Journal Article

A genre structure analysis of prefaces in Chinese teaching materials

Ching-Lan, Chang

2025

Overview

The preface, or editorial summary, is a crucial explanatory text at the start of teaching materials, typically written by the editor. It provides essential background on editing objectives, processes, style, and content, holding true for Chinese language teaching materials. As a researcher and editor of Chinese language teaching materials, I recognize the preface's significance. Despite scarce models, it serves as a vital reference for understanding material content, posing challenges in its composition. Extensive research exists on Chinese language teaching materials, but prefaces are understudied, impacting material selection for educators and learners. This study underscores investigating prefaces in Chinese language teaching materials, focusing on genre structure and linguistic features across Taiwan, China, and the United States. Three main steps - introduction, main text, and conclusion - with 22 sub-steps were identified. While main steps are consistent, variations in sub-step composition and positioning highlight considerable flexibility in preface writing. The research aims to provide empirical evidence for comparative preface analysis, offering insights for material selection and preface writing. It significantly contributes to aiding Chinese language educators and learners in material reading and selection while assisting editors in crafting more comprehensive prefaces.

• Publisher: National Academy for Educational Research
• Subject: Chinese / Chinese languages / Educational materials / Instructional Materials / Language Teachers / Mandarin Chinese / Media Selection