Learning Chinese by enjoying music in the classroom"^——Using Chinese songs as an auxiliary aid for international Chinese language teaching

After my initial arrival in Bulgaria, I started teaching the Chinese language in a step-by-step manner for some time. During that time, I was very confused because I seemed unable to capture students' interest and motivate them to learn Chinese, like while I turned on the education channel, the students'  interest was in the movie channel; while I turned on the life channel, the students' interest were in the music channel; after I shifted to the more interesting cultural channel, the students just turned off the TV and went to sleep ...... How to stimulate students' interest in learning? After much thought and research, I tried to introduce Chinese songs into my classroom and make music a "secret tip" in my daily teaching.

I have experimented this method in different grades and classes, and I am pleased to see that this approach has worked well and has been well received by the students. This shows that it's very necessary to adopt music in the process of Chinese language teaching. In this regard, I believe that the advantages of teaching music are as follows.

First, it can stimulate students' interest and enthusiasm in learning Chinese and enhance the friendship between teachers and students. When a teacher takes over a new class, there is a process of getting to know each other, which we call the "settling-in" period. Accordingly, students need a "settling-in" period when they first learn Chinese. At this time, music, as a universal language, can play the role of "lubricant", so that students can enjoy Chinese music and learn Chinese at the same time, and to a certain extent eliminate the unfamiliarity of Chinese. Similarly, the learning and singing of Chinese songs requires joint cooperation between teachers and students, during which the distance between teachers and students will gradually be brought closer and the relationship will become more harmonious.

Secondly, music can be used as an adjunct to the content to assist in teaching vocabulary. At the stage when students are first learning pinyin, singing the vowels and rhymes with the melody of the Chinese song Little Star is very effective in teaching. When teaching words related to relatives such as father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, etc., I choose Family Song as part of the classroom teaching for both 5th grade elementary students and 8th grade middle school students, presenting slightly boring words in the form of a song, which not only enlivens the classroom atmosphere but also helps students deepen their memory.

Third, students can appreciate the beauty of Chinese phonetics, as helps to enhance their sense of Chinese language. Unlike songs in other languages, Chinese songs have "rhymes" at the end of words and sentences, which is a characteristic of Chinese songs and has been widely used in poems and songs for thousands of years, and this is why the beauty of Chinese rhymes has been carried forward and spread widely. Students can also experience the beauty of sound and rhythm by recognizing the lyrics and singing the songs. As a result, the students' sense of language is being practiced in a subtle way. Both the improvement of students' oral communication skills and the strengthening of their writing skills are highly beneficial.

Fourth, excellent Chinese music is a window and medium for promoting Chinese culture. Chinese culture is all-encompassing and blossoming, existing both in the elegant and classic charm of the guzheng and pipa and in the pop of the piano and guitar. Chinese music can showcase both the long history and profoundness of traditional Chinese culture and the youthful vitality and vigor of modern Chinese culture. Chinese music is an integral and important part of promoting Chinese culture.

However, as good as the method of teaching music is, there are a few points that we should not overlook.

First, we are supposed to focus on the selection of materials and conduct teaching according to the material. We should base the song selection on understanding the students' Chinese level so that the difficulty level of the songs matches the students' Chinese level. In this way, students will learn Chinese through music and songs without the negative emotions of thinking that the songs are too simple and childish or too complex and advanced.

Second, we should clarify the goal and strengthen the guidance while employing the music in the process of teaching. Before using music for teaching activities, we should first clarify the purpose of the lesson and what kind of knowledge we want to impart through the content of the song. We should also strengthen our guidance to help students identify which songs are positive and help them develop good aesthetics and values in the process of listening to songs and learning Chinese.

Third, we should pay attention to the main task and properly use the Chinese songs. We should avoid singing for the sake of singing. Chinese songs are only an auxiliary tool in our Chinese language teaching, and the teaching of Chinese ontology is the focus of our attention. The song teaching method should not be used randomly and blindly, but we need to prioritize the teaching aim and use it moderately.

The topic of using Chinese songs in international Chinese language teaching has long been widely discussed and researched, and numerous experts and teachers have provided a wealth of relevant resources and achievements that are worthy of our continuous study.

About the author: Cao Xiangdong, an international Chinese language teacher in Bulgaria.