Principles and Practices of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

This is a foundational course for teachers of Chinese as a foreign language. Through assigned readings, lectures, student-teacher activities, small-group discussions, individual research reports (oral and written), and other methods, students gain mastery of basic theories of TCFL, and progressively form their own educational philosophies. In order to guide their future work in the TCFL profession, students will build upon their abilities to teach and research. This course is divided into four units: 1) Basic theories of TCFL (language education, language acquisition, cultural communication); 2) An analysis of schools of thought in foreign language teaching; 3) Special characteristics and philosophies in teaching Chinese; and 4) Chinese teacher development.