The Research On Similar Side Components And Similar Chinese Characters In TCSL

Chinese character teaching is an important part of teaching Chinese as a second language. Due to the insufficient cognition of the nature of Chinese character teaching and the influence of the ideas and methods of foreign language teaching in the countries using phonetic letters, Chinese character teaching is far behind the teaching of other language elements. Many similar side components and characters become the obstacles of Chinese study. Based on The Graded Chinese Characters for the Application of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages, the paper sorts out the form of the Chinese characters’ similarity and enumerates similar side components and characters in the area. Through the research on the understanding and grasp of the Chinese characters’ similarity for foreign learners, this paper concludes the reasons that the similarity emerges and causes errors. In the end, the paper puts forward the methods and strategies for how to teach and distinguish similar side components and characters, hoping that by these beneficial attempts, the teaching about the Chinese characters’ similarity can be promoted.This article is divided into seven parts which elaborates the research on the contemporary Chinese silimar side components and characters, and discusses the theoretical and practical problems of teaching of the Chinese characters’similarity in TCSL.The first part introduces the origin and status, the purpose and meaning, the ways and approaches of this research. It proves that at present the research on the Chinese characters’ similarity in TCSL is in its infancy and the findings are relatively limited. There is more space for further exploration.The second part manily describes the form of the similarity, raises that strokes are the key of similar single characters as well as similar integrated characters should put side components as cores. The content of strokes includes the factors of the amount, shape, association and position. The key point to distinguish similar characters is the shape and position of side components. Based on The Graded Chinese Characters for the Application of Teaching Chinese to the Speakers of Other Languages, the third part counts171groups of similar side components and445groups of similar Chinese characters in a range of3000daily characters in the contemporary Chinese. The similar single characters are discussed by the amount, shape, association and position. According to the number of similar side components, the similar integrated characters can be divided into the first order and the second order. Besides, the position is also a distinguishing factor.The forth part chiefly discusses the reasons that the similarity emerges and causes errors. The emergence of the similarity has a relationship with the building of early Chinese characters, the evolution of Chinese character fonts and the modern simplification of Chinese characters. Although the reasons vary from one another, it is concerned with the strokes which are the basic units to form a Chinese character. Because of the strict control of the number of strokes and the limitation in the shape and association, the similarity of Chinese characters is inevitable. And the reasons that it causes errors are related to the feature of the entire recognition of Chinese characters and the strategy of font pattern processing of learners. Furthermore, the using frequency of Chinese characters is also an important aspect.Through the questionnaires, the fifth part investigates the comprehension and grasp of the Chinese characters’ similarity among foreign learners. By analyzing the final survey data, it is found that there are many advantages and disadvantages during the use and teaching, which are foundations of the theoretical study on part VI.The sixth part offers some suggestions about the methods and tactics for the discrimination and the teaching. It is better to catch hold of the ambuguities to distinguish similar side components and characters, and make concrete analysis of concrete conditions on the basis of different class types.The seventh part is the conclusion, which sums up the main points and general ideas of the paper. It also forecasts the future prospects of the teaching and research on the similar side components and characters in TCSL...