Prof. Joel Bellassen: Embrace Dualism to teach Chinese effectively
Originally published on Education Middle East
Prof. Joel Bellassen, Academic Advisor to hihilulu; Honorary Inspector General of National Education France; and President of European Association for Chinese Teaching
Join the professor as he shares his views with leaders in education in Dubai about Chinese language learning and culture integration at Mandarin Soirée
Dubai, May 26, 2023: Recognising the dual nature of the language is key to teaching Chinese effectively, says Prof. Joel Bellassen, Academic Advisor to hihilulu, Honorary Inspector General of National Education France, and President of European Association for Chinese Teaching.
Speaking to Education Middle East, Prof Bellassen said that the most common methodology used in teaching Chinese treats it like any other language, ignoring the fact that it has two minimal units. This dualism, he believes, is vital to effective Chinese learning. He emphasizes that to ignore this fact leads to ineffective teaching of Chinese.
Prof Bellassen says that unlike other languages, such as English, French, Spanish and Arabic, which have only one minimal pedagogical unit, the word, Chinese has two: characters and words.
A renowned expert in Chinese language teaching, Prof Bellassen has systematically developed the ‘dualism’ method of teaching-learning Chinese since the 1980s.
Based on Prof Bellassen’s dualism theory, immersive Chinese education platform hihilulu has designed a natural Chinese language acquisition pedagogy for children. The pedagogy facilitates natural acquisition of character-based Chinese language by exposing children to an early immersive Chinese language environment.
With the use of innovative digital technologies, hihilulu is able to create blended solutions with personalisation for educational institutions.
By recognising the uniqueness of the Chinese language and adopting a dualism approach, Chinese learning can be made fun and easy for learners, Professor Bellassen says.
Prof Bellassen will be sharing his views on culture and language integration with leaders in education in Dubai at an exclusive event in Dubai, ‘Mandarin Soirée’.
Organised by hihilulu in association with Education Middle East at Anantara The Palm Dubai Resort on June 7, 5pm, the event will also explore the benefits of Chinese as a second language in the school environment.
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