About The Significance Of The Homophonic Culture Teaching In The Senior Stage Of The Chinese As A Foreign Language And Measures

Language and culture are interdependent, in the sense that language is not only the carrier of culture but also one of the components of the culture system. None of the world languages is not integrated with its culture. Among all, the Chinese language is a most culturally-dependent language so that in teaching Chinese as a foreign language, it is necessary to bring the Chinese culture into play instead of merely emphasizing the practice of the language skills. It is already well-acknowledged that in teaching Chinese as a foreign language the Chinese culture should be actively involved in the class.The Chinese culture is so extensive and profound that the size of the language-related part is immense. When teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the teachers should bear it in mind that the culture part to be taught should be selected according to the nature and the objective of the actual teaching work. "Cultural conventions guiding communicative behavior" should be the guideline we observe when we make decisions as to which part of the culture should be covered.The homophony of Chinese is a typical example of language-culture interdependency, which is omnipresent in Chinese people's life and fully reflects the Chinese value system and stands for the typical cultural conventions guiding communicative behavior. A full understanding of the Chinese homophony not only ensures the foreign learners of Chinese a good command of the Chinese culture but also helps them overcome the actual communication difficulties hence brought about, therefore enhances Chinese learning and communicating.In this project, we first conducted an investigation of "the coverage of the homophony-related culture" in the textbook of Chinese as a foreign language, the finding of which is that the textbook doesn't offer a fair share to the homophony-related culture. Hence, we carried out another investigation among the overseas students learning Chinese, the result of which indicates that they commonly lack the knowledge of the homophony-related culture. Does this result from the limited coverage of the culture in the present textbook? We then interviewed the same group of overseas students who had filled out the questionnaire and found out that the hypothesis above was proved true.This problem can be tackled, we believe, by making adjustments in the four areas below:the designing of the textbooks, the course arrangement, HSK and the training of Chinese teachers.Culture acquisition is based on the accumulation of language skills, which is even more true with the homophony culture. To understand homophonic words, the speakers have to associate the superficially irrelevant pronunciations and characters with the entities referred to. Without a sound mastery of the language skills, the learners will find it difficult to truly understand its meaning. Therefore, we suggest, the exposure of homophony to the students will produce a better effect if available in the intermediate and advanced learning stages.