International Standards for Chinese Language

Teaching Chinese to Speakers of
Other Languages (TCSOL)
Standards
——An Introduction
Lening Liu
Columbia University
Symposium on Asia
In the Curriculum
Columbia University
Sept.28, 2007
1. Background
A. Shortage of quality instructors
B. Establishment of new departments or programs
in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language or
Foreign Language
C. The lack of guidelines for curriculum designing
and degree requirements
D. The lack of high quality tests on teachers’
linguistic and pedagogical abilities.
E. The lack of standards that are compatible with
the instruction of other languages
2. Organizers and Writers
A. Organizer: The Office of Chinese
Language Council International (Hanban)
B. Writing team: headed by Prof. Jun Liu
(University of Arizona). Members are
from Peking University, Renmin
University, Beijing Language and Culture
University, Beijing International Studies
University and Columbia University.
3. Process
Step 1: An outline was drafted by Prof. Jun
Liu
Step 2: A small group of scholars were
invited to comment on the outline
Step 3: The outline was revised
Step 4: Members of writing team were appointed
Step 5: Each member was assigned to writing a
chapter
Step 6: All chapters were put together by
Prof. Jun Liu
Step 7: Consulting experts inside and
outside China (Beijing and New York)
Step 8: Inviting more scholars to revise the
text
Step 9: Presenting the text to an approval
committee
Step 10: Further revision
4. Structure and Content
A. modules
Module 1
Language knowledge
and skills
Module 5
Professionalism
Module 2
Second language
acquisition
and
strategies of foreign
language learning
Module 3
Methods and
approaches of
Chinese Instruction
Module 4
Chinese culture and
cross-cultural
communication
B. Standards: within each module there are a
number of standards. For instance:
Methods and approaches of teaching Chinese
to speakers of other languages:
• Standard one: teaching approaches,
methods and techniques
• Standard two: testing, assessment and
evaluation
• Standard three: curriculum development
syllabus design, classroom instruction,
teaching book selections and materials
supplement
C. sub-standards: under each standard
there a number of sub-standards: For
instance, under testing, assessment and
evaluation
• concepts and principles of testing,
assessment and evaluation
• types of testing
• process and method of designing tests
…
D. Content of sub-standard: under each sub- standard there are three items:
• basic concepts (testing, assessment and evaluation; fact
judgment, value judgment, etc.)
• basic principles (teachers should master different kinds of
assessment methods; teachers should adjust their teaching
methods based on the outcome of evaluation, etc.)
• skills (teachers should be able to use appropriate methods of
assessment; they should be able to tell the advantage and
disadvantage of different assessment methods, etc.)
TCSOL
module
module
module
module
module
standards
standards
standards
standards
standards
Sub-standards
Sub-standards
Sub-standards
Sub-standards
Sub-standards
concepts
principles
skills
concepts
principles
skills
concepts
principles
skills
concepts
principles
skills
concepts
principles
skills
5. What’s Next
a. designing exams based on these
standards
b. designing curriculum based on these
standards
c. setting up degree requirement base on
these standards
d. setting up criteria for teaching certificate
6. Conclusion
TCSOL is a comprehensive set of
standards. It may serve as guidelines for
Chinese teachers’ education and training,
particularly for curriculum designing and
degree or certificate requirements. It,
however, is very general. For applicants
with different background, the
recommendations proposed by the Ad Hoc
joint committee are much more helpful.