During the discussion, I mentioned that many Chinese teachers are teaching Pinyin wrongly causing many kids to shut down/disengage from learning to read.
One of my friends quickly retorted that this statement was uncalled for. We had a healthy discussion on this matter.
Yesterday, 6.9.24 I read an article on LinkedIn written by Scanning Pens entitled
‘5 Things we learned about kids with dyslexia on the first day of the new school year…’
Here are a few extracts and my comments.
Scanning Pens:
The new school year is a fresh start for everyone, but a lot of kids with dyslexia might not be able to get over a challenging report card or low results so easily, especially if the achievement has been impacted. It helps if teachers can emphasise that every assignment is a clean slate— it’s all about learning and building from last year, not letting it dictate their story.
A PRC politician wants schools to spend more time teaching Pinyin.
You may read the full article here.
The following are extracts and my comments.
Xu Xudong (徐旭東/徐旭东), a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and a professor at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, is advocating that public schools in China allocate substantially more time to the teaching of Hanyu Pinyin.
My post yesterday was prompted by an article written by Syed Akbar Ali. LINK.
Here are extracts from that article:
Dear Malay brothers and sisters, there is a big difference in understanding, opinion and approach between the Chinese and the Malay-Muslims regarding education.
This is one of the main reasons why young Chinese people grow up to become towkays, managers and owners of companies and businesses, but Muslim Malay children will be chronically dependent on Malay political power to earn a living.
Another temporary post here. This has nothing to do with dyslexia.
Today’s headline in Malay Mail states ‘Sinkhole engulfs car in Seoul as Malaysia’s search for missing Indian tourist on Jalan Masjid India heats up after possible obstruction detected.’ LINK
Is Seoul also in a limestone area? Read my post HERE.
In the last 7 years, I have said that sinkholes are created by the mislaying of underground drainage pipes and sewerage pipes.
I am now predicting a sinkhole will appear at the Pavilion along Jalan Bundusan if immediate action is not taken.
Here is my Facebook post about Anuar Ahmad dated 23.2.24.
I have been reading some articles by Anuar in Utusan Malaysia. He raises many valid points.
Here is an excerpt from one such article.
Anuar Ahmad 23.2.24
When I give views, isn't my real duty as an academician assigned to conduct research and provide views on implementing the country's education system?
They told me to shut up. I say ok, I'll keep my mouth shut. It's not because I'm afraid, but because I want to fully focus my attention, time, and energy on understanding education issues. I don't want to argue with anyone.
Even my views focus only on the education system issues, not an 'attack' on any individual. I'm silent because I don't want to lose focus to continue sharing education issues with the community.
We all have a collective responsibility to provide sincere ideas and views for improving children's education.
On 25.8.2024 The Edge reported that the KL sinkhole was caused by geographical factors, says DPM Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof. LINK
I knew that this was false and Tweeted as follows:
Where do these politicians come up with such nonsense? If what he says has even an iota of truth then we should cordon off Batu Caves.
I wondered why there were no responses except for one person from Sarawak.
Here is a post by the Literacy Architects. On their website, they boast that they promote the use of evidence-based literacy routines in grades PreK-12.
Traditionally, high-frequency and irregular words have been taught through memorization, a method that often falls short of promoting genuine literacy skills.
My comment:
What memorisation are they talking about? Is it the same memorisation method mentioned by the Dyslexia Proponents? Many of the Dyslexia Proponents talk about visual memorisation which is absolute nonsense. LINK and LINK.
Where did these teachers learn to teach kids this way of memorisation is beyond me?
In 2004 when I started researching dyslexia, I read a few online articles each week stating that dyslexia is a result of a phonological awareness deficit. I wrote several articles intermittently for several years until finally, that theory was debunked.
I recently discovered that dyslexia proponents have started to write the same nonsense that was written for more than 40 years before I started my research in 2010.
Here is a post by Dr. Kelli Sandman-Hurley, Dyslexia Training Institute in 2011 shared on Twitter today, 22.8.2024. LINK.
For an alphabetic system, the beginner has to first become aware of individual phonemes in spoken words to subsequently learn that those phonemes are represented by letters.
Mandarin does not use an alphabetic system. It is syllabic. The learner has to be aware that spoken words are comprised of syllables.
Similarly, when teaching kids Pinyin we should teach them syllables as illustrated in the Pinyin chart on my post at LINK
Many teachers teaching Pinyin and websites promoting Pinyin charts use initial sounds as under Bopomofo system. This confuses kids who shut down from learning to read in Pinyin.
I recommend using the Pinyin chart with no Bopomofo initial sounds.
The Pinyin chart provided by Yoyo Chinese is the best Pinyin Chart I have seen online.
Listed below are the advantages of this Pinyin Chart.
At the onset, I want to say that I want to learn to speak Mandarin the way it is intended to be spoken. I want to learn to speak it with the correct tones.
Recently, I joined several groups on Facebook to share experiences learning Chinese.
In most groups, beginners and intermediate learners complain about tones being the most difficult to learn in Mandarin.
Here are my questions and answers from AI about the way Pinyin is taught.
My statement and questions:
You have addressed some of the common mistakes in teaching children Pinyin in China.
What you have stated will result in many kids being unable to read Pinyin. These however do not cause kids to shut down/disengage from learning to read Pinyin.
What causes
kids to shut down is teaching them the sounds represented by the initial
letters wrongly. LINK
Pinyin has408 syllables and any kid will be able to learn these syllables with easy. Why
do teachers complicate issues by teaching Zhong as zhe oh ng?
No, in Pinyin a child just learns the syllable Zhong. He will combine that with guo to get zhongguo.
Why are teachers teaching the initial sounds as bo,po,mo,fo etc? This is where intelligent kids shut down from learning as it does not make sense. They can’t understand why bo + an = ban. They cannot understand why fo+ ei is fei. They then shut down from learning and will be classified as stupid/lazy or dyslexic.
On 30.7.24 I wrote to Digmandarin.com and they replied as follows:
From: caojing.digmandarin@gmail.com
To: luqmanmichel52@yahoo.com
Fri, 2 Aug at 16:35
Hi Luqman Michel,
Thank you for bringing these concerns to our attention.
We would like to clarify that all the text instructions provided in our guide are general descriptions of the corresponding initials. We understand that sometimes these descriptions might be hard to grasp, which is why we have created corresponding tutorial Pinyin videos to aid learners. You can find these videos on our website at Chinese Pronunciation Courses (https://www.digmandarin.com/chinese-language-courses/chinese-pronunciation-courses?pinyin).
To make the instructions clearer and more acceptable to learners, we often add a vowel afterward when pronouncing the initials to strengthen the pronunciation in our traditional Pinyin teaching method. For example, "b" is pronounced as "b+o" and "p" as "p+o." This method does not affect the spelling of Pinyin syllables but helps learners better understand the pronunciation.
We appreciate your feedback and hope this explanation helps clarify our approach.
Best regards,
Cao Jing
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”, is a law of propaganda often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels.
I was thinking about what to write after my previous post. This morning I received an email from Du Chinese to which I have a free subscription. The first story I read that an unpaid subscriber can read was an idiom entitled, “If a third person said that there are tigers on the street, would the King believe it?” You may read the Chinese story and its translation into English. LINK
