Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools
color-keyed charts were used for pronunciation and character recognition. No English was permitted and concepts were introduced only once by me. The following is a sample of a three day seminar, one of a number of possible ways of creating activities which can generate language learning. The First Day — I began by picking up several wooden rods and indicating that each was a “mu-tiao” or “a rod.” I elicited a response from each student as I picked up the rods one at a time. I then introduced colors: red, green, blue, pink, orange, yellow, white, black, brown, and elicited a response from each student by picking up differently colored rods. I then added the numerals from one to ten and elicited responses like “i-tiao lan mu-tiao” or “one blue rod,” etc. After that I introduced “this” and “that” and the verb “to be.” We then went into negative sentences and interrogative sentences. At about this point I introduced the vowel sounds on the phonic code chart and also the tones which I demonstrated once and indicated by gestures thereafter. I also introduced, at the end of the day, the verb “to take” and “to give” and the personal pronouns in the nominative, accusative and possessive cases. The Second Day — I introduced adverbs and positional verb “tsai” to indicate location, “in front of,” “behind,” “inside,” “outside,” “on top of,” and “at the bottom of.” I did so by using a box and the rods in different positions in relation to the box. We also played a game in which I asked the students to pick up different rods and put them in a certain position in relation to
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