Routledge Chinese Language Pedagogy – serie

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.

Two decades ago, Mandarin Chinese seemed set to become a mainstream school subject in Anglophone settings. Yet current learning outcomes are generally disappointing. Is Chinese too difficult for learners at this level? Should it be left to the posh kids with pushy parents?Set within the context of teaching and learning Chinese at an inner-city secondary school in the North of England, and adopting a case study research design, this book aims to develop research-informed insights into the nature of the pronunciation challenges facing beginner learners of Chinese.While existing research has shown that producing native-like tones is difficult for Anglophone learners, the question of how important tones are for intelligibility has been largely ignored. Do heavily accented tones actually matter? Which specific areas of the learners’ speech signal mislead their listeners? How aware are learners of their own pronunciation errors?Teachers of Chinese may not be able to solve entrenched geopolitical tensions, but we can lay the foundations for a stronger engagement with China through excellent teaching. However, before authoritative pedagogical interventions can be made, far more understanding is required of not only how adolescent beginners learn Chinese in school settings, but also what can be realistically expected of them.

Two decades ago, Mandarin Chinese seemed set to become a mainstream school subject in Anglophone settings. Yet current learning outcomes are generally disappointing. Is Chinese too difficult for learners at this level? Should it be left to the posh kids with pushy parents?Set within the context of teaching and learning Chinese at an inner-city secondary school in the North of England, and adopting a case study research design, this book aims to develop research-informed insights into the nature of the pronunciation challenges facing beginner learners of Chinese.While existing research has shown that producing native-like tones is difficult for Anglophone learners, the question of how important tones are for intelligibility has been largely ignored. Do heavily accented tones actually matter? Which specific areas of the learners’ speech signal mislead their listeners? How aware are learners of their own pronunciation errors?Teachers of Chinese may not be able to solve entrenched geopolitical tensions, but we can lay the foundations for a stronger engagement with China through excellent teaching. However, before authoritative pedagogical interventions can be made, far more understanding is required of not only how adolescent beginners learn Chinese in school settings, but also what can be realistically expected of them.

Assessing Learners’ Competence in L2 Chinese is the first book intended to answer the question on whether existing standardised and classroom-based assessments can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese. The Chinese language has enjoyed increasing global popularity amongst second/foreign language learners and has become one of the major modern languages for school and university curricula. However, to many teachers and researchers, it has been difficult to answer with confidence whether the existing standardised and classroom tests can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese. This book defines and redefines the constructs for assessing L2 Chinese competence that have been overlooked or misplaced because of the unique features of the Chinese language. The book provides theoretical backgrounds and practical methodologies for assessing competence in L2 Chinese trainees and experienced teachers of Chinese as a second language. It will provide invaluable guidelines and ready-made workshop materials for postgraduate teacher training programmes. Researchers and academics will find innovative frameworks on the subject for further studies and debates.

Assessing Learners’ Competence in L2 Chinese is the first book intended to answer the question on whether existing standardised and classroom-based assessments can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese. The Chinese language has enjoyed increasing global popularity amongst second/foreign language learners and has become one of the major modern languages for school and university curricula. However, to many teachers and researchers, it has been difficult to answer with confidence whether the existing standardised and classroom tests can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese. This book defines and redefines the constructs for assessing L2 Chinese competence that have been overlooked or misplaced because of the unique features of the Chinese language. The book provides theoretical backgrounds and practical methodologies for assessing competence in L2 Chinese trainees and experienced teachers of Chinese as a second language. It will provide invaluable guidelines and ready-made workshop materials for postgraduate teacher training programmes. Researchers and academics will find innovative frameworks on the subject for further studies and debates.

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.

Written in an extended dictionary format, the Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language aims to cover all key terms related to teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Each section contains an introduction with language-specific information, and identifies students and teachers’ common questions, including the capacity of Chinese as a morphologically unmarked language to indicate categories such as tense and mood. Many entries listed in this manual come with an explanation, a commentary, and rich examples.The Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language appeals to both Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers and students, as well as being the ideal reference for researchers conducting comparative studies of the Chinese and English languages.

Written in an extended dictionary format, the Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language aims to cover all key terms related to teaching Chinese as a foreign language.Each section contains an introduction with language-specific information, and identifies students and teachers’ common questions, including the capacity of Chinese as a morphologically unmarked language to indicate categories such as tense and mood. Many entries listed in this manual come with an explanation, a commentary, and rich examples.The Manual for Teaching and Learning Chinese as a Foreign Language appeals to both Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) teachers and students, as well as being the ideal reference for researchers conducting comparative studies of the Chinese and English languages.

