Teaching and Learning Chinese: Issues and Perspectives

A volume in the Chinese American Educational Researchand Development Association Book SeriesSeries Editor Jinfa Cai, University of DelawareThe book is linked to the annual theme of the 2008 CAERDA International Conference with contributingauthors serving as keynote speakers, invited panelists, paper presenters, as well as specialists andeducators in the field. The book provides a most comprehensive description of and a theoretically wellinformedand a scholarly cogent account of teaching and learning Chinese in general and in the UnitedStates in particular. It examines a wide range of important issues in Chinese teaching and current state in teaching Chinese as a SecondLanguage (TCSL) in the United States, US national standards for learning foreign languages K-12, policy making about how to meet the growingdemand for Chinese language and cultural education with regard to a national coordination of efforts, professional teacher training in terms of thequantity and quality of Chinese language teachers at all levels, promotion of early language learning, characteristics of Chinese pedagogy, aspects ofChinese linguistics, methods and methodology in teaching TCSL, techniques and technology in Chinese language education, curriculum andinstruction in TCSL, cultural aspects of teaching Chinese as a Second Language, issues in Chinese pedagogy, development of Chinese as a HeritageLanguage (HL) and the issue of cultural identity for bilingual/multilingual learners (particularly bilingual/multilingual children), testing andevaluation in TCSL, Chinese literacy and reading, approaches to instruction and program design, etc.