A Study Of The Current Elementary Oral Chinese Teaching For International Students In Xinjiang University

Oral Chinese is one of the most critical Chinese courses. The primary aim of elementary oral Chinese is to stimulate students’interest in learning Chinese and create a relaxed and cheerful learning atmosphere so that students can apply what they have learned into practical life. The most difficult task of this course teaching is how to induce the students to speak Chinese and how to assist them to speak it well.This thesis surveyed the basics of elementary oral Chinese to international students which include the students’structure, the course book, the curriculum design, the teacher allocation, and the teaching methods and so on. By applying interviews, classroom observation, questionnaire and class attendance, it analyzed, compared, deduced and generalized the materials gathered. The questionnaire to101foreign students in Xinjiang University includes items on their learning aims, Chinese learning duration, the teaching methods they expect from their teachers, the degree of their satisfaction with the elementary oral Chinese teaching and the supplementary teaching means they expected that the teacher shall use in classrooms.Due to the influence of certain factors such as nationality, age, national character, learning habits and so on, foreign students are inclined to loving certain teaching methods, such as performances, situational dialogues and role-play that can reflect their personalities and talents. They also love to accept novel means, such as the use o f multi-media, OHP and network, to learn Chinese. However, in reality, most of the teachers still rely on some semi-(pseudo-) communicative teaching methods, like Q&A, imitation, picture, game, and card which fail to meet foreign students’demand and produce some negative effects on students’interest and motivation. Besides, most of the foreign students in Xinjiang University, coming from Central Asia countries, are apt to make certain mistakes in learning Chinese phonetics and grammar, due to from their mother tongue negative transfer, lack of confidence, being afraid of making mistakes and being shy to speak.Taking into consideration the problems and the current situation of the elementary oral Chinese teaching in Xinjiang University, this thesis puts forward pedagogical suggestions. A teacher of the elementary oral Chinese teaching should emphasize the diversity and practice of the teaching materials and apply diverse teaching methods. Meanwhile, they should timely help their students to learn Chinese effectively in line with the students’learning habits and their psychology. This thesis hopes to offer some reference to the improvement of the elementary oral Chinese teaching to foreign students in Xinjiang University, even in Xinjiang higher learning institutions.