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A comparative study of the vocabulary in primaryschool Chinese textbooks in the perspective ofdistribution, usage & level of difficulty

Quek, Germaine Jiamin

2019

Quek, G. J. (2019). A comparative study of the vocabulary in primary school Chinesetextbooks in the perspective of distribution, usage & level of difficulty. Student ResearchPoster, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151816

https://hdl.handle.net/10356/151816

© 2019 The Author(s).

Downloaded on 26 Jan 2022 15:23:41 SGT

Conclusion

Findings & Discussion

Suggestions

• Current or future syllabuses could consider setting up a vocabulary list which includes the set of vocabulary

that should be learnt at the Primary School Level.

• Additionally, a vocabulary list like that of HSK could be created, that is specific to Singapore. The list should

include words most commonly used in Singapore and be categorised into different levels. This could provide a

basis for future curriculum planning.

• The idea of establishing a textbook corpus for teachers’ use should be considered as it can help teachers find

high and low frequency words and allow teachers to make necessary adjustments to aid in improving

efficiency of vocabulary teaching.

• Jiang Xin (1998) noted that when vocabularies are being categorised into themes and taught in this way,

vocabularies would have higher frequency. Hence, future syllabuses could consider designing the texts in a

way whereby each unit follows a certain topic, and intentionally plan for the themes to recur in later parts.

Especially vocabularies that are applicable to daily life.

A Comparative Study of the Vocabulary in Primary School Chinese Textbooks--- In the perspective of distribution, usage & level of difficulty

Background

• Since its independence, Singapore has had 4 complete sets of nation-wide Chinese Language syllabuses.

• Teaching and learning materials represent a significant amount of the language learners come across

(Davidson, Indefrey & Gullberg, 2008; Milton, 2009).

• Vocabulary acquisition is of great significance in L2 learning, vocabulary ability has a strong correlation

with language skills - listening, speaking, reading and writing. (Gui, 2013)

There were various previous researches on analysing Chinese textbooks, however few did comparative study

on the different syllabuses. Dr Luo Qingming, in 2008, published a comparative study on three sets of

Chinese textbooks, focusing on the evolution, characteristics and shortcomings of the textbooks. Concrete

suggestions were also put forward for future planning of syllabuses. This comparative study, that is both

diachronic and synchronic, of all 4 sets of textbooks would be a first.

Methodology

Research Framework

Research Steps

Schmitt (2010) stated that corpus analysis has been one of the most important achievements in vocabulary

studies which allows researchers to understand how authentic language works. (as cited in Martini, 2012,

p.11)

Literature Review

Vocabulary Frequency

• It was found in a study done by Zhang Wei (2007) that the frequency of vocabulary has significant

impact on vocabulary acquisition; about 80% of high frequency vocabulary, 50% of medium-

frequency vocabulary and 1/3 of low-frequency vocabulary can be learned.

• Saragi, Nantion & Meister (1978) showed that the minimum vocabulary recurrence rate must be at

least six, 93% of the subjects successfully learn words that appear six or more times.

• Kachroo (1962) reports that Indian learners of English were able to learn most of the words that

occurred seven or more times in their textbooks but fewer of the many that occurred once or twice.

Total Vocabulary

• Li Wei (2016) mentioned that 8000-10000 vocabulary is more beneficial to learners in teaching

Chinese as a foreign language.

• Cai Li (2002) believes that the total number of vocabulary in textbooks should be set at a reasonable

standard of 2000-3000.

• Zhang Hesheng (2005) believes that middle to high level international students should be able to

acquire a vocabulary of about 5000.

Level of Difficulty

• HSK vocabulary list (1992) contains 8822 words divided into four levels: A, B, C, and D. There are

1033 words under level A, 2018 words under level B, 2202 words under level C, and 3569 funder

level D.

• According to HSK, leaners who received 400-2000 hours of Chinese language education and able to

master 2000-5000 words from levels A, B and C are eligible for HSK junior and intermediate

exams.

• Learners who received more than 3,000 hours of Chinese language education and able to master

5000-8000 words in levels A, B, C and D are eligible for HSK advanced examinations.

