Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones: Teaching Analytical Chinese Grammar in Norway

The teaching of grammar in any language program is a persistent challenge for teachers, and the question of whether sentence analysis is a required component in a practically oriented language program is often discussed. This chapter posits that systematic grammatical analysis is essential in a Nordic context to produce proficient students of Chinese, and describes the methods used and experiences gained in teaching analytical Chinese grammar at the University of Oslo (UiO) from 2013 to 2023. I will argue that although our approach is a synthesis of common methods, it represents a useful method of teaching the analysis of basic Chinese phrase and sentence structures. Particularly in the teaching and learning of Chinese, a pedagogically as well as theoretically sound parallel (descriptive) analytical component to the “practical” (prescriptive) language lessons is essential if teachers want to equip students with necessary tools to learn Chinese at an intermediate and advanced level. Our approach merges the descriptive with the prescriptive to create a coherent approach in which the two go hand in hand, as opposed to a more strictly dichotomous method where grammar is taught divorced from the practical part of a course. The “Crossing the River by Feeling for the Stones” method refers to building analytical grammar knowledge step by step in a transparent and progressive way, through which students gain a coherent understanding of the building blocks of Chinese. The pedagogical foundation for this method is that grammatical analysis should always be in close co-operation with the current stage of practical language knowledge, and that the analytical tools and linguistic content should be aimed at strengthening both the active and passive language competence of the students, and not as separate disciplines.