Talking about “Keeping” and “Changing” in Teaching Chinese Characters to Foreigners: Taking the Partial Character “quan” as an Example

Abstract

Teaching Chinese characters to foreigners has always been the focus and difficulty of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. The article focuses on analyzing the two major issues of “keeping” and “changing” in teaching Chinese characters to foreigners. “Keeping” means the goal and mission of teaching Chinese characters to foreigners, and it is believed that we should clarify the essential features of Chinese characters that are different from other characters; have a general understanding and grasp of the whole Chinese character symbol system; identify the relationship between Chinese characters and Chinese words. It is believed that one should clarify the essential features of Chinese characters that make them different from other characters, have a general understanding and grasp of the entire Chinese character symbolic system, and identify the relationship between Chinese characters (words) and Chinese language (words). “Changes” means the development path of teaching Chinese characters to foreigners. Taking the character “犬” as an example, we analyze its connotation and the comparison between ancient and modern times around the ShuoWenJieZi. Subsequently, the development path is proposed to emphasize the spatial distribution of radicals while taking into account the concept of stroke order, and to emphasize the explanation of the rationale for the construction of Chinese characters. In terms of teaching, the combination of science and technology will promote innovative changes in teaching methods and transform the teaching body.