Hu - Manual for teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language

Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

Written in an extended dictionary format, the Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language aims to cover all key terms related to teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

Each section contains an introduction with language-specific information, and identifies students and teachers common questions, including the capacity of Chinese as a morphologically unmarked language to indicate categories such as tense and mood. Many entries listed in this manual come with an explanation, a commentary, and rich examples.

The Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language appeals to both Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers and students, as well as being the ideal reference for researchers conducting comparative studies of the Chinese and English languages.

Bo Hu is Instructor of Chinese at the Institute for Chinese Studies, University of Oxford, UK.

Routledge Chinese Language Pedagogy

Series editor: Yongcan Liu

Titles in the series

A Guide to Chinese Teaching Materials

Designing, Selecting, Preparing, and Evaluating (forthcoming)

Wei Jin

Interculturality in Chinese Language Teaching and Learning(forthcoming)

Tinghe Jin

Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

Bo Hu

Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education

Theoretical and Practical Issues

Yang Lu

Technology-Assisted Instruction in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language(forthcoming)

Amber Navarre

The Identity of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in a Global Era(forthcoming)

Zhen Li

The Routledge Advanced Language Training Course for K-16 Non-native Chinese Teachers

Hong Gang Jin, Lian Xue, Yusheng Yang and Lan Zhao Zhou

To see a full range of titles, please visit: www.routledge.com/languages/series/RCLP

Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language

Bo Hu

Contents

This book serves as a convenient all-purpose reference book for professionals teaching Chinese as well as for learners of Chinese as a foreign language. It adopts a dictionary format, listing terms and points of grammar that are crucial in the teaching and learning of the language. Some entries are given translations only whereas many other entries provide discussion and examples. Certain technical terms are used but explanations and contexts are also provided to make them easily understandable.

This book has four general chapters: Pinyin, Words, Grammar, and Characters. The introduction to each chapter provides language-specific information. For example, the introduction to the chapter on Grammar addresses common questions about the ability of Chinese, as a morphologically unmarked language, to indicate grammatical categories such as tense and mood. The chapter introduction also includes a paragraph discussing some methodological issues involved in teaching and learning the language.

This book also stands out in the following aspects: 1) It discusses the difference between English and Chinese in a way that is relevant to both teaching and learning. For instance, the section Special Sentence Structure features particular structures in Chinese that have never before been collated and given sufficient attention; 2) It also pays greater attention to the nuanced differences between function words sharing a degree of similarity, which cause confusion among learners of Chinese, such as and , and , among others; 3) Various sections of the book touch upon the topic of learning strategies in particular when it comes to learning tones and characters in Chinese.

Finally, this book is the product of many years of experience as a Chinese language teacher. I have written it with both teachers and learners in mind, with an emphasis on clarity and user-friendliness.