《國際漢語教學活動50 例》收錄了50 個基于交際法理論、旨在培養(yǎng)和促進學生交際能力的中文教學活動。交際法教學的關(guān)鍵是創(chuàng)建一個輕松愉快、以學生為中心、具有豐富語義的教學環(huán)境，使學生的語言能力得以充分發(fā)展。這種理念早已普遍運用于主要外語的教學實踐之中，但是在中文教學中還不是很普及。本書的首要目的是通過生動有趣的教學活動推廣中文交際法教學。

其次，眾所周知，凡是外語教師都有激發(fā)學生的興趣、調(diào)動學生的積極性、促進學生語言技能提高的任務(wù)。然而，中文教師還面臨另一挑戰(zhàn)，即語言本身的難度。教師該如何使中文學習成為一種享受而不是一種折磨？在學生提高中文交際能力的漫長旅程中，教師應(yīng)該如何幫助學生維持濃厚的興趣？如何幫助學生渡過種種學習難關(guān)？針對中文的語言特點，有的放矢，設(shè)計有意義、有趣味的教學活動，助教師一臂之力，這是本書的第二個目的。

對以英文為母語的學生來說，學中文需要攻破四大“堡壘”：拼音的拼讀和識別、漢字的辨認和讀寫、詞匯的積累和擴充、疑難語法的理解和運用。每個“堡壘”被攻破后，還需化零為整，從音素上升到音節(jié)，從寫字發(fā)展到寫作，從詞匯擴展到句子再到段落。圍繞這幾個方面的若干個難點，我們共編寫了50 個教學活動，讓學生在“動”中體驗中文、操練技能、培養(yǎng)交際能力。

本書的理論基礎(chǔ)是現(xiàn)代認知研究，可以從三個方面進行解讀：

一、間隔性的重復練習

臨時抱佛腳的學習方法和填鴨式的教學手段都不能帶來持久的教學效果，希望通過集中訓練就能掌握知識的做法是違反客觀規(guī)律的。對于任何一種新知識，為了達到最佳學習效果，大腦首次接觸后都需要休息一段時間，然后再對其進行回憶。換言之，學生需要不斷地、分時期地練習和復習知識，直到真正掌握。大腦對所學知識的最佳回憶時間則根據(jù)具體情況因環(huán)境、因人而異。什么時候傳授新知識、什么時候復習舊知識，教師在時間上必須做好合理的安排。學習不能一蹴而就，所以，除了常規(guī)的教學、練習及測試以外，在課堂中穿插一些教學活動很有必要。為了達到間隔性重復練習的目的，我們?yōu)榇蠖鄶?shù)語言項目設(shè)計了兩種不同的活動。

二、多元化的反復練習

正如間隔性的重復練習會對所學內(nèi)容起到長期鞏固的作用，多元化的反復練習同樣很有必要。大腦在不同的語境中對同一內(nèi)容進行反復回憶，能夠幫助學生溫故而知新。由于每個學生各有所長，也各有所短，多元化的反復練習更是必不可少。對于教師而言，多元化的練習也同樣重要。有的教師推崇競爭性的教學活動，認為這種活動可以提高學生的積極性；有的教師則推崇合作性的教學活動，認為這種活動可以讓更多的學生參與其中。每個教師都希望自己的教學方法行之有效，高效的教師必須立足于自己和學生的特點選取教學方法。因此，采用多元化的教學方法將大大提高教學的成功率。

三、輕松愉快的學習環(huán)境

課堂環(huán)境如何，對于教學成功與否的影響極大，對外語課堂來說更是如此。這就決定了教師的責任在于為學生創(chuàng)造輕松愉快的學習環(huán)境。教學活動可以營造輕松愉快的課堂氣氛，從而能調(diào)動學生內(nèi)在的學習積極性，促進其自主學習。

如何使用該書，我們提出如下建議：

第一，教師可以在自己的課堂里直接采用本書中的活動。書中的很多活動，我們已在自己的課堂中實踐過。根據(jù)我們的經(jīng)驗，活動的準備過程和實施細節(jié)都會決定一個活動的成功與否。為此，我們對活動的重點以及每個步驟都做了詳細的說明。

