I asked the above-captioned question on Quora.
Paul Denlinger, who has been speaking, reading, and writing Chinese since 1958 with an
M.A. in Linguistics (Uni Master's), University of St Andrews Graduated 1980 said:
‘I have no idea.’
A Chinese woman, on the other hand, answered differently. Before reading extracts of my discussion with the Chinese woman read the following Facebook post by Benedict Morais which is relevant.
Maggie Chiang:
Let's be real, China was known in the world for Scholars, thinkers, philosophers, and developers like this in the past Century or two. China doesn't have many developments I guess but before that like the compass, the watch the paper, and fireworks, these are like Innovations. Where did it go? Why isn't China winning any Nobel Prizes? Why is China far behind in Innovations? Is there a fundamental issue of Education?
This is a continuation of my post yesterday. LINK
Here are the paragraphs highlighted in red in yesterday’s post.
As Maggie pointed out, if you cannot achieve the best grades, you are cast out.
Further, students who performed poorly in Pinyin reading tended to perform poorly in future reading comprehension tests.
Previous evidence showed that poor readers in higher grades (e.g. Grade 4) suffer more from Pinyin reading difficulties than normal readers (Yin and Weekes, 2003; Ding et al., 2015).
The Pinyin phonetic symbols are continuously presented alongside Chinese characters in textbooks until Grade 3 and are provided only when new characters are introduced.
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.
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.
Yan Yue (Blue Cat) is a teacher from Beijing, China. Her introduction on Facebook says she is a teacher who teaches the Chinese language.
Here is her Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100093718062022
I was pleasantly surprised when I received a message on my Facebook messenger that stated:
Hi, I read your blog. What you said is correct. The Pinyin they teach is problematic. Seeing your blog, I plan to go to YouTube, to teach Chinese. I hope you can check. I think you are a very responsible person. Nice to meet you.
I replied:
I would be happy to comment on your YouTube videos when they are uploaded. Nice to meet you too.
A Chinese friend says he does not understand why I say that kids taught pinyin using Bopomofo sounds may cause them to shut down from learning to read in Pinyin and English.
I have explained this in detail in my book Shut Down Kids. This post is for those who have not read my book or the posts in this blog.
Many of the kids who are classified as dyslexic are intelligent kids who disengage/shut down from learning to read. They shut down from learning to read due to confusion. The main reason for their confusion is the teaching of consonants with extraneous sounds. This means the sound that is not part of the consonants but added by teachers.
I was thinking about the answer given by Robert Matthews (馬學進) from Taipei who said that there is no reason to change Bopomofo as it has worked for decades. This reminded me of the story I read on the Internet several years ago.
In case you haven’t heard of it, here’s a quick synopsis of it:
Robert Matthews LinkedIn Profile says the following:
My eclectic background (linguistics/biology/humanities+Chi/Fre/Span/Russ), teaching experience, and grasp of technology, make me suited for challenging jobs requiring advanced language skills, especially technical translation, indexing and language training.
Robert Matthews (馬學進) who lives in Taipei wrote the following on Quora in response to my answer.
Robert Matthews:
This addendum is an extended response to a comment by Luqman Michel, who is very upset that Bopomofo (which he seems to regard as backward and harmful), is somehow harming the teaching of Pinyin in Malaysia.
There are teachers from Tianjin, China who are teaching Pinyin using Bopomofo sounds. This is why I asked this question. We in Malaysia did away with Bopomofo in the 70’s and introduced Hanyu Pinyin. Why can’t China get rid of Bopomofo in China?
My response:
My question to AI:
You said (referring to what AI said in the pervious episode): 'many Taiwanese students are able to overcome these challenges and develop strong English literacy skills through effective teaching methods and dedicated practice.' Do you have any idea who are those who find it difficult to overcome the challenges? I am asking this question based on my research. I discovered that many intelligent kids shut down/disengage from learning to read in English due to confusion. Could this apply to Taiwanese kids as well?
Answer from AI:
Today, I decided to ask Artificial Intelligence some questions and here is part one of my Q&A.
My question: Why are there kids in Taiwan who can't read in English? Are the sounds they learned under Bopomofo a hindrance?
Answer by AI:
As an informed individual from August 2023, I can provide some context on the situation with English literacy among students in Taiwan.
The use of Bopomofo (also known as Zhuyin Fuhao) as the primary phonetic system taught in Taiwanese schools has indeed been a point of discussion regarding English proficiency. Bopomofo is the phonetic script used to teach Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan, and it has a different structure and representation compared to the Roman alphabet used in English.
