A Study On The Chinese Teaching Material For Missionaries In Chinese Lessons For First Year Students In West China

Chinese Lessons for First Year Students in West China,written by Omar L.Kilborn,a Canadian missionary in China,was published by The Union University in 1917.It is one of the few oral textbooks in the 20 th century to teach foreigners Southwest Mandarin(Chengdu dialect).The book was written for foreign medical workers working at The Union University in Chengdu,for beginners in Chinese to learn the local language.Through the study of this century-old textbook,it can not only enrich the research content of the history of teaching Chinese as a foreign language,but also provide some reference for the current compilation of oral Chinese textbooks.Firstly,this paper gives an overview and explanation of the background,brief introduction and style of the book of Chinese Lessons for First Year Students in West China.Then,based on the textbook,the author makes statistics on the pronunciation,vocabulary,topic and language function items,and carries out an in-depth analysis in combination with the existing textbook compilation theory and Chinese teaching theory.In terms of pronunciation teaching arrangement,the textbook follows the actual situation of Chengdu dialect pronunciation,and the content of pronunciation annotation is detailed and accurate,Phonetic teaching emphasizes intonation,tone change,rhyme change and so on.In terms of vocabulary teaching arrangement,vocabulary content conforms to oral characteristics and is close to the reality of life,but there are many problems,such as large number of vocabulary,difficult vocabulary and insufficient repetition.In terms of topic and function setting,the textbook embodies the principles of practicability,pertinence and life.The topic scope is concentrated but not socialized enough.The total number of language function items in the textbook is 166,and 27 items are involved except the repeated language function items.There is a problem that the coverage of topic and language function items is not extensive enough.At last,this paper summarizes the achievements and deficiencies of the Chinese Lessons for First Year Students in West China and its enlightenment to the compilation of spoken Chinese textbooks,in order to provide some references for the compilation of spoken Chinese textbooks at present.