Chinese Character Teaching Strategies in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

: To learn a language, we must know its characters, and then expand step by step to vocabulary, grammar and so on. However, phonetics, vocabulary and grammar have always been the core elements of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, and the teaching of Chinese characters has always been in a subordinate position, relatively lagging behind. At the same time, the input of Chinese characters teaching in both human and material resources is very little, resulting in the phenomenon that many Chinese learners can only listen and speak, but find it difficult to read and write. The current situation of teaching Chinese characters to foreign students has affected the further development of teaching Chinese as a foreign language to some extent. We must face up to the difficulties and strive to solve this problem. This paper puts forward some suggestions for Chinese character teaching from four aspects: advancing Chinese language, Chinese character culture and classroom, creating Chinese character learning environment for Chinese learners, setting up an independent classroom for Chinese characters and new media technology.


Introduction
Chinese characters are a system of written symbols used to record Chinese.It can span the history of China and different dialects in different regions of China, and has a strong vitality.It is the ideographic and phonetic characters, which is very different from the phonetic characters used by most ethnic groups in the world to record phonemes [1].Therefore, the teaching of Chinese characters has always been the difficulty and focus in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Academic research on Chinese character teaching has never stopped.By combing the literature in recent years, it is found that the teaching of Chinese characters in the academic circle mainly focuses on the teaching theory of Chinese characters for foreign students, teaching principles for Chinese characters for foreign students, Chinese characters ontology research, Chinese characters list research, teaching method for Chinese characters for foreign students, and learner research.Even the proposed teaching strategies for Chinese characters mainly focus on these aspects.With the continuous improvement of China's international status, Chinese teaching is also being promoted and deepened [2].Therefore, the problems of Chinese character teaching in Chinese teaching are constantly highlighted, mainly reflected in which language and text are before and after, how to carry out Chinese character culture and classroom, Chinese character learning environment, whether to set up independent classrooms for Chinese characters, and how to apply new media technology in Chinese character teaching [3].Then the research purpose of this article is to try to make a thorough analysis of the status quo and problems of Chinese characters teaching, explore how to solve these problems and put forward corresponding countermeasures, to contribute a little contribution to the teaching of Chinese characters as a foreign language.This paper will provide theoretical and practical support for the conclusion of this paper through literature research, investigation and interview.

Language and Language go Hand in Hand, Teaching Together
The debate on whether to put the language before the text or the text before the language has continued in Chinese teaching.After consulting various materials, the author believes that Chinese characters should coexist with language and text, and Chinese characters should be taught in class.Its advantages are: under a specific context (texts, sentences, and words), learning is conducive to mastering the meaning and usage of Chinese characters; Every new word is always closely combined with shape, sound, and meaning to avoid learners ignoring or failing to remember Chinese characters, which is conducive to the overall learning of Chinese characters [4].We take the HSK-1 Chinese textbook as an example.The teaching content of Chinese characters in the HSK1 textbook consists of 17 strokes, six strokes, 7 Chinese character structures, 52 single characters, and 18 sidesteps.The teaching of a single character runs through the whole teaching of Chinese characters [5].Through the statistics of 600 words in the first three levels, 52 single characters with the most common use and the most substantial character construction ability are selected to enter the first-level teaching.From lesson 1 to lesson 6, basic strokes are introduced.From lesson 7, side-by-side teaching is carried out.Each lesson introduces two side-by-sides that are easy to learn, common, and capable of constructing characters and gives two example characters.The first-level Chinese characters are mainly for reading training, and only 17 basic strokes and 52 single characters are required to write.The whole structure of a complete text is from vocabulary to text to grammar (weakened) and finally to Chinese characters.It has achieved the principle of language development and common teaching.For example, in what is Your Name?In the third lesson, the focus of Chinese characters in this lesson is the two strokes of Chinese characters, "horizontal folding hook and horizontal hook," so the corresponding keywords in this lesson include these two strokes, such as "I, country," and so on.Another example is the fifth lesson, "Her daughter is twenty years old," in which two strokes are "horizontal folding, skimming," and the corresponding words are "female, many," and so on.There will also be other words containing the strokes you have learned before, linked to each other, to be reviewed and consolidated.Therefore, when learning vocabulary, students can first familiarize themselves with the basic strokes of Chinese characters.Then, when learning vocabulary, students can play the strokes in sequence and constantly strengthen the basic strokes.

