Teaching Advanced-Level Chinese: Literary Style and Figure of Speech《高年级中文教学：文体与修辞手法》

Wenwei Du都文伟, Vassar College凡萨大学

Abstract:

This paper is based on my teaching of the third-year and fourth-year Chinese at college level in 2007-2009. One aspect in the teaching of the advanced level Chinese that may be neglected is the conscious introduction of various literary styles (wenti 文体) and types of figure of speech (xiuci shoufa 修辞手法) which are inherently reflected in the texts of usual textbooks. This paper uses concrete examples from the texts to show how the following aspects were introduced, taught and learned: literary styles such as narrative essays, lyric prose, short stories, fables, argumentative essays, poetry, classic Chinese in vernacular texts and expressive jottings记叙文，抒情散文，短篇小说，寓言故事，论说文，诗歌，白话文中的文言文，随感) and figure of speech such as the use of simile, metaphor, personification, symbolism, exaggeration, allusions, rhyme, antithesis, parallel construction and reduplication （明喻，暗喻，拟人，象征，夸张，典故，押韵，对仗，排比， 重叠）. My students and I have found the enjoyment of learning and teaching these aspects of Chinese. Being conscious and having a good understanding of these aspects excites the students’ interest in learning challenging texts and helps them to cultivate a sensitive habit of analyzing the sentences fully and to have a better command of Chinese. Samples from students’ oral and written compositions will also be used to show how they have digested these aspects.