Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:24:07.316Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Teaching Chinese in the Global Context: Challenges and Strategies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2015

Cheng Aimin*
Affiliation:
Institute for International Students, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, People’s Republic of China. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

In the past 30 years, teaching Chinese as a foreign/second language (TCSL/TCFL) has made great achievements in Mainland China. However, TCSL/TCFL is at a crucial point at present, and its global development in the 21st century presents us with new questions and challenges. There are many issues involved as TCSL/TCFL adapts to this rapid change from a largely domestic context to a global one. This article attempts to address such issues as the significance, challenges and strategies of TCSL/TCFL in mainland China by outlining its brief history and development since the 1950s, and calls for the establishment of an international ‘framework of reference’ for Chinese language teaching.

Type
China in the Process of Globalization
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Hanban is the executive body of the Chinese Language Council International: a non-governmental and non-profit public institution affiliated with the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE).Google Scholar
2.Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development, February 13, 1993. http://www.moe.edu.cn/edoas/website18/level3.jsp?tablename=208&infoid=3334 (accessed on 15 November 2012).Google Scholar
3.Cheng, A. (2010) Some issues in teaching Chinese in the global context. Journal of Chinese Teaching and Research in the U.S., 1, pp. 1017.Google Scholar
4.China’s National Office of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee first approved the application of 24 universities to set up this MTCSOL programme in 2007, and then authorized the second group of 39 universities to start this programme in 2009. After 2009, many Chinese provincial education authorities have the right to approve this programme.Google Scholar
5.Based on the results of our research made in 2009–2010. Aimin, C. (2010) Market research report on teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Mainland China. Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Nanjing: Nanjing University Press), pp. 4653.Google Scholar
6.Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, MOE (ed.) (2005) 2005 Statistics of International Students Studying in China, pp. 2075.Google Scholar
7.Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges, MOE (ed.) (2012) 2012 Statistics of International Students Studying in China, pp. 325.Google Scholar
8.Li, Y. (2006) 2006 Report on Chinese Language and Lifestyle. Press Conference held by Chinese Ministry of Education. Text Records. http://www.edu.cn/yu_wen_dong_tai_480/20070816/t20070816_249382.shtml (accessed 21 July 2013).Google Scholar
9.Yue-xin, W. and Gang, W. (2008) Rational thinking of Chinese language teaching in the world. Journal of Hebei University, 33(4), pp. 138141.Google Scholar
10.Ministry of Education, P. R. China. 2008 Report on Chinese Language and Lifestyle.Google Scholar
11.Lin, X. (2012) Opening speech at the 11th international conference on Chinese language teaching. Bulletin of the International Society for Chinese language teaching, 4, 67. Xu Lin is Director General of China’s National Hanban and the Confucius Institute Headquarters in Beijing.Google Scholar
12.Sing Tao Global Network. http://www.stnn.cc/society_focus/200908/t20090824_1097263.html (accessed 12 October 2012).Google Scholar
13.Please refer to Constitution and By-Laws of the Confucius Institutes by the Confucius Institutes Headquarters in Beijing.Google Scholar
14.Please refer to The Proposal for Setting Up the Master Program on Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, January 2007.Google Scholar
15.Guder, A. (2007) Observation and thinking of teaching Chinese to European and American students. Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Chinese Teaching (Beijing: High Education Press), pp. 11–19.Google Scholar
16.Jinming, Z. (2008) Concept and mode of teaching Chinese as a second language. Teaching Chinese in the World, 83(1), pp. 93107.Google Scholar
17.Bellassen, J. and Li, Z. (2008) The enlightenment and the impetus of the new approach of the Common European Framework of Reference for Language on the Chinese language teaching. Teaching Chinese in the World, 85(3), pp. 5873.Google Scholar
18.This and the following statistics and quote are taken from The Proposal for Setting Up the Master Program on Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages, January 2007.Google Scholar
19.By ‘localized’ teachers of Chinese, we mean those who are native citizens of these countries.Google Scholar
20.Lin, X. (2007) The present situation and tasks of promoting Chinese in the world. Teaching Chinese in the World, 80(2), pp. 106110.Google Scholar
21.Please refer to Hanwei, W. (2007) On the question of medium language in TCSL textbook writing. Teaching Chinese in the World, 80(2), pp. 111117.Google Scholar
22.As for the possibility of global Chinese(s) in contrast to global English(es), cf. Ning, W. (2010) Global English(es) and global Chinese(s): toward rewriting a new literary history in Chinese. Journal of Contemporary China, 19(63), 159174.Google Scholar