Chinese Character Teaching Methods Of Thai University Students, According To The Principle "Dividing The Learning Of Chinese Characters: Read More And Write Less"

Since the beginning of the21st century, Chinese learning in Thailand is booming just as in the other countries and regions all over the world. According to previous researchers and scholars, however, Chinese character teaching has not been paid enough attention to in Chinese learning. The Chinese character proficiency of the Thai students is generally low and Chinese character has become a stumbling stone for them. In that case, it has become very urgent to improve their ability in the use of Chinese characters.The ability of using Chinese characters includes the ability of recognition/reading and production/writing. Most researchers and scholars believe that in Chinese teaching we should divide the learning of Chinese characters:read more and write less, which we agree with completely. We will talk about the reasonable of "read more and write less". Then following this principle, we will investigate and analyses the relevant aspects of the Chinese character teaching and learning in Thailand. After investigation, we chose the textbook "Thai people learning Chinese1" as the object of our study, which is used widely. Firstly we work out the Chinese characters’rank and the frequency of the use in this textbook. Secondly, according to5standards, we work out117writing words and183reading words. The5standards are the words’frequency, stroke effect, typical word source feature, component character ability and word formation proficiency, and also word frequency in Thai, which the first3standards are the main ones. Finally, we put forward some appropriate teaching methods and instructional designs.The paper is divided into four parts. The first part is the introduction of our study background, including the significance, the research methods, the key and difficult points, the theory evidence and practical basis of "read more and write less", the recent research about Chinese character teaching. The second part describes the current situation of Chinese character learning at Ratchaphruek College in Thailand. The third part is about the analysis of the textbooks "Thai people learning Chinese". The fourth part is the teaching methods and designs. Among these, the third and fourth is the focus of our paper. The paper also attaches to4files, which are:questionnaire investigations,151wrong words,117writing characters and the specific standards of the writing characters.Following the principle"read more and write less", we put forward the methods of reading and writing words and the instructional designs. This is the first attempt of Chinese characters teaching in Thailand. The117writing words,183reading words, the character teaching methods and designs can reduce the burdens in preparing lessons of "Thai people learn Chinese". We hope our work can serve the purpose of teaching Chinese characters skillfully and improving the reading and writing ability of Thai university students.