Characters and Words
5.5 Suggested Teaching and Learning Models
There are many different ways to help students learn Chinese characters.
Following are a few that have been discussed in pedagogical literature or successfully used with students.
• Strokes and stroke order
• Storytelling
• Guessing based on semantic and phonetic components
• Compounding and sentencing
• Recognizing and using synonyms and antonyms
• Outrageous words (e.g. swear words)
• Word puzzles and word games
• Converting traditional to simplified characters and vice versa
To begin with, students should be introduced to the basic strokes of Chinese characters. There are eight types of strokes commonly used to compose characters:
(1) diăn “dot” as in ， (2) héng “horizontal” as ， (3) shù “vertical” as in
，(4) piĕ “downward left” as in , (5) nà “downward right” in as , (6) tí
“upward right” as in , (7) gōu “hook” as in and , and (8) zhé
“cornering” as in and . Each of these strokes may be considered to function as letters do in alphabetical languages (e.g. the Chinese character 人 rén “person”
consists of two strokes: piĕ and nà while the English word “to” consists of two letters: “t” and “o”). One has to put them in a right order to form a character.
Following is a list of rules for writing strokes of characters:
• From left to right 川，从
• From top to bottom 三，下
• From outside to inside 向，风，向
• From middle to sides 小，水，业
• Inside before closing 回，且，国
• Horizontal before other strokes 七，丰，夫
• Main body before tying it all together 中，事
• Main body before the dot 我，发
Notice that, for the most part, two or more rules apply to one character (e.g.
想xiăng “think” applies five of the rules listed above: from top to bottom, from left to right, from outside to inside, inside before closing, horizontal before other strokes). Certainly, there are some exceptions to these rules. For instance, characters with the “walk and go” radical (辶) normally have whatever is inside the radical written before the radical (e.g. 文+辶= 这). Another example is when the dot stroke is located squarely above other strokes, as in 文 and 字 or to the left as in 头 and 为; in cases like these the dot must be written first, not last. In general, the first two rules (from top to bottom and from left to right) apply to the majority of characters and they are the foundation of all the rules of stroke order (Cf. Yin 1997: 291–5).
When students have learnt how to put strokes into the right order, they may work on memorization strategies. Two strategies often used by students and said to be effective are: (1) the story telling method and (2) the guessing method. Both of these methods were briefly mentioned in the previous sections when discussing semantic and phonetic components of characters. Here I will provide more examples to illustrate the effectiveness of these two methods in learning and memorizing characters. The story telling method refers to the learning of characters through the telling of a story about them as shown in (5.9).
(5.9) 中zhōng “middle” When a vertical line (丨) pierces through a rectangular box (口), it is in the middle.
国guó “country” When a king (王) holds a seal (丶) and sits in the middle of a territory (囗), it is a country.
明 míng “bright” When a sun（日）is next to a moon (月), it is bright.
家 jiā “home/family” When there is a pig (豕) under a roof (宀), it is a
household.
姓 xìng “surname” When a woman (女) gives birth (生) to a child, this child can carry on the last name of the family.
It appears that stories do not have to be true to the characters’ historic back-stories from ancient times. As long as they help students memorize characters, they are good stories (except, as I mentioned earlier, if they will interfere with the meaning of the radicals in later more advanced study). The story telling method may be best used with characters created through the indicative and associative methods (see discussion in section 5.1). The guessing method, on the other hand, is effective for students memorizing picto-phonetic characters. When students have learned the basic radicals and phonetic components discussed in sections 5.2, they should be able to make intelligent
guesses as to the meaning of given characters composed of those basic components, as illustrated in (5.10).
