以功能語法構建的應用文教材對提高非華語學生功能字詞運用的成效

Abstract

In order to enhance Hong Kong non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students’ ability to learn practical writing and presenting ideas appropriately in Chinese, Dr. Mark Shum Shiu Kee’s research team received funding from the Hong Kong Education Bureau to develop Chinese practical writing teaching materials for NCS students in 2016/17. This paper describes how the researchers develop these teaching materials by adopting Functional Grammar Theory, and investigates the effectiveness of the teaching material package at equipping the NCS students’ with ability in using function words. This paper aims at exploring how effective the newly developed practical writing teaching material package at enhancing NCS students’ ability to use function words is. With reference to the Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) Theory, Chinese practical writing teaching material package suitable for NCS students was developed. The package reading materials were developed by looking into the communicative function, schematic structure and metalanguage of different genres. Besides, NCS students’ difficulty in using function words and expressions of different genres were also analyzed. By referring to “Genre Function” theory and “Reading to Learn” pedagogy, interactive exercises that combine reading and writing were designed. These suggested exercises guide students to learn in a process, from deconstruction of the sample texts to joint construction and individual construction. Apart from the above, frontline Chinese language teachers were invited to conduct tryout sessions to test the effectiveness of the teaching material package. The analysis of students’ writings in pre-tests and post-tests, together with the research data from teachers and students interviews, provide a comprehensive evaluation on the effectiveness of the practical writing teaching material package. Feasible suggestions for enhancing NCS students’ ability, particularly in using function words and constructing practical writing, are provided for teaching NCS students to construct practical writing.