Research On The Comparative Analysis Of New Practical Chinese Reader And Great Wall Chinese:Essentials In Communication

Textbooks are the basics of teaching content, they are teachers' assistants, and also students' assistants. The method of compilation of a textbook affects teaching quality, and hence affects teaching and learning results. Given that New Practical Chinese Reader and Great Wall Chinese: Essentials in Communication (hereafter referred to as NPCR and GWC) are the most widely used textbooks for teaching Chinese language to foreigners, this study chose to analyze and compare them. It focuses on analyzing and comparing the compilation of language elements in the first series of the two textbooks.The content of this study is divided into five main parts:The first part, the comparative analysis of the phonetics part of NPCR and GWC,mainly compares the amount of phonetic points, the distribution of phonetic points,the content of phonetic points and also the explanation of phonetic points as compiled in the two textbooks.The second part is the comparative analysis of the vocabulary section of NPCR and GWC. It compares the two textbooks' compilation of the amount of new words(total amount and amount in each unit), style of presentation of vocabulary, as well as style of interpretation of vocabulary.The third part, the comparative analysis of the grammar section of NPCR and GWC, compares the amount of grammar points, the style of presentation of grammar points, and the style of explanation of grammar points as compiled in the two textbooks.The fourth part is the comparative analysis of the Chinese characters section of NPCR and GWC. This part compares the amount of Chinese character points and the content of Chinese character points as compiled in the two textbooks.The fifth part which is Evaluation and Recommendations is basically a summary and evaluation of the results of the comparative analysis done in the first four parts of the study. It also includes recommendations for the revision of NPCR and GWC as well as the revision and compilation of other elementary level textbooks for teaching Chinese language to foreigners.This study adopted the methods of literature analysis, comparative induction and statistics, and concludes that in comparison with GWC, NPCR is more suitable for students with no prior knowledge of Chinese language. As for the shortcomings of the two textbooks, this study offers recommendations, tagged "four shoulds" which are:Should regulate the amount and distribution of knowledge points, Should ensure regularity in the compilation of new words, Should provide explanations for language points, Should arrange adequate examples.This study believes that "four shoulds" would be of great help with regards to the revision of NPCR and GWC as well as the revision and compilation of other elementary level textbooks for teaching Chinese language to foreigners.