Set up Independent Classes for Chinese Characters.
In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar have always been the three elements of teaching Chinese as a foreign language and the central issues dealt with in the teaching system, especially vocabulary teaching [6].In many cases, the teaching of Chinese characters has been replaced.Chinese characters are subordinate and have been teaching literacy and language for a long time.Ideographic and phonetic characters characterize Chinese characters.Every Chinese character is closely combined with form, sound, and meaning.Hence, learning Chinese characters in a particular environment helps us understand the meaning and usage of Chinese characters, which can help us remember Chinese characters better [7].At the same time, many schools need to set up separate courses for Chinese characters; even if there are many courses, they are messy.The results are as follows: for example, after learning Chinese, learners can only understand Chinese in many cases but need help to read Chinese; Some scholars who can communicate fluently in spoken Chinese have great difficulties reading and writing Chinese characters.Especially for some professional Chinese learners who want to understand the Chinese language and Chinese history and culture; because they do not pay attention to learning Chinese characters in the primary stage, they cannot understand Chinese literature, such as Chinese of traditional Chinese medicine and so on.This has seriously affected the improvement of the Chinese language level and reduced the export of Chinese culture.At the same time, Chinese characters are very arbitrary, and the text content determines their appearance.It is challenging to teach according to the law of Chinese characters and the principle of gradual progress from easy to difficult.Therefore, we can start independent classes for Chinese characters according to the progress of learners and the difficulty of vocabulary texts to improve the importance of Chinese character teaching in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Take HSK1 as an example; after learning basic pronunciation, students can learn Chinese characters before entering formal classroom learning.For example, in the third lesson, what is Your Name?Before entering formal and text learning, students should first be familiar with the basic strokes of this lesson and then follow the principle that vocabulary and Chinese characters are inseparable and closely linked, as well as the theoretical basis of the Six Books.Teachers should focus on explaining important Chinese characters that meet students' levels.For example, the word "heart" in this lesson can show students the evolution process of "heart" from ancient to the present.In the oracle bone inscriptions period, the hands holding the heart formed the word "heart"; In the Bronze Age, gold texts prevailed.At this time, the heart added the image of the entrance pipe of arteries and veins based on the inclusion organ and added a little symbol of blood inside the inclusion organ.The whole shape was like the inclusion pumping organ in the human body.In the Warring States Period, The first Emperor of Qin unified the characters known as Small seal character.China's economy and culture were booming then, and the Chinese character "heart" continued the Inscriptions on bronze character; In the Han Dynasty, the official script became the main font.At this time, the character "heart" was deformed significantly, the envelope shape of the blood-pumping organ disappeared, and the shape of blood vessels disappeared.At this time, the character "Heart" was no different from the current character "Heart."Then, after the teacher focuses on explaining Chinese characters to students, students can deeply understand the source and root of Chinese characters, help students understand the real meaning of Chinese characters, and lay a foundation for subsequent learning.

Create a Chinese Character Learning Environment for Chinese learners.
In the teaching of Chinese as a foreign language, environmental factors are closely related to learning and exist objectively [8].They are the external conditions affecting Chinese learners.Whether behaviorism's stimulus-response theory believes that environment is everything, cognitive theory emphasizes the interaction between human cognitive ability and environment, or Krashen's special elaboration on the factors of environmental theory, they all emphasize the importance of environment to language learning.Therefore, we should closely combine the learning of Chinese characters with the environment to create a favorable environment for Chinese learners to learn Chinese characters.Such as campus environment and social environment.The first is the campus environment, which can include the classroom environment.In the classroom environment, it is mainly the interaction between teachers and students relying on textbooks to learn Chinese.As a teacher, in the teaching process, teachers can consciously or unconsciously emphasize the importance of learning Chinese characters to students, and select a representative Chinese character for careful explanation in each class.Stimulate students' desire to learn.On campus, we can set up "Chinese character culture corner", "Chinese character culture characteristic classroom", regularly hold "Chinese character spelling contest", "Chinese character reading contest", etc., so that students can learn Chinese characters unconsciously.The second is the social environment, which can be divided into target language social environment and non-target language social environment.In the social environment of the target language, Chinese learners can easily access the knowledge related to Chinese characters, such as newspapers, magazines, television, drama, performance, etc.The environment of the target language can provide Chinese learners with fresh Chinese character resources all the time, and Chinese learners can learn Chinese characters anytime and anywhere.For learners in the social environment of non-target language, although they cannot access these resources all the time, they can improve them through some methods.For example, "immersive" Chinese character teaching can be adopted to provide learners with a simulated "Chinese scene" in a certain period of time, such as one or two years, so that Chinese learners can strengthen the learning of Chinese characters in a short period of time, so that their Chinese character level can reach a certain height in a short period of time.In general, environmental factors are very important for Chinese character learning.If learners make good use of this factor, their Chinese character level will continue to improve, and then their Chinese level will also continue to improve, and finally achieve the purpose of using Chinese to communicate.

