On a new blog with a different view of Mandarin literacy acquisition
Without too much simplification, the path to (yet-to-be-achieved) full language acquisition could be described roughly as follows:
| 2002 | Sounds and vocabulary, basic syntax, poor Pinyin, failed attempts at hànzì memorization. |
| 2003 | More vocabulary and syntax, fairly complete Pinyin. Not a further glance at hànzì. |
| 2004-6 | More vocabulary and most regularly spoken grammar. Willful hànzì ignorance. |
| 2007 | Very reluctant decision to begin recognizing hànzì. |
| 2008 | Recognition of more characters. Conscious decision not to handwrite but only to use computer (Pinyin) input. Progress seemingly rapid. |
| 2009 Q1-Q3 | Progress stymied by embarrassing confusion of long-ago “learned” characters. Anki incorporated into studies with vengeance, but problem persists. |
| October 2009 | Ignominious capitulation. Abandonment of the reverently held principle that character handwriting was for Luddites, Oriental Exoticizers, and the brainwashed. The humbled studio director mutely takes his bitter pill (哑巴吃黄连 — yǎba chī huánglián) daily in the form of Pleco flashcard tests of character handwriting. |
Verdict from 20/20 hindsight? Mistakes were made. Specifically and most outrageously, it no longer seems reasonable to believe that you can recognize your way to literacy, i.e. know the characters when you see them but never have to actually, physically, painstakingly write them out by hand. Well, maybe it works for someone — this is, after all, a sample of one — but since I began to write characters myself, my grasp has gotten firmer (bad pun intended). The once ever present danger of misrecognizing the simplest character has receded somewhat; the muscle memories complement the neural memories in a way that makes it much more difficult to draw a blank. It’s not even really that hard, arguably not as hard as the work that was put into avoiding the task in the first place.
The aim of this project is to discover and report on how Chinese native speakers learn their own writing system, to facilitate comparisons with non-native speaker Chinese language programs such as those in universities and other schools, and in self-study textbooks.
I am writing a post for each lesson in the first grade textbook, and doing it at approximately the same pace as the lessons are presented in a Chinese public school; my son is currently in first grade at a typical Chinese elementary school, and the posting dates follow the dates of his assignments in the textbook (I backdate some of the posts).
There’s a clear parallel between Randy’s reports from a standard Chinese first grade textbook and my newly revised view on how I wish I had gone through the steps of Mandarin acquisition. Given the same amount of time, I might have taken a path similar to what he describes for the first grader: several years of spoken language acquisition (supplemented, in the adult second language learner’s case, by Pinyin) followed by intensive hànzì study in which recognition precedes production (i.e. writing) by weeks or months but probably not by years.
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Comments 2
I’ve found my recognition of characters is fine for ones I cannot write, especially when it comes to 繁体字 (which I’ve only recently taken to learning full-on) or some more complex but less-often used 古代 characters (like 焉, most recently). What has been a huge help is being able to fluidly write a good number of them. It certainly helps in remembering them after seeing one (I mean really seeing it) for the first time.
Regarding Yǔwén, my nephew has just started this process stateside, so it’s been great to see how it’s done by native speakers.
Posted 25 Nov 2009 at 10:14 am ¶Kellen, I think you’re onto something with the idea that having a solid base of characters you can write might be enough.
Another weird thing that has happened to me as I’ve been learning to write is that characters that I previously had no difficulty with all of a sudden baffle me — as if suddenly I’m paying attention to the components and can’t see the forest for the trees in a nearly literal way.
Posted 26 Nov 2009 at 6:14 am ¶Post a Comment