In the present era of cultural pluralism and economic globalization, people from different cultural backgrounds are increasingly coming to realize the growing importance of understanding each other, their languages and cultures. Over the last few decades, the strategic value and utility of the Chinese language has been continually rising. Correspondingly, the teaching of Chinese is receiving more and more attention from foreign governments, educational institutions, businesses as well as the general populace. In many countries across the world, people have seen an upsurge in teaching and learning Chinese in an increasing number of schools and other institutions in their own countries. In fact, this surge in the popularity of Chinese is an inevitable result of China’s increasing power on the world stage in the context of a globalized community, and is also a manifestation of the unique charm of the Chinese language and culture. Because of these factors, it can be anticipated that the worldwide Chinese language teaching and learning will undergo a long period of rapid development. There are many issues involved as the teaching of Chinese as a foreign/second language (TCFL/TCSL) adapts to this rapid change from a largely domestic context to a global one.
TCFL/TCSL in China: Its Brief History and Development
In July of 1950, Tsinghau University in Beijing established a Chinese language and culture ‘class’ (programme) for Eastern European exchange students, marking the beginning for new China’s TCFL/TCSL programme. But the early stage of this programme in the 1950s and 1960s basically used a spread-out short-term training pattern, and it was then termed as ‘teaching Chinese to foreign students’. With a small number of students, and without fixed teaching materials, there was little in the way of theoretical and pedagogical discussions. Because of the Cultural Revolution, international students’ education almost came to a halt in 1966. In the 1970s, after mainland China was returned to its legal seat in the United Nations, the United States, Japan, and some other Western countries began gradually to establish relations with China. Following this, over 40 countries requested that China accept their exchange students. Universities in China also reinstated their international exchange programmes. It was during this period of rebuilding Chinese-foreign educational relations that the Beijing Language Institute (now Beijing Language and Culture University), an institution mainly for teaching Chinese to international students, re-established itself in 1973. Afterwards, universities in Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and other major cities began to restore or establish programmes for international students, thus bringing about a substantial growth in TCFL/TCSL in this country. In 1983, China’s Ministry of Education approved ‘TCFL’ as an official undergraduate programme, which could be considered the beginning of this programme as an independent discipline in this country’s educational system. Following China’s opening up to foreign countries, TCFL/TCSL has become an increasing priority in China’s colleges and universities as well as educational authorities. In 1987, China established the Chinese Language Council International and its standing body, the Chinese Hanban,1 to strengthen the guidance and management of TCFL/TCSL. All Chinese universities with a TCFL/TCSL programme upgraded their administration to varying degrees, enhancing the management and training of teachers and service staff, thus developing a national standard requirement test for teachers of Chinese as a foreign/second language. The Outline of China’s Education Reform and Development also included ‘TCFL/TCSL’ in its overall plan, emphasizing the need to ‘greatly strengthen this programme’.2
From the 1980s onward, many Chinese universities have put great effort into theoretical research and disciplinary construction of TCFL/TCSL and obtained some clear results. Through a rough calculation, until 2010, over 100 research projects of China’s National Social Science Fund, the Humanities and Social Sciences Fund of the Ministry of Education and National Hanban have been completed in this academic field; and over 1000 textbooks, collections of papers, dictionaries, grammar and reference books have been published.Reference Cheng3 Beginning in the late 1980s, quite a few Chinese universities successively set up MA programmes in the field of ‘linguistics and applied linguistics’ with a sub-research area in TCFL/TCSL. Around the year 2000, some Chinese universities even began to develop a PhD programme in this field. Up to 2006, there were around 20 universities in China that had established MA or PhD programmes in TCFL/TCSL. These include comprehensive research universities, teachers’ universities, foreign language institutes or polytechnic universities, such as Peking University and Nanjing University in the first group; Beijing Normal University and East China Normal University in the second; and Beijing Foreign Studies University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in the third. It is notable that all these MA or PhD programmes are placed as a sub- or secondary discipline under the programmes of ‘linguistics and applied linguistics’. A fundamental step forward in this field took place in 2007. Due to the Chinese National Hanban’s tireless promotion, China’s National Office of the State Council Academic Degrees Committee approved, in January of 2007, the creation of a master degree programme in TCFL/TCSL, i.e., ‘Master of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (MTCSOL)’, which, as an independent discipline, officially entered the country’s graduate degree system. This is a significant breakthrough in the field of TCFL/TCSL in China, and its significance has not yet been fully recognized by academics outside China.