(5.10) Radical Phonetic Character English meaning 讠 “word” + 青 = 请qĭng “polite words”
氵 “water” + 青 = 清qīng “clear (water)”
日 “sun” + 青 = 晴qíng “clear (sky)”
忄 “heart” + 青 = 情qíng “feeling”
鱼 “fish” + 青 = 鲭qīng “a type of fish”
虫 “insect” + 青 = 蜻qīng “a type of insect”
气 “air” + 青 = 氰qíng “a type of air”
竹 “bamboo” + 青 = 箐qìng “a type of bamboo”
Although tones are unpredictable, meanings and spellings of the words listed above can be guessed based on the meaning of radicals and the pronunciation of the phonetic part 青 qīng. Clearly, both the story telling and guessing methods are based on the structure of characters and the psychological factors involved in teaching and learning characters. Without a clear understanding of character structure, there can be no basis for a story or for guessing anything about a given character. Similarly, without a clear understanding of the factors that motivate students to learn (e.g. fun, sense of achievement, intellectual challenge, and encouragement), it is difficult to attract students’ interest in learning characters.
The drawback of both the story telling and guessing methods, however, is that they cannot be used to explain all characters, as Chu (2004) pointed out. For instance, the simplified character 听 (tīng, “listen”) has both a semantic component 口 (kŏu, “mouth”) and phonetic component (斤, jīn), yet its meaning does not seem to have a direct relation with mouth (although one may argue that since words come from a mouth, “listen” does relate to “mouth”). The character 动 (dòng, meaning “move/motion”) does not have the same or similar pronunciation as either of the two components: 云 (yún, “cloud”) and 力 (lì,
“power/strength”). Therefore, students should be cautious in pronouncing a new word that they have never heard before and guessing the meaning of this word out of context.
Other strategies for learning and memorizing characters may involve compounding, sentencing and playing word games using newly acquired words, finding their synonyms/antonyms, and even outrageous words (e.g. swear words).
Compounding is a straightforward exercise. Students and teachers may spend 5–10 minutes on it every time students learn some new characters, as shown in (5.11). Similarly, students may also be encouraged to use newly acquired words in various communicative sentences, as illustrated in (5.12).
(5.11) 学 xué “to learn, study”
学生 xuésheng “student”
学习 xuéxí “study”
学校 xuéxiào “school”
学分 xuéfēn “credit”
学费 xuéfèi “tuition”
学问 xuéwèn “knowledge”
同学 tóngxué “classmate”
大学 dàxué “university”
好学 hàoxué “enjoy learning”
初学 chūxué “start learning”
东亚学 dōngyă xué “East Asian Studies”
（5.12） 学： 学、学、学，每天都在学习有什么意思？
xué xué, xué, xué, mĕitiān dōu zài xuéxí yŏu shénme yìsi?
“Study, study, study, why do we have to study everyday?”
你可以学好，也可以学坏，还可以学傻。
nĭ kĕyĭ xuéhăo, yĕ kĕyĭ xuéhuì, hái kĕyĭ xuéshă.
“You can learn to be a good person, a bad person, or even become an idiot.”
店： 我们先上书店，再去饭店，然后去商店。
diàn wŏmen xiān shàng shūdiàn, zài qù fàndiàn, ránhòu qù shāngdiàn.
“First we’ll go to the bookstore, then restaurant, then to the shops.”
有钱逛店，没钱怎么办？
yŏu qián guàng diàn, méi qián zĕnme bàn?
“Those who have money can shop everywhere, What about those who
don’t have money?”
期： 每个学期的最后一个星期 “dead week” 中文怎么说？
qi mĕi ge xuéqī de zuìhòu yíge xīngqī zhōngwén zĕnme shuō?
“How to say ‘dead week’ the last week of a semester in Chinese?”
“死星期”？“死期”？还是“期末复习周”？
“sĭ xīngqī”? “sĭqī”? háishì “qīmò fùxí zhōu”?
“Dead week”? “dead period”? “final review week”?
Word games (e.g. Bingo), synonyms/antonyms, outrageous words/derogatory words (see Wenlin 2001, Xing 2001, Wang 1995) are fun for students to learn and work on. These activities do not take much time in class, yet they are excellent exercises for boosting students’ interest in learning and giving them a sense of achievement that they have learned many characters and can use them in real conversations.
