The “New Standard Chinese Undergraduate Series” is a set of Chinese undergraduate textbooks based on the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education, adhering to the integration of “structure-function-culture” and upholding comprehensive quality training featured “language + professionalism” throughout. Aiming at better meeting the needs of Chinese language teaching for international students coming to China for undergraduate studies under the new standard, this series is based on the concepts of “diversification, three-dimensionality, innovation and intelligence”, and is mainly tailor-made for international students coming to China for undergraduate studies in Chinese language. Meanwhile, it can be used in relevant training courses at home and abroad, and meet the learning needs of long-term advanced students and self-taught learners coming to China to study Chinese.
Elementary Chinese Comprehensive Course is an elementary comprehensive textbook in this series, which is divided into 4 volumes, and this book is Volume 2. It contains 12 lessons in total, with each lesson consisting of several key sections including Lesson Focus, Warm-up, Text, Vocabulary, Key Words, Grammar, Comprehensive Application, and Cultural Tips. The entire textbook is structured around linguistic structures and guided by themes, adhering to the learner-centered compilation principle. The texts emphasize practicality, interest and informative value, adopting a “Text 1 (Dialogue) + Text 2 (Short Passage)” model. Based on linguistic structural elements and with language functions as the main thread, it designs dialogue scenarios and compiles dialogues and texts, so as to meet learners’ needs for linguistic communication and their cognitive needs for an in-depth understanding of China.
About the Author
Zhang Hao, the chief editor, is a professor, doctoral supervisor, and dean of the College of International Chinese Studies, Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU). Having been engaged in teaching Chinese as a foreign language for more than 30 years, Professor Zhang has taught in overseas universities in the United States and Canada for nearly 10 years, and has travelled overseas as an expert of Hanban to conduct Chinese teacher training for many times. Her research mainly focuses on Chinese language teaching and cultural communication studies. She has published more than 30 papers in core journals and 6 monographs, and has presided over and participated in 7 provincial and ministerial projects. Professor Zhang has been awarded the Beijing Higher Education Teaching Award and the Beijing Teachers’ Virtues Pioneer Award. As the person in charge, she has declared and won the evaluation of national first-class undergraduate programmes, national first-class courses, Beijing excellent nurturing team, Beijing key first-class majors and so on.
Editorial Review
(1)Aligned with the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education
With reference to the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education, teaching syllabuses matching different levels and volumes have been developed. This ensures each textbook has its own distinctive features while complementing other textbooks, jointly forming a complete textbook system.
(2)Upholding the Compilation Concept of“Integrating Structure, Function and Culture”
It integrates linguistic structural rules, communicative functions and cultural knowledge to form a comprehensive and systematic teaching system, thereby realizing the coordinated development of linguistic knowledge, language skills and cultural cognition.
(3)Following the Laws of Chinese Language Teaching and Students’ Cognition to Arrange Linguistic Knowledge Scientifically
It systematically presents basic Chinese vocabulary, grammar and Chinese character knowledge, demonstrates the differences between spoken and written Chinese from multiple perspectives, emphasizes the pragmatic functions of linguistic elements, and highlights the teaching of discourse segments and texts, so as to help students master and flexibly use Chinese.
(4)Carefully Selected Diverse Topics to Guide Learners to Perceive China and Explore the World from Multiple Dimensions
The topics mainly cover campus life, hobbies, social phenomena, interpersonal/social communication, further education and employment, scientific and technological development, environmental protection, Chinese and foreign cultural differences, etc. They are both open and inclusive, focusing on in-depth analysis of cross-cultural communication, enhancing learners’ comprehensive understanding of Chinese society, and promoting exchanges and mutual learning between different civilizations.
(5)Comprehensive Training of the Five Core Skills to Improve Learners’ Comprehensive Chinese Application Ability
The five core skills, listening, speaking, reading, writing and translating, form a complete skill system. Each skill progresses step by step across the elementary, intermediate and advanced teaching stages, achieving multi-level coverage to accurately meet the practical needs of learners at different levels.
Suggestion
This textbook, which contains 12 lessons in total, is recommended to allocate 6–8 class hours for each lesson with 50 minutes for one class hour.
