DOCSLIB.ORG

Children Learn to Read and Write Chinese Analytically

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Children Learn to Read and Write Chinese Analytically Children Learn to Read and Write Chinese Analytically Lily Chan Child Development and Learning Institute of Education, University of London Supervisors : Professor Terezinha Nunes Ms. Angela Hobsbaum A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy May, 1996 2 Abstract Recent progress in psycholinguistic research on written Chinese allows us to develop a new approach to investigate the Chinese reading acquisition process. We hypothesized that Chinese children, much like children learning an alphabetic script, do not simply learn written words by rote. As they are taught words to be learned by rote, they develop an implicit understanding of the formal and functional characteristics of written Chinese. The formal characteristics refer to the graphic structure and the positioning of the stroke-patterns, and the functional characteristics refer to the semantic and phonological information conveyed in the stroke-patterns. The studies reported were designed to investigate the nature of children's learning of written Chinese. In two series of studies, a total of 236 children from Hong Kong, aged four to nine, created and decoded novel Chinese compound words. Results showed that young Chinese children attended to both the formal and functional constraints in reading and writing tasks. In the judging task, 4-year-olds were able to identify the type of orthographic elements - the stroke-patterns, but they could not place them in legitimate positions. The 6-years-olds were able to refer both to the position and the correct type of orthographic elements in differentiating pseudowords from nonwords. In the writing and reading tasks, four and five-year-olds were unable to utilize the semantic radicals to represent meaning, nor could they use the phonological components for pronunciation; six-year-olds could use the semantic radicals to represent meaning and only nine-year-olds could both use semantic radicals correctly and systematically referred to the phonological components for pronunciation. A significant age difference was found in all the experiments. The studies provide strong evidence that learning compound words in Chinese is not a simple matter of memorizing but involves the understanding of formal and functional constraints in the script. A possible application of these findings lies in the new direction offered for reading instruction where the non-generative, rote view of learning to read and write in Chinese can be safely abandoned. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was told when I was considering doing a Ph.D. that it is a long and lonely journey. I am glad that it is not the case for me because my supervisors, my family and my friends have made this journey a lot easier and pleasant. I would like to express my most sincere thanks to Professor Terezinha Nunes. She is a superb supervisor. She is kind, considerate, inspiring and intelligent. She understands her students and always offers just the right kind of stretch to push her students to progress further. To me, she is Socrates, as she nourishes my mind and guides me to enter the fascinating world of knowledge. I would also like to thank Ms Angela Hobsbaum for her comments on my work and encouragement. My family has been very supportive. They look after me when I am in Hong Kong, and take care of my flat when I am in London. Although my parents do not understand what a thesis is, they are always there to share my joy and distress. I do not think I can finish my study without the valuable assistance from my friends. Maria, Hester, and Josephine helped me to collect the data for the pilot study. Maria inspired my interest in children's writing and all these years has been encouraging me to persist in my work. Samuel made a series of interesting pictures for me and they were very useful in stimulating children to read and write in this study. Gwenda sacrificed her Easter Holiday to read my final draft, and Simon helped me to do the final editing of tables and figures. It is a gift from God that I can meet the fellow research students, Milita, Miriam and Ursula in spite of my short stay in London every year. From time to time, we spent hours for tea, to discuss our work and to share our doubts. When I look back, those are the most memorable moments in my Ph.D. pursuit. What joy it is to be able to build up acquaintances even at this critical period of our life. I would like to thank the principals and teachers of Caritas Kindergarten, TWGHS Kwan Kai Ming Primary School and TWGHS Sin Chu Wan Primary School for allowing me to conduct my study at short notices. Many teachers provided every possible assistance to allow me to conduct the experiments smoothly. They also shared with me valuable experiences in the teaching of Chinese. Last, but not the least, I would like to thank the children who participated in this study. They were very co-operative, and shared with me their knowledge of written Chinese. I enjoyed every minute of the process of the data collection because of their active involvement. