Study On The Textbooks Mandarin Manual(1-4) Written By Sheng Yan&Ou Qichao

In 1991,Sheng Yan and Ou Qichao,invited by Macao government,came to Macao and then compiled Mandarin Manual.These textbooks are designed for native Portuguese and Portuguese civil servants.Mandarin Manual consists of eight books in six volumes,the first four of which are primary textbooks and the last four of which are intermediate textbooks.Taking the textbooks of Mandarin Manual(1-4)as the research object,this paper briefly introduces the compilers,the compilation background and the compilation style.Adopting quantitative analysis and graphical method,this research studies on the lexical,grammatical,textual cultural aspects of four primary textbooks.This research achieves the following four findings:(1)From the lexical aspect: Statistically speaking,the selection of words in textbooks attaches great importance to the localization.These textbooks have chose appropriate way to translate different words according to the characteristics of words.But there are also three shortcomings: the difficulty of vocabulary is slightly higher than that in primary textbooks.The vocabulary gap between each textbook is large;the interpretation of new words is too much,and the translation of some new words is not appropriate.(2)From the grammatical aspect: The grammatical points of level A and level B have a higher proportion.The grammatical points are explained by means of trilingual interpretation and example interpretation,which is easy to understand.But there are two shortcomings: the number of grammatical points is too small.The grammatical order doesn't conform to the principle of gradual and orderly progress;the grammatical explanation does not fully reflect the contrast between Chinese and Portugal.(3)From the textual aspect: The difficulty of first three textbooks is suitable for primary learners.The theme and genre are widely chosen,focusing on practicality and interest.The textual setting and content are mainly based on Macao,Portugal,mainland China and Hong Kong,which reflects localization.The textbooks provide many typical characters.However,there are still two shortcomings: the length of the fourth volume is too long and doesn't meet the student's learning level.As a specialized textbook,the theme and genre of “civil servants” are few.(4)Cultural aspect: The textbooks have large capacity of cultural points,strong practicability,comprehensive selection of cultural point.In addition,the textbooks emphasis on cross-cultural communication,and focus on localization.But there are also uneven distribution of cultural types.By analyzing and summarizing the characteristics and shortcoming,this paper puts forward some suggestions.This paper is expected to give some enlightenment to the compilation of Chinese-Portuguese textbooks.