Should we pin the yin?

Just about every Chinese language textbook you will ever encounter starts with some kind of pinyin chart, and drills (I.C., Chinese Link, Easy Learn Chinese, Zhen Bang, Nihao... you name it).  Are they sending us a message that in order to start learning Chinese, one needs to learn all the pinyin first?  And is that the best way to go?  This problem has dominated my thoughts for the last couple of years.  The more I think I am close to the solution, the more I have doubts.  

I have colleagues in both camps.  The more traditional ones drill pinyin for 2 weeks to a month with or without context.  The more experimental colleagues omit the entire process and bring in pinyin as it becomes necessary.  I have experimented with a few ways to deal with the pinyin problem (if it's a problem at all).

The most recent treatment of pinyin is proposed by a well-regarded colleague who teaches college level (at it's best too).  She uses historical figures like 'qinshihuang', 'wuzetian', etc. to introduce important historical figures as well as awkward pinyin combinations.  This is an example of infusing culture in a language lesson.  Very inspiring.

Since I could not decide for the past two years what to do with pinyin, I have tried introducing it after teaching students basic classroom commands verbally.  They usually become very good at calling out the commands after my famous TPR sequence.  Once they become comfortable with some awkward sounds, I bring in the pinyin and use what they know as examples to marry the technical and communicative, keeping things in context.

In the past, I have also tried not teaching it until it comes up.  The result is not encouraging:(  I ended up having to take to some intervention measures down the road.  This is different with the primary kids of course.  They generally adapt to new sounds more readily.

For some students, I also allowed them to spell the sounds the way they think of it, so they know how to say it.  The problem with it is that they end up notating with a non-standardized way for way too long.  My student Kerui is famous for torturing me with his way of pinyin and he knows it too.  If I could do it over again, I would have 'made him' submit to strict-rule pinyin.

For next year, with my fourth graders, I want to try using their own names to help them learn the pinyin.  It's sort of like the colleague who uses 'qinshihuang', but I will use the kids' names instead.  It's something they can relate to and will definitely be very interested in.

There are many opinions out there about whether or not to teach pinyin.  Check out the blog about  some interesting perspectives:

http://chineseteachersblog.com.au/2012/01/pinyin-%E2%80%93-what-is-it-good-for/