The Study Of Measure Word For Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language

Use of measure word is a character of Chinese-Tibetan phylum. Though words representing units exist in some other phylum, they are often confined to express weights and measures, and not a necessary part when numerals are used before nouns (or verbs) to define quantity of objects (or actions). However, in Chinese-Tibetan phylum, especially in modern Chinese, measure word is always an indispensable part in the aforementioned situation. Learning measure words is an emphasis for teaching Chinese as a foreign language and also a difficulty. This paper reviews some currently used text books, grammar outlines and HSK exam questions, and proposes to analyze measure words in five dimensions: etymology, semantic meaning, grammar, context, contrast of Chinese to foreign language, etc. The measure words teaching is divided into five phases. In each phase, measure words are classified into several groups in light of semantic meaning relationship, association relationship, differentiation of synonyms, etc, and corresponding teaching strategies are developed for each group. This method makes it easy for learners to grasp the measure words in five dimensions and to choose them effectively.