Name Joel Bellassen | ||
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Discours de m jo l bellassen inspecteur g n ral de chinois
Joël (Marc) Bellassen or Bel Lassen ([ʒoɛl belasɛn]; born Sidi-bel-Abbès, French Algeria in 1950) is a professor (Professeur des universités) of Chinese at Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales and the first Inspector General in the field of Chinese Language Teaching at the Ministry of Education (France). He has been well known in his field in France since he wrote his book Méthode d'Initiation à la Langue et à l'Écriture chinoises (1989, ISBN 2-9504135-1-X, with the collaboration of Zhang Pengpeng) "Initiation to Chinese Language and Writing", which became one of the main textbooks used to teach Chinese in French secondary schools.
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Bellassen approach
Méthode d'Initiation broke the mould for Chinese textbooks by diving straight into the use of single Han characters (zh:字 zì) and only afterwards providing Chinese multi-characters words (zh:詞 cí). The general aim is to immerse the student in the language and culture, with the characters being seen as a primordial element of this.
One of the main aims of the textbook (which uses Simplified Chinese characters and Standard Chinese pronunciation) is to teach the student the following 400 characters.
Bellassen and Zhang later went on to publish book 2 of the course: Perfectionnement à la Langue et à l'Écriture chinoises (1991, ISBN 2-9504135-2-8; and a double edition including book 1: ISBN 2-9504135-0-1). This sequel is even more centred on the characters, with even less grammatical explanation. It aims to teach a further 500 characters and consolidate the absorption of the first 400.
Bellassen has appeared on French television to promote the study of the Chinese language.
