Chinese Calligraphy and the Teaching of Chinese Language 书法与华文语文教学

Is it true that it is a non-brainer to consider Chinese calligraphy an effective tool for teaching of Chinese language?

Learning Chinese language is by no means an easy task, whereas learning to write Chinese characters is probably the most difficult aspect facing all the students learning the language, in particular, the beginning students. The fundamental problem underlying the learning of Chinese character handwriting is due to the fact that Chinese is not a phonetic language — there is no necessary relation between the pronunciation and the physical appearance of a character. In other words, a Chinese character consists of a number of strokes that, unlike the roman alphabets, by themselves do not represent phonemic values.

There are thousands of different Chinese characters, and the only way to learn them is by memorization and constant practice. It is also proposed that effective teaching should incorporate cultural meanings into the instructional content, encouraging students to make associations among character elements, whole characters, and cultural connotations.

Chinese Calligraphy is seen as useful for reinforcing character recognition and writing. This is because when it is introduced to students as a form of fine arts, it entertains as well as effectively engages, motivates, and inspires them.

However, in order to be an effective teaching tool, the Chinese calligraphy must adopt the Simplified writing system which means it must

1. include the Simplified script, a script that is currently being taught in schools, and

2. follow the writing and reading habits that are being practised by the students.

And it is exactly on these two counts that the current form of Chinese calligraphy fails to be an effective tool for teaching of Chinese language.

One may say that the aim is to cultivate the students’ art appreciation and introduce them the Chinese culture rather to help them in learning Chinese language. However, the main concern is whether it has negative effect on Chinese language learning. Ideally, it should serve both purposes of art appreciation and language learning. This is exactly why there is a need to introduce the New Chinese Calligraphy Style to schools.

Please click here to know more about the New Chinese Calligraphy Style.
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书法是学习中文的一种有效的教学辅助工具，这是不是显而易见的呢？

学习中文不是一件易事。在学习中文时，书写可能是所有学生所碰到最困难的部分，尤其是对初学者而言。书写中文困难的基本原因是基于这个事实：中文不是音标语文，发音与文字的外形没有必然的关系。就是说，中文由笔画所组成，这些笔画不向罗马注音符号那样，它们本身是没有音素价值的。

中文有上千不同的个别文字，死记与不断练习书写是唯一的学习方法。另一个提议是把文化意义带入教学内容，鼓励学生把文字元素、整个字与文化隐意联系起来。

书法被认为对加强文字的认识与书写有帮助。因为把书法当作一种艺术来介绍给学生时，它可以娱乐他们，同时有效地吸引、激发与激励他们。

可是，为了使书法成为一个有效的教学辅助工具，它必须包含简体字书写系统。就是说，它必须：

1。包含现在学校所教的简体字，与

2。跟随学生所应用的书写与阅读习惯。

刚好就由于上述两点而使到目前的书法不适合成为有效的教学辅助工具。

有人说，学习书法的目的是要训练学生的艺术欣赏能力与中华文化，而不是用来辅助华文的学习。但是，我们所关心的是，它会不会在华文学习方面带来不良的效果呢。最好是它在能提高艺术鉴赏能力的同时，又能辅助语文的学习。这正是为什么有必要把‘新书风’引进学校的原因。

请点击这里以阅读有关‘新书风’的阐述。