Simplified vs. Traditional Characters: What to Teach?
The discussion of simplified vs. traditional is definitely one of the most controversial subjects in teaching Chinese. This is a topic that we have researched and discussed at length at our school, and have given much thought to what and how to best teach our students and provide them with the best tools for them to use in the future. As we studied and analyzed which system of characters would be best to be taught to our students, we looked at several different aspects of how this would impact our students and how we could best equip them with the skills they need, should they choose to continue with Chinese after they graduate from our school.
(1) Different learning styles One of the key teaching methods we have been mandated by Meritas (our parent organization that owns a family of 10 schools worldwide) to be using in our classrooms is Differentiated Instruction. That means that we need to be mindful of different learning styles of our students and adjust and adapt our curriculum and lessons to include lessons and activities that address the various ways our students learn, assimilate and apply information presented in the classroom.
--Visual/Spatial Learners: These learners tend to think in pictures and need to create vivid mental images to retain information. With respect to Chinese, visual learners seem to prefer traditional characters because they more easily remember the separate components (radicals) and how they are put together, and sometimes they view the character as a whole and imagine what it looks like to them--which helps them better remember the whole character.
--Verbal/Linguistic: These learners have highly developed auditory skills and are generally elegant speakers. They think in words rather than pictures. Some students learn better when they can relate a character to the sound of the word. For traditional characters, when the radicals are themselves small words, they can say the words themselves to assist them in putting together the whole character and by doing so, use critical thinking to either deduce the meaning of a character or to construct the character itself.
--Logical/Mathematical -- These learners think conceptually in logical and numerical patterns making connections between pieces of information. These students better remember the characters when the various components (radicals) of the characters are explained and the derivations of the words are explained to them. (check out www.zhongwen.com. That is an excellent resource to explain the derivations of Chinese characters).
--Bodily/Kinesthetic--These learners express themselves through movement. Through interacting with the space around them, they are able to remember and process information. For learning some Chinese characters, they can actually get up and "be" the character. This can be adapted to be used in both simplified and traditional characters. I have not observed these students having difficulty with learning either character system.
(2) Sustainability/Flexibility for the future
Worldwide, simplified Chinese is primarily used in Mainland China and Singapore, while traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, and overseas Chinese. If you look at pure population numbers, the combined estimated population of China and Singapore total just under 2 billion people. The combined population of the people using traditional characters (including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and overseas Chinese) is estimated to be 50 million people. However, the numbers don't tell the whole story. First of all, signs on stores and on streets, even in China, are often still found using traditional characters. Also, looking at the business centers in Asia where Chinese is the main language, Taiwan and Hong Kong's significance increases significantly. Thus being able to do business not only in China where simplified Chinese is used predominantly, but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong where traditional Chinese is used (and where much of the world's commerce still takes place), provides the student with the best tools for the future.
Finally, there are movements underway within China to bring back Traditional characters. If we truly want to take a worldview to the future, our students should be able to be comfortable with seeing and using both types of characters, so that they are better equipped for whatever situation they might face, regardless of what writing system is being used.
(3) ACTFL Standards The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages have created proficiency standards for languages that provide a benchmark to use when teaching and evaluating level and proficiency of our students. For Chinese, specifically, these standards are written using traditional Chinese characters. ACTFL is the organization that creates the national language learning standards. Their committees of experts who create these standards consist of a variety of linguists and teachers from all over the world. If they choose to write their standards in traditional Chinese, it was done with much deliberation, research and thought. These ACTFL standards are the national benchmark. We would be better serving our students if we also develop our curriculum materials with these standards and benchmarks in mind.
(4) Concern: Student confusion > For 2 years (2008-2009), our middle school students have been taught both simplified and traditional characters. Based on my observations, when you clearly show them the difference between the two characters, and have them practice both so they understand the difference not just by sight but also organically (when you learn by writing), they are not confused. Especially when you give them the option to write in either system. I also gave quizzes to students where they needed to identify the definition of a character--and they were given both simplified and traditional characters of the same word to identify. These students did very well on the quiz--and were identify both types of characters. When they were given subsequent assessments, I provided both a traditional and simplified characters for them to use in a word bank.
