Survey&Analysis Of French Graduates’ Chinese Characters Learning Status

Whenever speak of Chinese Teaching in France, our first impression is the "Character-based Approach". The "character-based approach" is an approach that considers character as the unit and makes it the start of Chinese teaching. Today the experts home and abroad have noticed the concept and phenomenon and paid attention to the character-based approach in France and its features. However, they mainly focus on teaching and textbooks while learners haven’t got much attention.This paper is a survey on French undergraduates’Chinese characters learning status.1study those students who take Chinese as an elective course in University of Rennes2and utilize both quantitative and qualitative research methods. First of all, I investigate the basic situation of "Character-based Approach" Chinese teaching in France, including its philosophy and syllabus. Then I analyze the Chinese characters teaching in University of Rennes2covering the curriculum, the textbooks and general information about Chinese teaching. Continuously, I survey the students on their learning motivations, learning attitudes, learning methods and Chinese proficiency. I analyze the differences and correlations among these factors and on the basis of my results I interview some students and teachers. At last, I summarize the influence of "Character-based Approach" on students’Chinese learning and its revelation to Chinese teaching.The results show that under the influence of "Character-based Approach", Chinese teaching in France considers characters as the units and basis, analyzes the structural features and word-formation of Chinese characters, stress the role of characters in curriculum, textbook compilation and teaching methods. And therefore, French undergraduates generally pay attention to characters learning and use corresponding learning methods, which results in their good Chinese proficiency. We could say,"Character-based Approach" helps solve a lot of issues for students from Chinese -character-non-used countries learning Chinese and have positive impacts on students’ attitude, methods and proficiency. However, further study is needed to testify whether the success of "Character-based Approach" in France could be copied to China.