A Study On Ba And Its Teaching Strategies As A Second Language

This paper analyzes the sentences in the corpus of State Language Commission, separately investigating the meanings and usages of classifier ba as individual classifier, collective classifier and verbal classifier.Individual classifier ba could be used to describe things as well as capable people. These things could be with and without a handle, or some part of it with the function of a handle. When the classifier is used to describe a person, it means that he is very good at something, or he is a person with a rank. Collective classifier ba could be used for solid things and abstract things. These solid things either could be wrapped by a hand, or could be held in a hand, or with the same quality as liquid.Besides, when this classifier is used to describe abstract things, it is for abstract nouns. Verbal classifier ba counts movements, used to count those movements having something to do with hands, with the same meaning as classifier xia. Verbal classifier ba can be used both before and behind verbs.The last chapter of this paper investigates classifier ba in the textbook of comprehensive course of Developing Chinese, then suggests some strategies of teaching classifier ba as a second language.The teacher could compare Chinese with foreign languages, firstclarify the similarities between these languages, then introduce the unique character of the Chinese language to the students. Take English as an example, individual classifier could be hard for English native speakers to learn. So, the teacher should teach collective classifier and verbal classifier first, then, teach individual classifier. Second, the teacher could teach with teaching aids. Then, the teacher could help students to build a network of the usage of classifier ba. Besides, the teacher should try to provide a good environment for the students to learn real Chinese, to put this classifier back into its context, and to teach it in articles. Finally, the teacher could clarify the difference between similar classifiers, and to explain the reason of their usage, and to interpret the meaning of these synonyms.