Suggests a method for teaching about modern Chinese literature that attempts to avoid problems resulting from the lack of cross-cultural understanding between Western and Chinese cultures, and emphasizes ways to become aware of differences without denying one's own culture. (23 references) (CB)

Suggests some minor changes in the layout of Chinese-English dictionaries in order to increase their efficiency, and focuses on revisions of marginal landmarks and headings and of character indexes. (CB)

Discusses the kind of rhetorical questions that convey opposite assertive meanings, as in "who cares?" which imparts the meaning of nobody cares. For Chinese learning, rhetorical questions usually carry extra attitudinal meanings that their equivalent declaratives may not have. (Contains 13 references.) (JP)

Examines a recently (1985) compiled list of the 3,000 most commonly used Chinese characters, drawn from a sample of 11 million characters, and discusses the list's potential use as the basis for textbooks and vocabulary study programs, and as a database for computer assisted instruction. (CB)

A correspondence is shown between grammatical categories and grammatical functions in Chinese. Some syntactic properties distinguish finite verbs from nonfinite verbs, nominals from other categories, and verbs from other categories. (Contains seven references.) (LB)

Describes the benefits of and processes necessary for teaching Chinese as a functional language, focusing on the three teaching and learning objectives of goal orientation in curriculum planning; cultural/contextual clarity in instruction; and clear guidelines for evaluation. (CB)

Discusses the recent recognition of the importance of listening comprehension in Chinese language instruction, and how extensive listening comprehension exercises can drastically improve students' listening comprehension. Describes such learning strategies as tolerating the unknown, listening for specific information, listening for the main idea,…

Describes how the Inter-University Program for Chinese Language Studies in Taipei has used computers: 1) to select new vocabulary from texts for glossing; 2) to sort vocabulary for index listings; and 3) to print portions of textbooks. Problems with phonetic transcriptions and quality of print for Chinese characters are discussed. Samples are…

Describes collaborative storytelling as a means of combining communicative teaching methods with peer or group learning in a beginning Chinese course at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Vocabulary, grammatical patterns, socialization, and story cycles are noted. Stories are appended. (Contains eight references.) (JP)

Suggests that the study of Chinese films should be more than just merely an adjunct to Chinese literature studies but an analysis of Chinese literary adaptation in terms of the aesthetic, narrative, intellectual, and political concerns of the period in which the film adaptation was made. (six references) (CB)

Discusses the development and use of a computer-adaptive test (CAT) for learners of Chinese. Each time the examinee answers a question, the CAT program registers the answer and, based on the examinee's response, decides whether the next question should be harder or easier. (23 references) (MDM)

"Xiangsheng," a Chinese oral art form, are written and performed using idiomatic, colloquial Beijing speech and thus provide excellent material for studying spoken Chinese. Suggestions for preparing xiangsheng as teaching materials and teaching xiangsheng in the classroom are offered. Chinese character transcription, pinyin transcription,…

Describes five games for learning Chinese at the elementary and intermediate levels, focusing on the development of such skills as listening, reading, and speaking. The brief descriptions specify group size and necessary equipment. (CB)

Presents a pair of innovations, originally developed and used for teaching Mandarin, that are now being applied to the teaching of Cantonese, Vietnamese, and Thai, involving a double system of representation to encourage easier pronunciation and long-term learning; and a special sequencing for presenting the tones. (36 references) (CB)

The motivation behind the curriculum design and evaluation procedures of the East Asian Summer Language Institute's Chinese school are discussed. Two instructional methods, learning model instruction and acquisition model instruction, are described. (23 references) (CB)