Research On The Establishment And Teaching Application Of The Morpheme Item Database About New HSK(Level1- 4) Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a key criterion to assess a learner’s language proficiency. Speaking,listening, reading and writing competences are all influenced by the learner’s vocabulary, and the development of language ability depends on it. Vocabulary teaching has always been a critical but difficult part in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Therefore, the educational field keeps exploring and trying new teaching concepts and modes in order to improve teaching efficiency. At present, the prevailing vocabulary-oriented teaching idea and method is being enriched by morpheme teaching method and character-oriented teaching method. After all, what kind of teaching method and mode is best for the development of vocabulary teaching? This remains a question to be answered. Moreover, the implementation of morpheme teaching and character-oriented teaching does not cover all Chinese morphemes or characters, as it should be limited by some conditions. This paper will investigate into the word-forming frequency of morphemes to build compound words, complexity of sememic morphemes in compound words, and the relationship between morpheme meaning and word meaning. It further explore the internal law of Chinese vocabulary.More specifically, this paper is based on the vocabulary syllabus of new HSK Level 1 to 4. It establishes a word base, splits basic words into morphemes, and sorts out morphemes with a word-forming frequency more than twice to analyze their sememic morpheme properties, so as to make suggestions for morpheme teaching.This paper has five parts.Chapter I IntroductionIn this chapter, the significance of this subject is pointed out. The status quo,theoretical basis and research findings of vocabulary teaching and morpheme teaching both at home and abroad are concluded and summarized here. Moreover, the methodology adopted in this research is explained.Chapter II The establishment of a new HSK vocabulary sememic morpheme databaseAs a fundamental part of the research, this chapter mainly concerns about the establishment of morpheme database and sememic morpheme database. Morphemes are extracted from 1,200 words required by new HSK Level 1 to 4. A metrical study is carried out to examine the distribution of morphemes in the vocabulary syllabus, the distribution of their first word-forming cases and their word-forming frequencies.Morphemes are sequenced by their word-forming frequency in a descending order,and high frequency morphemes are selected as research objects. Then, sememic morphemes are listed, and their properties including grammatical function, morpheme meaning, word-forming quantity, words formed in the syllabus, level, way of word-forming, and semantic transparency, etc. are indicated, thus to establish a sememic morpheme database.Chapter III Comprehensive analysis of sememic morphemes in the databaseA comprehensive analysis of properties of morphemes included in the database is carried out in this chapter. Morpheme properties and word-forming laws are studied and explained by examining their word-forming ability, the relationship between morpheme meaning and word meaning, sememic morpheme numbers and degree of concentration, both qualitatively and quantitatively. It analyzes the distribution of polysemous morphemes, the grammatical category of sememic morphemes, word formation, the relationship between free/bound morphemes and their word-forming abilities, and semantic type and obvious degree of sememic morpheme in detail. This chapter provides a scientific basis for the implementation of morpheme teaching.Chapter IV Implementation of the morpheme pedagogyThis chapter discusses how to apply morphemes from the database in practical TCSL vocabulary teaching. It is suggested to try to grade morphemes and identify teaching resources. Determine difficulty level of acquiring different morphemes according to word-forming type, the word itself, obvious degree of morpheme, and word level, and then formulate a teaching sequence. Customize teaching strategies and methods for different morphemes based on various factors, such as obvious degree of sememic morpheme and sequence in the syllabus, etc. Such implementation should be executed through the whole teaching process from vocabulary teaching,practice to reviewing. However, limitations of morpheme teaching are also indicated in this chapter.Chapter V ConclusionThis conclusive chapter suggests enlightenments to vocabulary teaching,including suggestions of revising the degree syllabus, and preparing supportive teaching materials. This chapter also describes limitations of this study and issues worth further research.