The dilemma of Chinese characters (Hanzi) writing for prospective teacher

The dilemma of Chinese characters (Hanzi) writing for prospective teacher

• Kwong, Oi Ping The Education University of Hong Kong

The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2017 (ACLL2017): Educating for Change (2017: Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan)

• G Curriculum, Teaching & Learning: Specific Disciplines
  • GA Chinese Language
• M Teachers & Education for Teachers
  • MA Professional Education for Teachers

• Hong Kong

• 1997.7 onwards

• Unknown or Unspecified

The Chinese Language, unlike the Latin alphabetic family, is an ideographic writing system, which makes learning to write in Chinese a real challenge even for native speakers. In Hong Kong, most children start learning to write Chinese Characters (Hanzi) form in kindergarten and acquire about 4,000 commonly used forms in primary school. The teachers usually adopt the only two official traditional Chinese Characters references promulgate by governments, including Lexical Lists for Chinese Learning in Hong Kong by Hong Kong Education Bureau and Teacher’s Handbook of Standard Form of Chinese Characters by Taiwan Ministry of Education. However, some frequently used Hanzi are found to be in different forms under these two standards. The usage of simplified Chinese characters from mainland China further complicates the issue. Furthermore, even though some high-frequency word forms are aligned under these two standards, prospective teachers may still make mistakes due to the complexity of Hanzi Characters form and their calligraphic variations. Writing in different form or wrong way of Hanzi form may also affect Hanzi stroke count and order. As prospective teacher is the role model of students in handwriting, it is important to find out the common mistakes made by the prospective teacher. In this study, we will investigate the potential problems to the Hanzi form handwriting of Hong Kong prospective teachers and the rationale behind the intrigues.

Paper presented at The Asian Conference on Language Learning 2017 (ACLL2017): Educating for Change, Art Center Kobe, Kobe, Japan.

• English

Conference Papers

https://bibliography.lib.eduhk.hk/bibs/6bd730e0

2017-08-09