Sailing in the Chinese Language Through Singing^-How to Select Chinese Songs for Non-Chinese Speaking Students

In recent years, Chinese songs have gradually become an auxiliary means for international Chinese language teachers to carry out Chinese language teaching. Chinese songs not only provide the text for learning Chinese, but also help animate the classroom atmosphere. They motivate students from four aspects: listening, speaking, reading and writing. This process helps students acquire knowledge through learning pronunciation and grammar, and meanwhile indirectly conveys the cultural connotations in the songs to the students, hence promoting the spread of excellent Chinese culture in a foreign country.

Classic Chinese songs such as The Moon Represents My Heart, Sweet Honey and Jasmine have long been used as necessary tracks by international Chinese language teachers in their teaching. Besides, some popular Chinese songs and children's songs adapted by the teachers according to their teaching contents have also played a good complementary role in language teaching. With that said, how should we select suitable Chinese songs in the actual teaching process?

Different types of songs should be selected for teaching subjects at different ages. First of all, the selected songs can be divided into three categories based on the age of the students: for young children, children’s songs are a very good choice. In addition to the existing children's songs, teachers can also adapt children's songs that are familiar to the students; for middle school students, when talking about the use of Chinese character "Yǒu (have)", I choose the animated version of the classic children's song "Where is Spring" and its new version rendered in a different style; for adult students, I choose the song "I want to go to Guilin". The lyrics "I don't have money when I have time" and "I don't have time when I have money" are easier for adults to understand and can arouse empathy. Moreover, these two sentences contain both the affirmative form "have" and the negative form "don't have". Since the lyrics in the other parts of this song are difficult, what's mainly presented to students is the chorus.

Secondly, the students can be divided into two categories based on their Chinese level. As for the beginners, in terms of selecting Chinese songs, the best option is Chinese songs with simple lyrics, slow speed and clear pronunciation. Classic songs such as "Jasmine", which are commonly used by international Chinese language teachers in class, mostly possess these characteristics. In addition, for students who have just picked up a little Chinese, the song "Sorry, My Chinese is not good" can easily be understood by the students. Besides, the designed mistake of confusing the Chinese pronunciation of "sleep" with that of "dumpling" at the start of the song also made them realize the importance of intonation and helped them pay more attention to pronunciation at the initial stage of learning Chinese.

At the same time, the teachers can select songs based on real life situations. In the level-1 class for middle school students on May 20th, after I introduced to the students the two homophonic Chinese expressions "520" and "I love you", I played a Chinese song "Let Love Stay in My Home". Its lyrics are filled with simple Chinese words such as "I, Love, You, Family, Dad, Mom, Elder Brother, Elder Sister, Younger Brother and Younger Sister". The rhythm of the song bright and the lyrics catchy, the students could sing the next paragraph immediately after listening to the previous one, and upon learning this song, they were able to express their love to their families on the special day of May 20th. During the epidemic, I used the Chinese song "Listen! I Want to Say Thank You" in my teaching. Before the teaching started, I had the students enjoy the version with only Chinese subtitles, guess the meaning of the song, and then listen to the version with Pinyin and English subtitles. In doing so, the students were able to understand the general idea of the song and sing along to express their gratitude to the great medical workers.

When applying Chinese songs to Chinese language teaching, you need to understand that if you simply have the students listen to the songs several times, or just let them sing along, it's impossible for them to get familiar with the songs. The best way to impress students is to let them perform Chinese songs. While preparing for their performance, they practice repeatedly, which will bring about better learning results. Moreover, singing in class will bring students a sense of accomplishment and generate a far better result with much less effort. Therefore, when I am in the classroom, I will ask students to sing Chinese songs and record them. During the online class, I invited the students to record singing videos at home, then sing a chorus through the Zoom platform, and after that, an edited video was produced and posted on TikTok, Youtube and other platforms with the consent of the students. They were very excited and inspired when seeing the outcome.

Additionally, Chinese songs can also help students consolidate the new knowledge they've just acquired. For example, after the place adverbial structure "Subject + in place + to do" is introduced to the students, in order to strengthen their understanding of the structure, I chose the song "Sweet Honey", explained to them the lyrics  "where have I seen you before " and "I've seen you in my dream", and then let them listen to the songs to get familiar with the use of place adverbial.

In a word, Chinese songs are a lively and effective way to assist classroom teaching. With target-oriented efforts made, Chinese songs can be one of the best ways to spice up classroom teaching and help students explore the Chinese language through joyful singing.

About the author: Zou Ying, an international Chinese language teacher in Brazil.