In:Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching: Historical perspectives
Edited by Richard Smith and Tim Giesler
[AILA Applied Linguistics Series 20] 2023
► pp. 164–179
Chapter 9Describing and learning
the Chinese languages
Innovation in Western language pedagogical tools of the late Ming and late Qing periods
Published online: 27 June 2023
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.20.09gia
https://doi.org/10.1075/aals.20.09gia
Abstract
The first works on Chinese languages destined for
Western learners were compiled at the end of the 16th century, but
it was not until the 19th century that such works were compiled in
significant numbers. In these works, Western categories and
paradigms were largely adopted and adapted. However, elements from
Chinese linguistic and didactic traditions were also integrated, and
innovative devices were developed to face the epistemological
challenge of analysing and describing distant languages. This
chapter analyses the linguistic descriptions contained in the
pedagogical tools compiled in the late Ming and Qing periods,
focusing on the innovations promoted by the contacts between
different linguistic and didactic traditions and underlining their
impact on the history of Chinese (applied) linguistics and language
learning.
Article outline
- Introduction: Westerners learning Chinese in the late Ming and Qing periods
- Learning Chinese pronunciation
- Describing and learning Chinese grammar
- Concluding remarks
Notes References
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Cited by (1)
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Chen, Wei
2024. The didactic features of James Summers’s (1828–1891) research on Chinese. Historiographia Linguistica 51:1-3 ► pp. 364 ff.
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