A Study On The Chinese Characters In Japnese And The Adquisition By Chinese JFL Learners

Vocabulary acquisition is an integral part of second language acquisition. The size and use of vocabulary directly affect the listening, speaking, reading and writing of that language. Due to its enormous size and diverse varieties, the acquisition of vocabulary plays an even more important role in Japanese learning.There exists a long history of language contact and borrowing between chinese and Japanese. There are chinese-labeled characters in both languages in a collective or individual manner. In the process of language evolution, the meanings of some Chinese characters are divided or endowed with their own culture flavors. However, the majority of Chinese-labeled characters share morphorlogical and meaningful correspondences in the two languages.The teaching of Japanese in the Mainland China has been the one implemented without taking learners’ first language backgrounds into account. This pedagogy fails to take Chinese JFL learners’ cognitive learning ability of chinese words, which has a facilitative effect on the learning of Japanese, into consideration. It is held that it is unwise to treat JFL learners in China as others without Chinese as their first language. The researcher proposes that it will do no good to stimulate learners’ motivation if the vocabulary size in the textbook is seriously controlled and the learning will be too long a period and of low-efficiency.On the bases of theories in language contact, language transfer, comparative lunguistics and second language acquisition, this thesis attempts to trace back the language contact between Chinese and Japanese in nearly2000years and explore a teaching method suitable to the characteristics of Chinese JFL learners by both qualitative and quantative studies. The Introduction presents the research background, research object, the significance of the study, the literature review and theoretical foundation. It is pointed out that the traditional pedagogy fails to take the characteristics of Chinese JFL learners into consideration. According to the statistics collected by the researcher, the proportion of Chinese-labeled chatacters has reached to88.7%in the vocabulary list of the Japanese-Language Proficiency Test (JLPT). It is proposed in this thesis that we should give play to the advantage of Chinese JFL learners. The methodology parts look at the previous studies on the Chinese characters in Japanese. The thesis collects data from the newly issued "The list of commonly-used Chinese characters" and the vocabulary list in the JLPT. The literature review presents the necessary theories in language transfer, the cognitive approach to language learning and comparative linguistics.Chapter One presents the history of language contact and borrowing between Chinese and Japanese over more than1,700years in three periods. It is held that the Chinese characters in modern Chinese and Japanese are two different branches belong to one common tree-the ancient Chinese. The two branches influence each other and both contribute to the prosperity of the Chinese Character Circle.Chapter Two reports the results of the quantitative study. The following conclusions are made. Firstly, among the2136commonly-used Chinese characters, the percentage of the same morphological forms in Japanese and Chinese has reached to55%. The percentage of using Chinese traditional characters has been21%. To a Chinese JFL learners, more than half of the Chinese characters in Japanese has been included in his vocabulary repertoire prior to his learning. There are74.3%Chinese characters in the Japanese share the same meanings with modern Chinese words. Thus he or she can naturally predict the meanings of Chinese characters in Japanese based on his/her first language knowledge.Secondly,90%of the8075words in the syllabus of JLPT, namely,7162words are classified into five types:same morphology and same meaning, same morphology and similar meaning, different morphology but same meaning (Type A), different morphology but same meaning (Type B), same morphology but different meaning. It is concluded on the basis of statistical analyses that58.5%characters are of same morphology and same meaning,15.8%of same morphology but different meaning (Type A),9%of different morphology but same meaning (Type B),3.5%of same morphology and similar meaning,1.8%of same morphology but different meaning. Among them,62%characters are of same morphology and same meaning or similar meaning, covering more than half of the size of vocabulary list in JLPT.Chapter Three reports the results of a case study which tests the effects of a teaching method proposed by the researcher herself. It is concluded from the teaching experience and investigation of some starting learners that in the preliminary stage of Japanese learning, Chinese JFL learners should make use of the positive transfer of their first language to predict the meanings of the Chinese characters in Japanese. Meanwhile teachers are advised to give necessary instructions on the use of this strategy. In the process of vocabulary learning, the words should be acquired in the context. For the characters of same morphology but different meaning and those of different morphology but same meaning (Type B) words, special attention should be made to avoid confusion. It is recommended to teach large quantities of vocabulary of intermediate-advanced levels. Such phenomena are commonly seen in intermediate-level learners as:the confusion of the parts of speech, the mistakes in the usage and errors in collocations.The Conclusion chapter proposes a newly-developed teaching method of vocabulary teaching suitable to the characteristics of Chinese JFL learners and give suggestions to the future research.