A Comparative Study On Vocabulary Of Chinese Textbooks For Thai Junior Middle School Student

As an important part of the language system of modern Chinese,vocabulary plays the role of basic language element of expression.In this article,two sets of representative textbooks widely used in Thailand-Experiencing Chinese and Happy Chinese were adopted as research objects,in which the vocabulary in the textbooks were counted and classified.We show the overall and specific conditions of the both sets of textbooks in the form of tables,and the number of vocabulary,repetition time,interpretations and practice settings of the both sets of textbooks are compared.The following conclusions were drawn combing with the experiences of the writer who has taught as Chinese volunteer teacher in Thailand.In terms of vocabulary,there are lager total vocabularies and lesson vocabularies in Experiencing Chinese,together with much more outline words;appropriate amount of "entry level" vocabularies are added in both sets of textbooks;in teaching principal,both sets of textbooks are giving priority to real words while gradually introducing function words;both textbooks should involve proper vocabularies related to Chinese and Thai culture.In terms of vocabulary reiteration,the reiteration rate in Happy Chinese exceeds that of Experiencing Chinese.Such methods as reasonable design of conversation and exercise could be adopted to improve the vocabulary reiteration rate of the textbooks.Increasing mechanical exercises properly is also an effective way to improve the reiteration rate of new words.In terms of part-of-speech tagging and lexical interpretation,both sets of textbooks lack part-of-speech tagging and the interpretation method is a single native language translation method.Multiple forms of annotation can be taken to reach this goal,including symbol interpretation,picture interpretation,cartoon interpretation and so on.Concerning vocabulary practice,Experiencing Chinese lays more emphasis on communicative exercises,containing various forms but insufficient operability;many single-formed and tedious exercises in Happy Chinese may make the students prone to boredom.Vocabulary exercises in textbooks should take into account both stability and diversity.Based on the statistical data and the writer's own experience,this article performs an analysis of the vocabulary compiling of Chinese textbooks for junior middle schools in Thailand.Through my research,I hope to provide some suggestions for the revision of the two sets of textbooks,as well as offering useful reference for the compilation of the vocabulary part of the Chinese textbooks for junior middle schools in Thailand.