A Comparative Study Of Culture Textbooks Of Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language

Culture is an important part of teaching Chinese as a foreign language based on the textbook, and the teaching quality is affected by the textbook quality. As a special form of textbooks, culture textbooks of teaching Chinese as a foreign language focus on teaching cultural knowledge, taking language as a carrier, which is different from general language textbooks of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. So it is worth thinking of how to compile culture textbooks of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.As two textbooks on Chinese culture, China’s Cultural Heritage(Beijing Language and Culture University Press) and Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach(Beijing Language and Culture University Press) are compared from their characteristics. Based on the analysis, some suggestions are provided so as to help those who compose such culture textbooks.Adopting text analysis and questionnaire, this paper analyzes two textbooks on Chinese culture, and results are as follows:1. As for the text content, China’s Cultural Heritage pursues wide and comprehensive content in the culture teaching, while Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach pursues narrow and specific content.2. As for the emphasis of traditional and contemporary cultures, China’s Cultural Heritage focuses on traditional Chinese culture with a little introduction of contemporary culture, while Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach pays attention to contemporary culture in spreading traditional culture.3. As for the cross-culture, China’s Cultural Heritage stresses Chinese culture, involving little cross-culture, while Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach pays more attention to cross-culture.4. As for the corpus difficulty, based on HSK Grading Standards and Grammar Outline, China’s Cultural Heritage meets requirements in sentence length, but its vocabulary is more difficult. Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach meets requirements in vocabulary difficulty and sentence length.5. As for the compiling objective, China’s Cultural Heritage simply introduces Chinese culture. Intermediate Chinese a Cultural Approach is designed to introduce cultural knowledge, and develop learners’ language skills at the same time.This research is expected to provide some suggestions for culture textbooks of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, such as accommodating text content to compiling objectives, paying attention to contemporary culture in spreading traditional culture, laying emphasis on cross-culture, accommodating corpus difficulty to students’ learning level, and increasing relativity and interest of illustration. Meanwhile, it can also help learners find suitable culture textbooks for themselves, which will not only make learners learn ancient and modern Chinese culture, but also cultivate their cross-cultural awareness by comparing their own national culture with Chinese culture.