of London School Although language aptitude accounts for a good deal of individual variation in achievement, motivational factors can override aptitude. Robert Gardner and Wallace Lambert (1972)

Have you done one of these before? Teaching too many nouns in one session? Focusing too much on the input skill (listening and reading)? Rushing to finish the unit but not to recycle the knowledge? Doing class activities for the sake of it? ‘Stimulate interest’ by singing a song, playing a vocab game, moving around in classroom, watching a film and taking pupils to China town?

Discuss: What does teaching the new GCSE require? Balance the four skills (the output skill: speaking and writing) Teach pupils to apply these skills in real life Teacher recycles the knowledge in lessons Meaningful and motivational activities Comprehension of meaningful language is the foundation of language acquisition. –Lightbrown and Spada (2013)

What activities would you come up with for the below topics: 1. Food 2. Describing people

‘Food’ topic You are an event manager and will need to plan an event for a group of Chinese businessmen visiting London in three-months time. Design a three-day event, including dining, intellectual activities and your personal recommendations for shopping. Work in pairs. Write your plan in characters (make sure you know the pinyin) with creative design; Use 90% the vocabulary and grammar we learned (underline the words and grammar that we learned this term); include the vocabulary: food, activities & sports; shopping; travel; mode of transport Each group will need to present their plan (speaking) to the rest of class. The others will use a GCSE speaking mark scheme to mark the presentation. Their poster (see example) can be used for peer marking (reading exercise)

Targets and outcomes To enable pupils understand one of the purposes for Chinese learning: to provide a strong tool for future career To make use of vocabulary and grammar they learned and know how to apply in real situations To practise character writing within context To get pupils familiar with the GCSE Speaking mark scheme To combine writing, speaking, listening in one session (reading activity can be conducted afterwards) Enable the teacher to swiftly identify the weaker areas (e.g. pronunciation? Grammar mistakes? Character writing?) The mistakes can be used for future lesson planning: can use as a quick starter; can collect the ‘wrong sentences’ and make worksheets; can create a ‘spot the mistake’ class competition.

‘Describing people’ topic Introduce the ‘相亲’ (blind date culture) and ask pupils to design their own ‘dating advert’. Requirement: write in characters; include creative design; mainly use the vocabulary and grammar we learned (underline!) Lesson time: place each advert in different corners of the classroom; pupils act as ‘the anxious elderly’, walk around and take notes (the good and bad things about the adverts, including the grammatical mistakes). Teacher gets feedback from pupils and summaries at the end of lesson (see pupils’ posters example) Follow-up sessions: introduce the song ‘Xiao Fang’ and discuss the different sense of beauty between west and east. See example worksheet

Targets and outcomes To introduce the most up-to-date Chinese culture (blind date & sense of beauty) To include different forms of learning: poster design, learn from others, enhance the student-centre role; learn through song This activity enables pupils to come up with the Chinese Speaking Competition idea: 剩男剩女相亲记

Combine different forms of learning: song, film… The booklet: see example (combine all four skills and based on genuine context) Sing well-known tunes with made-up lyrics Rap (example) and student’s rap lyrics (see pupil’s example)

Another thought on SOW Example Session 1: 我，你，他，她 Session 2: add the 和 structure （我和你，你和他） Session 3: add 喜欢 & 不喜欢 (我喜欢你，我不喜欢她） Session 4: add family member words （爸爸喜欢我，妈妈不喜欢他） Session 5: add 虽然…但是…（虽然爸爸不喜欢我，但是妈妈喜欢我） Session 6: add 因为 & adjectives to describe people （爸爸喜欢我，因为我很聪明） ……