A Dynamic System Theory Approach To Chinese Attrition As A Foreign Language

With the development of China, Chinese is becoming a hot language in the world. The Chinese course is carried out formally as a second language course by various education institutions in many countries of Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Presently, there are 327 Confucius Institutes and 369 Confucius Classes established by Hanban (China national office for teaching Chinese as a foreign language) in the world to carry on the Chinese courses and popularize Chinese culture. Therefore, teaching Chinese as a foreign language is becoming a hot topic in the field of second language acquisition. In the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the process and final degree of Chinese acquisition is affected by Chinese attrition and Chinese teaching method. The thorough research on Chinese attrition is not only helpful in keeping the learners'basic communicative competence when they stop or decrease using Chinese, but also has a significant guidance in the strengthening of the key steps in teaching link and the corresponding training.Based on the research achievements of Dynamic System Theory in the field of second language acquisition, the thesis discusses in detail the theoretical significance of Dynamic System Theory to Chinese attrition and Chinese teaching methods. By utilizing questionnaires and conducting interview, the researcher tries to find out the characteristics of Chinese attrition, the internal and external factors that may affect Chinese attrition as well as the similarities and differences of Chinese attrition and English attrition, thus to grasp how to limit the extent of Chinese attrition. This study also takes a classroom teaching as a case study, in which the teacher took implicit instruction, explicit instruction as well as the interaction of implicit and explicit instruction respectively to teach Chinese as a foreign language. Then tests were given to the students who were taught by different instructions. By using SPSS 17.0, some comparison was made between the results.Through the combination of the qualitative and quantitative analysis, the research results show that the interaction of implicit and explicit instruction is more effective in promoting Chinese acquisition and reducing the Chinese attrition.