Investigation And Study On The Acquisition And Teaching Of Chinese Redundant Negation Structures In Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language

Redundant negation structures are very special grammatical structures in modern Chinese.Although this kind of structures contain negative words such as "不(bu),没(mei),别(bie)",they don’t indicate negative meanings.For example,"差点儿没摔倒" equals“差点儿摔倒" and "好不热闹" equals "好热闹" Due to the speciality,the redundant negation structures are difficult points for foreign students who learn Chinese.Thus studies that help us explore foreign students’ acquisition of this kind of structures and relevant Chinese teaching are very valuable.However,despite many studies have touched upon the structures themselves,there are limited researches from the perspective of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.Consequently,how to teach redundant negation structures becomes a problem.In the process of the acquisition of redundant negation structures,foreign students will inevitably influenced by the corresponding positive forms,as a result of which this essay also takes the corresponding positive forms into consideration.Based on previous studies,this study selects the following five typical structures as research content:"差点儿(没)VP","好(不)AP","小心(别)VP","(没)VP 之前/以前" and "(不)一会儿".The subjects of this study are foreign students at intermediate and advanced Chinese level from the Institute for International Students,Nanjing University.Questionnaires and relevant statistical methods are adopted to gain a close insight into the acquisition status of the subjects.What’s more,an error analysis is involved in the questionnaire data analysis to identify the reasons that lead to various errors.Additionally,this study also collects questionnaires from Chinese teachers and examines relevant textbooks.From the data gathered,we hope to gain a close insight into the teaching and textbook compilation of redundant negation structures.Problems and deficiencies that we detected in the teaching activity and textbook compilation are listed in details.Based on the above three research sections,this essay proposes some reasonable suggestions concerning the teaching and textbook compilation of redundant negation structures.Four major conclusions are derived from our study:Firstly,the overall acquisition of redundant negation structures is unsatisfactory.To be more specific,"(没)VP 之前/以前”and "小心(别)VP" are comparatively better acquired,while "差点儿(没)VP","好(不)AP" and "(不)一会儿" are not.Secondly,based on the analysis by SPSS,we find that there is a substantial difference in the acquisition process between intermediate-and advanced-level foreign students,which means that the original Chinese language ability influences the acquisition of redundant negation structures.Thirdly,the acquisition of redundant negation structures largely depends on the specific structure.Errors which appear in the process of understanding and using relevant structures,result from the corresponding positive/negative structures.Lastly,there are several problems exist in the teaching activities and textbook compilation of redundant negation structures.Due to lack of attention,many Chinese teachers fail to give an explicit explanation of certain structures and cannot review them in time.Problems such as inadequate and un-systematical contents,confusing explanations,inadequate and inflexible exercises occur frequently in the five textbooks that are being studied.Based on the analysis of the acquisition and teaching of redundant negation structures,this essay proposes some suggestions that can be applied into the actual teaching activities.Teachers can adopt the following four teaching methods:the comparative method,the listing method,the situational method and the error-presenting method.Compilers of textbooks should pay attention to the following four aspects:firstly,the selection of specific structures should be based on students’ language ability;secondly,accuracy of annotations must be guaranteed,and the comparison between redundant negation structures and corresponding positive forms should be strengthened;thirdly,the acquisition pattern of redundant negation structures should also be emphasized,based on which the compilation of textbooks ought to be more logical and systematical;lastly,enough and more flexible exercises should be provided.