A Study Of Chinese Idioms In Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language

Idiom is a strongly characteristic element in Chinese language. At the same time, it is also an essential but difficult part in the process of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Referring to Makkai’s theory of idioms (1972), this essay divides idioms into two categories:Encoding idioms and Decoding idioms. The Outline of HSK Vocabulary and Chinese Character Level (revised edition) includes119idioms,89of which are encoding idioms and30of which are decoding idioms.Based on a self-conducted survey, this essay will use foreign students as samples and analyze their acquisition condition of two categories of idioms. The result reveals a similarity among different levels of foreign students that the encoding idioms are easier to comprehend, while the decoding idioms are difficult. They find it easier to infer the meanings of encoding idioms from the specific context; on the other hand, it’s a lot more difficult to do the same to the decoding idioms.Therefore, suggestions can be listed as follow:(1) To the teachers,while teaching the encoding idioms, they should firstly explain character by character, and then the meaning of the whole idiom, illustrating with specific examples according with students’general level. However, the decoding idioms should be taught in an integrated manner which includes the literal meaning and original meaning of the idiom, the most-frequent-used meaning of the idiom, the tone of the idiom, the place where the idiom should be placed in a sentence, and also the rules of using.(2) To the learners, they should firstly recognize and understand the idioms rightfully; Secondly, they should use the reference books rightfully while learning.(3)To the writers of compiling the textbooks, they should pay attention to compiling the idioms in a balanced manna, and also the content of textbooks should be interesting and applicable. They should also refer to some certain bibliographies.