One last activity to be introduced in this section is converting traditional into simplified characters and vice versa. This activity does not enlarge students’
vocabulary, but it does help students who learn one version of a character to acquaint themselves with the other version. The core concept of conversion that students need to be aware of is the eight principles used in simplification of characters and summarized by Times Books International (1985).
(1) Borrowing a simpler character which already has a meaning of its own with the same sound, though the tone may vary. For examples, 後=>后 hòu “after”; 裏=>里 lĭ
“inside”；幹=>干 gàn “dry”.
(2) Adopting existing common and simple variant forms. The only difference between the variants used to be the preference of style. For example, 個=>个 gè “measure word”; 萬=>万 wàn “ten thousand”; 甚=>什 shèn “very”; 頭=>头 tóu “head”.
(3) Incorporating “grass style” characters used in cursive writing to eliminate total number of strokes. For example， 馬=>马 mă “horse”; 樂=>乐 lè “happy”；興=>
兴 xìng “excited”；寫=>写 xiĕ “write”.
(4) Revising the ideas conveyed by the character. For example, 寶=>宝 băo “precious”
(under the “roof” the traditional version has three precious things, whereas the simplified only has one); 雙=>双 shuāng “pair” (the traditional form has two birds above a hand, while the simplified form only has two hands); 孫 => 孙 sūn
“grandchild” (beside the “child” radical, the traditional form contains the part meaning “offspring”, while the simplified form has the part meaning “young” or
“small”); 筆=>笔 bĭ “brush” (under the bamboo radical, the traditional form contains a part meaning “brush” while the simplified form has the character meaning “hair”) . (5) Replacing part of the character with a simpler phonetic element although tone may
vary. For example, 嚇=>吓 xià “be scared”; 種=>种 zhŏng “plant”; 遠=>远 yuăn
“far”; 曆=>历 lì “undergo”.
(6) Using only a part of the regular character. For example, 醫=>医 yī “medicine”; 飛
=> 飞 fēi “fly” ； 聲 => 声 shēng “sound” ； 氣 => 气 qì “air” ； 電 => 电 diàn
“electricity”；號=>号 hào “number”；術=>术 shù “technique”.
(7) Cutting down repeated elements or simplifying them. For example, 蟲=>虫 chóng
“insect”; 齒=>齿 chĭ “tooth”; 競=>竞 jìng “compete”.
(8) Replacing a number of different complex components with a simplified form common to all. For example, 歡=欢 huān “happy”; 觀=>观 guān “watch”; 漢=>汉 hàn “Han ethnicity”; 難=>难 nán “difficulty”; 對=>对 duì “correct”; 戲=>戏 xì
“play”；雞=>鸡 jī “chicken”.
I recommend that students be introduced to these principles of conversion either toward the end of elementary Chinese or at the beginning of intermediate Chinese. The rationale for this recommendation is that after students have learnt the 500 most frequently used characters and the 100 most frequently used radicals and phonetic components, they will have a good understanding of the structure of Chinese characters, which in turn will help them understand the principles of conversion better and apply them more easily in the recognition of new characters.
Although the conversion principles were originally guidelines for conversion from traditional to simplified, they are equally instructive for conversion from
simplified to traditional. Therefore, regardless of which version of characters students start with, the conversion principles can help them learn the other version.
So far, I have discussed several strategies in teaching and learning characters, among which the story telling and guessing methods are recommended for students, especially beginning students, to aid them in recognizing and memorizing the meaning, sound and form of characters. Then the method of association with other characters was briefly mentioned, which includes character usage in compounds and sentences, synonyms and antonyms, and word games.
Lastly, the method of conversion between simplified and traditional characters was introduced so that students may be trained to recognize both versions of Chinese characters.