A Study on International Students’ Learning of Classical Chinese Poetry
Abstract
Classical Chinese poetry is an important carrier of Chinese culture and a key component of Chinese-language teaching at the intermediate and advanced levels. Taking 22 international students from the College of International Cultural Education at Northeast Agricultural University as research participants, this paper uses a questionnaire survey to examine their learning of classical Chinese poetry, including learning cognition (channels of exposure, degree of familiarity), learning attitudes (level of interest, language proficiency), and learning difficulties (linguistic barriers, cultural distance, and differences in values). It also analyzes three categories of factors that influence learning: individual, instructional, and social-environmental factors. The study finds that international students’ overall interest in classical poetry is at a moderate level and that they commonly exhibit a fear of difficulty; classroom instruction is the principal avenue of exposure; learning difficulties are concentrated in vocabulary comprehension and insufficient cultural background knowledge. In response, the paper proposes strategies to optimize instruction: select teaching content appropriate to learners’ Chinese proficiency, innovate teaching methods, and strengthen foundational training in pronunciation and phonetics, so as to improve instructional effectiveness and promote the dissemination of Chinese culture.
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