Po-wei Wang Presents at Mass Foreign Language Association Conference
Po-wei Wang, CSW’s international student advisor, Mandarin instructor, and director of the International Creative Arts Program, presented at the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Annual Conference in Springfield, MA on October 27, 2017.
Po-wei Wang, CSW’s international student advisor, Mandarin instructor, and director of the International Creative Arts Program, presented at the Massachusetts Foreign Language Association’s Annual Conference in Springfield, MA on October 27, 2017.
Po-wei’s session is titled, "Singing the Words, Experiencing the Tones: Music and Teaching Tones.” In it, he teaches how the integration of music to the Mandarin teaching curriculum can help to illustrate the tonal nature of Mandarin Chinese to non-native speakers unfamiliar with melodic fluctuations in speech.
Po-wei’s session is titled, "Singing the Words, Experiencing the Tones: Music and Teaching Tones.” In it, he teaches how the integration of music to the Mandarin teaching curriculum can help to illustrate the tonal nature of Mandarin Chinese to non-native speakers unfamiliar with melodic fluctuations in speech.
“Deriving from Chao Yuen-Ren’s numerical values, which use numbers to indicate the melodic contour of tones, this session demonstrates how students can learn the tones in more intuitive and empirical ways,” says Po-wei.
In this way, students learn by singing and playing, and learning the new tones not just by hearing them, but by creating them in an interactive way, using both their voices and instruments to do so.
Kudos to Po-wei for sharing one of his many progressive teaching methods with the greater community. We are so proud to have him at CSW!
The Cambridge School of Weston is a progressive high school for day and boarding students in grades 9–12 and PG. CSW's mission is to provide a progressive education that emphasizes deep learning, meaningful relationships, and a dynamic program that inspires students to discover who they are and what their contribution is to their school, their community and the world.