An Investigation of Methods and Techniques in L2 Beginning Chinese Vocabulary Instruction

Juchun Wei魏如君, Graduate Student

The University of Iowa

There have been different approaches to vocabulary instruction in the field of foreign language education.  Some educators advocate that vocabulary is implicitly learned; therefore explicit instruction is not necessary. However, other researchers have presented the efficacy of explicit instruction. Many methods and techniques have also evolved from these two approaches. How do teachers teaching beginning Chinese vocabulary balance between these two approaches, considering the logographic nature of Chinese orthography which lacks correspondence between the sound and the graph? To explore effective vocabulary instruction methods, a survey of beginning Chinese vocabulary pedagogy will be conducted. Questionnaire will be distributed to the first-year Chinese instructors in universities in the United States.  The collected methods and techniques will be categorized into three categories, decontextualized, semi-contextualized and contextualized instruction.  Merits and demerits of various methods will be analyzed qualitatively based on learning theories. Recommendations and suggestions will be made in designing vocabulary pedagogy. A sample lesson will be provided as an example of effective vocabulary pedagogy.