An Analysis on the Problems faced by Sri Lankan Chinese Learners in Acquiring Particle "Le"

Abstract

Particle 了 “Le” in Chinese language has a high frequency of usage and is very complex. The scholars in the field of linguistics and teaching Chinese as a foreign language comparatively do more Ontological researches on Particle “Le”. However, the researches on Particle “Le”, especially on the problems of teaching and learning Particle “Le” for the foreign students are rarely found. This paper contains a selection of four sets of teaching materials for teaching Chinese for the foreign students in beginners and intermediate levels. They are “New Practical Chinese Reader", "Great Wall Chinese", "Chinese course" and "Our Chinese". Within which the compilation of Particle “Le” is investigated, based on the syntactic structure, an investigation has undertaken to research the problems encountered by the Sri Lankan students while learning Particle “Le” and the errors frequently made by the students, so as to summarise the problems frequently encountered and the reasons behind them. This paper has also provided specific effective teaching and learning tactics and can be considered as a supplementary teaching material for those who master Particle “Le”. This paper consists of five chapters. First chapter discusses Particle “Le” learnt by Sri Lankan University students and a compilation of grammar points of Particle “Le” within the aforesaid text books. In the second chapter, a comprehensive study and an analysis were undertaken by means of analysing results of the investigation questionnaire. The third chapter discusses the problems encountered during the process of learning Particle “Le” and the phenomenon of most frequent errors. The fourth chapter discusses the reasons behind the problems encountered and errors made by the students while fifth chapter summarises the teaching suggestions and methods in order to guarantee the effectivity of teaching and learning outcomes.