 |
[email protected] |
 |
3275638434 |
 |
 |
| Paper Publishing WeChat |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Exploring Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary that Children in Kindergarten Should Learn in Indonesia
CHEN Chih-Sheng; GU Wei
Full-Text PDF
XML 486 Views
DOI:10.17265/1539-8080/2019.01.003
Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taiwan; Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, USA
This study aimed to explore what Mandarin Chinese vocabulary should be designed and delivered for young second language learners in kindergarten when they learn Mandarin Chinese language in Indonesia. A Mandarin Chinese vocabulary list designed by language teachers at a trilingual kindergarten (Indonesian, Mandarin, and English) in Indonesia was examined and revised by the researcher, and then the new revised Mandarin Chinese vocabulary list was examined by the Committee of the Kindergarten. The study found: (1) The Mandarin Chinese vocabulary list designed by language kindergarten teachers was lack of some concepts that children should have from perspectives of child development. For example, Mandarin direction words were not included in the list. (2) From the perspectives of parts of speech, the original vocabulary list focused mainly on nouns, partly on adjectives and verbs. Other parts of speech were not in the list. For example, pronouns (e.g., “我 [I]”, “你 [you]”, “他 [he/she]”) was not in it. (3) Some Mandarin words of the vocabulary list were categorized mistakenly or confusedly. For example, “浇花 (watering flowers)”, was categorized as plants. (4) The Mandarin meanings of “公公” (pronounced as [gōng-gōng]) and “婆婆” (pronounced as [pó-po]) in the vocabulary list were different from the general meanings in China. (5) Some objects may have different Mandarin names and may confuse children to learn Mandarin. For example, pineapple can be called as “凤梨” (pronounced as [fèng-lí]), “菠萝” (pronounced as [bō-luó]), or “黄梨” (pronounced as [huáng-lí]). The study suggests: (1) Mandarin vocabulary should be delivered to children in kindergarten based on principles of child development and linguistics. (2) Mandarin vocabulary list should be designed based on children’s daily life and their local environment. (3) Mandarin vocabulary list should be categorized based not only on children’s development of language skills, but also on their cognitive, physical, social-emotional skills. (4) Based on child development, the trilingual kindergarten may define a standard vocabulary list from all languages they teach, including Indonesian language, English language, and Mandarin language.
Mandarin Chinese teaching, Mandarin vocabulary list, kindergarten
Alqagtani, M. (2015). The importance of vocabulary in language learning and how to be taught. International Journal of Teaching and Education, III(3), 21-34. doi:10.20472/TE.2015.3.3.002
Banana. (2017). Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/go%20bananas
Barker, D. (2007). A personalized approach to analyzing “cost” and “benefit” in vocabulary selection. System, 35, 523-533. doi:10.1016/j.system.2007.09.001
Hayes, S. C., Barnes-Holmes, D., & Roche, B. (2001). Relational frame theory: A post-Skinnerian account of human language and cognition. In H. W. Reese and R. Kail (Eds.), Advances in Child Development and Behavior, 28, 101-138. New York: Academic.
Baumann, J. F., Kame’enui, E. J., & Ash, G. E. (2003). Research on vocabulary instruction: Voltaireredux. In J. Flood, D. Lapp, J. R. Squire, and J. M. Jensen (Eds.), Handbook of research on teaching the English language arts (2nd ed.) (pp. 752-785). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Brown, D. (2011). What aspects of vocabulary knowledge do textbooks give attention to? Language Teaching Research, 15, 83-97. doi:10.1177/1362168810383345
Bruner, J. (1983). Child’s talk: Learning to use language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of the theory of syntax. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Chomsky, N. (1986). Knowledge of language: Its nature, origin and use. New York: Praeger.
Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Cummins, J. (2003). Reading and the bilingual student: Fact and friction. In G. G. Garcia (Ed.), English learners (pp. 2-33). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
公公[gōng gōng]. (2017). Baike.baidu.com. Retrieved October 1, 2017, from https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%85%AC%E5%85%AC
Hockett, C. F. (1968). The state of the art. The Hague: Mouton.
Herr, J. (2012). Working with young children (7th ed.). Tinley Park, IL: The Goodheart-Willcox Company, Inc.
Konishi, H., Kanero, J., Freeman, M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2014). Six principles of vocabulary development: Implications for literacy and learners of English as a second language. Journal of Applied Developmental Neuropsychology, 39(5), 404-420. doi:10.1080/87565641.2014.931961
Lewis, M. (1993). The lexical approach: The state of ELT and a way forward. Hove, UK: Language Teaching Publications.
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
MacWhinney, B. (2007). The TalkBank project. In J. C. Beal, K. C. Corrigan, and H. Moisl (Eds.), Creating and digitizing language corpora. Volume 1: Synchronic databases (pp. 163-180). Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave-Macmillan.
Nation, I. S. P., & Webb, S. (2011). Researching and analyzing vocabulary. Boston, MA: Heinle.
Post-Suharto era. (2017). Retrieved October 1, 2017, from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Suharto_era
Saeed, J. (2015). Semantics (4th ed.). Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Schmitt, N. (2010). Researching vocabulary: A vocabulary research manual. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Setijadi, C. (2016). Ethnic Chinese in contemporary Indonesia: Changing identity politics and the paradox of signification. ISEAS Perspective, 12, 1-11.
Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 360-407.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Webb, S. (2016). Vocabulary: Critical concepts in linguistics, Vol. III. London: Routledge.
Whitehurst, G. J., & Lonigan, C. J. (1998). Child development and emergent literacy. Child Development, 69, 848-872.
Wilkins, D. (1972). Linguistics in language teaching. London: Arnold.
Wong, E. (May 1, 2010). Indonesians seek words to attract China’s favor. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/world/asia/02chinindo.html?mcubz=0