Survey On Chinese Character Teaching In The Confucius Institute Of Cameroon

In recent years,more and more Cameroonian students have turned their interest to learning Chinese.In 2007,China established the first Confucius Institute in Cameroon,thus the increasing interest in China and the Chinese language.There are great differences between Cameroon and China in mother tongue and culture.Nevertheless,although more and more people are learning Chinese in Cameroon,the lack of a long-standing Chinese teaching history in Cameroon especially Chinese characters is the reason Cameroonian students lag behind in Chinese character acquisition.In teaching Chinese as a foreign language,Chinese characters are the most difficult for foreigners to learn.The author finds that many students of the Confucius Institute of Cameroon face much challenges in learning Chinese characters,and some even give up learning Chinese because of these difficulties.Therefore,it is necessary to conduct targeted research on the teaching of Chinese characters for Cameroonian students.This work is divided into four parts:The first part is the introduction which includes the research proposal,research objectives and contents,research hypothesis and research methodology.Chapter 1,Brief introduction of Confucius Institute.Teaching methods and materials used at the Confucius Institute of CameroonChapter 2 is the survey conducted on Chinese characters teaching at Confucius Institute of Cameroon.Through questionnaires and interviews conducted on 21 Chinese teachers and 20 Cameroonian students.Surveying the students' foundation for Chinese character acquisition,their impression of the teaching techniques,the challenges they face when learning Chinese characters,and their opinions on the progress of Chinese character acquisition.Based on the analysis of the survey results,the importance of teaching and researching Chinese characters is put forward.The author concludes that the teaching methods for the acquisition of Chinese characters are fixated,and that there are limited opinions and suggestions for Cameroonian students.Chapter 3 focuses on the problems and suggestions inclusive to Chinese character teaching at the Confucius Institute of Cameroon.It includes teaching methodology and courses arranged for learning,and students' attitudes and practices in learning Chinese characters.In order to help Cameroonian students,improve their Chinese character learning situation,the author also emphasizes that Confucius Institute introduce a special course dedicated to teaching Chinese characters from fundamentals to details,instead of relying on comprehensive courses to teach Chinese characters.The author thus proposes a series of lesson plans and strategies to help learners develop their Chinese character acquisition level.