A Comparative Study Of Chinese And American Intermediate Chinese Comprehensive Textbooks

The quality of the textbooks are significant safeguards in teaching Chinese as a foreign language and are connecting with the development of teaching field of Chinese language. Among the different levels of Chinese teaching, intermediate level, connected primary and advanced level, directly influences the motivation of students and associates with the effect of teaching due to its critical stage in learning Chinese.This thesis has chosen Boya Chinese (Intermediate Level) from China and A New China from the United States to research the idea of compiling textbooks, structure and style, linguistic elements and topics by using the methods of comparative analysis, literature search, content analysis and interview. Nevertheless, to find out the similarities and differences between the textbooks and then to present the enlightenment of textbook compilation.This thesis are composed of four parts:The first part states the significance of the subject and introduces the objects in the textbook research of comparative study in teaching Chinese as a second language; The second part analyzes the idea of compiling textbooks, linguistic elements, etc.; The third part consists of comparative study and enlightenment of compilation; The forth part is the summarized information and conclusion of the whole thesis, which attempts to offer little help in the field of textbook compilation.Similarities, including structure and style, amount and complexity of grammars, have been found from Boya Chinese and A New China:In the aspect of structure and style, both of theirs have well-organized structure; In the aspect of grammars, the amount and the complexity of them are similar. On the other hand, differences, including idea of compiling textbooks, topics, styles, have been found from the two textbooks:In the aspect of the idea of compiling textbooks, the former one focus on the idea of communicative teaching approach and cooperative studying, the viewpoint of organizing the content of courses with topics, vocabulary teaching. The latter one focus on the idea of audio-lingual approach and the real life of modern China; In the aspect of topics, the former one focus on the life described by Chinese people, the development and the transformation of the world. The latter one focus on the life that the overseas students have experienced after they come to China, the change of Chinese society after the reform and opening-up policy; In the aspect of styles, the former one has complex arrangement and careful management. The latter one has clear, simple arrangement and independent management. What’s more, enlightenment of textbooks compilation has suggested:In the aspect of topics, it’s serviceable for the editor to consider interestingness and sequences of topics; In the aspect of linguistic elements, the control of quantity and complexity of grammars, vocabularies should be considered; In the aspect of structure and arrangement, it’s considerable to add the complementary texts according to the complexity of the texts, it’s significant to add traditional character according to the users; it’s useful to show the texts and vocabularies in the same page.