Chinese Phonics aka Pinyin

So, it is probably evident that phonics is an important part of learning any language, but for Chinese, it is even more important.

What is Pinyin?

In short, hanyu pinyin is the official system to transcribe Mandarin /Chinese sounds into the Roman alphabet. It was invented in 1950 and adopted as a standard in Mainland China in 1958. Pinyin literally means - "spelt sounds" aka phonics.
Here are just some reasons why it is important to learn pinyin:
1. That is a great helping tool in mastering the pronunciation and learning how to pronounce the sounds, besides it is not as difficult as English, cause there are no exceptions of the rules and in a very short period of time you can learn all possible sound combinations in Chinese, and there are not so many - about 409, yeah, that is why tones are essential to master too. cause the lack of sound combinations made it really important to follow the correct tones to avoid possible awkward laughter and embarrassing situations.

2. So, the reason number two is basically - tones, it is easier to focus on tones, cause the characters do not have tone symbols, but pinyin conveniently has the tones written above the vowels.

3. You can learn how to read a new character if you know how to read pinyin. So it boosts the confidence of the learner, which is important because at times learning a completely different language might be frustrating, so it is an important pillar that helps you not to float.

4. You can easily find the word in the dictionary if you know both the stroke order and pinyin.

5. You can type in Chinese, sorry to burst some people's bubble but Chinese use the same keyboard as everyone in the world, well some also have Zhuyin which consists of phonetic keys, but most people I know just use either pinyin or handwriting recognition to type.

So, as you see pinyin/ 拼音 is an integral part of mastering Chinese and avoiding learning pinyin might slow down the progress of learning. But beware, even though pinyin is based on roman letters, the sounds they represent do not precisely resemble the English ones. Don't carry away with familiar letters.

Where to start?

I'd recommend starting with vowels and tones. Besides, there are not so many vowels.

Next, go the consonants. I like to use the element of zhuyin, the bopomo song.

I also love this video, it is funny and the melody is catchy, though the ad for their app is getting on my nerves, but oh well, the audio cool so I feel like it is worth sharing =D

I think the easiest way to practice is by singing and playing with flashcards, so I made cute flashcards to play with, you can check the cards by clicking on the link below:

http:// https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Sellers-Im-Following/Add/Yulia-Store

Some simple ideas to play with flashcards:
1. One person names the sound - or combination of sounds - other people show the flashcards.
2. One person shows the flashcards other people say/shout and vice versa.
3. Show the character and let the students show the correct flashcard or write it down.
4. Let one student choose some flashcards and read them, let other students write pinyin in the notebooks, then show the flashcards to check if they wrote correctly. There are plenty of ways how to incorporate the flashcards into the class routine.
A fun way to teach pinyin is to let students practice typing. First, introduce how pinyin input works and let them type a simple text. Then check if the characters were correct. =)
Hope my post was useful, and I would love-love-love to hear your feedback. ^_^