1. Getting older Children to Learn Chinese – Fun, Fun, Fun!
“I hear and forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” - Confucius

2. Do you remember? We learn …
10% of what we read
20% of what we hear
30% of what we see
50% of what we see and hear
70% of what we discuss with others
80% of what we personally experience
90% of what we teach to someone else

3. What works with older students?
VISUAL LEARNING TECHNIQUES:
AUDITORY LEARNING TECHNIQUES:
KINESTHETIC LEARNING TECHNIQUES:

4. Games and Activities for Starters, Practice and Plenaries
Listing 3 things learnt from last lesson
Summarising a topic in 5 bullet points
Cloze passage (with key words from last lesson)
Drawing a timeline
Finding the link among a selection of pictures
Label a diagram
Taboo
Analysing / discussing a short video clip
Artistic response to some music or a poem
Who wants to be a millionaire?
Murder game (whodunit?)
2-minute challenge

5. Quizzes
Blockbusters
Ordering elements hierarchically
Matching words to topics
Categories
Big Brother
Tongue twisters
Acting out proverbs / idiomatic phrases (sketch show)
Research and debates
Making a school newspaper in the TL
Mind mapping
Modelling
Becoming a weather forecaster
International contact: video links, exchanges, cultural & study visits, pen pals
Creative writing competition
Writing and performing a rap / rock ballad

6. GROUP WORK
Design a series of VAK activities for a 1 hour lesson to introduce ‘jobs’ to a mixed ability group of 15-year olds.