TEACH CHINESE MEASURE WORDS FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

Measure words (量(liàng) 词(cí)) are playing important role in Chinese language, as Chinese don’t directly use numeral and noun to quantify an object. The measure word serves as a kind of context that helps us to identify the meaning of the word that follows. There are many of the measure words used for specific things and it can cause confusion for those who are new to learn Chinese. In this section, I will share my classroom activities in learning about measure words for stationery.

Ages: 10-11 years old

Objectives:

- Know the types of measure words for stationery

- Identify correct measure words for specific objects

- Use measure words to form phrases or sentence.

Learning activities:

1. Assess student’s prior knowledge about name of stationery. I showed pictures of stationery and students in groups made a T-chart to list down all known and unknown words related to stationery in pinyin/Chinese characters. Then, one representative from each group will share their list.

2. Introduced new vocabulary and their measure words. First, I asked my students to follow me in reading word, example: 圆( yuán) 珠(zhū) 笔(bǐ) (Pen) and showed picture with two pens. 

The question was how we would say this? Most of them said: 两(liǎng) 个(gè) 圆(yuán) 珠(zhū) 笔(bǐ), which was not wrong BUT not precisely correct. Then I continued to explain the concept of measure words. My suggestion is grouped the vocabulary based on some categories, example: all writing tools (pen, pencil, crayon, and marker) with (支(zhī)) or all books with (本běn).

3. Vocabulary and measure words game: students sat in 3 groups and one person from each group came in front. I would say:  三(sān) 支(zhī) 铅(qiān) 笔(bǐ) (three pencils) and they had to race to get the correct thing and gave it to me.

4. Writing worksheet. I asked students to practice independently by drawing their stationery and listed the things down using correct measure words.

This worksheet could be expand for peer activity, when they had to interview their classmates “你(nǐ) 有(yǒu) 几(jǐ) (measure word) (noun)? 

朋友	铅笔	圆珠笔	彩色笔	蜡笔	橡皮	尺子	铅笔盒	固体胶	剪刀

5. Groups activity. I prepared stationery flash cards and dices to be used in this game. Students arranged the cards on the carpet; took turn to throw dices and said the correct phrases based on the picture. 

6. Students created a book “My Chinese Measure Words Book” to compile all the material from this lesson. Hopefully, by creating this book their memory about measure words will last longer J