5.2 Pedagogical Application
5.2.2 Information and Thematic Structures
Stage 1: Old-new Information Order and Focus
In the first stage, students are taught the unmarked sequence of information:
old-new information. What has been mentioned in the previous text is considered old information and what is unknown by the readers is new information. The most important information should be put at the end of the sentence.
(122) A：我待會兒想去花園散散步．
B：勸你不要去．
A：為什麼？
B：因為花園飛滿蜜蜂，萬一去了被叮得滿頭包可怎麼得了？
A: Wǒ dàihuìér xiǎng qù huāyuán sànsàn bù.
126 B: Quàn nǐ búyào qù.
A: wèishéme?
B: Yīnwèi huāyuán fēi mǎn mìfēng, wànyī qù le bèi dīng de mǎntóu bāo kě zěnmedéliǎo?
A: I want to go for a walk in the garden later.
B: I don’t think you should go.
A: Why?
B: Because the garden is filled with bees. What happened if you got bitten hard?
（Chen, 2010: 48）
First, a conversation can be provided to explain the old-new information. A wants to go to the garden for a walk. B does not agree with A because he thinks the garden is filled with bees. The garden is the old information because it is mentioned by A at the beginning of the conversation, and the bees are the new information which is the focus in B’s intention since they might be harmed by the bees. The conversation would not be fluent if the sentence is changed to “yīnwèi mìfēng fēi mǎn huāyuán”.
The same rule applies to the following passage (123).
(123) (a) a所以我要強調一點，知識分子乃是時代良心的代表，必須對社會提出自己
的議論（看法），b但這種議論須是訴諸公理而不是無端謾罵。
a Suǒyǐ wǒ yào qiángdiào yìdiǎn zhīshìfènzi nǎi shì shídài liángxīn de dàibiǎo, bì xū duì shèhuì tíchū zìjǐ de yìlùn （kànfǎ）, b dàn zhè zhǒng yìlùn xū shì sùzhū gonglǐ ér bú shì wúduān mànmà.
So I’d like to emphasize that intellectuals can best represent the rightfulness of this era. They must provide their opinions towards the society, but the argument should appeal to justice rather than blaming phenomena without reasons.
(b) a 所以我要強調一點，知識分子乃是時代良心的代表，必須對社會提出
自己的議論（看法），b 但須是訴諸公理而不是無端謾罵的議論。
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a Suǒyǐ wǒ yào qiángdiào yìdiǎn zhīshìfènzi nǎi shì shídài liángxīn de dàibiǎo, bì xū duì shèhuì tíchū zìjǐ de yìlùn （kànfǎ）, b dàn xū shì sùzhū gonglǐ ér bú shì wúduān mànmà de yìlùn.
In (123), part a describes intellectuals must have their opinions towards society, and part b indicates that the opinions should be generally acknowledged truth rather than condemning without reason or logic. Thus, opinions are the old information which should be put at the beginning of part b and the focus is “not to condemn without reasons”. Even though part b in (123) (b) can still deliver the meaning, the effect is weaker compared to b in (123) (b).
Stage 2: Topic-prominent Language - pronouns
In this stage, students are taught that Chinese is a topic-prominent language, thus pro-drop is very common in Chinese, especially in a topic chain.
In (124), “zhōngnián de nánzi” (the middle-aged man) is the topic which is followed by several activities with zero pronouns.
(124) (a) 這是一個中年的男子，Ø剛從地鐵往外走去，Ø手裡拿著一卷報紙，Ø低著 腦袋，Ø心情非常沉重，Ø往家的路上走去。
Zhè shì yíge zhōngnián de nánzi, Ø gāng cóng dìtiě wǎng wài zǒu qù, Ø shǒu lǐ ná zhe yì juàn bàozhǐ, Ø dīzhe nǎodài, Ø xīnqíng fēicháng chénzhòng, Ø wǎng jiā de lùshàng zǒu qù.
(b) This man has just gotten off work and he’s returning home. And he has a lot of thoughts on his mind, because he must tell his family, at least his child and his immediate family, of the bad news.
（Chen, 2012: 262-263）
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Stage 3: Topic-prominent language - nouns, nominal clauses, and etc.
This stage shows the progression of the introductory concept “topic”. Students are taught that it is very common to draw the old information (usually a noun or noun phrases) to be positioned as a topic, followed by the comment which is the new information the writer can provide about the topic.
