Using Contrastive Terminology Analysis in Teaching a Foreign Language

Abstract

This study focuses on teaching Chinese for Special Purposes (CSP) and explores how terminology used inChinese commercial contracts can be taught using a contrastive terminology analysis. Firstly, we outlinethe contextual differences that exist between commercial contracts drafted in Chinese and those draftedin English. Secondly, we describe the method of contrastive semantic analysis and show how it can bepaired with corpus linguistics in order to help L2 Chinese learners acquire vocabulary used in BusinessChinese, focusing specifically on Chinese commercial contracts. Thirdly, we shall explore the semanticequivalence between lexical items of different languages. Lastly, we present a semantic analysis ofterminology found in Chinese and English commercial contracts. We hope that the theoretical frameworkpresented in this paper will be of use to teachers of Chinese for Special Purposes.