| Teaching Chinese as a Second Language is a study on the teaching of Chinese language to non-native speakers with an aim to develop competent communication skills in Chinese. Grammar is considered an important part of teaching a second language because it is a basis of one's communicative competency. When learning a new language, a student should learn to master his/her grammatical knowledge of that language. Textbooks are the key media for both teachers and students and they, moreover, serve a very important role throughout the four major elements of teaching Chinese to foreigners. By working on how to select and outline grammatical topics in textbooks, the goal of "easy-to-teach-and-easy-to-learn" style can be achieved. Consequently, the study of outlining grammar in Chinese teaching materials is important, useful and worth for an analysis.This study is based on six sets of primary Chinese teaching materials from selected Thai universities. By using statistic mathematic method on all Chinese Grammar items from these materials became the database for the objective studies. By compare and contrast, analyzing and describing on grammar selection and arrangement on each set of teaching materials as methodology for this article. To find out the common ground and diversity on these materials, and then comment on specific aspects should these be carrying forward or abandoned. It is believed this study can be used as a reference on Chinese grammar teaching in Thailand. The article is divided into six chapters as follows:Chapterâ… :Introduction. This chapter describes the background of the research, topic selection, summary of previous related studies, the main materials, tools and methods of analysis.Chapterâ…¡:This chapter analyzes the selection of Chinese grammar of the six Chinese primary teaching materials from selected Thai Universities. This chapter is divided into three parts respectively. The first part is the study of all grammar items and average numbers of grammar items in each material. The second part is the study on grammar levels which are categorized into A, B, C and D level, based on the level of difficulty as well as those which are not covered by "The Standard of the Chinese Language Level and a General Outline of Chinese Grammar". The third part is the study on grammar items which are shared among the six sets of teaching materials. At the end of the third section, it proposes a set of selected grammar items for basic teaching materials for Thai universities.The article indicates that, out of the four grammar levels, the six sets of textbooks display unbalanced application between level-A grammar and level-B grammar. They generously reapply the basic level-A grammar while the use of level-B grammar is relatively small. In addition, application of level-C and level-D grammar doesn't meet the standards set by "A Standard of the Chinese Language Level and a General Outline of Chinese Grammar". Reflect the grammatical components of teaching the blind and random, resulting in the quality of the sets were quite different.This suggests that authors of Chinese teaching materials should take into account numeral of hours, curriculum and objectives in order to develop an effective content outline. Level-A and level-B grammar should be mainly applied for elementary Chinese class. Level-C and level-D grammar should not exceed 10% of the content. Before developing an outline for Chinese grammar textbook, authors should consider whether the selected grammar items are relevant to the objective the textbook aims to provide. Grammar selection should be based on the optimization of the actual language used in the broad, typical and basic ways of communication. Three or four grammar items per lesson are considered an appropriate proportion. In addition, the authors should also take full advantage of comparative study of Chinese and Thai language in the academic research latest available as guidelines for the preparation of textbooks.Chapterâ…¢:This chapter analyzes the arrangement of grammar of six primary Chinese teaching materials from selected Thai Universities. Firstly, it compares the grammar items arrangement of each set of the selected material. Secondly, it provides an in-depth analysis of the fundamental grammar items in Chinese language which include "question method", "tense" and "complement". Lastly, it proposes some suggestion on grammar item arrangement which authors of Chinese teaching materials for Thai universities should pay attention to.The article shows that different textbooks, written by different authors, have different ways of grammar item arrangement-some spread out the difficulty level of grammar items in each lessons, some show imbalance of grammar item arrangement in each lesson, and some cover only very basic grammar items. This leads to the fact that the studied Chinese grammar textbooks are written on a wide diversity without showing common standards. To develop an effective Chinese teaching material for both teaching and learning purposes, this article suggests the order of grammar items in textbooks should be arranged based on their level of difficulty. According to the research, authors can follow several strategies on grammar item arrangement, including "from easy to difficult", "simple rule of avoidance", "difficulty balance", "distribution and conclusion" and so on. In addition, the repeatability and summary techniques should be focused throughout the textbook.Chapter IV:This chapter describes adequacy and inadequacy on grammar items selection and arrangement of the six sets of materials, and proposes suggestion about Chinese grammar selection and arrangement for their primary Chinese teaching materials used by Thai universities.The article indicates that the six sets of materials are successful in giving the appropriate number of grammar items by mixing a good balance of level-A and level-B grammar practice which is counted for over 50 percent of the content. This is consistent with what the standard Curriculum requires for any basic level of Chinese textbook. In addition, selected grammar items in the six sets of materials reflect the basic grammar of Chinese system of common grammar. The grammar items such as the use of "have", "is, am, are", different kinds of complement, number count and question sentences. In the difficult arrangements, these materials are based on step by step, such as "from easy to difficult", "simple rule of avoidance," "difficulty balance", "distribution and conclusion" and so on. The materials focus on comparing Chinese and Thai language structure which can help Thai students learn from similarity and differences between the two languages.However, the shortcomings include the lack of common standards in grammar item selection and arrangement as well as the relevance to Thai students. There is also insufficient attention to the misuse of three special sentence structures including "Ba", "comparative sentences" and "Bei".The article recommends that authors should control the number of grammar items which are appropriate for elementary Chinese class, and grammar selection should be based on the optimization of the actual language used in the broad, typical and basic ways of communication. The order of grammar items in textbooks should be arranged based on their level of difficulty and relevant to target users. In addition, the authors should aim to develop teaching materials which hold unified standards. Chapterâ…¤:According to the study, it is found that grammar selection and arrangement principles suggested by "The Standard of the Chinese Language Level and a General Outline of Chinese Grammar" also contain certain shortcomings. This chapter examines these problems and provides suggestions in composing Chinese language textbooks for Thais, or composing "The Standard of the Chinese Language Level and a General Outline of Chinese Grammar for Thai people" in the future as a reference.Chapterâ…¥:Conclusion:Summary of the essential parts and study findings.The study has shown that the primary Chinese teaching materials used among Thai universities are lacking uniformity in terms of grammar selection and arrangement which leads to these various sets of materials having different levels of quality. The article argues that if we can expand research work on Chinese teaching materials in Thailand, and drawing on the merits of the existing textbooks, it will improve the quality of Chinese teaching materials for Thai students to be more practical, targeted and uniformed. The quality of teaching materials in Thailand will also be increased. Lastly, this study can contribute to the basis of composing "The Standard of the Chinese Language Level and a General Outline of Chinese Grammar for Thai people" in the future.
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