Teaching communicative Chinese

In an age when television is a vital entertainment medium, more and more people are using it as a study aid. In Britain, the Open University, founded in 1969, encourages home-based students to study for Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees using a combination of television and radio programmes and correspondence work, where students send in assignments to their tutors and have them returned after assessment.
    The Open University has no formal entrance requirements for its students and is designed particularly for people who have missed out on a formal tertiary education because of lack of money or opportunity in the past. Study programmes may include marketing, and business management; in countries such as Australia and New Zealand, language courses in Spanish, French and Mandarin are also popular. Those who promote the television courses talk of the opportunity it gives for people to learn "in their own place, at their own pace and in their own time. "
    The TV "open learning" Chinese programme run in Australia and New Zealand was developed by Griffith University in Queensland and Macquarie University in Sydney. Lessons involve a half-hour programme on television followed up by at least 10 hours of study each week. The course is equivalent to a quarter of a year’s full-time study; students get a huge resource pack which includes text and work books, audio tapes and wide range of other materials.
    There is no limit on student numbers on the course because students do not have to be accommodated in lecture rooms. They learn at their own speed, have one-on-one correspondence sessions with their tutors and can play back a lesson on video as many tunes as they wish, going over pronunciation repeatedly until they are confident that they have it right.
    Susan Sun, tutor and co-ordinator of the Modern Standard Chinese course at the Auckland Institute of Technology, has been using the Chinese television course for the past three years. She has taught Modern Standard Chinese for the past 10 years, as a first language in China and as a second language in New Zealand.
    She says her course has an emphasis on teaching communicative Chinese. " It is designed to serve the needs of busy, self-motivated people such as university students, teachers, those employed in the public service or working in commercial capacities. There is also a strong following from people who have a general interest in Chinese people or Chinese language and culture. "
    Sun says there is a big demand to learn Mandarin in Australia and New Zealand. "Business people welcome the programme because it allows them to learn the language quickly and put their new-found knowledge into use. "
    Students studying via the television "open learning" programmes are as close to their tutor as the telephone; a phone hotline is available to all students, 24 hours a day. Contact with tutors can also be made via e-mail or fax and audio tapes of questions and answers are also exchanged, on a regular basis.
    The "open learning" method of study is very challenging and to be successful, students need to be motivated. But this has not deterred a number of students on the Chinese course from going on to study for a Bachelor of Arts degree in the language.