A Survey On Learning Contemporary Chinese Catchwords By International Students In China

Catchwords are the most active part of the language in our daily life, with its characteristics of times, society, dynamics and popularity. Based on the ontology study of catchwords, this paper firstly summarizes the language features of catchwords from four aspects, namely, phonetics, grammar, semantics and pragmatics. Secondly, the research takes the important effects of individual and external factors as theoretical framework in the process of learning Chinese as a second language. It uses questionnaires to investigate, count and analyze the international students’ learning attitude, motivation, methods, strategies, language environment in class and some other aspects, finding the performance of individual and external factors in catchwords learning of international students.The investigation results are as follows. As to individual factors, international students are more sensitive to Chinese catchwords which are commonly used and have special forms; the method of learning is dominated by field dependence, and most students cannot tolerate the ambiguous catchwords; the main learning strategies are functional strategy and mother tongue strategy; they have positive learning attitude toward catchwords and have more interest in learning popular culture than catchwords, learning catchwords does not produce strong negative influence to general Chinese learning; international students’ motivation to learn catchwords tend to be integrative; in front of unfamiliar catchwords, students who have high level Chinese language standard, tend to be more anxious than students with low level Chinese language standard, and the anxiety level stays at temperate position. As to external factors, international students get access to catchwords mainly through the network and oral communication in daily life; teachers do not explain the catchwords frequently in Chinese class, most students are eager to have optional courses of catchwords, and they also expect to encounter catchwords in compulsory courses, such as talking, listening, or reading courses.At last, according to the results from investigation, this paper gives some corresponding suggestions for international students to learn contemporary Chinese catchwords from aspects of students themselves, Chinese teachers and schools. The purpose of this research is to help international students to have a better understanding and usage of Chinese catchwords, learn more about Chinese society and integrate into Chinese community.