Even if TCFL/TCSL only began to appear in its present form in China in the 1980s, its development afterwards in either theoretical or institutional construction is remarkable. In addition to 63 universities that set up MA programmes in TCFL/TCSL in 2007 or 2009,4 there are currently over 600 Chinese universities and colleges that have started long-term and/or short-term Chinese teaching programmes to international students, and in the last few years even some Chinese schools have actively begun Chinese programmes for younger international students.Reference Aimin5 In 2005, there were altogether 141,087 international students who came to study in China, among whom 98,279 were studying the Chinese language and literature.6 But up to 2012, the total number has increased to 328,330 with 200,607 students studying the Chinese language and literature, including TCFL/TCSL.7
From its beginnings at the level of preparatory education for colleges in the 1950s, TCFL/TCSL in China has developed into a multilayered educational system, which includes pre-college, undergraduate, and graduate education as well as language training and teacher training programmes. In the meantime, it has also become a more mature academic discipline in theory and practice, thus establishing a strong foundation for the critical turn from teaching Chinese in the domestic context to a global one.
The Significance and Challenges of Teaching Chinese in the Global Context
In the contemporary world, language has become exceedingly influential in the struggle for comprehensive national power as well as in international trade, political dialogue, and cultural communication and exchanges. Consequently, the extensive use of a nation’s language in the international community and the strength of its language promotion have become an important symbol of that nation’s comprehensive power. Li Yuming once commented, ‘Society has come to an agreement that language is seen as a nation’s important cultural resource and as an important component part of the nation’s “soft power”.’Reference Li8 Wang Yue-xin and Wang Gang also point out, ‘The strength of a particular language is the symbol of the state of that nation. … Language is not only the core of its “soft power”, but also an important part of its “hard power”.’Reference Yue-xin and Gang9 Because of this, major Western countries such as England, France, Germany, and Spain, as well as some major Asian economic powers such as Japan and South Korea have placed significant emphasis on spreading their national languages in other countries of the world. Therefore, for China, promoting Chinese language teaching in the world will help people in other countries understand this old country and set up a positive image of China in practical matters, thus helping expand China’s international influence and raise China’s national ‘soft power’. At the same time, the spread of the Chinese language will be of great significance in promoting its economic cooperation and cultural exchanges with other countries.
Statistics show that the demand for Chinese has been dramatically increasing outside China in the past decade, and an enormous market for the Chinese language is developing rapidly. According to the 2008 Report on Chinese Language and Lifestyle, ‘The upsurge in learning Chinese in the world continues to rise. In 2008, 3500 universities worldwide begin to offer Chinese language courses. In England, France, Germany, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and some other countries, Chinese has entered the public school curriculum.’10 Up to August 2012, 389 Confucius Institutes and 520 Confucius classrooms have been established in 108 countries and regions, with over 500,000 registered students learning Chinese in these institutions.Reference Lin11
Currently, the number of universities in the United States that have begun Chinese language programmes has surpassed 800, with over 2400 high schools planning to have Chinese programmes in their curriculum in the near future. In South Korea there are about 200 universities and colleges with Chinese classes, and the number of students studying Chinese has surpassed one million. Over 95% of Japanese universities consider Chinese as their most important second language (aside from English); and the number of Chinese students in Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa is also rapidly increasing. At the same time, the number of tourists entering China is continuing to rise. In 2008, this number surpassed 1.3 billion.12
Following this rapid development of Chinese education and the dramatic increase in the number of people learning Chinese outside China, the discrepancy between the supply and demand of Chinese educational professionals has become evident. This is not only a challenge to, but also a great opportunity for, China – the country with Chinese as its native language. To China, I think, it is its incumbent responsibility to actively promote Chinese teaching in the international context, to work to better satisfy the world’s ever increasing demand for Chinese learning, and to prepare more Chinese instructors who can meet the overseas demand.