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4 LIST OF TABLES 11 LIST OF FIGURES 13 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 14 CHAPTER 2 THE CHINESE LANGUAGE 20 2.1 Introduction 20 2.2 Spoken Chinese 20 2.3 Written Chinese 22 2.3.1 Six rules for word formation 22 2.3.2 Orthographic units of written Chinese 25 2.3.2.1 A stroke 25 2.3.2.2 A stroke-pattern 26 2.3.2.3 A character 29 2.3.2.4 A word 31 2.3.2.5 A sentence 32 2.3.3 Orthographic constituents of a ideophonetic compound word 32 2.3.3.1 The semantic radical 33 2.3.3.2 The phonological component 36 2.3.3.2.1 The Orthography-Phonology Correspondence Rules 38 2.3.3.2.2 Phonological regularity of the Chinese orthography 39 2.3.4 Summary 41 CHAPTER 3 SKILLS OF FLUENT CHINESE READERS 3.1 Introduction 43 3.2 Methodological issues 44 3.3 Phonological aspects of reading Chinese 46 3.3.1 Holistic approach 46 3.3.2 Analytical approach 52 5 3.4 Orthographic aspects of reading Chinese 56 3.4.1 Holistic approach 57 3.4.2 Analytical approach 60 3.5 Semantic aspects of reading Chinese 69 3.5.1 Holistic approach 69 3.5.2 Analytical approach 69 3.6 Conclusion on skills of fluent Chinese readers 74 3.7 Using analytical approach to investigate the processing of orthographic, semantic and phonological information in reading Chinese 75 3.7.1 Flores d'Arcais' (1992, 1995) studies 75 3.7.2 Chen's (1993, 1995) studies 77 3.7.2.1 The orthographic unit of Chinese words - the smallest stroke- pattern 78 3.7.2.2 Two functionally distinct orthographic constituents of compound words : the semantic radical and the phonological component 80 3.7.2.3 Orthographic-phonology correspondence rules : Derivation and Analogy 84 3.7.2.4 Conclusion on Chen's (1993, 1995) studies 86 CHAPTER 4 CHILDREN LEARNING TO READ CHINESE 4.1 Introduction 88 4.2 The pedagogic perspective on teaching written Chinese 88 4.2.1 Reading difficulties of Chinese children 88 4.2.2 Methods of teaching Chinese 90 4.3 Literacy development at pre-reading stage 91 4.3.1 Orthographic aspects of written Chinese 92 4.3.1.1 Developmental stages in understanding the orthographic structure of written Chinese 92 4.3.1.2 Developing global visual skills in reading Chinese 96 4.3.2 Phonological aspects of written Chinese 98 4.3.2.1 Developing one-to-one correspondence between a syllable and a character 98 4.3.2.2 Developing global phonological skills in reading Chinese 100 4.3.2.3 Applying Orthographic-Phonology Correspondence (OPC) rules in reading Chinese 101 4.3.3 Semantic aspects of written Chinese 103 4.3.3.1 Understanding that print conveys meaning 103 4.3.4 Conclusion 105 6 4.4 Literacy development at the formal reading stage 106 4.4.1 Orthographic aspects of written Chinese 106 4.4.1 .1 Developing global visual skills in reading Chinese 106 4.4.2 Phonological aspects of written Chinese 112 4.4.2.1 Developing global phonological skills in reading Chinese 112 4.4.2.2 Applying Orthographic-Phonology Correspondence (OPC) rules in reading Chinese 115 4.4.3 Semantic aspects of written Chinese 118 4.4.3.1 Semantic understanding of words 118 4.4.3.2 Detecting semantic radicals 118 4.5 Conclusion 119 4.5.1 Orthographic aspects of written Chinese 119 4.5.2 Phonological aspects of written Chinese 120 4.5.3 Semantic aspects of written Chinese 122 CHAPTER 5 METHOD OF STUDY 5.1 Rationale of the study 123 5.2 Setting up the experiments 126 5.2.1 Procedure 128 5.3 The Subjects 129 5.3.1 Sample for the pilot Study 129 5.3.2 Sample for the main study 129 5.3.3 Educational background of the subjects 130 CHAPTER 6 STUDY 1: VISUAL DISCRIMINATION OF CHINESE WORDS 6.1 The Pilot Study 132 6.1.1 What are the units of visual discrimination in Chinese? 132 6.1.2 Subjects 133 6.1.3 Design 133 6.1.4 Materials 134 6.1.5 Procedure 135 6.1.6 Results 136 6.1.6.1 Stroke-complexity 136 6.1.6.2 Unit-complexity 137 6.1.7 Conclusion 138 7 6.2 The Main Study 140 6.2.1 Difficulty of visual discrimination: number of strokes versus number of stroke-patterns 140 6.2.2 Subjects 140 6.2.3 Design 140 6.2.4 Materials 142 6.2.5 Procedure 142 6.2.6 Results 143 6.2.6.1 Stroke-complexity in the same pairs 143 6.2.6.2 Unit-complexity in the different pairs 144 6.2.7 Conclusion 146 CHAPTER 7 STUDY 2: ORTHOGRAPHIC ACCEPTABILITY OF PSEUDO WORDS AND NONWORDS 7.1 The Pilot Study 148 7.1 .1 The formal constraints of written Chinese - the positioning of stroke- patterns 148 7.1.2 Subjects 150 7.1.3 Design 150 7.1.4 Materials 151 7.1.5 Procedure 151 7.1.6 Results 151 7.1.7 Discussion 152 7.2 The Main Study 153 7.2.1 The formal constraints of written Chinese
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cantonese Vs. Mandarin: a Summary
