David Xuzhou already speaks very clear mandarin, asking him to speak more clearly/slowly might be a legitimate request for a lower level student, but at higher levels hosts/teachers should speak at increasingly natural speeds and challenge students to develop flexibility in their listening.
Jenny is a great host, and she does always speak crystal clear standard Chinese. However if you'd only listened to Chinese like hers and then went to use your Chinese in the real world, you'd most likely be in for a big shock as very few people speak Chinese that clearly in day to day use.
A lot of students believe that a good teacher should slow down their speed of speech to ensure students can understand everything they say. This can be counter productive; a better thing for a teacher/host to do is challenge the student, by providing a more realistic model of natural native speaker like speech while ensuring that the student can understand the main message, as this provides a closer model to language and communication in the real world.
Posted on: Adventures of an Andy Lau Fan on Taobao
January 3, 2010 at 3:44 PMSorry to say but i disagree with Yeguohao.
David Xuzhou already speaks very clear mandarin, asking him to speak more clearly/slowly might be a legitimate request for a lower level student, but at higher levels hosts/teachers should speak at increasingly natural speeds and challenge students to develop flexibility in their listening.
Jenny is a great host, and she does always speak crystal clear standard Chinese. However if you'd only listened to Chinese like hers and then went to use your Chinese in the real world, you'd most likely be in for a big shock as very few people speak Chinese that clearly in day to day use.
A lot of students believe that a good teacher should slow down their speed of speech to ensure students can understand everything they say. This can be counter productive; a better thing for a teacher/host to do is challenge the student, by providing a more realistic model of natural native speaker like speech while ensuring that the student can understand the main message, as this provides a closer model to language and communication in the real world.