The current paper presents the linguistic analysis of a Chinese greeting “nihao” in both literature and reality, and compares the practical use of “nihao” by both native and non-native Chinese speakers, which lead...The current paper presents the linguistic analysis of a Chinese greeting “nihao” in both literature and reality, and compares the practical use of “nihao” by both native and non-native Chinese speakers, which leads to a discussion of some existing problems observed in foreign language teaching and learning. The problems include overuse and overgeneralization of certain words and expressions, and lack of use of some others. These problems are caused by the deficient exposure to authentic (non-)linguistic setting. The study may provide a further understanding of the communicative method of teaching and learning a different language.展开更多
文摘The current paper presents the linguistic analysis of a Chinese greeting “nihao” in both literature and reality, and compares the practical use of “nihao” by both native and non-native Chinese speakers, which leads to a discussion of some existing problems observed in foreign language teaching and learning. The problems include overuse and overgeneralization of certain words and expressions, and lack of use of some others. These problems are caused by the deficient exposure to authentic (non-)linguistic setting. The study may provide a further understanding of the communicative method of teaching and learning a different language.