Chinese Idioms: Stepping Into L2 Student’s Shoes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.12.1.37-58Keywords:
Chinese idioms, foreign language education, teaching and learning strategies, text corpora, language transferAbstract
Idiomatic expressions play an important role in communication. They are widely used in both spoken and written discourse and are often one of the indicators of native-like proficiency. This paper discusses Chinese idioms chengyu in foreign language education, presents some observations regarding the scope of idioms predicted for the advanced level of Chinese, and introduces conceptual gaps between L1 and L2 as possible reasons for learners’ mistaken usages. This study argues that equipping students with skills and knowledge needed for reaching contextually appropriate use of idioms should be the main goal in the teaching/learning process and provides a set of practical suggestions as to which aspects of teaching idioms should be considered thoroughly.
Downloads
References
Boers, F., Demecheleer, M., & Eyckmans, J. (2004). Etymological elaboration as a strategy for learning figurative idioms. In P. Bogaards & B. Laufer (Eds.), Vocabulary in a Second Language: Selection, Acquisition and Testing (Vol. 10, pp. 53–78). John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/lllt.10.07boe
Center for Language Education and Cooperation. (2021). Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education. https://www.blcup.com/EnPInfo/index/10865#001
Chinese Knowledge Information Processing Group. (1993). Technical Report 93-05: Chinese Part-of-speech Analysis. Academia Sinica. https://ckip.iis.sinica.edu.tw/CKIP/tr/9305_2013%20revision.pdf
Feng, C. 封晨. (2011). Hanyu chengyu de leixing ji keyixing yanjiu 汉语成语的类型及可译性研究. Heihe xuekan 黑河学刊, 08, 30–31.
Gajdoš, Ľ., Garabík, R., & Benická, J. (2016). The New Chinese Webcorpus Hanku – Origin, Parameters, Usage. Studia Orientalia Slovaca, 15(1), 21–33.
Glucksberg, S. (2001). Understanding Figurative Language: From Metaphor to Idioms. Oxford University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195111095.001.0001
Grant, L., & Bauer, L. (2004). Criteria for Re-defining Idioms: Are we Barking up the Wrong Tree? Applied Linguistics, 25, 38–61. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.1.38 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/25.1.38
Hong, B. 洪波. (2012). Duiwai Hanyu chengyu jiaocai bianxie de ji ge wenti 对外汉语成语教材编写的几个问题 On the Writing of Textbooks of Chinese Idioms for Foreign Learners. Journal of Honghe University, 10(3), 81–84.
Ištvánová, M. (2021). On the Use of Corpora in Second Language Acquisition – Chinese as an Example. Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 11(2), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.11.2.131-142 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.11.2.131-142
Jiao, L., Kubler, C. C., & Zhang, W. (2011). 500 Common Chinese Idioms: An Annotated Frequency Dictionary (1st edition). Routledge.
Liu Y. 刘月华, Pan W. 潘文娱, & Gu W. 故韡. (2004). Shiyong xiandai Hanyu yufa 实用现代汉语语法. Shangwu yinshuguan 商务印书馆.
Lujan, H. L., & DiCarlo, S. E. (2006). Too much teaching, not enough learning: What is the solution? Advances in Physiology Education, 30, 17–22. https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00061.2005 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1152/advan.00061.2005
Matlock, T., & Heredia, R. R. (2002). Understanding phrasal verbs in monolinguals and bilinguals. In Bilingual sentence processing (pp. 251–274). North-Holland/Elsevier Science Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(02)80014-0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0166-4115(02)80014-0
Moon, R. (1998). Fixed Expressions and Idioms in English: A Corpus-based Approach. Clarendon Press.
Pan, W. 潘维桂. (2002). Han-Ying Hanyu chengyu yongfa cidian 汉英汉语成语用法词典 A Chinese-English Dictionary of Chinese Idioms. Sinolingua.
