Teacher Development in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language

With the rise of China as a political and economic power, learning CSL has increasingly gained its popularity in a global context. According to the Chinese International Education Foundation, by 2023, the number of registered Chinese language learners exceeded 12.5 million. Due to the shortage of teachers, the Ministry of Education in China launched the International Chinese Language Teachers Volunteer Program in 2004. By 2021, more than 61,000 volunteer Chinese language teachers had been dispatched to more than 151 regions and countries. Many more overseas universities, colleges, and higher institutes now have established CSL programmes at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels to cultivate local CSL teachers. However as the number of CSL learners continues to grow, the need for high-quality Chinese language teachers has become more urgent than ever. Responding to CSL teachers’ challenges of delivering Chinese language and culture to learners from diverse language and cultural backgrounds, this book explores four interrelated themes: 1) CSL teachers’ professional development in the global context, 2) CSL teachers’ motivation, agency, and identity, 3) CSL teachers’ knowledge and practice in multicultural and multilingual contexts, and 4) CSL teachers’ technological literacy and agency in the digital era.

With its focus on both the internal and external complexities of CSL teacher development, the book offers timely insights and practical guidance for researchers, educators, policymakers, and frontline teachers working in this rapidly expanding field.