First, I cannot stress enough the importance of speaking in target language as much as possible in the classroom. Even if students don't understand everything you may say in passing, they will get used to the sound of the language. Have you ever been in a place where people speak a different language and you now have the 'music' of that language in your ear?
This is also the first year that I have stopped using so many songs in my classroom. While singing in the target language helps with remembering sentence structures and vocabulary, I find that they obscure the tones completely. Don't get me wrong, I still sing a couple of songs with my students, but I have now focused my energy on searching and writing highly rhythmic rhymes and raps. A great resource is Practical Rhythmic Chinese published by Foreign Languages Teaching and Research Press (2009). I haven't used any rap from the book yet, but it offers me a lot of inspiration. Gao Jian also published a new book of teaching through rhymes Chinese Breeze that I am purchasing for next fall. One of my own creations 你好吗？ is something I have used in the beginning of each year with great effect. I like it with TPR as a warm-up routine. Let me know if it works for you too.
Some of the other things I do to 'teach tones' are more about my practice in general and not so much any isolated methods or activities. For instance, when I introduce new vocabulary, I sometimes group the words by certain tonal pattern, like huángsè, báisè, hóngsè / zōngsè, huīsè, etc. Everything is intentional, down to the order I introduce each new word.
I like to make use of any 'teachable moments'. Again, not explicitly, I would remind students that they have previously learned something that sounds similar but with different tones. We almost have to anticipate that moment before it passes us by. For instance, the students who already know wǒshì (I am) are now learning wòshì (bedroom). I would make a point to have them differentiate the two. It really helps my students develop the awareness for the tonal differences.
Error correction is a big one too. When my students speak with inaccurate tones I would repeat what he/she says with the correct tones. My students repeat it after me so much that it becomes second nature. I do it so frequently to every student, that my students don't feel singled out. Always keeping a sense of humor is so essential, that way you can lower the students' affective filter while correcting their tones.
Since I decided to speak in target language earlier on, I dramatize and exaggerate the emotions of most things I say to convey meaning. By doing so, the tones, needless to say, are exaggerated and delivered in a clear manner. When the language is spoken with conviction and with meaning, students are likely to learn the context and the sound pattern of the entire sentence. Each sentence is like a mini musical phrase. It is also easier for them to adapt to the longer sentences. Both books I mentioned earlier talk about this.
There are countless practices in my everyday teaching that I think benefit my students' acquisition of tones. My biggest piece of advice is -- nothing exists in isolation. Listen diligently when students speak and set your expectations high, so everything you do in the classroom is purposeful and will help not only with students' sentence structure, communicative ability and pronunciation, but also tones and many other elements of Chinese language acquisition.
Please let me know your take on this by commenting on this blog. I'd love to hear what you think.
