How we use HBL's stories to teach Cantonese?
Rainbow Sees Cantonese (RSC) has been teaching children from bilingual families (ages 3-10+) for about 5 years so we totally understand the difficulty of learning Cantonese. Learning to ‘Listen’ and ‘Speak’ is the priority before establishing the ability to ‘Read” and ‘Write’. Materials for learning Jyutping or speaking Cantonese are lacking in the market, or they are too advanced to non-native speaking children, eventually disinteresting them learning the language. I’m glad that I met Hambaanglaang (HBL), which added more diverse and fun content into RSC’s lessons for my students.
What are the features of HBL?
Colloquial Cantonese Stories
- HBL stories were inspired from daily life, easy to attract and interest the children. Their memories are easily strengthened when they encounter the same situation in real life too.
- The stories are written in conversational Cantonese with vocabularies and expressions which can be easily understood and applied to daily life. Eventually boost their speaking and communication skills.
Providing interesting stories in different levels
- From beginner level to advanced level, from simple words to complex sentences, children are learning the language step-by-step so they are confident to keep going.
- HBL website provides rich materials including illustrations and audio of the stories. Parents are encouraged to revise the stories with the children online. Printed books with exclusive content such as cultural introduction and English story (a different version of the story) are also available for purchase so parents can read together with their children.
How does HBL immerse into RSC’s lessons?
We hope students learn Cantonese step-by-step. First of all, we do storytelling in Cantonese in the class to encourage listening comprehension and speaking. Then, we apply multiple interactive games to teach Chinese characters and written Chinese for Reading and Writing. The demonstrations below are how we applied HBL into our learning activities and how the teacher encouraged the children to speak what they have learnt.
Video 1：https://youtu.be/abHS4IhsIbs
Video 2：https://youtu.be/qiNOHT2iEeg
Activity 1
- After telling the story in spoken Cantonese (Video 1), children will be asked to read aloud the sentences in written Chinese with the teacher. The teacher presents the vocabulary in pictures as these are the words they have learnt. The use of cute pictures facilitates their memory of the vocabulary as well as reduces their fear of Chinese characters.
Activity 2
- Word cards are designed to revise vocabulary in the story. Chinese characters of the terms used in spoken Cantonese and written Chinese are both there to allow children to understand the difference between the two. The illustration also explains the meaning and facilitated their recall of the vocabulary.
Activity 3
- Use of pictures to intensify the understanding of the character
Easy: Look at the character, choose the right picture with corresponding meaning
Challenge: All the pictures are related to the character. We hope to introduce them to more combinations of characters as well as expanded meanings. For example, ‘多(do1)’ means ‘more’. However, when it is combined with ‘謝(ze6)’, it means ‘thank you’. Both terms include the character ‘多’ but their meanings are distinct. This activity stimulates children’s thinking and further brings them to learn more vocabulary from one character.
Activity 4
- In order to let children understand the structure and the order of strokes of a Chinese character, some parts of a character are often hidden and children are asked to tell or write the remaining parts which they have learnt before. By doing so, they feel less stressed to memorize a character by the traditional method of copywriting. Instead, they are able to decode the construction of a Chinese character and be interested in recognizing the character.
Activity 5
- We make Cantonese listening practice fun with the good use of an online animal recording app to catch children’s attention as well as get them used to listening to Cantonese in different accents. Later on, they are asked to put the characters in the right order so the teacher can assess if the children are able to read and understand the sentence.
Activity 6
- When the vocabulary has been taught in several ways. We hide the characters to test if they still understand and memorise them.
How to teach Cantonese as a second language?
We believe the RSC team are able to share the enthusiasm for Cantonese learning. Still, we understand that a new language cannot be fully acquired through a single course, the trick is to speak, read and write more in daily life. We invite the children to film their speaking practice after class. It’s encouraging to let them see their peers making progress while it is the best way to strengthen their pronunciation and speaking fluency outside the lesson.
English is the first language in the UK so children here rarely use Cantonese. We suggest parents spend more time studying and talking about the lesson materials in order to raise their experience and confidence in using the language. The more they feel comfortable using Cantonese, they have more sense of belonging to the language. This is the ultimate key to passing on Cantonese and its culture.