Identity of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in a Global Era enriches the current research on heritage language (HL) learner identity by examining how identity is constructed, negotiated, and performed in the narratives of university Chinese HL (CHL) learners in Hong Kong. This monograph has identified three sub-categories of CHL learners: domestic-born Chinese, ‘third culture’ Chinese, and overseas Chinese sojourners. Through systematically examining these CHL learners’ life-history narratives about language learning, language use, and social experiences from early childhood to university time, this monograph shows how CHL learner identity is dynamically constructed and changed through self and social positioning across a wide range of spatio-temporal contexts. It also adopts investment, agency, and imagined communities to examine the shared discourses which reflect the relationship between identity and the larger social processes that involve transnational or postcolonial encounters. This monograph contributes to reflections on the emerging discourses of HL learner identity in the context of multilingualism and transnational migration. It challenges the stigmatised image of CHL learners as ‘diasporic subjects’ or ‘language minority students’ in the literature and conceptualises CHL learners as transformative linguistic and social actors in processes of transnational migration and institutional change.This monograph is targeted toward educators, researchers, and professionals working in the fields of heritage language, overseas Chinese studies, migrant studies, and intercultural studies.

Identity of Chinese Heritage Language Learners in a Global Era enriches the current research on heritage language (HL) learner identity by examining how identity is constructed, negotiated, and performed in the narratives of university Chinese HL (CHL) learners in Hong Kong. This monograph has identified three sub-categories of CHL learners: domestic-born Chinese, ‘third culture’ Chinese, and overseas Chinese sojourners. Through systematically examining these CHL learners’ life-history narratives about language learning, language use, and social experiences from early childhood to university time, this monograph shows how CHL learner identity is dynamically constructed and changed through self and social positioning across a wide range of spatio-temporal contexts. It also adopts investment, agency, and imagined communities to examine the shared discourses which reflect the relationship between identity and the larger social processes that involve transnational or postcolonial encounters. This monograph contributes to reflections on the emerging discourses of HL learner identity in the context of multilingualism and transnational migration. It challenges the stigmatised image of CHL learners as ‘diasporic subjects’ or ‘language minority students’ in the literature and conceptualises CHL learners as transformative linguistic and social actors in processes of transnational migration and institutional change.This monograph is targeted toward educators, researchers, and professionals working in the fields of heritage language, overseas Chinese studies, migrant studies, and intercultural studies.

Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education deals with the current issues and challenges faced by teachers and learners of Chinese. Written by leading professionals and academics, the book is the first collection of research articles based on data collected in higher education institutions in the UK. The studies focus on concerns related to learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and aim to establish studies on teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) as part of the mainstream of applied linguistics The contributors have applied their theoretical backgrounds in applied linguistics and education to tackle issues such as how to benchmark the Chinese written language with CEFR, how to integrate standardised Chinese proficiency tests with institutional assessments and teaching methodologies.Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education will be invaluable to professionals, academics and students seeking theoretical frameworks in applied linguistics for TCFL.

Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education deals with the current issues and challenges faced by teachers and learners of Chinese. Written by leading professionals and academics, the book is the first collection of research articles based on data collected in higher education institutions in the UK. The studies focus on concerns related to learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) and aim to establish studies on teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) as part of the mainstream of applied linguistics The contributors have applied their theoretical backgrounds in applied linguistics and education to tackle issues such as how to benchmark the Chinese written language with CEFR, how to integrate standardised Chinese proficiency tests with institutional assessments and teaching methodologies.Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education will be invaluable to professionals, academics and students seeking theoretical frameworks in applied linguistics for TCFL.

The Routledge Advanced Language Training Course for K-16 Non-native Chinese Teachers is a content-based and thematically organized textbook designed for non-native in- and pre-service K-16 Chinese language teachers. Based on five years of field testing, the book offers an innovative approach to advanced language instruction, allowing users to further advance their language proficiency while continuing their professional development in teaching Chinese as a second or foreign language. The textbook: covers a range of up-to-date pedagogical and cultural themes provides a variety of engaging activities and exercises, allowing readers for K-16 to explore pedagogical and cultural issues in the target language with best classroom practices in mind familiarises users with authentic forms of modern communication in today’s China to better engage learners is accompanied by a Companion Website with audio recordings for each lesson as well as supplementary materials and teaching resources.The Routledge Advanced Language Training Course for K-16 Non-native Chinese Teachers is an essential resource for non-native Chinese teachers and for those on TCFL teacher training programs.