Hacking Chinese

A better way of learning Mandarin

Articles tagged with ‘Teaching’

  1. 6 benefits of learning Chinese through sports

    The general benefits of physical activity are well-known, but the more specific benefits for learning languages are often overlooked, so let’s have a look at 6 benefits of learning Chinese through sports!

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  2. How to improve fluency in Chinese by playing word games

    What if I told you that there is a game that helps you speak Chinese more fluently, is great for improving communicative ability and works well regardless of your current level? What if I said that the game is also fun and free to play?

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  3. How to not teach Chinese characters to beginners: A 12-step approach

    This is a guide for how to not teach Chinese characters, based on more than a decade of observing terrible teaching and worst practices. Which of these have you seen?

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  4. Text adventure games and how to use them in the Chinese language classroom

    Interactive text games work well for individual learners, but they are also excellent in a classroom setting. This article gives you everything you need as a teacher to play Escape! in your classroom. A Chinese version of this article is available as well.

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  5. How and why to learn and teach Chinese through games

    This article is a follow-up to a keynote presentation and a workshop held at the 15th Annual Chinese Teaching Conference at University College London. Even though the original target group is teachers of Chinese, the article is relevant for students as well.

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  6. Whom should you trust for advice about learning Chinese?

    There’s a lot of advice about how to learn Chinese floating around on forums, chat groups, social media, video services and blogs. Including Hacking Chinese. So how do you know whom you should trust? This article answers that question by discussing what my articles are based on.

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  7. Task based Chinese learning and teaching

    Task based language learning and teaching is built around working with tasks in the target language with a clear focus on meaning (communication). Focus on form should come after the task has been completed.

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  8. 10 ways of using games to learn and teach Chinese

    Playing games to learn Chinese

    Games are great for learning languages. Here are ten ways you can use games to learn or teach Chinese as a second language!

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  9. The benefits of a comprehension-based approach for teaching and learning Chinese

    Diane Neubauer continues her series of guest articles about comprehension-based approaches to teaching and learning Chinese. In this the second part, the focus is on principles and motivations for using a comprehension-based method. There’s also an overview of teaching practices that fall into this category.

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  10. An introduction to comprehension-based Chinese teaching and learning

    This guest article by Diane Neubauer introduces comprehensible input and what it can do for us as language learners and teachers. It’s the first part of a series of three articles, focusing on comprehension-based methods for learning and teaching.

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