Using innovative technologies for teaching international students Chinese characters: necessity and prerequisites

Abstract

This article describes the difficulties that non-native Chinese students face in learning Chinese characters. It emphasizes that the necessary writing skills should include not only the ability to write individual characters, but also the output of whole sentences and paragraphs with the purpose to facilitate written communication in various contexts. On this basis, the study first examines the necessity for reforming Chinese character training and argues that changes in the socio-cultural environment and upgraded information technologies are calling for a reform in the writing education. Then, by investigating the reform prerequisites from both the technical and theoretical perspectives, this study stresses that, in Chinese language education, it is imperative to use the modern information technologies to reduce the burden of writing and to make writing training truly serve the development of communication competence