第二，我們希望這些活動可以激發(fā)教師的熱情，編寫適合自己課堂的活動。教師必須對教學始終保持新的眼光，只有這樣才能保證教學過程的新鮮，對教師自己、對學生而言都是如此。第三，教師可將書中活動當作教學過程中的應(yīng)急補救措施。比如，學生已經(jīng)學過“把”字句，可是對此尚未完全掌握。這時，一個與“把”字句有關(guān)的活動，可以加深學生對該句型的記憶。

總而言之，我們希望，中文教師，不管是新手還是老將，都會將本書視作一個便利、有效的教學工具。

著者

2016 年2 月于美國西東大學

Introduction

50 Activities for the International Chinese Classroom presents an innovative approach to the learning of Chinese along the lines of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The ideas of CLT—creating a friendly and supportive student-centered learning environment with meaningful contexts in order to develop communicative competence—have been widely implemented in the teaching of mainstream foreign languages, but less enthusiastically or even reluctantly used in Chinese teaching. Therefore, promoting communicative Chinese teaching through activities is the first goal of this book.

All foreign language teachers must face the following challenges: arousing learners’ interest, motivating students to learn, and helping them retain what has been learned. Chinese language teachers, however, are faced with an additional challenge—the difficulty of the language itself. What can we teachers do to make learning Chinese less of a struggle and more of a gratifying adventure for our students? And since far too many Chinese language learners give up on their studies, how can we maintain students’ interest throughout the long journey to communicative competence? This book is aimed at addressing these questions practically by providing meaningful and engaging classroom activities that specifically target the unique linguistic features of Chinese which pose such a challenge for English-speaking learners; for instance, tones, characters, unique grammatical structures, etc. Our rationale, based on current cognitive research, is three-fold.

?? Spaced-Repetition

Just as cramming does not work for students in the long-term, neither does it work if it is the teacher who is doing the “cramming” in the classroom. Covering material in a concentrated fashion hoping that mastery will ensue is counter-productive. To truly learn, our brains need both a rest period of non-exposure, and then need to be called upon later to recall. In other words, the brain needs practice retrieving partially learned material before it can be truly considered mastered. While the ideal amount of time in between recall sessions varies depending upon the circumstances and individual, teachers should plan on spacing out their coverage of certain topics over time. As learning is not accomplished in one fell swoop, activities are a needed addition to formal teaching, exercises, and testing. For the purpose of spaced-repetition, we have created two different activities for each particular linguistic item.

?? Variety Is the Spice of Life—and Learning

With spaced-repetition being so important, variety becomes necessary. Asking for recall in different contexts makes learning more memorable and thus more effective. Variety is also necessary because as we all know what works for one student may not work as well for another. This is also true for teachers. While many teachers will have excellent results with competitive games, other teachers might struggle to get the students engaged if they themselves see games as silly time-wasters. In order to be an effective teacher, one must be true to one’s personality. Using a medley of different types of activities thus substantially increases the odds of successful teaching and learning.

?? Supportive Learning Environment

And on that note, personalities matter in any classroom, but perhaps no more so than in the foreign-language classroom. Since language is the means by which we all express ourselves, egos tend to be fragile when faced with the inability to be our true selves. By their very nature, activities create a supportive, convivial classroom atmosphere which increases the intrinsic motivation of students so they are more apt to carry on in their studies. We see this book being used in several ways. First, teachers can simply use the activities in their own classrooms as is. Knowing how preparation and small details dictate an activity’s success or failure, care has been taken to illustrate the procedures step-by-step. Second, we hope that these activities will inspire teachers to develop or improve upon their own activities. As teachers, we can all use some new tricks of the trade to keep things fresh for ourselves and our students. And, thirdly, the activities can be used as an emergency remedy. Let’s say you or a previous teacher has taught your students the bɑ structure, but one day you notice that the students seem rusty. That would be an excellent time to look for an activity to bring that structure back to the forefront of their brains.

All in all, it is the authors’ hope that Chinese language teachers—from novice to experienced—find this book a handy and effective tool in their teaching toolbox.

The Authors

Seton Hall University

February, 2016