A Study Of Cultural Elements In Testing Chinese As A Foreign Language

Many teachers pay too much attention on the output of grammar itself in teaching Chinese as a foreign language; they emphasize the importance of the teaching of language structure, which mainly follows the example of the traditional second language teaching model in western countries. They put the "structure" in the first place; emphasizing the view of language teaching is centered on the syntax. However, the teaching theory is based on the characteristics of western languages, which is not entirely consistent with the Chinese teaching practice. It ignores the two projects of "function" and "culture" and puts the language teaching and culture teaching separated. We advocate the teaching mode of a combination of "structure-function-culture". We should highlight the functionality of the language and use culture as the carrier of test questions. In this paper, through the classification and comparison of cultural elements involved in new and old HSK the author found that whether in new or old version of the Chinese language Proficiency Test there are a great number of cultural themes, cultural elements. As we know, in foreign Chinese teaching, whether it is in order to help the students to improve their language skills, in order to pass the HSK exam or for compiling textbooks, culture still can serve as a good starting point, which is decided by the close relationship between language and culture. In specific teaching process, language and culture are inseparable and they are two sides of one unity. Therefore, the author suggests that the relationship of culture and language should be more taken seriously in Chinese classroom teaching and process of compiling textbooks. Only in this way, we can achieve good results in the international promotion of Chinese language.