    Cantonese vs. Mandarin: A summary JMFT October 21, 2015 This short essay is intended to summarise the similarities and differences between Cantonese and Mandarin. 1 Introduction The large geographical area that is referred to as `China'1 is home to many languages and dialects. Most of these languages are related, and fall under the umbrella term Hanyu (¡£), a term which is usually translated as `Chinese' and spoken of as though it were a unified language. In fact, there are hundreds of dialects and varieties of Chinese, which are not mutually intelligible. With 910 million speakers worldwide2, Mandarin is by far the most common dialect of Chinese. `Mandarin' or `guanhua' originally referred to the language of the mandarins, the government bureaucrats who were based in Beijing. This language was based on the Bejing dialect of Chinese. It was promoted by the Qing dynasty (1644{1912) and later the People's Republic (1949{) as the country's lingua franca, as part of efforts by these governments to establish political unity. Mandarin is now used by most people in China and Taiwan. 3 Mandarin itself consists of many subvarities which are not mutually intelligible. Cantonese (Yuetyu (£) is named after the city Canton, whose name is now transliterated as Guangdong. It is spoken in Hong Kong and Macau (with a combined population of around 8 million), and, owing to these cities' former colonial status, by many overseas Chinese. In the rest of China, Cantonese is relatively rare, but it is still sometimes spoken in Guangzhou. 2 History and etymology It is interesting to note that the Cantonese name for Cantonese, Yuetyu, means `language of the Yuet people'.
    [Show full text]
  • Assessment of the Transition from Pinyin to Hanzi in University Level Introductory Chinese Language Courses
    Old Dominion University ODU Digital Commons OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers STEM Education & Professional Studies 12-2014 Assessment of the Transition from Pinyin to Hanzi in University Level Introductory Chinese Language Courses Ronnie Hess Old Dominion University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ots_masters_projects Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Hess, Ronnie, "Assessment of the Transition from Pinyin to Hanzi in University Level Introductory Chinese Language Courses" (2014). OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers. 3. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/ots_masters_projects/3 This Master's Project is brought to you for free and open access by the STEM Education & Professional Studies at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ASSESSMENT OF THE TRANSITION FROM PINYIN TO HANZI IN UNIVERSITY LEVEL INTRODUCTORY CHINESE LANGUAGE COURSES A Research Study Presented to the Graduate Faculty of The Department of STEM Education and Professional Studies At Old Dominion University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Master of Science in Instructional Design and Technology By Ronnie Hess December, 2014 i SIGNATURE PAGE This research paper was prepared by Ronnie Alan Hess II under the direction of Dr. John Ritz for SEPS 636, Problems in Occupational and Technical Studies. It was submitted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Science degree. Approved By: ___________________________________ Date: ____________ Dr. John Ritz Research Paper Advisor ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • A Comparative Analysis of the Simplification of Chinese Characters in Japan and China
    CONTRASTING APPROACHES TO CHINESE CHARACTER REFORM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE SIMPLIFICATION OF CHINESE CHARACTERS IN JAPAN AND CHINA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I AT MĀNOA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN ASIAN STUDIES AUGUST 2012 By Kei Imafuku Thesis Committee: Alexander Vovin, Chairperson Robert Huey Dina Rudolph Yoshimi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express deep gratitude to Alexander Vovin, Robert Huey, and Dina R. Yoshimi for their Japanese and Chinese expertise and kind encouragement throughout the writing of this thesis. Their guidance, as well as the support of the Center for Japanese Studies, School of Pacific and Asian Studies, and the East-West Center, has been invaluable. i ABSTRACT Due to the complexity and number of Chinese characters used in Chinese and Japanese, some characters were the target of simplification reforms. However, Japanese and Chinese simplifications frequently differed, resulting in the existence of multiple forms of the same character being used in different places. This study investigates the differences between the Japanese and Chinese simplifications and the effects of the simplification techniques implemented by each side. The more conservative Japanese simplifications were achieved by instating simpler historical character variants while the more radical Chinese simplifications were achieved primarily through the use of whole cursive script forms and phonetic simplification techniques. These techniques, however, have been criticized for their detrimental effects on character recognition, semantic and phonetic clarity, and consistency – issues less present with the Japanese approach. By comparing the Japanese and Chinese simplification techniques, this study seeks to determine the characteristics of more effective, less controversial Chinese character simplifications.
