In this book, the authors embark on a critical investigation of the complex field of Chinese language education, with a particular focus on exploring new trends and teaching and learning. They delve into the intricacies of language, education and its effectiveness in teaching Chinese as a first language. The book has three objectives: establishing a field of study in Chinese language learning and teaching, providing critical discussion and progressive insights on language education, and offering relevant pedagogical perspectives of learning and teaching Chinese as L1 and L2. The chapters investigate learning and teaching of Chinese in different aspects, including four skills, culture, literature, technology-assisted learning, and learners’ identity. By focusing on the teaching practices of Chinese at different levels, it sheds light on teaching Chinese as a first language. Theoretically, it broadens the linguistic and geographical reach of previous works on language education that mainly examine English as a lingua franca or children’s first language acquisition. Drawing upon theories in language learning, the book demonstrates the applicability of language theories in the first language and Chinese as a non-alphabetic language and examines the impact and effectiveness of some theories in Chinese learning and teaching. Academic researchers, teacher educators, teachers and students interested in Chinese language and education will find this a highly relevant text for its focus on curriculum, pedagogy and assessment of teaching Chinese as a first language.

A lively and accessible account which explores the teaching of Chinese as an international language from a Singapore perspective.

The book is linked to the annual theme of the 2008 CAERDA International Conference with contributing authors serving as keynote speakers, invited panelists, paper presenters, as well as specialists and educators in the field. The book provides a most comprehensive description of and a theoretically wellinformed and a scholarly cogent account of teaching and learning Chinese in general and in the United States in particular. It examines a wide range of important issues in Chinese teaching and learning: current state in teaching Chinese as a Second Language (TCSL) in the United States, US national standards for learning foreign languages K-12, policy making about how to meet the growing demand for Chinese language and cultural education with regard to a national coordination of efforts, professional teacher training in terms of the quantity and quality of Chinese language teachers at all levels, promotion of early language learning, characteristics of Chinese pedagogy, aspects of Chinese linguistics, methods and methodology in teaching TCSL, techniques and technology in Chinese language education, curriculum and instruction in TCSL, cultural aspects of teaching Chinese as a Second Language, issues in Chinese pedagogy, development of Chinese as a Heritage Language (HL) and the issue of cultural identity for bilingual/multilingual learners (particularly bilingual/multilingual children), testing and evaluation in TCSL, Chinese literacy and reading, approaches to instruction and program design, etc.

China has been ethnically, linguistically, and religiously diverse. This volume recasts the pedagogical and policy challenges of minority education in China in the light of the state's efforts to balance unity and diversity. It brings together leading experts including both critical voices writing from outside China and those working inside China's educational system. The essays explore different aspects of ethnic minority education in China: the challenges associated with bilingual and trilingual education in Xinjiang and Tibet; Han Chinese reactions to preferential minority education; the ro.

This book provides a research-based account of how to teach and learn Chinese as a foreign language. In addition to the discussion of relevant second/foreign language research, this volume gives detailed information on ways to develop a pedagogical modelthat is uniquely suited to teaching Chinese in five key areas: pronunciation (tones and pinyin), characters and words, sentences (when and why different sentence structures are used), discourse and pragmatic competence (coherence and genre), and cultural competence. Specially written for Chinese language teachers, student teachers and applied linguists, this is the first book written in English that systematically addresses all major aspects involved in teaching and learning Chinese as a foreign language. This book covers all the fundamental grammar elements in Chinese, explains their functions in discourse and communication, and explores different strategies for teaching and engaging students in learning the language.