Shi, L. 石琳. (2008). Liuxuesheng shiyong hanyu chengyu de pianwu fenxi ji jiaoxue celüe 留学生使用汉语成语的偏误分析及教学策略 (Error analysis of foreing students’ chengyu use and teaching strategies). Xinan Minzu Daxue Xuebao (Renwen Sheke Ban) 西南民族大学学报(人文社科版), 06, 280–283.
Vasiljevic, Z. (2015). Teaching and Learning Idioms in L2: From Theory to Practice. MEXTESOL Journal, 39(4), 1–24.
Wang, L., & Wang, S. (2013). A Study of Idiom Translation Strategies between English and Chinese. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 3(9), 1691–1697. https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.9.1691-1697 DOI: https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.3.9.1691-1697
Wang, S., & Luo, H. (2021). Exploring the meanings and grammatical functions of idioms in teaching Chinese as a second language. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 31(2), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12334 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ijal.12334
Wang W. 王伟. (2016). Brief Analysis of Teaching Ways of Chinese Idioms in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Modern Linguistics, 4(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.12677/ML.2016.41001 DOI: https://doi.org/10.12677/ML.2016.41001
Xia, F. (2000). The Part-Of-Speech Tagging Guidelines for the Penn Chinese Treebank (3.0). IRCS Technical Reports Series, 38. https://repository.upenn.edu/ircs_reports/38
Xiao, B. 肖冰. (2020). Chengyu, yanyu, suyu, guanyongyu, xiehouyu, sanziyu, siziyu 成语, 谚语, 俗语, 惯用语, 歇后语, 三字语, 四字语 (Idioms, proverbs, common sayings, common phrases, allegorical sayings, common expressions (3 characters), common expressions (4 characters)). Xin Ya chubanshe.
Xiao, D. (2016). Errors Made by Foreign Students while Using Chinese Idioms and Corresponding Teaching Strategies. Journal of Mianyang Teachers’ College, 35(09), 10-13+18.
Xiao, R., & Hu, X. (2016). Corpus-Based Studies of Translational Chinese in English-Chinese Translation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41363-6
Xun, E. 荀恩东, Rao, G. 饶高琦, Xiao, X. 肖晓悦, & Zang, J. 臧娇娇. (2016). Da shuju beijing xia BCC yuliaoku de yanzhi 大数据背景下BCC语料库的研制. Yuliaoku Yuyanxue 语料库语言学, 3(1), 93–118.
Yang, Y. 杨玉玲. (2011). Liuxuesheng chengyu pianwu ji “Liuxuesheng duo gongneng chengyu cidian” de bianxie 留学生成语偏误及《留学生多功能成语词典》的编写. Lexicographical Studies, 1, 101–109. https://doi.org/10.16134/j.cnki.cn31-1997/g2.2011.01.013
Zhan, W. 詹卫东, Guo, R. 郭锐, Chang, B. 常宝宝, Chen, Y. 谌贻荣, & Chen, L. 陈龙. (2019). Beijing daxue CCL yuliaoku de yanzhi 北京大学CCL语料库的研制 (The building of the CCL corpus: Its design and implementation). Corpus Linguistics 语料库语言学, 6(1), 71–86.
Zhang, X. (2012). Chengyu as Cultural Performances: Insights into Desigining Pedagogical Materials for Four-character Chinese Idioms [Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures]. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1339698374
Zhang, Y. 张永芳. (1999). Waiguo liuxuesheng shiyong Hanyu chengyu de pianwu fenxi 外国留学生使用汉语成语的偏误分析 (How do foreign students use Chinese idioms – An error analysis). Yuyan wenzi yingyong 语言文字应用, 03, 25–30. https://doi.org/10.16499/j.cnki.1003-5397.1999.03.004
Zhao, Z. (2015). Stories of Chinese Proverbs:The Old Man Who Moved Mountains 中国成语故事：愚公移山. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29585183-stories-of-chinese-proverbs
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Mateja PETROVČIČ
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
