Feasibility of the Lexical Approach Applied to the Teaching of Chinese Characters

Abstract

The teaching of Chinese as a foreign language finds itself in a period of expansion in which didactics must provide answers to problems related mainly to the system of writing and its disconnection from the teaching and learning of the spoken language, problems which until now have been treated superficially. The application of a lexical approach in the Chinese classroom which provides a context for an integrated teaching of language and writing systems was explored during the 2016/17 academic year at the University of Granada. Analyses, through an observation project revealed how exemplification, designed and adapted to a lexical teaching of the Chinese language, improves motivation, semantic language perception, and development of orthographic skills in students.