A Study On The Cultural Vacancy Of Chinese As A Foreign Language And Its Classroom Application

Since the concept of the vacant terms was introduced into China in the 1980s, there have been extensive concern of and attention to it in the academia. A great number of researches have been going on with outstanding and valuable achievements in the fields of translation and intercultural communication. Nevertheless, the theories of vacant terms have not drawn sufficient attention among scholars.According to the study results, quite a number of words and expressions related to the unique Chinese cultural features have become the difficult language points for the international students. Based on a systematic summary of the research findings and categorization criteria of previous scholars, the present thesis aims at exploring and analyzing the culturally vacant terms in teaching Chinese as a foreign language while referring to the requirements for culural knowledge in the Common Curriculum of International Chinese Teaching and the reading textbook of Developing Chinese. In addition, the thesis also makes a profound investigation of and discussion about the causes for the international students’ mistakes in culturally vacant terms and puts forward some teachinig suggestions for teaching improvement.Besides the preface and conclusion, the present thesis consists of three chapters. In the first chapter, the author has provided definitions of the vacant terms and culturally vacant terms and the analysis content of the culturally vacant terms in this thesis. Based on previous studies, this chapter also introduces the classification criteria of analyzing the culturally vacant terms. The second chapter has calculated and analyzed the culturally vacant terms in the reading textbook of Developing Chinese. After comparing the the culturally vacant terms in the reading textbook of Developing Chinese with the cultural knowledge as stipulated in the Curriculum, an analysis has been made on the distribution of the culturally vacant terms in Developing Chinese. In the third chapter, suggestions have been made on the teaching of culturally vacant terms based on the acquisition status of non-Chinese speakers. Three survey questionnaires were designed based on the culturally vacant terms at the preliminary, intermediate, and advanced levels in the reading textbooks of Developing Chinese. Then, they were sent out to the international students who have studied the reading textbooks. The collected questionnaires were analyzed, with mistakes on culturally vacant terms singled out and causes explored. Based on the above, suggestions are made for the improvement of teaching of culturally vacant terms in teaching Chinese to international students, and a teaching plan of one particular text has been worked out.The significance of this thesis lies in three aspects. First, it clarifies the main categories of Chinese culturally vacant terms, which can facilitate the implementation of teaching such terms in teaching Chinese to international students. Second, the present study can help the teachers of Chinese as a foreign lnaguage obtain a more profound understanding of the culturally vacant terms and more sufficient recognition of the necessity and importance of emphasizing culturally vacant terms in their everyday teaching, thus increasing their teaching quality.