ปัญหาการเรียนการสอนอักษรจีนในประเทศไทย

The Study of the Problems of Chinese Characters Teaching in Thailand

Abstract

This study describes the problems of Chinese characters teaching in Thai people. The aim of this study is to understand various problems related to Chinese characters teaching and to provide guidelines for improving the teaching method of Chinese characters in Thailand to be more effective. The factors which affect the teaching of Chinese characters in Thailand can be divided into 3 main factors: 1) Teacher and learner factors 2) Teaching and learning factors and 3) Chinese characters factors. For Teacher and learner factors, teachers do not emphasize on the importance of memorizing techniques of Chinese characters. Also, teachers do not encourage learners to find out the connection between Chinese characters and pictographic characters. Moreover, teachers do not have enough knowledge about Chinese characters, therefore they cannot convey this knowledge to learners. Learners also have negative attitudes towards Chinese characters, that is, Chinese characters are very difficult and have a large amount. Most learners recite the whole characters without a good understanding on Chinese characters, and not pay much attention to the writing of Chinese characters. In terms of the teaching and learning factors, teaching methods are not attractive and interesting, no various kind of teaching activities, and most of them are not systematic and continuous. The third factor, Chinese character factor, there are a large amount of Chinese characters, some of them are very similar, and some of them have their own limitations. However, there are methods for solving Chinese characters teaching problems: 1) Teachers should be aware of the importance of memorizing Chinese characters. Teacher should apply teaching principles to their class such as the connection between Chinese characters and the real picture, the principles of memorizing Chinese characters, the components of Chinese characters including pictographic elements, phonetic elements, the explanation of Chinese characters etc. 2) Learners should pay more attention to the writing of Chinese characters. Learners also should consider and observe the appearance of characters, the number of strokes, the characteristics of strokes, the different position of strokes, the components of Chinese characters, the form of single characters and the form of picto-phonetic characters which are the largest number of Chinese characters composed of pictographic elements and phonetic elements. 3) Teachers should arrange the sequence of teaching and learning process of Chinese characters and provide the knowledge about Chinese characters continually. Moreover, the revision of Chinese characters should be carried out, and the study plan also should be linked to other subjects. To attract learners’ attentions, teachers should create interesting activities in teaching Chinese characters. Moreover, Chinese characters online teaching should be created, therefore learners can learn by themselves,  and have more channels or opportunities to learn Chinese characters.

Keywords: Chinese teaching, Chinese Characters, Thailand