As we know, despite its place as one of the United Nations’ six most spoken languages, and aside from China and a few countries in Southeast Asia, very little Chinese is actually spoken in public situations in other countries across the world. One reason for this is the difference between Chinese and Western languages, and therefore it is difficult for Westerners to learn Chinese; another reason is that not enough efforts have been made to study the rules and methods of learning Chinese by people in other linguistic and cultural backgrounds, as most of the methods we use to promote Chinese in an international context come mainly from internal modules or experience.
As such, another challenge to confront with regard to increasing international Chinese education is to promote the internationalization of Chinese and make it a real international language. There are many things to be learnt from the policies, strategies, and methods that other countries, such as England, France, Germany, Spain, and Japan, have used to promote their own languages. In practice, efforts should be focused on exploring efficient patterns and methods in TCFL/TCSL and on searching for effective ways to solve the problem that ‘Chinese is difficult to learn,’ especially for Westerners. In return, the practice of teaching Chinese worldwide and the process of internationalization of Chinese will help teachers and scholars find ways to solve the problems and difficulties in teaching and learning this language in a foreign context. Therefore, teaching Chinese in the global context will help promote the internationalization of Chinese and make Chinese one of the most frequently used languages in the world.
As the Chinese language speedily advances throughout the world, the significance of TCFL/TCSL has been highly recognized by the Chinese government and its educational authorities, which consider teaching the Chinese language and culture worldwide not only as part of the strategy in promoting educational and cultural exchanges and business cooperation, such as expanding educational and cultural product exports, but also as one of its vital missions in image-changing international affairs, in upholding the diversity of world civilization and promoting the development of a harmonious world.13 Changes and actions have been made in the guiding principles and overall planning, policies and methods, e.g. to raise the position of TCFL/TCSL in institutional disciplines, to support the establishment of TCFL/TCSL in graduate programmes in major Chinese universities, and to rapidly develop the high level talents who will go into a career in international Chinese teaching.
However, this importance has not been fully recognized by some Chinese institutions, administrators as well as professionals who do not seem ready to meet this approaching opportunity as well as the challenges. For instance, a large number of teachers of Chinese are used to the concepts and methodologies based on their past teaching experience within China and cannot quickly adjust themselves to teaching Chinese in the global context; and teaching materials produced in China are not clearly targeted. These questions will be discussed in the following section.
Strategies to Meet the Critical Turn
To Establish a Worldwide ‘Framework of Reference’ for TCFL/TCSL
In theory and practice, foreign/second language teaching has become a widely acknowledged academic discipline in the world. Looking at the language promotion from a worldwide perspective, countries such as England and the United States were earlier than most in establishing degree programmes, especially Master’s and Doctoral programmes on teaching English as a foreign/second language (TEFL/TESL), and many European countries also set up foreign/second language teaching programmes. Since the 1980s, the Japanese government has made a huge investment to subsidize over 20 universities as they started MA courses in teaching Japanese as a foreign/second language.14
Unlike TEFL/TESL, TCFL/TCSL is a newly developed discipline with its own rules and characteristics. First, although some experience has been accumulated in TCFL/TCSL in the domestic context, its goals, contents and methods of teaching as well as its research areas are all different to a great extent from teaching the language in the global context. Secondly, considering its unique academic features, TCFL/TCSL is a discipline with a high degree of overlap with other fields, and is also highly integrated, including elements of linguistics, pedagogy, psychology, sociology, and cross-cultural studies, which affect the learning and teaching of languages. Thirdly, TCFL/TCSL possesses applicable, interdisciplinary and intercultural characteristics. It is a different experience teaching Chinese to students of different age groups and from different linguistic or cultural backgrounds. For instance, it is very different teaching Chinese characters to European or American students compared with Japanese or Korean students. As German scholar Andreas Guder said, ‘In addition to the great difference between Chinese and German in the aspects of language and culture, there is “the third” aspect that adds to the difficulty of learning this language, i.e. the unique system of Chinese characters’.Reference Guder15 Zhao Jinming also thinks that teaching Chinese characters is the greatest difference between TCSL and other SLT (Second Language Teaching).Reference Jinming16