    [Show full text]
  • Reading Depends on Writing, in Chinese
    Reading depends on writing, in Chinese Li Hai Tan*, John A. Spinks†, Guinevere F. Eden‡, Charles A. Perfetti§, and Wai Ting Siok*¶ *Department of Linguistics, and †Vice Chancellor’s Office, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China; ‡Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20057; and §Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 12560 Communicated by Robert Desimone, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, April 28, 2005 (received for review January 3, 2005) Language development entails four fundamental and interactive this argument are two characteristics of the Chinese language: (i) abilities: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Over the past Spoken Chinese is highly homophonic, with a single syllable four decades, a large body of evidence has indicated that reading shared by many words, and (ii) the writing system encodes these acquisition is strongly associated with a child’s listening skills, homophonic syllables in its major graphic unit, the character. particularly the child’s sensitivity to phonological structures of Thus, when learning to read, a Chinese child is confronted with spoken language. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that the the fact that a large number of written characters correspond to close relationship between reading and listening is manifested the same syllable (as depicted in Fig. 1A), and phonological universally across languages and that behavioral remediation information is insufficient to access semantics of a printed using strategies addressing phonological awareness alleviates character. reading difficulties in dyslexics. The prevailing view of the central In addition to these system-level (language and writing system) role of phonological awareness in reading development is largely factors, Chinese writing presents some script-level features that based on studies using Western (alphabetic) languages, which are distinguish it visually from alphabetic systems.
    [Show full text]
  • LANGUAGE CONTACT and AREAL DIFFUSION in SINITIC LANGUAGES (Pre-Publication Version)
    LANGUAGE CONTACT AND AREAL DIFFUSION IN SINITIC LANGUAGES (pre-publication version) Hilary Chappell This analysis includes a description of language contact phenomena such as stratification, hybridization and convergence for Sinitic languages. It also presents typologically unusual grammatical features for Sinitic such as double patient constructions, negative existential constructions and agentive adversative passives, while tracing the development of complementizers and diminutives and demarcating the extent of their use across Sinitic and the Sinospheric zone. Both these kinds of data are then used to explore the issue of the adequacy of the comparative method to model linguistic relationships inside and outside of the Sinitic family. It is argued that any adequate explanation of language family formation and development needs to take into account these different kinds of evidence (or counter-evidence) in modeling genetic relationships. In §1 the application of the comparative method to Chinese is reviewed, closely followed by a brief description of the typological features of Sinitic languages in §2. The main body of this chapter is contained in two final sections: §3 discusses three main outcomes of language contact, while §4 investigates morphosyntactic features that evoke either the North-South divide in Sinitic or areal diffusion of certain features in Southeast and East Asia as opposed to grammaticalization pathways that are crosslinguistically common.i 1. The comparative method and reconstruction of Sinitic In Chinese historical
    [Show full text]
  • The Challenge of Chinese Character Acquisition
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Learning and Teacher Education Education 2017 The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem Justin Olmanson University of Nebraska at Lincoln, [email protected] Xianquan Chrystal Liu University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Olmanson, Justin and Liu, Xianquan Chrystal, "The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem" (2017). Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. 239. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/239 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Volume 4 (2017)
    [Show full text]
  • Section 18.1, Han
    The Unicode® Standard Version 13.0 – Core Specification To learn about the latest version of the Unicode Standard, see http://www.unicode.org/versions/latest/. Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trade- mark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. Unicode and the Unicode Logo are registered trademarks of Unicode, Inc., in the United States and other countries. The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this specification, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. The Unicode Character Database and other files are provided as-is by Unicode, Inc. No claims are made as to fitness for any particular purpose. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. The recipient agrees to determine applicability of information provided. © 2020 Unicode, Inc. All rights reserved. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction. For information regarding permissions, inquire at http://www.unicode.org/reporting.html. For information about the Unicode terms of use, please see http://www.unicode.org/copyright.html. The Unicode Standard / the Unicode Consortium; edited by the Unicode Consortium. — Version 13.0. Includes index. ISBN 978-1-936213-26-9 (http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode13.0.0/) 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Pinyin and Chinese Children's Phonological Awareness
