1 Introduction

The diversified development trend of TCM Chinese and TCM preparatory Chinese research covers aspects such as translation of ancient TCM texts, terminology standardization, innovation in teaching methods, and optimization of textbook compilation. It is pointed out that current research mainly focuses on four dimensions: analysis of educational status, exploration of teaching models, optimization of textbook compilation, and research on professional vocabulary. Meanwhile, the problem of lacking a specialized communicative function syllabus in this field is revealed, emphasizing students' inadequate oral expression ability in hospital settings, and clarifying that the research aims to formulate a communicative function syllabus covering various communicative situations in hospitals to improve students' oral expression ability in actual work.

2 Selection of Communicative Function Items for TCM Preparatory Chinese Teaching

This section studies the methods and basis for selecting communicative function items for TCM preparatory Chinese teaching. Regarding corpus sources, the research takes 1,023 minutes of doctor-patient dialogue recordings from TCM outpatient departments of two tertiary grade A hospitals in Tianjin as the core corpus, amounting to 105,682 bytes after transcription, supplemented by transcribed content from medical documentaries and TV dramas, and adopts the "Special Purpose Chinese Context Analysis" method to ensure the accuracy of the syllabus. Regarding the determination of communicative links, the research refers to the "Medical Chinese Test (MCT) Syllabus," combines the characteristics of TCM diagnosis and treatment, and identifies five key links: inquiry, diagnosis, treatment, instruction, and communication. Regarding the classification of function items, the research breaks through the traditional six-category classification framework, pays special attention to the explanatory and communicative characteristics of TCM discourse, and elevates expressing emotions, stating facts, and expressing causative meanings to key items. Regarding language expression forms, the research analyzes in detail the typical expressions in each link: the inquiry link mainly uses restricted questions (79.7%) supplemented by open-ended questions (20.3%), employing different interrogative words to collect information precisely; the diagnosis link conveys results through structures such as "hui……de" and "jiu……le," and elaborates diagnostic logic through prepositional structures; the treatment link uses "gei" sentences and "ba" sentences to explain conditioning methods, and mainly explains etiology by citing TCM theories (85.3%); the instruction link issues diagnostic instructions through verb reduplication, and carries out health education with the help of modal auxiliaries and modal particles (over 80%); the communication link uses imperative sentences, affirmative tones, and emphatic sentence patterns to attend to patients' emotions and create a harmonious atmosphere.

3 Development of Communicative Function Syllabus for TCM Preparatory Chinese Teaching

This section constructs a communicative function syllabus for TCM preparatory Chinese teaching, covering proficiency levels, communicative links, function items, language forms, specific manifestations, and teaching implementation strategies. The syllabus divides communicative competence into three levels: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. The elementary level focuses on inquiry and diagnosis, where students use various interrogative sentences to collect information and employ modal words to inform diagnostic results; the intermediate level covers treatment, instruction, and communication links, where students use "gei" sentences and "ba" sentences to explain treatment plans, employ complex sentences to explain etiology, and use imperative sentences for health education and emotional communication; the advanced level emphasizes the diagnosis link, where students skillfully use prepositional structures, professional terminology, and complex sentence patterns to elaborate diagnostic thinking, and possess logical reasoning and academic expression abilities. Regarding teaching implementation strategies, the elementary level adopts simulated inquiries and role-playing, the intermediate level introduces case analysis and group discussions, and the advanced level sets up special lectures and clinical internships, with corresponding assessment methods配套 for each level to test learning effectiveness.

4 Conclusion

This study systematically selects teaching communicative function items and constructs a communicative function syllabus for TCM preparatory Chinese teaching based on doctor-patient conversation corpora from TCM outpatient departments, providing scientific basis for teaching, textbook compilation, and testing. The study also points out limitations of the syllabus such as general level settings and insufficient corpus coverage, and indicates that future work needs to refine level standards, expand corpus scope, and continuously improve by combining modern educational technology.