Integrated Chinese (IC)

IC1 Lesson 7: Learning Chinese

This activity contributed by Stephen Fleming.

Speed? Skill? Amount?

In this interview activity, each student first records information about him/herself and then gathers information from three others through "cocktail party"-type interviewing (a.k.a. mingling). The end goal is to identify which interviewee has the most contradictory habits, or to compile information on the class' collective cooking skill etc. For the sake of convenience, the table students will use in the activity is presented in English in skeletal form; a better form will be needed in the classroom.

Step 1: Input activity of teacher's choice, aimed at student skill-getting in the communicative function featured in this lesson that concerns expressing how fast, how much, how well, and how much or how frequently someone does something (Subj + Verb + Obj + Verb + de + adv +modifier, e.g. Ni3 chi1 fan4 chi1 de fei1chang2 man4.)

Step 2: Pass out worksheet. Teacher-centered questioning helps student fill in "self" portion of table. ("Ni3 xie3 Han4zi4 xie3 de duo1 bu duo1?" plus demonstration of filling in the appropriate blank with the answer.)

Step 3: Teacher models interview: Asking name, followed by questions to elicit needed information ("Ni3 zuo4 fan4 zuo4 de kuai4 bu kuai4?").

Step 4: Students interview and fill in information.

Step 5: One possibility: Students are asked to look at their results, decide whose results are "contradictory", and report on them: for instance, someone who writes very slowly but writes a lot. (Reporting students use "ke3shi4" in their summary statements.) Another possibility: teacher puts a version of the interview chart on the board that has blanks where the information should be, then asks a student to the board to ask the class questions such as "Ji3 ge ren2 zuo4 fan4 zuo4 de hen3 duo1?"; other students answer by holding up the right number of fingers according to their data, and student at the board tabulates it. In the end, trends will become apparent even if the collected data contains redundant pieces (due to multiple interviewings of the same people).

Table:

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