In short, since TCFL/TCSL is still a relatively new field of study, many problems in theory, pedagogy, curriculum, teacher training, and so on, still remain to be studied and resolved, especially when TCFL/TCSL is at the strategic turn from the domestic context to the global one. Therefore, special efforts must be made to study such topics as teaching Chinese by category, by country or region, or by language or cultural background, thereby finding appropriate methods and approaches of Chinese teaching and learning, especially in the global context. For example, large-scale investigation should be made to discover the special difficulties that European or American students experience in learning Chinese, so that pools of pedagogical and intercultural case studies may be built for teaching Chinese in those countries or regions. It is on this basis that a worldwide ‘framework of reference’ for Chinese language teaching will be established, which, as Bellassen and Zhang Li said, is ‘the common aspirations of Chinese educators in the whole world.’Reference Bellassen and Li17
To Increase Chinese Teacher Preparation and Training
Because of the huge worldwide demand for Chinese teaching and learning, hundreds or thousands of Chinese teachers are urgently needed in many countries. For instance, according to an estimate by the Asian Society in the United States, 5% of American students will be studying Chinese in 2015, which will produce a presently unsatisfied demand for at least 7000 Chinese teachers.18 In a weekly report by the Washington Observer, ‘The rapid shortage of Chinese teachers has already begun to bottleneck the development of the American Chinese language program.’ The Indonesian Ministry of Education decided in 2007 to start teaching Chinese in over 16,000 high schools across the country, and will need at least 80,000 Chinese teachers with professional expertise and global knowledge. To accomplish this transition to teach Chinese in the international context, a great number of Chinese teachers with such expertise and knowledge will have to be prepared in order to meet the increasing demand from outside China, because the current corps of Chinese teachers and the existing Chinese educational system are far from meeting these requirements. This can be seen in the following points: first, a great percentage of current Chinese teachers are not ready to meet the change from domestic teaching to teaching Chinese outside China. Their concept, cross-cultural awareness and skills, teaching methodologies as well as their English, not to mention other foreign languages, are not good enough and these teachers need to be re-trained according to the new requirements. Second, there are too few graduates in TCFL/TCSL each year. In China today, although around 60 universities and colleges have started TCFL/TCSL teacher preparation and training programmes in the past few years, there is a great imbalance between the annual admission in these programmes and the worldwide demand for China. In 2009, there are only around 500 students who graduated with a master’s degree in teaching Chinese as a second language in the whole country. Consider Nanjing University for example, our annual admission is around 50, of whom only one third can teach outside China for more than one year. In addition, the problem does not only lie in quantity but also in quality.
Because the market in the past was mainly within China, students majoring in TCFL/TCSL do not have enough training in the practical applications of foreign/second language teaching techniques, thus making it difficult for them to meet international teaching standards. Second, the current curriculum is imperfect. Those students who do graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Chinese do not possess sufficient knowledge and experience in TCFL/TCSL, and most are unable to take positions as Chinese teachers and certainly are not able to meet the requirements for teaching overseas. In addition, the training time is considerable, requiring four years per student. Third, most Chinese universities have been focusing on training teachers for foreign university or college students, and it is not easy for their graduates to adjust themselves quickly to the sudden demands found in foreign middle and elementary schools.
