A Survey Of Cambodian Students' Cognition Of Chinese Festivals And Its Pedagogical Enlightenments

Traditional festival,which bears profound cultural connotations,is closely related to the history and culture of one nation.Chinese traditional festival food is an important part of Chinese traditional festival culture,and also an indispensable dimension for studying Chinese traditional culture.Chinese traditional festivals have a profound impact on overseas Chinese.In Cambodia,many Chinese families have retained the customs and eating habits of traditional Chinese festivals.Traditional festivals with strong Chinese cultural characteristics are an important element of cultural teaching and an important part of teaching Chinese as a foreign language to Cambodians.Carrying out the teaching of Chinese traditional festival food culture at the Chinese school in Cambodia can not only enhance the recognition of Chinese traditional culture among Chinese students,but also promote the overseas spread of Chinese culture.In this paper,the author selected four representative food of traditional Chinese festivals as follows: dumplings/rice cakes(Chinese New Year),rice balls(Lantern Festival),Scorpion(Dragon Boat Festival),Moon Cake(Mid-Autumn Festival)for investigation.The participants are Cambodian students from the sixth grade to the ninth grade of the three Chinese schools in Phnom Penh,Cambodia.They are investigated about their basic cognitions on the Chinese traditional festival diet culture,as well as their learning needs and expectations of the teaching of Chinese traditional festival diet culture.At the same time,the thesis also conducted in-depth interviews with six Chinese teachers from these three Chinese schools to explore the current teaching situations of the Chinese traditional festival food culture and the problems encountered by the Chinese school teachers in process of teaching traditional festival food culture to Cambodian students.The results of the cognition survey show that students from these three Chinese schools have different perceptions of traditional Chinese festivals and festival diets.Regarding the investigation of Chinese traditional festival food culture teaching in Chinese schools,the results of student questionnaire surveys and teacher interviews reveal that the majority of Chinese school students have a strong interest in Chinese traditional festival food culture and have a strong willingness to learn.However,at present,Chinese schools in Cambodia do not pay enough attention to cultural teaching,and they cannot meet the needs of students to learn Chinese culture.In addition,there are still problems such as shortages of teaching resources,the need to improve the teaching level of Chinese schools,and immature Chinese textbooks in the development of cultural teaching in Chinese schools.Combining the personal experience in teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Cambodia,the author puts forward some effective suggestions for Chinese schools in Cambodia from four perspectives of Chinese schools,Chinese teachers,teaching materials,and cultural practices.It is hoped that it will provide a reference for Cambodian Chinese teachers to grasp the characteristics of Chinese school teaching,smoothly carry out cultural teaching activities,and further promote the in-depth and development of cultural teaching research in Cambodian Chinese school.