Level: Beginner
Easy Chinese for Kids is designed for elementary students with no Chinese background. It focuses first on listening and speaking, and then on reading and writing to effectively improve students’ overall communication skills. The introduction to Pinyin at the beginning of this book helps young children learn to pronounce and understand Chinese correctly. Ten lessons in the textbook, which can also be taught separately from the Pinyin lessons, teach students Chinese words on colors, numbers, family members, animals, shapes, food and drinks, telling time etc., while progressing to simple and practical dialogs. Each lesson has colorful images, new words and simple sentences. It is designed in accordance with LOTE (Languages Other Than English) Standards of various states.
About the AuthorDe-an Wu Swihart, co-director of the Center for Teaching and Learning in China, a non-profit organization in Tennessee, is devoted to the training of Chinese and American teachers. After graduating from Peking University in 1982, Ms. Wu pursued a further education in US and received her MA degree from the University of Chicago and PhD. degree from Princeton University. She began to teach Chinese language, literature and culture at American universities from 1983 and has published nine textbooks on Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL), one of which is Daily Chinese for English Speakers.
Lung-Hua Gail Hu is the coordinator of Chinese language program at Brown University and senior lecturer. She got her Bachelor Degree from Soochow University in Taiwan and Master Degree from Columbia University of New York. She has taught Chinese at Princeton University for many years. She also taught in the following several programs: Princeton in Beijing, Middlebury College's Chinese Summer School, Columbia University's Beijing Language program and Duke Study in China. In 2006, the intermediate Chinese courses she taught were appraised as one of College Board's Ten Top Chinese Courses.
