“Demystifying the Chinese Writing System; What is it that learners need to know?“

This joint SWIRE Edinburgh and SCEN hosted CPD lecture for teachers of Mandarin by Andrew Scrimgeour will be held at the University of Edinburgh on Monday, 20 March 2023.

Abstract

The Chinese writing system is both a source of wonder and great frustration to initial learners of Chinese. Initial interest in learning to read and write in Chinese is often tempered by the demands of recognising and remembering the myriad of forms and their 'hidden' sounds and meanings that learners encounter. This presentation will explore issues with the character system, and they way textbooks address the demands of character learning. Recommendations for a more conceptual, and more systematic approach to building learner’s literacy skills in Chinese, including ways in which the system could be better represented, and resources better used to develop learner’s conceptual understandings of the Chinese writing system and build learner’s skills in reading and writing in Chinese will be discussed.

Bio

Andrew Scrimgeour is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the University of South Australia. He has been involved in Chinese teaching since the early 1980s and continues to undertake research into literacy development, learner diversity, curriculum design and teacher training for Chinese language learning in schools. He co-authored Teaching Chinese as a Second Language: The Way of the Learner with Dr Jane Orton in 2019.