Educating Teachers of “Chinese as a Local/Global Language”: Teaching “Chinese with Australian Characteristics”

Abstract

How can the education of teacher-researchers from China be framed in ways so that they might make Chinese learnable for primary and secondary school learners for whom English is their everyday language of instruction and communication. The concept “making Chinese learnable” and the characters of the language learners are explained in the introduction to the paper. The review of an extensive range of literature focuses on the challenges facing Chinese language education. This review of literature from China, the UK, the USA, and Australia leads to a focus on the need for improved teacher education in this field. We explain the theoretic-pedagogical framework for the education of Chinese language teacher-researchers from China. The “case” employed to develop this account an Australia-China partnership called the Research Oriented, School/Industry Engaged Teacher-Researcher Education (ROSETE) Program. Key aspects relating to the educational research process employed in this study are explained. The description of the ROSETE Program introduces the key ideas of “cross-sociolinguistic similarities” and “recurring everyday sociolinguistic activities.” The Ningbo Volunteers, as teacher-researcher candidates use these ideas to investigate efficient ways of making Chinese learnable for learners in Australian schools for whom English is their everyday language of instruction and communication. Through exploring these issues this paper addresses an important and under researched area. It provides inspiration for further teaching and research.

Keywords

Chinese as a local sociolinguistic practice / English/Chinese cross-sociolinguistic similarities / educating teachers of Chinese / making Chinese learnable / teaching for English-to-Chinese transfer

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2014 Higher Education Press and Brill