A Comparative Thematic Analysis Of Chinese Language Textbooks Compiled In America And China

With the rapid development of China’s economy,Chinese has become an increasingly important international language.Many textbooks have promoted the development of Chinese teaching,however,whether the textbooks adapt to the overseas teaching environment,the way of thinking and life style of the Chinese language heritage;learners can effectively help Chinese learners pass the SAT Ⅱ or AP Chinese test,or can truly acquire and inherit Chinese culture,need further research and discussion.The author has been teaching Chinese on weekends in the U.S.and using two authoritative Chinese textbooks widely used by overseas weekend Chinese schools.The textbooks are Chinese published by the Chinese College of Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council and South University of China,and American Chinese published by the American Association of Educational Research and Development of the United Association in the United States of America.This paper makes a contrastive analysis on various textbook themes.The preface of the paper summarizes the conditions surrounding the compilation of Chinese textbooks in China and abroad.This paper explores the related achievements and problems in the study of localizing Chinese textbooks in non-Chinese speaking countries.It introduces the Chinese Advanced Placement program(AP)and it also discusses how the five World-Readiness Standards of Learning Language from the American Council on the Teaching Foreign Languages(communication,culture,connections,comparisons and communities)have been used to classify and organize the relevant research of the two textbooks.The first chapter discusses the two sets of textbooks on the subject of the scientific classification.These classifications are:literature,art,sports,activities,family,life,learning,flora and fauna,folklore,national,natural,landscape,celebrities,science and catering.Aiming at the subject of primary school part of the two sets of textbooks,the paper calculates the proportion of 15 theme elements in this part of textbooks,and shows the different ideas and theme presentation modes of the two sets of textbooks.The second chapter focuses on the thematic presentation of the text.The chapter discusses the theme of the two textbooks and tries to describe it in a comprehensive way.Using the cultural construction theory put forward by Liu Xun,this paper analyzes two similar articles in these two textbooks,and analyzes the editors’ different teaching philosophies,understandings,different principles in compiling textbooks and the different ways of editing.Chapter three uses the surveys,which were conducted base on the field teaching of the two sets of textbooks for Chinese teachers and students of all grades,to further analyze the feedbacks of using these two textbooks.Conclusions drawn from survey demonstrate the differences between the theoretical analysis and actual results.In summary,text subject compilation is a systematic project,which needs not only scientific linguistic theory as support,but also needs to satisfy the heritage learner’s curriculum requirements.In this sense,through the analysis of two textbooks,this paper reflects the problems appearing in the thematic compilation of textbooks under the two different ideas based in China and America.The paper tends to have some referential significance for the future Chinese language’s international promotion.