(5) Concern: Teacher Proficiency Depending on what system the teacher has been taught, they may be familiar with only one system or another. Because of this, there will be concern with proficiency (or lack of familiarity) in writing traditional or simplified characters. Whichever system that's learned will be what the teacher is most comfortable and proficient with. However, the following points may reassure any teacher that they DO have sufficient proficiency to enable you to teach vocabulary with both types of characters.
First of all, no one expects the teacher to have all the material memorized and be able to write everything on the board without assistance. When I taught last year, I used many computer resources (often showing the animations of stroke order for the characters to the students so I wouldn't have to write them--it's easier for them to see and the words look much prettier than my handwriting on the board). I also used my own notes and printouts to refer to while I wrote the characters on the board. As a teacher, you don't have to have everything in your head. You just have to know where to find the information and impart that knowledge to the students.
Second, a big part of teaching is to show the students that it's OK to look up things, especially if you tell students up front that you learned the simplified system so the traditional system of characters is something that is challenging to you as well. The students will appreciate your candor and know that you understand their challenges.
Third, as a teacher gains additional proficiency in writing Traditional or simplified characters, the teacher can also share the tricks and tips that they used to learn the characters with their students, and that can help them learn the characters more easily.
(5) Concern: Perception that "Traditional Characters are too hard." > Based on my experience, many students encounter a mental block if they learn ONLY simplified characters. The perception becomes that 'Traditional characters are "too hard" or "too complicated."" In reality, there are not that many characters that are significantly different between traditional and simplified. Many of the characters have only a radical that's simplified--and it affects all characters that utilize that radical, but ends up just being the change of a single radical.
I want to share an experience regarding some of my 8th grade students my first year of teaching. The students had learned both traditional and simplified characters for the last two years. In the first year that they learned Chinese, the textbook they used was in simplified characters. However, the teacher taught using both (showing the traditional characters when there was an equivalent word). When I began teaching this class, I stopped using that textbook and converted to using my own curriculum and materials, which were mostly in traditional characters. I also didn't emphasize to them about whether characters were traditional or simplified, as most of the characters were the same or very similar. Toward the end of the year, one of my students said "I only know simplified. I can't "do" traditional characters." I then informed them that for most of the year (and the entire time I taught them) most of the characters they used were all traditional. That changed their perspective and outlook immediately. They responded with an "Oh, really? Well, that's not so hard then..."
By showing the students the differences between those specific characters, they see that most characters really aren't that different from each other. And so it wasn't as hard as they thought, as they had already been working with the characters without the "traditional vs. simplified" hanging over them, and so they had gained proficiency in traditional characters without even knowing it. It helped them gain a great deal of confidence knowing that they were, in fact, able to read, write and use traditional characters, because it was what they had already been doing. Of course, they were still given the option to use simplified characters, and were encouraged to choose whichever system they were most comfortable using. However, by being able to use both, it took away their fear and discomfort with encountering traditional characters.
As teachers, we want to give our students the best language education possible, and by being comfortable (and not fearful) with at least seeing both systems of character writing will go a long way toward building their confidence in learning Chinese. Thus giving them a textbook in Traditional characters will give them the visual familiarity with seeing traditional characters, even if they do choose to use simplified characters when they write. What we want to avoid is having students "freak out" when they see traditional characters and say "I can't do traditional. I only do simplified." We want them to be able to say "Oh, this is traditional. I've seen this before. I can figure out what this is."
(6) Textbook choice As a follow-on to minimizing our students' discomfort with seeing/reading/writing traditional characters, I still believe that using textbooks written in traditional characters will be the best choice for our students. This gives them a familiarity and comfort with the characters that they see. Since all (or a great deal) of the characters they are learning are new to them anyway, they won't know that there is any difference until we show them. It would be doing the students a disservice to bias them toward one system or another when the majority of what they are learning is completely new and so they start out without bias or preference. As I mentioned before, that does not mean that all characters written/used/taught in class have to be written exclusively in traditional style. Nor does it mean we are mandating that our students must always write in traditional characters. When they learn both, (as appropriate), they are then able to recognize and write in both methods, providing them the most flexibility and best equip them for the future..