The Survey of Chinese Radicals Perception

A Case of Business Chinese Department of Assumption University in Thailand

Abstract

Apart from the Taiwanese Chinese language school affiliated in Thailand, Chinese language departments in Thailand tend to teach only simplified Chinese characters. One noteworthy exception is at the International Assumption University which teaches both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Although freshman students use simplified character textbooks, they are asked to use traditional characters in class. Sophomore and third year students use only simplified characters while fourth year students use both traditional and simplified characters, but can opt to write only in simplified characters if they so choose. This approach of mixing two different character sets, from intermediate and advanced students, cause errors in their learning and delivery, such as incorrect placement of radicals. For example, "neighbour" using a traditional character “鄰” positions the radical to the right part, but positions this same radical to the left for the simplified version“邻” of the same character. When teaching Chinese as a foreign language, radicals cannot be ignored. Although many beginner textbooks give some examples of pictographic characters to help students to learn, some of which are also a semantic component, the overall learning process is not systematic. Teachers in the early basic classes focus on reading and writing Chinese characters but place little or no emphasis on the teaching of radicals used with components. This leads to a weaker ีunderstanding of the language from the student. A questionnaire is designed for investigating the perception of radicals to intermediate students. 21 most commonly used radicals with the highest character structuring ability are used. Analysis shows that students have higher perception of radical positions than the meaning of radicals, higher perception of radical prototypes than radical variants, and higher perception of simplified radicals than traditional radicals.