Introduction

Syntax has been considered arguably an important aspect of language teaching and learning.Great importance is attached to syntax simply because it gives meaning to a sentence;further to this，the syntactic properties of a sentence not only enable the learners of a language to understand the patterns of that language clearly and generate simple yet complete sentences in the target language，but also enable the combination of simple sentences to form complex sentences(Van Valin，2001:3).

Too often，we see Chinese language students at almost all levels making basic structural mistakes which could have been prevented if they had a reasonably good understanding of essential Chinese syntax，and，in particular，of basic Chinese word order patterns.An important teaching task then seems to be to equip total beginner students with a sense of Chinese basic syntax.This chapter looks at basic Chinese word order patterns and examines how our word order oriented instructional approaches in teaching could benefit tertiary-level total beginner students of Chinese.

Linguists emphasize the characteristics of the differences and similarities in the languages that are being learned，and the linguistic competence(underlying knowledge)and linguistic performance(actual production)of learners at various stages of acquisition.Saville-Troike stated that syntax is about grammar，which includes concepts of word order，agreement between sentence elements(such as number agreement between subject and verb)and ways to form questions，to negate assertions，and to focus or structure information within sentences(Saville-Troike，2005).

Chomsky in his transformational-generative grammar theory claimed that languages have only a relatively small number of essential rules which account for their basic sentence structures，plus a limited set of transformational rules which allow these basic sentences to be modified(by deletions，additions，substitutions，and changes in word order).The finite number of basic rules and transformations in any language accounts for an infinite number of possible grammatical utterances.Knowing a language was seen as a matter of knowing these rules rather than memorizing surface structures.Since speakers of a language can understand and produce millions of sentences they have never heard before，they cannot merely be imitating what they have heard others say but must be applying these underlying rules to create novel constructions.Language thus came to be understood as rule-governed behaviour.

The Chinese language is no exception.This belief，which caters for tertiary students’cognitive development，will enable them to generate as many sentences/utterances as they want so that they can express their own thoughts as occasions or contexts require.The concept helps to shape their linguistic understanding of the target language and lays the foundation for producing unlimited sentences/speeches as they progress in their studies.Chang claimed that word-order occupies a pivotal position in Chinese syntax.The acquisition of Mandarin syntax cannot begin without knowledge of word order(Chang，1992).

Jin(2008)claimed that Chinese has a more flexible word order compared with English.And the word order in Mandarin Chinese poses a great challenge to English learners who learn Chinese as a foreign/second language in that English is more rigidly fixed in its SVO order.She also emphasized the importance of instructional approaches in bridging the learner difficulties between the L1 and the L2.Herzberg and Herzberg highlighted a characteristic difference by pointing out that the basic word order in English is“who，what，where and when”while the basic word order in Chinese is“who，when，where and what”(Herzberg and Herzberg，2012:19).Reflecting on the teaching practices and strategies we have had to total beginners of English-speaking background，we felt a strong need to create an instructional frame work，which could enable us to help our students to establish a conceptual understanding of the basic word order in Chinese.We aimed at constructing a system that consists of principles(e.g.basic wording patterns for statement and question sentences)on Chinese word order patterns.

As we started collating and analysing basic sentence samples，categorizing basic elements and configuring them into patterns，we came up with revealing truths.This chapter advocates a pedagogy based on what we have termed“the word order convertibility from statement sentences to question sentences”.Our hypothesis/proposition is drawn from the language phenomenon that a mere insertion of a Chinese question marker ma at the end of a statement sentence can turn the statement sentence into a question sentence.Having been implementing these new approaches in two consecutive academic years in our Chinese 1 and Chinese 2 programs，we have concluded that more refinements to our teaching pedagogy and purposefully designed teaching materials would further enhance learner outcomes.We discovered that the word order patterns for basic Chinese statement and question sentences are amazingly few，which echoes Chomsky’s claims and inspires new thinking and designing innovative approaches for our instruction.Having identified the availability of these potentially beneficial characteristics for Chinese，it would be naive not to take full advantage of the basic Chinese syntactic approach to advance beginner level Chinese language instruction.The end-product is the creation of a document called“A Rule of Thumb Approach to Basic Sentence Formation in Chinese”(Appendix 1).

We have summarized five basic types of sentences:①statement sentences，②WH question sentences(acronym for where/when/what/who/which and how)，③Yes-No question sentences，④affirmative answer sentences and⑤negative answer sentences to Yes-No questions.