Chinese Character Teaching To Overseas Students Of Alphabetic Language Background

Today, the number of people studying Chinese as a second language has reached over 40 million. For the students from an alphabetic language background, spoken Chinese is comparative easy to learn while Chinese characters are hard to remember, which has been a major barrier in the international promotion of Chinese. Currently the discussion on the teaching of Chinese characters focuses mainly on a) if it is appropriate for the beginners to learn Pinyin only?; b) Should speaking come before writing or should they both be taught simultaneously?; and c) should reading and writing be separated or combined? There has not a universal approach to the teaching of Chinese characters to students of varied backgrounds. Based on the above information, in terms of the present situation of Chinese teaching, the oncology recognition of Chinese characters, the difference between Chinese teaching among different students, and the teaching techniques, the paper presented the author's study and teaching experience, aiming at enhancing the study of related theories and pedagogyThe paper holds that in teaching, it is first required to find out the varied background and motivation of overseas students of Chinese. Some come for short-term Chinese study along with sightseeing while others may spend years to finish an undergraduate program. Some students come from a "circle of Confucius culture" like Japan. South Korea. Vietnam and the Chinese character is not unfamiliar to them while others come from an alphabetic language background like Europe, the U.S., the Middle East, and Africa and thus the Chinese character is completely new to them.Therefore the paper proposed that a) to the short-term learners, Pinyin and spoken Chinese are taught first; b) to the long-term overseas students, systematic Chinese character teaching is necessary. Among the long-term learners, spoken and writing of the Chinese character are to be taught simultaneously to the learners from Chinese culture background and spoken is to be taught before writing to the students from the alphabetic language background and the teaching of character writing is to be implemented afterwards.Furthermore, the paper holds that in the teaching of Chinese, the mother language background and the Chinese teaching levels should be distinguished. For instance, the learners of an alphabetic language background should be considered as babbling beginners and for a period of time, only Pinyin and spoken Chinese are taught. In this way, the information of a new type of language is input efficiently. Better effects will be achieved if the grapheme and meaning of Chinese characters are taught after they have gained some knowledge of the pronunciation, meaning, and the practicality of Chinese. In terms of level differentiation, the paper proposes that there should be three levels, namely, primary, intermediate and advanced. Thus there is a gradual progress in the teaching of strokes, radicals, phonogram characters, and the culture of characters.