The encounter of Dualism Methodology and hihilulu early Chinese immersive education

 

The Dualism Methodology in Teaching Chinese as Second Language refers to the theory and methods that establish "Chinese characters" and "words" as two different teaching units in the basic Chinese language teaching. It was introduced into France's Chinese as Second Language teaching system by Professor Joel Bellassen, the first General Inspector of Chinese Language Teaching at the Ministry of Education (France). The methodology is established as the mainstream theory and practice in French modern Chinese language education.

This modern Chinese teaching method promoted by Professor Bellassen not only focuses on the recognition of Chinese characters and the comprehension of semantics and morphemes, but also the acquisition of communicative competence. At the beginner stage, the methodology taps high-frequency characters, which then will bring out frequently used words by following a hierarchical approach , and lays a solid foundation for Chinese learners to recognize and read them in later progress. The differenciation between speaking-language and written expression by Prof. Bellassen's Dualism Methodology provides the most economical and scientific Chinese teaching method. It greatly enhances the efficiency of reading and writing on top of hihilulu's theme-based immersive Chinese acquisition.

Starting from the end of 2020, Professor Bellassen has directed hihilulu's team to develop a Chinese character threshold system suitable for early Chinese language education for children aged 3-12.

There are 4 fundamental elements facilitating scientific methodology of early Chinese Teaching as a Second Language :

• First, selection of high-frequency components and a family of extended characters, which are constrctured with easily understable logics and suitable for children's dynamic visual comprehension;
• Second, selection and interpretation of high-frequency characters based on children's age and cognitive ability, choosing Chinese Bronze Scripts that are the closest to modern Chinese writing and vividly interpreting the evolution and construction logic of those characters through ideography and pictography;
• Third, embedding organically the character learning and comprehension into hihilulu's theme-based speech-language acquisition, with respect to children's Language Development Index (LDI) where listening and speaking skills come at first place;
• Fourth, bringing high-frequency characters to form words then to sentences, hence developing snow-balling literature reading, eventually acheiving stable and solid progresses in listening, speaking, reading comprehension and writing of children.