A Comparative Study Of Exercises In Chinese And German Elementary Chinese Textbooks

Exercise is an important part of teaching Chinese as a second language.Those who are learning Chinese outside China do not have many opportunities to use Chinese,so exercise is especially important to them during their learning.Through reviewing the studies and researches literature,I found that many scholars have researched the design of textbook exercises,and had accordance opinions on the principles of exercise designing ard purpose of designing exercise.However,about the quantity,depth and breadth of those researches,the study of exercise is still the weak link in textbook research.In recent years,Chinese teaching in Germany has made remarkable progress,the local teaching material has also made some achievements.After the Commom European Framework of Reference for Languages(CEF)was established and developed,the teaching of Chinese as well as the compilation of Chinese textbooks in Europe has changed.During my internship of teaching in Germany,I refered several Chinese textbooks to design my own exercise.I found that Chinese and German textbook writers shared some commonalities and showed different tendencies in exercise design.Through a comparative study of between Chinese textbooks used in Germany,I would like to point out the shortcomings of exercises in these textbooks,explain the characteristic exercises and draw inspiration from it.I chosed "Road to Success" and "Liao Liao" as model textbook by fittering the applying environment,target students,publishing period,types and philosophy of designing teaching material.I found that Chinese and German textbook writers were tended to design abundant exercise in textbooks.Many of them were comprehensive exercises and were closely connected to foregoing ones.By analysing the exercise type of the two sets of textbooks,I found that the exercises,which focused on,the training of Chinese language form and structure accounted for half of the total."Road to success" paid more attention on skill training,"Liao Liao" focused more on communication.Exercises in two sets of textbooks also showed different tendencies.Chinese textbook writers paid more attention to Chinese characters,they designed a large number of literacy exercises.German textbook writers paid more attention to the interaction among learners and focused on listening and speaking skills.Although group activity is one of the common types of exercise,chinese textbook writers see grouping as the way of creating communicating environment while German textbook writers regarded grouping as a method of forming interactions and mutual assistant.In addition,there are certain problems in two sets of textbooks.Teaching Chinese in the non-Chinese environment,"Road to success"contained excessive Chinese character exercises,insufficient grammar exercises,lacking of context in designing of exercise."Liao Liao" is lack of Chinese characters exercise,many grammar and language materials are incorrect.These errors will hold back the Chinese learners from understanding,masterying and applying of Chinese in the furture,and this issue is supposed to paid more attention.