Full Article📝
Rainbow Seeds Cantonese (RSC) 於英國教育雙語家庭小朋友(3至10歲+)將近五年，深深明白到學習廣東話所遇到的困難。必需先學習「聽」和「說」，才能有能力拓展「讀」與「寫」。市面上雖然有學習粵拼或訓練口語的書藉，但內容普遍沉悶及困難，大多為母語小朋友而設，當中的文字更是過於複雜，難以令小朋友輕鬆地學習，使他們對廣東話提不起興趣。有幸接觸到《冚唪唥》，讓我們於教學課程上更多元化，讓小朋友能更全面學習廣東話。
《冚唪唥》有什麼特色之處？
口語故事方式設計
- 《冚唪唥》故事書以日常生活作為主題，讓小朋友有共嗚感，容易吸引初學者的興趣，當生活上遇上相同事情，能加深他們對的記憶。
- 故事書以口語方式表達，文字簡單及情節與日常生活相關，能讓小朋友容易理解內容，同時亦可運用在生活上，學習與人溝通，增加說話能力。
提供不同程度及內容豐富故事書
- 提供由初階至困難程度故書事，文字由簡單重覆性詞語至複雜句子，讓小朋友階段性學習廣東語，增加他們對學習廣東話信心。
- 《冚唪唥》設有網站，教學資源豐富，提供故事圖畫及語音講故事。家長可以在《冚唪唥》的網頁重溫故事，加深小朋友認識，也可以購買畫本，當中包含文化介紹及英文版本，建議家長陪同小朋友一起閱讀，共同深化文化知識和學習。
《冚唪唥》如何融入RSC教學課程？
我們希望以循序漸進方式讓小朋友學習廣東話，課堂上先用口語說故事，提升他們聆聽能力及鼓勵他們多說。然後，運用不同的互動方式及遊戲讓小朋友除了懂得口語外，亦懂得中文書面語上的運用，認識更多中文字，提昇小朋友聽說讀寫能力。以下的活動可以令小朋友有效地愉快學習，很重要的是老師都必須要鼓勵他們說出活動中的字詞/句子。
影片一：https://youtu.be/abHS4IhsIbs
影片二：https://youtu.be/qiNOHT2iEeg
活動一
- 在用口語講故事（影片一）後，小朋友會跟著老師嘗試讀一次書面語句子。老師會以圖畫表達文字，讓小孩明白很多字詞都是已認識的，減低對文字的恐懼感，同時也可以穩固他們對詞語的認識。
活動二
- 製作詞彚卡讓小朋友學習故事中的詞語，卡上有書面語和口語，讓他們明白兩者之間的分別，也有圖畫解說詞語的意思，從而更易扣連於生活上，加強記憶。
活動三
- 提供不同的圖片，深化小朋友對詞語了解。
簡易版：從五張相片中選出詞話的意思
困難版：五張相片中某些是與所學詞語有所關連，希望讓小朋友理解同一字詞與其他文字配搭，亦可衍生出不同的意思，例如：「多」代表比原有數量超過的意思，但當配搭了「謝」，多謝代表對別人的好意表示感謝，兩者同樣有「多」字，但意思卻完全不相同。此活動能讓小朋友從一個文字，學識更多不同詞語，並提昇小朋友思考空間，刺激思維。
活動四
- 讓小朋友了解文字結構，依筆劃寫文字。然後，隱藏某部件，讓小孩自行說出和按筆劃地寫出文字，這可以讓小朋友了解到一個文字是由不同文字所組成，當中更可能已有他們認識的文字，減少他們對寫及記下文字的難度。此方法不像以往傳紀方法，只是不斷抄寫詞語，而是解讀一個文字的結構及組成，增加他們對中文的興趣，亦讓他們更有記憶點。
活動五
- 為了於課程上更吸引小朋友上課，我們運用網上動物錄音工具，這能吸引他們專心聆聽，同時亦訓練他們聆聽不同口音的廣東話，讓他們對於聆聽廣東話是有趣的，不是乏味及不耐煩。然後，他們可以用配對文字方法把單字順序地以連線方式排出，這可以訓練及讓我們清楚小朋友是否聽懂及看懂句子。
活動六
- 當某些詞語以不同方式教導之後，我們隱藏詞語，讓小朋友自行把圖畫配對，測試他們是否已記得此詞語及了解意思。
如何讓廣東話成為第二語言？
我們深信RSC的教學團隊能讓小朋友更熱愛學習廣東話，但亦明白學習一個新語言並不是單單一個課程就能學懂，而是於日常生活中都要能做到多說多看多寫，才能把廣東話融會貫通。我們上課後會邀請小朋友錄製影片，讀出句子，讓他們在課後亦有說的機會。平台上亦可以看到其他小朋友的短片，讓他們互相鼓勵，同時可重溫句子，幫助加強記憶。一段日子後，我們看到小朋友的發音和流暢度明顯地進步。
英文是英國第一語言，日常生活上小朋友不太可能接觸到廣東話，我們鼓勵及建議家長於親子時間與小朋友多說和重溫課後的教材，增加小朋友的經驗，讓他們明白廣東話亦是屬於他們的語言，從而更有信心說及應用，使這個文化繼續傳承下去。