Analysis of Singapore New Primary Chinese Oral Curriculum —Based on Communicative Language Teaching Approach

Communicative competence is the ultimate goal of teaching Chinese as a second language. To foster communicative competence, communicative language teaching, both as a teaching approach and the principle for designing language syllabus, has been widely proposed. However, previous research focused on analysing the features of textbooks for adult learners, with few on textbooks of primary students. This study analysed features of Singapore new primary Chinese oral curriculum based on the theoretical framework of communicative language teaching. With regard to learning objectives, the study finds that: 1) the learning objectives distinguish monologue oral ability from interactive oral ability; 2) the learning objectives have been designed consistently with developmental patterns of communicative competence. With regard to textbooks, this study finds that 1) the learning objectives should be coherent in instructional materials; 2) following the communicative language teaching, oral activities are embedded in vivid and authentic situational settings; 3) following the communicative language teaching, scaffolding and real-life tasks are integrated in textbooks; and 4) integrative training of oral communicative competence and reading comprehension. Based on the results, this paper proposes suggestions for designing oral Chinese curriculum for young Chinese ethnic learners.

Keywords

Singapore communicative language teaching Chinese speaking curriculum oral communicative competence

source

International Journal of Chinese Language Education; Jun 2019; Issue No. 5; p.93 - 107

Publisher

Department of Chinese Language Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong
Chinese Language Program, Columbia University
Chung Hwa Book Co. (H.K.) Ltd.

Language

Chinese

ISSN

2520-7733 (Print); 2521-4241 (Online)