Easy Steps to Chinese for Kids (2nd Edition) is especially designed for non-Chinese background students, who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. The series is suitable for preschool children and first to fourth graders in primary school.
This series aims to help students lay a solid foundation in Chinese in terms of characters, especially simple characters, words, and short sentences through natural and gradual integration of language, themes and culture. The simultaneous development of listening, speaking and reading skills, and character writing as well as the ability to write short sentences in Chinese, is emphasized. The ultimate aim is to help students develop communication skills in a hope that they can use simple Chinese to communicate smoothly and effectively in real-life situations.
The Textbook plays an important role in helping students gain knowledge of the Chinese language needed to develop their communicative competence. The Workbook takes a supporting role, providing various age-appropriate and interesting exercises and activities that serve as meaningful practice and reinforcement.
Besides Textbook and Workbook, the series also includes Exercise book for writing, PowerPoint slides, word cards, picture flashcards, as well as digital resources, etc.
Features of Easy Steps to Chinese for Kids (2nd Edition):
■ Pinyin is not specifically taught at this stage, but it always appears on top of the characters.
■ Each simple character appears in the form of “shape, sound and meaning” and is accompanied with a vivid illustration, in a hope that students have a full understanding of the character learned.
■ Strokes, stroke order and the structures of characters are not formally taught, but specially designed exercises are provided in both the Textbook and the Workbook. Each simple character is marked with a stroke order, and students can learn about the structure of a compound character through specifically designed exercises.
■ The radical is an important component of most compound characters, and mastering radicals is very helpful for learning Chinese characters. Teaching experiments indicate that it is difficult to teach radicals in lower grades, therefore radicals are introduced starting Book 3. In this way, students can learn new compound characters more easily while reviewing the ones learned in Books 1 and 2.
■ New words in each lesson do not appear in the form of a “new word list”. Each new word is introduced with Pinyin and English explanations, while some are accompanied with illustrations.
■ Literacy is one of the focuses of this series. When learning the written form of a language, children learn to read first and then write words from memory later. This is how children learn written language. In this series, the learning of new characters, the recurrence of new words and the repetitive exercises are thus designed accordingly.
■ Developing children’s listening and speaking skills is of paramount importance when teaching Chinese to children. Although children can acquire pronunciation naturally, teachers should ensure students speak with accurate pronunciation.
■ Developing students’ reading skills is an important feature of the second edition. Carefully designed conversations, rhymes, different forms of text and various exercises are provided in both the Textbook and Workbook. There is also a short story with vivid illustrations in every lesson of the workbook. Reading materials in various forms help students accumulate characters, words and short sentences gradually before understanding a text fully.
■ Writing begins with writing simple characters, which have fewer strokes, and are easy to write. When learning to write compound characters, tracing them first will increase students’ confidence when writing them later independently.
■ Writing down what one says is the primary stage for beginners developing writing skills. Students learn to write words and short sentences before writing continued sentences.
Some major differences between the first and second editions:
■ Pinyin is not taught in the second edition any more as children have the ability to acquire pronunciation naturally.
■ In the second edition, 61 simple characters are formally taught, compared to 28 simple characters in the first edition. Learning simple characters is the “stepping stone” for learning Chinese characters. Once a certain number of simple characters are mastered, students will learn compound characters more easily and confidently. The teacher should encourage students to memorize the pronunciation, shape and meaning of each simple character.
■ In the second edition, listening skills are no longer practiced separately, but combined with various speaking exercises.
■ The second edition puts more emphasis on the integration of language learning with other subjects in primary school. For example, maths is a compulsory subject for primary school students and memorizing the times table is the secret of learning maths well. Learning and memorizing the times table can not only help students master the usage of numbers in Chinese, but also enable them to learn multiplication with more ease. This is killing two birds with one stone and getting twice the result with half the effort.