Therefore, in order to meet the increasing international demand for Chinese language teachers worldwide, China should improve its current educational system, curriculum, pedagogies, and so on, in preparing more qualified teachers in TCFL/TCSL. Diverse and practical courses should be offered to combine the best in academic rigor with classroom skills development essential to teaching in a foreign situation. Besides requiring that Chinese teachers improve their command of the Chinese language and culture, they must develop a broader understanding of the world, increase their cross-cultural consciousness, possess appropriate teaching skills, and be familiar with modern teaching techniques including computer-aided teaching and teaching by Internet techniques.
When England and France promoted the learning of their respective languages many years ago, they also trained large numbers of teachers qualified to teach English or French as a foreign language both at home and abroad. In addition to all that can be learned from these countries, another important strategy is to help prepare and train ‘localized’ teachers of Chinese19 (i.e. those teaching Chinese in their own countries) who will become the permanent teachers of Chinese in these countries or regions.
To Develop Appropriate Textbooks and other Teaching Resources
As TCFL/TCSL is a practical discipline, teaching materials are critical to the organization and implementation of teaching and learning activities. Beginning with the implementation of the Reform and Opening Policy of China, and especially since the 1990s, there has been a great quantity of TCFL/TCSL textbooks and other teaching materials produced in mainland China. By December 2006, when the first evaluation conference on TCFL/TCSL textbooks and other teaching materials, sponsored by China’s Hanban, was held in Guilin, Guangxi Autonomous Region, there were already more than 1000 different kinds of Chinese language and culture textbooks. Since the beginning of this century, the writing and production of TCFL/TCSL teaching materials have entered a period of rapid growth. China’s Hanban regards the production of Chinese teaching materials as a crucial responsibility and has invested a good deal of money in developing these materials. It has organized and supported quite a number of conferences and seminars on this issue. Many universities and publishing companies have also been involved in preparing and publishing TCFL/TCSL textbooks and other teaching materials.
When considering the rapid expansion of TCFL/TCSL textbooks and other teaching materials, we must also take into account the problems and imperfections with the current development of these materials. Generally speaking, there are both ‘macro’ and ‘micro’ problems. From the ‘macro’ aspect, there are problems with educational theory, policy, and mechanisms; from the ‘micro’ aspect, there are concrete issues with the content, focus, style of writing, the organization of layout, etc. Of all these problems, one of the most serious is the problem of ‘discourse perspective.’ By ‘discourse perspective’, we mean that when writing textbooks, we should consider the practical importance of relating to the needs of international learners, of increasing their interest in learning and their willingness to use Chinese. Xu Lin, Director-General of China’s National Hanban spoke of reforming the preparation of TCFL/TCSL textbooks for international students, and introducing the ‘Three Relates’ principles. She stipulated that Chinese textbooks for international users should ‘relate to foreigners’ way of thinking, relate to their lives, and relate to their customs and habits.’Reference Lin20
As teaching Chinese shifts to a more internationalized context, as more than 389 Confucius Institutes and 520 Confucius Classrooms have been established around the world, and as the number of foreign Chinese learners increases dramatically, these problems are becoming increasingly obvious. Issues such as not targeting or not being applicable to the correct audience (many textbooks do not clearly target students at the university, middle or elementary school levels, or adult or self-taught learners), the writing style being excessively conservative and dull, and the content and medium language not being written for Chinese learners from non-English backgrounds, all plague current TCFL/TCSL teaching materials. In addition, there are very few multimedia and internet-based Chinese textbooks and teaching materials. These problems have become a bottleneck for the development of teaching Chinese in the global context. Of course, in recent years, teachers of Chinese outside China have become increasingly professional, and have been able to independently develop teaching materials that are more appropriate for their respective countries by relying on their knowledge of language learning theory and their personal experience. This has presented a great challenge to the development of Chinese teaching materials in China.
We believe that in order to promote the writing and adaptation of teaching materials to meet the demands of teaching Chinese worldwide, the following measures should be adopted.
