A study of Chinese language teaching and learning environment at Australian universities

This study investigated the teaching and learning environment of Chinese language in the Australian higher education context. Mandarin Chinese has been identified as a must- have language for learners from kindergarten to university within and beyond the Asia- Pacific region. The teaching of Chinese as a second/additional/foreign language in Australia has made remarkable progress during the past decades by enjoying the issue of a series of language policies and the emphasis of ‘Asian literacy’. However, the teaching of Chinese language at Australian universities is facing an unprecedented challenge and is at crossroads. An expected pedagogical problem is becoming apparent in Chinese language courses due to a growing number of Chinese background students while there is a dramatically declining retention rate of local English-speaking students without a Chinese family background. These two cohorts of learners are not only distinguishable from their language and cultural backgrounds, but also exhibit collective differences in their learning motivations, needs and goals. This dramatic situation has caused an urgent demand of innovating existing Chinese language programs in Australian universities to satisfy the various needs of both cohorts of learners. Particularly, there is a concern on how to encourage and maintain non-Chinese background students’ interests to further their Chinese language studies. This study explored the problems and challenges in the existing Chinese language programs in seven Australian tertiary institutions via a mixed research method of documentary review and qualitative interview. The research findings revealed that the current curriculum, pedagogy and assessment strategies of Chinese language programs in Australian universities are problematic. As a result, this study proposed a 4-D model to contribute to the innovation of existing Chinese language programs thereby creating a productive environment for all Chinese language learners, particularly those non-Chinese background students.