The Analysis On The Design Of The Exercises Of Three Commonly-used Elementary Chinese Textbooks In Thailand

Exercises, as an indispensible part of the textbooks, are playing an important role in forming the sense of language for the learners of a foreign language. The design of the exercises influences the quality of learning and teaching. On the other hand, Overseas Chinese learners, with very limited resources available in a very different environment from the learners at home, are having special requirements on their textbooks and exercises.Based on some on-site experience of teaching Chinese in Thailand, we focus on three typical Chinese textbooks at the elementary level. This paper provides in-depth analysis on the design of the exercises from the point of four principles of exercise setting, which refers to pertinence, moderateness of quantity, interest and effectiveness. It not only describes the characters of the exercises, but also concludes the problems that exist.From the perspective of pertinence, we see how the exercises cover the important and difficult points for the Thai learners, as well as whether they provide any assistance for learners to develop the language ability of their own.From the perspective of moderateness, we depict different aspects of quantity, such as the time required, the proportion of different types of exercises, and the scale of interactive exercises.From the perspective of interest, we observe whether the layouts are vivid, the contents practical, and the arrangement in reasonable collocation.From the perspective of effectiveness, we see whether they are easy to use by having a comparison and contrast on some characteristic exercises.Besides, we adopt some quantitative approaches to investigate the effect those exercises have on the learners after using them.Last but not least, we propose some models of exercises, hoping to provide enlightenment to the future textbook editors.