The common practice for teaching of classical Chinese words in classical novels is to provide notes and translation. They are practically useful but students will easily rely on them and do not think about the actual meanings of the target words, nor can they grasp the real value of novels, and not to mention the chance to incite the motivation for learning. Notes and translations are not useless, but they will be more useful if we provide some other references for the students to compare and analyze, so that they can not only comprehend the classical words and the content, but also accelerate their abilities of high order thinking, aesthetic and discrimination, which are the functions of novels as literary works. The methods for compare and contrast are: . Compare the difference between the same words in the original novel and the version used in the text book; 2. Compare the difference between the same words in different text books; 3. Compare the difference between the same words in different novels with the same author; 4. Compare the difference between the same words in different novels with the same subject; 5. Provide the students with similar words with the same radicals or similar meanings so that they can compare and make inference for the actual meanings; 6. Delete those words and then compare the text with and without those words, so that the students can deduce the meanings and also appreciate the artistic beauty of novels as literatures.

教授古典小說中的文言字詞，常見的方法是提供注釋和語譯。注釋和語譯雖然易用兼有實效，但是亦容易因依賴而不求甚解，無法真正學會字詞，亦無法領會小說的藝術價值，更遑論引起興趣，增進學習機會。注釋和語譯並非毫不重要，但使用時不妨配合不同材料，讓學生比較、分析，既可加深字詞和內容的理解，亦可提升思維、審美、鑒辨的能力，發揮小說作為文學作品的教學功能。比較文言字詞的方法包括： 1. 原著與選錄版本中的異同；2. 不同選錄版本中的異同；3. 相同作者不同作品中使用該字詞的異同；4. 相同主題的不同作品中使用該字詞的異同；5. 輔以相同部首或相近字詞作比較，並推論含義；6. 刪去該字詞，再對照原文，讓學生推敲、感受當中的含義和藝術美。

• 巢偉儀(香港大學教育學院) | CHOU Wai Yi, Priscilla