Author Description

From Forward: The teaching of Chinese should be made more flexible, to let teacher take into account students' language backgrounds and aptitude. In order to meet these needs and changes, the International Language and Culture Center has commissioned Prof. Yu and Miss Huang to produce this new Chinese text book, one of many to be compiled in the near future. There are many major changes of the teaching approach used in this textbook. Instead of focusing on writing and memorizing of traditional Chinese characters, as now, they emphasize reading, speaking and listening. To be practical, Hanyu pinyin and simplified Chinese characters are used for the beginners as a bridge and to reflect the new emphasis and development of Chinese language. The international Language and Culture Center has a role of promoting Chinese language and culture to all foreign students. With this textbook we adopt a new approach to teaching and learning the language. The aim of most sweeping changes yet to the teaching of Chinese is to make learning the language fun and learning a living language, closely related to daily life. The students come to know the Chinese culture while learning the Chinese language.