    Pinyin and Chinese Children’s Phonological Awareness by Xintian Du A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements For the degree of Master of Arts Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute of Studies in Education University of Toronto @Copyright by Xintian Du 2010 ABSTRACT Pinyin and Chinese Children’s Phonological Awareness Master of Arts 2010 Xintian Du Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto This paper critically reviewed the literature on the relationships between Pinyin and Chinese bilingual and monolingual children’s phonological awareness (PA) and identified areas of research worth of further investigation. As the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet providing pronunciation of the universal Chinese characters, Pinyin facilitates children’s early reading development. What research has found in English is that PA is a reliable indicator of later reading success and meta-linguistic training improves PA. In Chinese, a non-alphabetic language, there is also evidence that PA predicts reading in Chinese, which confirms the universality of PA’s role. However, research shows the uniqueness of each language: tonal awareness is stronger indicator in Chinese while phonemic awareness is stronger indicator in English. Moreover, Pinyin, the meta-linguistic training, has been found to improve PA in Chinese and reading in Chinese and possibly facilitate the cross-language transfer of PA from Chinese to English and vice versa. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am heartily thankful to my supervisors Becky Chen and Normand Labrie, whose guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled me to develop a thorough understanding of the subject and eventually complete the thesis paper.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Character) Writing Skill
    THE GRAPHABET AND BUJIAN APPROACH AT ACQUIRING HANZI (CHINESE CHARACTER) WRITING SKILL CHEN-YA HUANG University of Hong Kong Abstract Learning how to write orthographically correct Hanzi (otherwise known as the Chinese character) is a major hurdle facing students studying Chinese. The difficulty arises from the visual complexity of Hanzi, the opaqueness, i.e. diminished correspondence of sound to orthography, and the traditional method of learning Hanzi, which is monopolized by rote repetitive copying, excessive demand on memory, and lacking of any means of creating an auditory memory of the structural organization of individual Hanzi. As a result, the novice student has to invest a great deal of time and effort trying to master Hanzi, and is often deterred from continuing study. Yet, despite the seriousness of the problem, very little research has been carried out on its solution. This paper proposes a new approach at improving the ability to write Hanzi, through understanding Hanzi as strings of subunits stacked in two-dimensional space, and composed from 21 high frequency recurring shapes herein called graphabets. The combined use of graphabets and bujian can provide a means of creating an auditory memory of the structural organiza- tion and significantly decrease the memory load through chunking, as well as facilitating the use of computer feedback for learning purpose. Keywords: Chinese character, character writing, orthography, teaching method, second language learn- ing. 1. WRITING HANZI, A MAJOR HURDLE IN LEARNING CHINESE The Chinese language is considered one of the hardest languages to learn by peo- ple who are not native to the language. As a result, there is a very high drop-out rate for Chinese as foreign language (CFL) students.
    [Show full text]
  • Writing Taiwanese: the Development of Modern Written Taiwanese
    SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS Number 89 January, 1999 Writing Taiwanese: The Development of Modern Written Taiwanese by Alvin Lin Victor H. Mair, Editor Sino-Platonic Papers Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305 USA [email protected] www.sino-platonic.org SINO-PLATONIC PAPERS is an occasional series edited by Victor H. Mair. The purpose of the series is to make available to specialists and the interested public the results of research that, because of its unconventional or controversial nature, might otherwise go unpublished. The editor actively encourages younger, not yet well established, scholars and independent authors to submit manuscripts for consideration. Contributions in any of the major scholarly languages of the world, including Romanized Modern Standard Mandarin (MSM) and Japanese, are acceptable. In special circumstances, papers written in one of the Sinitic topolects (fangyan) may be considered for publication. Although the chief focus of Sino-Platonic Papers is on the intercultural relations of China with other peoples, challenging and creative studies on a wide variety of philological subjects will be entertained. This series is not the place for safe, sober, and stodgy presentations. Sino-Platonic Papers prefers lively work that, while taking reasonable risks to advance the field, capitalizes on brilliant new insights into the development of civilization. The only style-sheet we honor is that of consistency. Where possible, we prefer the usages of the Journal of Asian Studies. Sinographs (hanzi, also called tetragraphs [fangkuaizi]) and other unusual symbols should be kept to an absolute minimum. Sino-Platonic Papers emphasizes substance over form.