Accelerate the Application of Chinese Character Culture in the Classroom.
Chinese characters have long been regarded as the most significant difficulty in learning Chinese [9].For Chinese characters, each character is closely related to Chinese culture.In the classroom activities of Chinese character teaching, teachers of Chinese as a foreign language should first help students eliminate their fear of Chinese characters and stimulate their interest in learning Chinese characters to quickly and effectively devote themselves to learning.Suppose teachers can explain the cultural stories contained in Chinese characters and their cultural meanings and cooperate with comparing cultural differences.In that case, they can not only better master the Chinese characters but also more easily understand the hidden Chinese culture and perceive the cultural differences between China and foreign countries.As Professor Jianming Lu said, "Language learning will strengthen the sense of cultural identity.Language is always the carrier, and promoting Chinese culture to the world is the purpose of Chinese teaching.We still take HSK1 as an example and focus on Chinese characters in the third lesson, what is Your Name?We still teach based on the principle that vocabulary and Chinese characters are inseparable and closely linked, as well as the theoretical basis of The Six Books.The translation of the Chinese character "heart" in Analytical Dictionary of Characters is: "Heart, human Heart.The viscera of the earth is in the middle of the body, pictographic.The original meaning is Heart.The general meaning of the modern "heart" is no different.In ancient China, on the one hand, the ancient people believed that the Heart was the organ of thinking, so they called thoughts and feelings "heart."On the other hand, some people will call the function of mind consciousness Zen; that is to say, Chinese culture is the culture of Zen, the culture of the Heart.At the same time, the Buddhist Zen mind should be originated from ancient Chinese culture.If you are interested in the connection between Buddhism and Chinese culture, you can look up the word "heart" to learn more about it.Such as, the "country" word in the oracle bone script is "or" word, traditional Chinese characters are "country" word, "or" in the "gow" says weapons, and "mouth" says surrounded by inviolable area.Finally, in the "or" outside the word to add a large "mouth" word, this evolution expressed the unity of the country, territory sacred and inviolable unified thought.This also embodies the "doctrine of the mean" thought in Confucian culture.Confucianism attaches great importance to unity and harmony.Combining Chinese characters and culture can improve learners' desire to learn, especially for learners who want to learn Chinese in-depth or become Chinese experts; teaching Chinese characters is the top priority.It can also improve the learning quality of learners.Combining form, sound, meaning, and culture can increase learners' long-term memory and consolidate their learning.It can also increase the sense of cultural identity and shorten Chinese learners' social and psychological distance.

New Media Technology Assisted.
Under the background of the rapid development of information, the renewal and innovation of teaching means are also significant for teaching Chinese characters [10].The most prominent feature of new media lies in its fast communication speed and wide range.The application of new media platforms in teaching Chinese as a foreign language breaks the restrictions of time, space, and place in the traditional classroom and, at the same time, provides more powerful after-school services for learners to a greater extent.Combined with Chinese character culture, under the support of new media, it can make Chinese character classrooms more exciting and improve learning efficiency and quality.So this is mainly reflected in two aspects; one is in the classroom: In the classroom, it is mainly possible to use PPT combined with music, animation, audio, etc., to realize the stroke alignment of Chinese characters, the splitting of components, the learning of characters and other aspects.The most advanced AR technology can even realize in more developed areas.AR technology uses technology to enable intelligent education, to create a new education of virtual and real combination, real-time interaction, and three-dimensional for students.In particular, in terms of meaning, meaning is difficult to understand.AR provides natural scenes, allowing students to immerse themselves in the Chinese culture hidden behind the meaning.On the other hand, outside the classroom, it mainly refers to various "after-school service" projects, such as the WeChat platform, short video platform, network broadcast, etc. WeChat mainly refers to the WeChat official account platform, some of which are dedicated to explaining Chinese characters.At the same time, teachers can also create a Wechat official account related to learning Chinese characters.After learning in class, students can review the teacher's summary of the critical content of this lesson according to the official account platform to achieve the effect of strengthening and consolidating again.Short-sighted frequent rapid development and its content is well-crafted by bloggers and rich and exciting content.Students can learn or supplement their knowledge of Chinese characters in their spare time.In recent years, network broadcast has also had a significant rise, providing a learning opportunity for Chinese learners who are far away in foreign countries and cannot go to live learning, breaking the regional restrictions to a certain extent.In short, new media platforms can make learning more accessible, diversified, shared, and interactive.

Conclusion
In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, there is still a long way to go in developing Chinese character teaching.This paper only puts forward some suggestions for Chinese character teaching.However, the discussion in this paper needs to be more comprehensive in terms of setting up an independent classroom for Chinese characters.At the same time, the content of the Chinese character teaching method needs more scholars to explore and discover to promote the development of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Improving the teaching quality of Chinese as a foreign language lays the foundation for our country's cultural output and promotion.I hope that more and more Chinese learners understand China deeply and embrace Chinese culture from the root.