汉字的特点与对外汉字教学

Characteristics of Chinese Characters and Chinese Character Teaching

在对外汉字教学的实践中,师生普遍感觉难学难教。究其原因,通常认为在于汉字笔画多、字数多,所以难写、难记。其实汉字教学的难易是由汉字特点决定的,而汉字的特点表现在形体、理据和功用三个方面。如果跟英文比较,汉字的形体呈二维方块,构形单位如何组合分布、字形与字形如何区别,是学习汉字的难点之一。汉字的理据体现为构件的功能及功能的关联,如何拆分构件并确定构件的功能和关联,是学习汉字的又一难点。汉字的功用多种多样,记录语言的单位有时是词、有时是语素、有时是音节,而且字的单位跟语言的单位不是一对一的关系,同字异词(语素)、同词(语素)异字现象普遍存在,严重影响汉字的正确使用和书面文献的理解,这才是汉字难学的根本原因或者最主要的原因,应该成为汉字教学的重点。根据汉字的特点采取相应措施,对外汉字教学可能会事半功倍。

Given the number of Chinese characters and the strokes making up a single character, it is believed that Chinese characters are difficult both to teach and to learn in TCFL practice. In fact, the difficulty in Chinese character teaching is predetermined by the characteristics of Chinese characters, specifically their form, construction and function. In comparison with English, the form of a Chinese character is two-dimensional, so how to assemble the configuration units and how to distinguish different forms constitute learning difficulties. The construction of Chinese characters embodies the functions of the components and the correlation between the different functions. How to correctly split a charac ter into its components and judge the function of each component and its correlation with others are also difficult in Chinese character learning. The function of Chinese characters is varied and the actual language unit they record can range from word to morpheme, and sometimes to syllable. Moreover, the unit of language and the unit of the character may not always match on a one-to-one basis~ it is a commonly seen phenomenon for different words/morphemes to use the same character and different characters to record the same word/morpheme, which has a severe impact on correctly understanding and using Chinese characters and meanwhile constitutes the real difficulty in Chinese character learning. Chinese character teaching should focus on these points to ensure that international students can overcome the difficulties in Chinese character learning.