Research On The Exercise Of "Chinese Character Breakthrough"

Following the rapid development of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages(TCSOL)since the 1990 s,it has become ever more important to pay proper attention to the development of each individual aspect of the discipline.The teaching of Chinese characters,for example,is particularly worthy of our discussion.Numerous higher educational institutions both in and out of China have already begun to offer independent courses,solely for the purpose of teaching Chinese characters.This has not only lead to the publication of a wide range of new and innovative specialized Chinese character textbooks but also a surge in academic interest on the topic.This paper is based on the cross-referencing of past research on such specialized Chinese character textbooks and investigates into their exercises,which despite playing a crucial part of any educational material,have not as yet been subject to adequate research.This thesis focuses its investigation on the specialized Chinese character textbook Chinese Character Breakthrough,which is widely renowned for the abundance and diversity of its written exercises.In combination with its counterpart Chinese Character Breakthrough(Text),this paper shall also use both questionnaires and statistical data-collection methods to conduct an in-depth,longitudinal analysis of Chinese Character Breakthrough(Exercises).This paper is comprised of a total of five sections.The author focuses on the Chinese character textbook Chinese Character Breakthrough,providing an multifaceted,in-depth analysis on the entire series of written exercises in Chinese Character Breakthrough.This includes analyses from a total of four different angles,such as the type of exercise,its difficulty,proportion and the frequency of new characters.Through both research and analysis,the author has come to better understand not only the scientific and practical principles behind the design of exercises in this book,but has also noted the need to pay better attention to the difference between how learners and teachers of Chinese characters respectively understand the exercises they use.What's more,the author has also uncovered a set of editorial techniques hidden behind the stand-alone exercises used in Chinese character textbooks designed for the independent learner.There is,however,a dire need for the establishment of a scientific criteria for the evolution of exercise difficulty.In addition to this,although each exercises may have its own particular aims and frequency,an overall imbalance should be subjected to further adjustment according to the average frequency of new words.A total of 1064 new words appear in the exercises,making up for a mere 43.42% of all the words in the book.For this reason,at both the present and in the future,Chinese character exercise books should take more consideration into whether or not learners can receive ample practice whislt completing their exercises.This paper shall use a series of detailed statistics to present the overall state of the exercises in Chinese Character Breakthrough,the author shall also rely on the statistical collection and analysis of questionnaire results,hence linking the exercises themselves with the learner and teacher.What's more,the author shall also sift through the problems encountered during the aforementioned investigation and acts as an post-research discussion,putting forward a series of suggestions for the future compilation of similar Chinese character textbooks and exercises.Through the above research,especially the emphasis on strengthening particular areas of improvement in Chinese character textbooks,the author hopes to further enrich the wider academic field ofreseachon Chinese character exercises.Furthermore,it is also hoped that through the presentation of the editorial state of exercises in stand-alone Chinese character textbooks,Chinese language teachers will be able to better guide their students and aid their students' completion of related exercises.What's more,though the understanding of foreign students' preferences towards exercise-type and the comparison of this to both Chinese and foreign teachers' judgements of their suitability,this paper shall act as reference for the future editing of country-particular Chinese character exercises.Finally,through the recognition and organisation of current editorial problems,this paper shall put forward a series of suggestions,hence promoting the more scientific development of exercises in stand-alone Chinese character textbooks.