The learning of idiom has been an important subject in L2 study. L2 learners’ mastery of idiom is an indicator of their L2 proficiency level and communicative ability (Yorio, 1989; Duquette, 1995; Schimitt, 2004). Chengyu, a special four-character Chinese idiom which derives from thousands of years of Chinese history and embodies rich traditional cultural references, is used in formal discourses by people displaying high intellectual status and purposeful self-cultivation. This thesis examines closely the treatment of these four-character idioms in both general CFL/CSL pedagogical materials and learning sources dedicated to chengyu. CFL/CSL materials published in Mainland China and America targeting beginning, intermediate and advanced level L2 learners of Chinese are analyzed to provide insights on the learning of chengyu. Close examination of three types of learning materials dedicated to chengyu, including storybooks, dictionaries and pedagogical materials targeting chengyu shed light on the current ideas of teaching and learning chengyu and their inadequate execution in the materials.
The study indicates a deficient coverage of chengyu entries among general CFL/CSL pedagogical materials through all levels, which results from a lack of standard criteria for chengyu selection at each proficiency level. This ultimately results from a lack of reflection on when and how to teach which chengyu. Close analysis of the pedagogical treatment of chengyu shows that (1) existing materials for chengyu emphasize reading and writing skills, with very little attention dedicated to the development of speaking and listening skills; (2) the use of chengyu is presented, explained and drilled independent of contexts throughout the materials, and (3) a lack of pedagogical activities that address the collocations for each chengyu entry.
The thesis recommends that chengyu items be treated and learned as culture performances to convey intentions as opposed to as lexical items with meanings out of context. Several pedagogical principles are proposed pertaining to the inadequate treatments of chengyu among existing materials, and a performance-based pedagogical material design is presented as a concrete pedagogical demonstration.