(125) a我覺得房東太狠心了，居然把我最值錢也最心愛的吉他也給賣掉了。b這把
吉他，c是我在讀中學的時候，利用暑期到磚瓦廠做了一個月的磚坯才掙來的，
被我視若珍寶一直帶在身邊．
a Wǒ juéde fangdōng tài hěnxīn le, jūrán bǎ wǒ zuì zhíqián yě zuì xīnài de jí tā gěi mài diào le. b Zhè bǎ jítā, c shì wǒ zài dú zhōngxué de shíhòu, lìyòng shǔqí dào zhuānwǎ chǎng zuò le yí ge yuè de zhuānpēi cái zhèng lái de, bèi wǒ shì ruò zhēnbǎo yìzhí dài zài shēnbiān.
I think the landlord is too heartless that he sold my most valuable and favorite guitar. The guitar was earned by doing unfired bricks for a month in the summer vacation when I was in high school, so it was hightly treasured by me.
In (125), “guitar” is the old information mentioned in a, and it serves as a topic in b to relate to the comment c.
Conjunctions are also used to mark the topic.
(126) a加拿大、美國教育展(education exhibition of Canada and the U.S.)日前在台 北國際會議中心展開，許多有意到美加留、遊學的學子，紛紛到現場蒐集資訊，
究其選擇留美原因，多數認為美國知識系統與國內相近、費用便宜、選擇種類 豐富，比起同樣是英語系國家的英國、澳洲，是較佳的深造地點。世新大學行 政管理學系大三的林同學說，感覺在台灣繼續念下去比較沒有前途，所以想出 國留學，而選擇美國、加拿大，不考慮其他國家，則是因為美國出名的系所是 現在正受歡迎的類別，且選擇豐富，加上英文仍是世界共通語言，所以決定以 美國、加拿大為第一留學地點。已決定到溫哥華念旅館管理的謝珮怡則表示，
雖然旅館管理以瑞士最佳，不過考量到費用因素，加拿大還是比瑞士來得便宜，
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而且品質也不差；另外，加拿大的氣候也較瑞士更接近台灣狀況，也是她的考 量因素。才高三便來看展的聖心女中許之說，因為從小就很喜歡英文，所以出 國留學一直是她的心願，而喜愛美語的她，也以美語系國家美國為第一考量。
b至於(as for)留學價格較便宜的澳洲(Australia that would cost less money)，則 因學歷在台灣未受認證、種族歧視較嚴重，所以排除在她的選擇之外。
In (126), part a begins with a topic “education exhibition of Canada and the U.S.”, and the following content in a is the explanation of why students choose Canada or the U.S for further studies by presenting the opinions of several students. Part b is the introduction of another topic “Australia”. A topic mark “as for” is used to signal that the writer will explain “why the student did not choose Australia”. Pinyin and English translations are not provided for this.
In sumary, writing is an important part of Chinese courses and is an area where students often need extensive training. The ability to write well is not a naturally acquired skill, and it is usually learned after detailed explanation and repeated practices.
This chapter provides pedagogical application based on research results and interviews.
It is hoped the research findings will lead to contributions that further the teaching of Mandarin writing.
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131 CHAPTER 6
SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH
This research has analyzed English-speaking learners’ Chinese discourse errors form the perspectives of cohesion, information and thematic structures. Nevertheless, there are various limitations. This chapter discusses the limitations and makes recommendations for future research.
First, the results would be more convincing if the compositions were examined and corrected by more than one teacher. In other words, investigating the discourse errors based on one author’s judgements was a limitation. There may be several ways to correct the sentences in a discourse. The standards could be stregthened if they were established by a team of researchers. Therefore, it is recommended that future research involve a team of professional native speakers to correct and mark discourse errors..
Second, more students participating in the interviews would contribute to the investigation of the sources of errors. Interviews were adopted to extend understanding of errors and how they relate to the theories of linguistic typologies. The discussion of the sources of errors might be affected by a variety of factors, including personal opinions, learning experiences, individual backgrounds, etc. and so a larger interview group provides a broader understanding of learner needs.
Third, the research would be more complete if the performance of Chinese American students was separated from learners with no Chinese background or heritage.
This study collected compositions from English learners of Chinese; therefore, students of different backgrounds might commit different errors in a discourse. To be specific, students of Chinese heritage spoke Chinese when they were little, and their Chinese backgroud might have an influence on the structure as well as organization of a
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composition. Thus, observing and comparing the writing of heritage and non heritage learners could provide a more comprehensive view towards the study of errors at the discourse level.
Finally, in the section of pedagogical implication, guidelines and a few teaching models were provided due to the limitation time and space in this research. More teaching examples could be further investigated and presented to provide practical teaching plans for Chinese teachers in their writing courses.
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