Reflecting the increased use of English as lingua franca in today’s university education, this volume maps the interplay and competition between English and other tongues in a learning community that in practice is not only bilingual but multilingual. The volume includes case studies from Japan, Australia, South Africa, Germany, Catalonia, China, Denmark and Sweden, analysing a range of issues such as the conflict between the students’ native languages and English, the reality of parallel teaching in English as well as in the local language, and classrooms that are nominally English-speaking but multilingual in practice. The book assesses the factors common to successful bilingual learners, and provides university administrators, policy makers and teachers around the world with a much-needed commentary on the challenges they face in increasingly multilingual surroundings characterized by a heterogeneous student population. Patterns of language alternation and choice have become increasingly important to the development of an understanding of the internationalisation of higher education that is occurring world-wide. This volume draws on the extensive and varied literature related to the sociolinguistics of globalisation – linguistic ethnography, discourse analysis, language teaching, language and identity, and language planning – as the theoretical bases for the description of the nature of these emerging multilingual communities that are increasingly found in international education. It uses observational data from eleven studies that take into account the macro (societal), meso (university) and micro (participant) levels of language interaction to explicate the range of language encounters – highlighting both successful and problematic interactions and their related language ideologies. Although English is the common lingua franca, the studies in the volume highlight the importance of the multilingual resources available to participants in higher educational institutions that are used to negotiate and solve their language problems. The volume brings to our attention a range of important insights into language issues found in the internationalisation of higher education, and provides a resource for those wishing to understand or do research on how language hybridity and multilingual communicative practices are evolving there. Richard B. Baldauf Jr., Professor, The University of Queensland

This book explores the learning and teaching of K-12 Chinese language in international schools. The authors of this book are scholars from teaching training institutions and universities, as well as professional frontline teachers. With a combination of the works and insights from both perspectives of theory and practice, the book presents how theories of teaching can be operated in classroom to improve the effectiveness of language teaching. It covers curriculum setting, design of teaching materials, teaching principles, methods, strategies, and evaluation. The book also discusses issues and concepts such as concept-driven learning, identity change and recognition of L1 and L2 Chinese teacher, pinyin teaching, Chinese character teaching, evaluation for learning improvement, and integration of South Asian non-Chinese speaking students into local schools. It emphasizes empirical action research methods. This is a highly informative and carefully presented book, providing high value insights to scholars from university and teacher training institutions and teachers from kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools around the world.

As China and Chinese language learning moves centre stage economically and politically, questions of interculturality assume even greater significance. In this book interculturality draws attention to the processes involved in people engaging and exchanging with each other across languages, nationalities and ethnicities. The study, which adopts an ecological perspective, critically examines a range of issues and uses a variety of sources to conduct a multifaceted investigation. Data gathered from interviews with students of Mandarin sit alongside a critical discussion of a wide range of sources. Interculturality in Learning Mandarin Chinese in British Universities will be of interest to students and academics studying and researching Chinese language education, and academics working in the fields of language and intercultural communication, intercultural education and language education in general.

This book provides a comprehensive account of language management and planning at Confucius Institutes in the UK, implementing an ethnographic approach grounded in language management theory. As a global language promotion organization, Confucius Institutes have previously been discussed in the literature with respect to socio-political issues, but this volume will shed particular light on their role in shaping and informing Chinese language policy, at both the institutional and individual classroom level. The book focuses specifically on Confucius Institutes in the UK, demonstrating how language teaching practice in these organizations is informed and shaped not only by organizational paradigms but local language needs and institutional attitudes of host institutions. In turn, Li highlights these organizations’ unique position in a multilingual region such as the UK can offer new insights into language management by illustrating their roles as platforms for both individuals and institutions to become involved in the making and implementation of language policy. This volume will be of particular interest to students and researchers in language policy and planning, language education, applied linguistics, and Chinese linguistics.

This book addresses the problems and issues surrounding teaching Chinese as a second language in the Singapore context. It identifies four main areas of concern: (1) Neglect of culture in the teaching of Chinese; (2) Difficulty of learning Hanzi (Chinese characters); (3) Cognitive and affective aspects of Chinese language learning; and (4) Authenticity of the Chinese language in a global and Singapore context. The book includes lesson design and instructional practices for re-prioritizing Chinese as a set of trainable skills, as well as teaching culture in the context of teaching the language. It also introduces the Chinese as a Second Language Readability Formula to help learners overcome their difficulties with learning Hanzi (Chinese characters), and the Attitude Toward Chinese Language Scale to help understand the various factors that can influence Chinese language learning. It also proposes a student-oriented model for conducting problem-based research, tapping into the disciplines of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Resolving or minimizing the issues identified here requires action at the macro level by Chinese language researchers on a national scale, and at the micro level by classroom teachers through action research.