(1) To carry out some quality research aimed at fully understand the important issues and points of interest in international Chinese teaching so that Chinese textbook compilation can avoid being detached from the teaching and learning realities. We should study the demands of the global market by targeting the correct audience and emphasizing the applicability of the materials, and thereby writing and publishing high quality textbooks and other teaching materials that are appropriate for today’s global environment.
(2) To train a new corps of textbook compilers who should be familiar with the lifestyles and cultural backgrounds of foreign learners, understand their needs, and be able to utilize new theories and concepts in foreign/second language teaching and to take the above-mentioned ‘discourse perspective’ in textbook writing.
(3) To combine standardization with flexibility, professionalism with popularization, and domestic experience with international reality. Since Chinese teaching has just started in many parts of the world, the focus for textbook compilation should be placed on developing diverse and lively teaching materials for beginners. Writers should turn away from an overemphasis in the past on the academic and systemic nature of textbooks towards more engaging and applicable features so as to lower the difficulty of learning. For the same purpose, special efforts should also be made in adopting other languages, in addition to English, in textbook writing.Reference Hanwei21
(4) To fully utilize modern information technology, multimedia and internet techniques in combining paper writing, audio-visual and network features, and even game activities into an integrated multidimensional text, thus making teaching and learning Chinese easier and more interesting.
(5) To develop new patterns of teaching materials by learning from the successful experiences, examples, content and methods of Chinese teaching outside China, and by adopting different kinds of case studies in teaching and learning Chinese and cross-cultural communications, for instance, case studies of errors of English, or other language, students in learning Chinese characters, pronunciation, grammar, reading and writing.
(6) To enhance collaboration between China and the international community in compiling Chinese teaching materials that are appropriate for a global audience. This collaboration should also include publishing companies so as to create joint markets of published and distributed materials and to develop a worldwide network of vendors for the needs of Chinese language learners in all parts of the world.
Conclusion
In the past 30 years, TCSL/TCFL has made great achievements, especially in Mainland China. However, worldwide Chinese teaching is currently at a crucial point, and its global development in the 21st century presents us with new questions and challenges. With the rapid growth of the Chinese economy and the increasing business and cultural cooperation and exchanges between China and other countries, there will be more and more people interested in China and the Chinese language. Therefore, Chinese language teaching will take place in more countries and regions. But at the same time, more questions, difficulties and challenges will appear in this period of development, and the Chinese language is even undergoing a process of internationalization in its history of development. Some scholars even believe that, with the rapid development of Chinese language teaching and learning in the world, the Chinese language may have plural forms. As Wang Ning points out, ‘Like English, Chinese is also undergoing a sort of splitting: from one standard Chinese into different “Chineses”.’Reference Ning22 Therefore, a worldwide ‘framework of reference for Chinese language’ is to be established so as to help Chinese teaching and learning activities both inside and outside China and to promote a smooth and healthy development of TCSL/TCFL in the global context. In other words, we need to establish an international system and standards for TCFL/TCSL, which are multidimensional, intercultural, applicable, and forward-looking and will meet the requirements of Chinese teaching for the whole world.
The Chinese language is one of the greatest inventions in human history. It has made and will continue to make its contributions to the world. We believe that the promotion and teaching of the Chinese language in the world will help uphold the diversity of world languages and cultures and advance the development of world civilizations.
Cheng Aimin is a professor at the Institute for International Students at Nanjing University, People’s Republic of China. He has studied and taught at several American universities including Harvard University. He is a member of China’s National Committee of MTCSOL, and the President of the Chinese and American Studies Association of China. He has published over 10 books and more than 60 scholarly articles in domestic and international journals, including Ershi Shiji Meiguo Huayi Xiaoshuo Yanjiu (A Study of 20th Century Chinese American Fiction, 2009), Duimei Hanyu Jiaoxue Yanjiu Lunji (Essays on Teaching Chinese to American Students, 2007), Humans as Part and Parcel of Nature: a Comparative Study of Thoreau’s and Taoist Concepts of Nature (2000).
