EACS-2016. Book of Abstracts

21st Biennial Conference of the European Association for Chinese Studies 26 Gabbianelli Gloria (University of Urbino) Approaching CFL Learning Through Cultural Content-video Key words: Chinese teaching, foreign language, video, beginners, language learning For Italian students Learning Chinese as Foreign Language (CFL) is perceived more challenging than learning European languages (Formica, Gabbianelli 2015; Yang, Medwell 2015 — for British stu- dents — ). This difficulty seems to be due mainly to the characteristics of the Chinese language and to the perceived distance between the two cultures. Connecting Italian learners to a different cultural context, as the Chinese one, is fundamental for their language learning process, in particular at the beginner level. This is important not only because of the significant role of cultural background in L2 education (Hal- liday, 1978, Hammerly 1982; Seelye 1993) but also to prevent the learning frustration due to students’ perception of language distance and learning difficulty. This research aims at investigating the potential of using video as a tool to introduce cultural contents in the CFL classroom in Italy, in order to facilitate the approach to the Chinese background and to support the learning process. The use of video has been widely recognised as an effective tool in second language acquisition; since it can create context situa- tion, it is considered a fundamental issue to facilitate beginner learners approach to the foreign language cultural background. The study involves 70 high school CFL students, in Italy. Students were part of two groups, which differed as to the use of teaching method. Group 1 was introduced to cultural contents through video material, Group 2 through text material. Data were, then, collected through a survey on their beliefs about cultural distance and language learning difficulty. The contribution will focus on the role of the use of video material, in particular, on the perception of cultural distance and the implication in CFL learning. Findings suggest that employing video to present Chinese cultural contents can help beginner learners to explore the Chinese cultural contents, to reduce the perceived and to facilitate the learning process. Gong Junji (INALCO) Teaching Chinese Kinship Terms to French Students Key words: teaching of Chinese, kinship terms, asymmetry, didactic analysis, social and cultural implications Chinese kinship terms belong to the Sudanese kinship system, while French kinship terms belong to the Eskimo kinship system. In Chinese, there is a rich vocabulary reflecting the kinship system, whereas in French, the equivalent vocabulary is much more limited. In China, the use of the kinship terms reflects the requirement of Confucianism that everyone should be in their own place according to their place in the family hierarchy. To make the usage even more com- plicated, Chinese kinship terms are extensively used to address non-relatives to show politeness, respect and familiarity. The difficulty to master Chinese terms of kinship by French learners also lies in the situation of dichotomy: on the one hand, kinship terms belong to the most elementary level of communication, level A; on the other hand, they have a strong cultural implication belonging to a higher level, level C. Our major objective in this research is to help students lighten the load of learning kinship terms and determine how to teach Chinese kinship terms effectively.