《轻松学中文》（少儿版）（第二版）是一套专门为非华裔学生编写的国际中文教材，主要适用于学龄前以及小学一至四年级的学生。
本套教材旨在为学生奠定扎实的中文基础，这个目标是通过语言、主题和文化的自然结合，强调对语言知识的学习，比如对汉字（特别是独体字）、词语和短句的学习，以及对听、说、读、写（书写汉字以及短句）各项技能的训练来达到的。教学的最终目的是培养学生的沟通技能，希望他们在现实生活中能用简单的中文进行顺畅、有效的交流。
课本包含学生提高言语交际能力所需的语言知识，而练习册则配合课本，提供多样化的适龄、有趣的练习及活动来复现、复练、巩固课本中的内容。
除了课本和练习册以外，本套教材还配有汉字书写本、课件、词卡、图卡以及各种数字教学资源等。
《轻松学中文》（少儿版）（第二版）特色：
■ 拼音在少儿版学习阶段不专门教授，但始终伴随汉字一起出现。
■ 汉字的独体字以“形、音、义”的形式出现，并配以生动形象的图片，使学生对所学汉字有充分的认识。
■ 笔画、笔顺及汉字结构不正式教授，但课本和练习册都提供了专门设计的相关练习。每个独体字都标有笔顺。学生通过做特定的练习也会对合体字结构有所认识。
■ 偏旁部首是大部分合体字的重要构成部件，掌握偏旁部首对于学习汉字大有帮助。教学实验显示，在低年级教授偏旁部首难度较大，故本教材从第三册开始正式教授偏旁部首，这样学生在复习第一、二册学过的合体字的同时，更容易学会新的合体字。
■ 生词不以列“生词表”的形式出现，但每个生字、生词都会标注拼音和英文解释，一部分生词还配有图片。
■ 识字是本教材的重点之一。识字在先，默写在后，这是儿童学习书面语的规律。本教材中学习新字和复现、复练新词也按照这一规律进行设计。
■ 听说能力的培养是儿童中文教学的重中之重。虽然儿童能够自然习得语音，但老师也要确保学生说中文时发音准确。
■ 阅读能力的培养是第二版的重要特色。课本和练习册中有精心设计的对话、儿歌以及各种形式的短文和练习。练习册中每课还特别设计了一个配有连环画的短篇故事。各种形式的阅读材料旨在帮助学生逐步积累字、词和短句，最终实现对文本的充分理解。
■ 写字从书写独体字开始，因为独体字笔画较少，容易写。学写合体字时先描红，之后学生独立书写这些字时会更有信心。
■ 写话是培养初学者写作技能的基础。学生先学写词语、短句，之后就能用几句话进行简短的书面表达了。
第二版与第一版的主要区别：
■ 第二版不再在少儿学习阶段教授拼音，因为儿童具备自然习得语音的能力。
■ 第二版正式教授了61 个独体字，而在第一版中只有28 个。学会独体字是学习汉字的“敲门砖”。一旦掌握了一定数量的独体字，学生再学合体字就更容易、更自信了。老师应鼓励学生熟记每个独体字的发音、字形及字义。
■ 第二版中听力练习不再单独设置，而是与各种形式的口语练习相结合，进行听说整体训练。
■ 第二版更强调语言学习与小学阶段其他学科的学习有机结合。例如：数学是小学生的必修课，而熟记中文乘法口诀是学好数学的秘诀。学习和熟记乘法口诀不仅能够帮助学生熟练掌握中文的数字用法，还能让学生更容易地学习乘法，真可谓一举两得，事半功倍。
本套教材共四册，分两个教学阶段：
第一、二册为第一阶段，重点是通过学习独体字帮助学生打好汉字基础，同时培养学生学习中文的兴趣。学生学完一、二册后能用所学的词语、短句就课程中的话题进行简单的交流。
第三、四册为第二阶段，重点是学习偏旁部首以及更多的合体字。通过学习更多的词语、短句，学生能用简单的中文就课程中的话题进行顺畅、有效的交流。
课时建议：
由于本教材的内容是连贯的，教师可以根据学生的中文水平灵活选择系列中某一册作为起点，并随时调整教学进度。一般情况下，如果每天都有中文课，大部分学生能在一学年内学完一册。
By Yamin Ma and Xinying Li, Paperback, Simplified Chinese characters, Pinyin and English, 85-108 pages/book, 9.5”x8.3”
