Teaching of Chinese grammars for Hungarian students and study of teaching-grammars
SHS Web of Conferences
Teaching of Chinese grammars for Hungarian students and study of teaching-grammars
Min Zhu 0
0 College of Humanities, Hubei University of Science and Technology , Xianning, Hubei , China
The author taught foreign students Chinese in the Confucius Institute of EötvösLoránd University in Hungary for two years. The mother tongue of Hungarian students is Hungarian in most cases. As Hungarian language (hereinafter referred to as “Hungarian”) is a typical agglutinative language while Chinese is a typical isolating language, there are immeasurably vast differences between the grammatical systems of these two languages. This paper conducted discussion on the problems in teaching Hungarian students Chinese grammars mainly based on three aspects: 1. the similarities and differences between study of Chinese grammars and teaching of Chinese grammars for foreign students; 2. brief summary of the grammatical differences between Chinese and Hungarian to understand several grammatical mistakes which Hungarian students always make; 3. some strategies of teaching Hungarian students Chinese grammars.
1 INTRODUCTION
While teaching Hungarian students Chinese, I could
always hear students saying:
(
1
)*wo xuexi zai xuexiao. (I study Chinese in school.)
(
2
)*wo mama gongzuo meitian xiawu. (My mom
works every day in the afternoon.)
(
3
)*ta you yi shu. (She has one book.)
(
4
)*ta shi zhiyuan de gongsi. (He is staff’s company.)
To solve these problems, common sense of Chinese
grammars must be referred to. It is unfortunate that
many TCSL (Teaching Chinese as a Second Language)
teachers are radical in Chinese grammar
teaching—some teachers completely abandon grammatical
knowledge and correct the syntax error made by
students one by one while some teachers pay too much
attention to grammars. In the former situation,
students may remember the correct syntax of this
sentence, but they may make the same mistake in another
sentence of the same type. In the latter situation, no
class can be given without grammar and students may
get confused as a result.
Therefore, this paper conducted discussion on the
problems in teaching Hungarian students Chinese
grammars mainly based on three aspects: 1. the
similarities and differences between study of Chinese
grammars and teaching of Chinese grammars for
foreign students; 2. brief summary of the grammatical
differences between Chinese and Hungarian to
understand several grammatical mistakes which Hungarian
students always make; 3. some strategies of teaching
Hungarian students Chinese grammars.
2 RELEVANCE AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CHINESE GRAMMARS AND GRAMMARS OF
TEACHING CHINESE AS A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE
For the question of whether to teach grammar in the
teaching of Chinese as a second language, countless
predecessors have given positive answers. This is
decided by the principle of second language
acquisition. In the teaching of Chinese as a second language,
the teaching objects are students who already have
their mother tongue as the first language. If the
students are only told to stimulate and receive no
teaching of grammar, they will only get half the
achievement with twice the effort and lose interest in learning
Chinese.
First of all, let’s take a look at the relations between
Chinese grammar and grammar in the teaching of
Chinese as a second language.
Study of Chinese grammar lays the foundation in
the teaching of Chinese as a second language. People
who know little grammar have no idea of how to start
teaching Chinese. Just as what De-Xi Zhu (1989) said,
“The teaching of Chinese as a second language must
rely on Chinese study; or it will be like a tree without
origin or roots.” “The reason why there’re many
questions cannot be clearly explained in the class is
because fundamental research is in shortage.” “It shall be
emphasized that Chinese study is the foundation of
teaching Chinese as a second language. It is a reserve
force. Without Chinese study, the teaching of Chinese
as a second language cannot make any progress.”
Quan Li (2003) once directly pointed out that “It is not
decided by our will or responsibility of whether to
conduct grammatical study. Grammatical study is a
must…in the long run; grammatical study is the
fundamental way to improve the level and efficiency of
the teaching of Chinese as a second language.”
Is it true that grammar used in the teaching of
Chinese as a seconding language is the same with Chinese
grammar? Of course not! We always say that experts
of Chinese grammar may not be able to give a good
lesson on Chinese for foreigner due to three main
reasons: 1. Although study of Chinese grammar has
made great progress in recent years, the achievement
that can be referred to in the teaching of Chinese as a
second language is far away from being sufficient.
This reason can also interpret why there are many
linguistic phenomena we can’t explain. 2. The study
directions and study objects about the study of
Chinese grammar and gram (...truncated)