It's only a recent realisation that the way Chinese Language is tested in Secondary Level had taken a drastic reform.
It's now totally non-textbook-based, and there's no way you can prepare for the papers. Which means to say, gone are the classic 造句/完成句子/填写汉字/必读成语250条 etc. Yes, the emphasis has shifted away from rote-learning, but is it necessarily better?
For decades, chinese students have been studying chapters in textbooks, learned the new words, their meanings and constructed sentences with them. That had been the traditional way of learning the thousands of words and idioms. When tests/exams draw near, we revised the meanings, practised writing the strokes of the words, and tested ourselves how to construct sentences with these words.
Though traditional, it had been quite effective, for me at the very least. The repeated revision of the words at major exams, had forced me to be familiar with them, and they had somehow been ingrained in me for years. Even if certain words, whose meanings I may only faintly recollect now, I would still know how to write and read them.
Now with the total eradication of rote-learning, students don't even have to revise much for exams, except perhaps the format of writing letters. They don't need to recap on the words learnt/ their meanings/ the strokes of the words etc. Then, honestly speaking, will their knowledge of the language improve, given that after learning the words once in class, they would just chuck them aside and never look at them again?
One may compare Chinese language with English, and so may justify the case, by saying that English had all along been non-textbook-based, and one had never needed to 'study' for English. But think about the extent of use of English everywhere, you would realise the ample opportunities to use the language. Chinese, on the other hand, is merely restricted to chattings between certain family and friends. If given the chance NOT to 'study' for the language, I'm sure most, if not all, would really NOT do it.
If this is the case, I'll still stand by the traditional ways.
人生是黑白的.
5:48 PM <3
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