A Comparative Study Of Modern Chinese And English Kinship Terms

Kinship terms as a common phenomenon are widely used in our daily communication, and it plays an important role in our daily life. So make a comparison of different cultural words is a very necessary method to better understanding different nationality’s history and culture. As communication between Chinese and western countries is becoming more and more frequent, the study of kinship terms are becoming more and more important. So does the study of culture background. This paper mainly studies on kinship terms. It is from teaching Chinese as a foreign language perspective on the contrastive study of modern Chinese and English kinship terms and culture and tries to find out some good teaching methods.This paper which pays much attention to the English background students’master of our Chinese kinship address terms is based on the predecessor’s research, from the point of view of language and culture contrast between Chinese and English, and through the questionnaire, find their problems and try to find solutions. What’s more, the most important part is to find some better teaching methods of Chinese kinship address terms.This paper is mainly composed by five parts. The first part introduces the related terms of modern kinship address, the present domestic and foreign research and their problems, the research significance, content and methods of this article. The second part analyzed both Chinese and English kinship address system, and their classification and their characteristics. The third part makes a contrast of Chinese and English kinship address system and points out their similarities and differences. The fourth part, based on the analysis above, takes the questions reflected by the questionnaire into consideration, and puts forward some suggestions to the students of the English countries background for teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The fifth part summarizes the significance, the limitations and difficulties of this research.