My Chinese RapZaohui (Zoe) TianNorth Lanarkshire

Aims and Objectives• Increase students’ interest in Mandarin.• Improve memorisation skills• Encourage students to practise and improve

their speaking skills in a fun way

Language: Mandarin

Target Pupil Group• Secondary students

Number of pupils involved• Four S3 and seven S6 learners who had to

chosen to study Mandarin

Start and FinishSeptember 2015 – April 2016

Relevance to CfE capacities

Successful Learners, who can reflect on how they have acquired and learned their first language and how this can assist them in further language learning

Confident Individuals who, through experiencing success and support, can interact with others in real-life situations, talk about topics of personal interest and deliver presentations in their new language

Effective Contributors who can work in individual, paired and group situations, and establish and maintain contact with other speakers of the target language.

Responsible Citizens who have a growing awareness of life in another society and of the issues facing citizens in the countries where their new language is spoken.

This project helped students to become:

Quotes from learners/teachers

• Perfect activity for memorizing difficult sentences, Pupils can still remember questions and answers after a long period at time, which indicates that it has become the long-term memory. Teacher

• I feel the way Zoe has taught us was better because if we can hear it in a song it would be easier to learn and catch on. Learner 1

• Zoe has introduced me to a new way of learning. I have enjoyed myself very much, instead of learning words and phrases, we learned a few songs to help us remember our words. This is a fun method and it was helped me to remember my Mandarin. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself. We have also taken part in games which have been fun. I think this is a better way to learn. Learner 2

• Zoe is constantly teaching us new and exciting methods of learning, this includes fun and cheerful games which cover speaking, writing and listening. These activities are a far better way of learning and enjoying Mandarin. Learner 3

• Zoe introduced us to a new way of remembering Chinese words which is both effective and fun to do. Learner 4

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My thoughts

• In order to make my class more active and get students more interested in Mandarin, especially to help them memorise difficult sentence patterns with tricky pronunciation. I chose a Rap song which has a strong rhythm, then I put those Mandarin sentences into the Rap, to create My Chinese Rap.

• The students showed a great interest in performing the Rap Mandarin, and they helped each other during rehearsals for the performance, and I am so pleased to see that.

• After doing the Mandarin Rap, the students always ask me when shall we do it again, they enjoyed it so much, and they still remember those difficult sentences.

• For the future Chinese language assistant, I would like to say that just inspire your creative mind and make more interesting activities to help your teaching, you will surprise yourself.

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S3 pupils performing their Chinese Raps

‘what color do you like?’ ‘how do you go to school?’

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