    [Show full text]
  • An Overview of Chinese Writing
    Lesson Title: Chinese Writing Class and Grade level(s): 7th Grade Exploring Languages and Cultures Class Goals and Objectives The student will be able to: The student will be able to: 1. Explain the differences between written and spoken Chinese. 2. Explain how the current Chinese writing system was created. 3. Identify and define simple Chinese characters. Time required/class periods needed: 1 class period = 48 minutes Primary source bibliography The Chinese language http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/tps/1000bce.htm#language Pictures of the terracotta warriors of Qin Shi Huangdi and the Yellow River Chinese newspaper Map of China Other resources used http://ce.linedict.com/#/cnen/home http://www.mandarintools.com http://www.creaders.net/ http://kids.asiasociety.org/ http://chinapage.com/ Required materials/supplies Projector and laptop PowerPoint presentation created by David Beal Internet connection Copies of a Chinese newspaper Handouts for students Small group flashcards to go with internet activity: man, king, ox, sky, star, sun, water, road house, city Large flashcards with Chinese characters (teacher’s choice) Vocabulary Tonal Qin Shi Huangdi Pictographs Transliteration Romanization Pinyin Wade-Giles Procedure As an anticipatory set, the teacher will hand out a copy of a Chinese newspaper printed from the internet. http://www.creaders.net/ 1. The teacher will ask the students to identify the language. The teacher will ask what it says and if anyone can read it. 2. The teacher will hold a class discussion about the differences between learning German, French and Spanish and learning Chinese. 3. The teacher will distribute the handouts for note-taking.
    [Show full text]
  • David Li-Wei Chen Handbook of Taiwanese Romanization
    DAVID LI-WEI CHEN HANDBOOK OF TAIWANESE ROMANIZATION DAVID LI-WEI CHEN CONTENTS PREFACE v HOW TO USE THIS BOOK 1 TAIWANESE PHONICS AND PEHOEJI 5 白話字（POJ) ROMANIZATION TAIWANESE TONES AND TONE SANDHI 23 SOME RULES FOR TAIWANESE ROMANIZATION 43 VERNACULAR 白 AND LITERARY 文 FORMS 53 FOR SAME CHINESE CHARACTERS CHIANG-CH旧漳州 AND CHOAN-CH旧泉州 63 DIALECTS WORDS DERIVED FROM TAIWANESE 65 AND HOKKIEN WORDS BORROWED FROM OTHER 69 LANGUAGES TAILO 台羅 ROMANIZATION 73 BODMAN ROMANIZATION 75 DAIGHI TONGIONG PINGIM 85 台語通用拼音ROMANIZATION TONGIONG TAIWANESE DICTIONARY 91 通用台語字典ROMANIZATION COMPARATIVE TABLES OF TAIWANESE 97 ROMANIZATION AND TAIWANESE PHONETIC SYMBOLS (TPS) CONTENTS • P(^i-5e-jT 白話字（POJ) 99 • Tai-uan Lo-ma-jT Phing-im Hong-an 115 台灣羅馬字拼音方案（Tailo) • Bodman Romanization 131 • Daighi Tongiong PTngim 147 台語通用拼音（DT) • Tongiong Taiwanese Dictionary 163 通用台語字典 TAIWANESE COMPUTING IN POJ AND TAILO 179 • Chinese Character Input and Keyboards 183 • TaigIME臺語輸入法設定 185 • FHL Taigi-Hakka IME 189 信聖愛台語客語輸入法3.1.0版 • 羅漢跤Lohankha台語輸入法 193 • Exercise A. Practice Typing a Self­ 195 Introduction in 白話字 P^h-Oe-jT Romanization. • Exercise B. Practice Typing a Self­ 203 Introduction in 台羅 Tai-l6 Romanization. MENGDIAN 萌典 ONLINE DICTIONARY AND 211 THESAURUS BIBLIOGRAPHY PREFACE There are those who believe that Taiwanese and related Hokkien dialects are just spoken and not written, and can only be passed down orally from one generation to the next. Historically, this was the case with most Non-Mandarin Chinese languages. Grammatical literacy in Chinese characters was primarily through Classical Chinese until the early 1900's. Romanization in Hokkien began in the early 1600's with the work of Spanish and later English missionaries with Hokkien-speaking Chinese communities in the Philippines and Malaysia.
    [Show full text]