Chinese Character Myths and Chinese Character Instruction
汉字神话与汉字教学
Prof. Zhengsheng Zhang 张正生教授
Presentation Recording Part 1
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Presentation Slides
【Abstract】The ideographic myth, though much debunked, still exerts a powerful effect on the instruction of characters. This can be seen in the widespread focus on semantic radicals and the general neglect of phonetic components. The myth may also be responsible for the simplistic treatment and peripheral attention to character instruction and the lack of progress in instructional methodology. We will present evidence for regarding the phonetic component in semantic-phonetic compounds as the graphic and functional center. We will then propose a “phonic” approach to character instruction, which maximizes the use of the phonetic component.
Ph.D. in Linguistics from Ohio State University, Zheng-sheng Zhang is currently Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Asian/Middle Eastern Languages at San Diego State University. His research interests include Chinese linguistics, writing systems, language pedagogy and technology for language teaching and research. His recent linguistic research investigates stylistic variation in written Chinese, using corpus and statistical methods. His monograph Dimensions of Variation in Written Chinese was published by Routledge of UK in 2017. In the area of information processing, he coauthored Introduction to Chinese Natural Language Processing (Wong et al. 2010). He compiled a series of teacher handbooks for Integrated Chinese. He has also published research on the Chinese writing system. From 2009 to 2016, he was Editor of Chinese as a Second Language, Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association.
【摘要】关于汉字的各种神话仍然很有市场，对于语言、文字、语义和文化信息等概念的理解也相当混乱。“重形轻声”的倾向仍普遍存在。这对汉字教学的负面影响相当可观。由于忽略了声旁这个核心构件，汉字教学流于简单化、边缘化，甚至呈“虎头蛇尾”的态势。我们列举种种证据，说明汉字表音功能的重要，以及声旁在形声字中的核 心地位，进而提出“声本位”的理念，以期改进汉字教学。
【简历】张正生教授系美国俄亥俄州立大学语言学博士，现任圣地亚哥州立大学语言学与亚洲/中东语言系教授。学术研究包括汉语语言学、文字学，汉语教学与高科技在教学和研究中的应用。近年来用语料库及统计方法研究汉语语体。专著Dimensions of Variation in Written Chinese 于2017年由英国Routledge出版。在中文信息处理方面，参与了Introduction to Chinese Natural Language Processing (Wong et al. 2010) 的撰写。曾为《中文听说读写》编撰教师手册系列。发表过汉字方面的研究。2009至2016期间任美国中文教师学会期刊主编。