Building of

Corpus (1979,

1992, 2002,

2007 Higher

Chinese

Textbooks)

Text segmentation -

vocabulary

Part of speech Tagging

（Through automated

system & manual proofing)

Generating statistical data:

1. Total vocabulary in each textbook

2. Frequency of vocabulary

3. Usage of Vocabulary

4. Level of difficulty in accordance

to HSK

5. Common v.s unique vocabulary

Comparison of generated

statistics:

1. Internal (within levels)

2. External (with HSK

vocabulary list)

Findings &

discussion

Comparative

analysis of the

four textbooks

Conclusion

&

Suggestions

6524

7143

6063

6522

5400

5600

5800

6000

6200

6400

6600

6800

7000

7200

7400

79年 92年 02年 07年

VOCABULARY OF TEXTBOOK

Frequency 1979 (%) 1992 (%) 2002(%) 2007(%)

0 43.76 45.02 46.33 43.96

1—2 26.15 25.52 25.99 25.34

3—5 12.12 12.39 11.30 12.37

≥6 17.96 17.07 16.38 18.32

<0.5 0.5-0.9 1-2.9 3-5.9 ≥6

79年 52.3 13.3 16.6 6.2 11.7

92年 53.9 13.1 16.1 5.9 11.0

02年 55.3 13.0 15.9 5.9 10.0

07年 52.1 13.4 16.2 6.3 12.1

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

VOCABULARY USAGE

79年 92年 02年 07年

LEVEL 1979 1992 2002 2007

A 867 （83.9%） 863 （83.5％） 846（81.9%） 873（84.5%）

B 1215（60.2%）1250（61.9%）1098（54.4%）1230（61.0％）

C 851 （38.6%） 867（39.4%） 711（32.3％） 766（34.8%）

D 701（19.6%） 756（21.2%） 593（16.6%） 766（21.5%）

OUT

OF

HSK

2478 2980 2534 2657

• The problem of low recurrence rate for a large

number of vocabulary remained unchanged in all 4

textbooks. This would mean that students would have

a difficult time completely acquiring these vocabulary.

• According to the number of hours dedicated to

Chinese Language education, it is estimated for the

reasonable range of vocabulary to be about 5000.

• Adjustments to the total number of vocabulary in

each set of textbook could be made in moderation,

to a range of about 5000 words.

• The ratio of the parts of speech in textbooks

follows a trend, and is unaffected by size of text.

• Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, the four

major parts of speech in Chinese vocabulary,

account for about 88-89% of all the texts in each

syllabus.

• The difficulty level is reasonable across all 4 textbooks,

they are quite close to meeting the requirement of HSK.

• 2007 syllabus distribution of the vocabulary in the 5

levels is most reasonable.

• However, the number of vocabulary in level D with a

recurrence rate of 0 is too high.

• The usage of vocabulary in the four sets of textbooks

that meet the standard of 3-5 are minimal, accounting

for less than 20% of the total number of words. This

indicates that more than 80% of the vocabulary are not

well distributed.

Total

vocabulary

Coverage Frequency Usage Level of

difficulty

1979 3 2 2 2 3

1992 4 3 3 3 2

2002 1 1 4 4 4

2007 2 4 1 1 1

• The problems found from the data

derived from the vocabulary of the 4

sets of textbooks are similar and

follow a certain pattern.

• Adjustments can be made to all 4

sets.

• However, through evaluation of the

various research components, the

overall performance of 2007 syllabus

is most reasonable.

1979

1992

2002

2007

Corpus

HSK

Vocabulary

List

Level of

difficulty

• Total Vocabulary

• Coverage

• Part of

speech

distribution

• Frequency

• Usage

79年 92年 02年 07年Coverage 162 161 180 130

% 2.48 2.25 2.97 1.99

• Commonly used vocabulary are too concentrated, students

will be able to understand 50% of the textbook once they

have acquired these words.

Part of speech 1979 1992 2002 2007

Adjective (a) 10.32 10.81 9.70 10.30

Adjective

morpheme (ag) 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00

Distinguishing

word (b) 0.00 0.06 0.02 0.00

Conjunction (c) 1.03 0.85 1.02 0.98

Adverb (d) 5.56 5.00 5.49 4.75

Interjection (e) 0.17 0.13 0.07 0.17

Prefix (h) 0.00 0.01 0.02 0.00

Proverbs (i) 3.62 4.76 3.35 3.54

Abbreviation (j) 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00

Suffix (k) 0.11 0.07 0.05 0.12

Idioms (l) 0.00 0.00 0.97 0.00

Numerals (m) 0.66 0.59 0.61 1.35

Nouns (n) 45.03 45.04 42.42 45.03

Onomatopoeia (o) 0.46 0.50 0.18 0.49

Preposition (p) 0.77 0.74 0.84 0.75

Quantifier (q) 2.22 1.78 2.14 2.01

Pronoun (r) 1.06 1.04 1.39 1.26

Auxiliary (u) 0.57 0.46 0.51 0.38

Verb (v) 28.40 28.11 31.14 28.86

Non-morpheme (x) 0.02 0.03 0.02 0.00

Modal (y) 0.00 0.01 0.00 0.00

State word (z) 0.00 0.00 0.07 0.00

Category: EDUCATION AND TEACHING - ARTS AND LANGUAGES Student: Germaine Quek JiaminNational Institute of Education Project ID: NIE18103Supervisor: Dr Luo Qingming