Page 6 - 學華語向前走課本-入門B-漢語拼音版

Preface

The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) has been developing teaching materials
for the overseas community for many years. In response to changing trends in Chinese-language
education and learning environments around the world, the OCAC asked dozens of scholars,
instructors with experience teaching overseas compatriots, and Chinese language teachers from
around the world to work on this project. The outline for these teaching materials is based on the
latest theories on teaching Chinese as a second language and was designed in accordance with the
topics set forth by the California World Language Content Standards as well as language teaching
standards set by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Cultural content
and notes on local characteristics were added when deemed appropriate. These teaching materials
can help increase interest in learning the Chinese language among students regardless of ethnic
background.
Let’s Learn Chinese consists of 12 volumes of 12 lessons each with content that gradually
increases in difficulty. Lessons are centered around daily conversation, while the content adheres
to the principles of communication, culture, connection, comparison, and community. This series
is suitable for the elementary and junior high school levels. The objective of this series is to train
students to use Chinese to communicate in everyday life and to be able to apply what they’ve
learned right away, either at home or in Chinese-language environments. The after-class practice
focuses on task-based teaching. To improve student speaking, listening, reading, writing, and cross-
cultural Chinese-language skills, various communication models, including bilateral communication,
performance and interpretation, and unilateral comprehension, have been incorporated where
appropriate.
The lessons consist of dialogs, vocabulary words, sentence pattern exercises, and other kinds
of exercises aimed at allowing students to practice what they have learned. Songs and games are
used where appropriate and audio files are available for download online. Throughout the teaching
materials, the Chinese characters, vocabulary, sentence patterns, and grammatical structures are
quantified and ordered. Both phonetic symbols (Bopomofo) and Hanyu Pinyin are used. The
vocabulary and grammar in each volume are commonly used in everyday conversation and advance
“from low to high proficiency level using the concept of spiral curriculum”. The various levels are
tied together with common themes and expand from the narrow to the broad. They are suitable
for use by schools employing topic-based education to help advance familiarity with this range of
common topics.
In order to ensure that teaching materials meet the needs of overseas compatriot schools,
the OCAC asked specialists and academics in Taiwan as well as individuals located abroad with
extensive experience in teaching and using teaching materials to review and edit the series it
published in 2017. As a result, not only is the content even better, two Taiwanese Culture Units
have been added to each volume. The Taiwanese Culture Units cover such topics as rhymes,
Taiwanese opera, and puppet theater to make the materials more interesting and to enhance student
understanding of Taiwan’s diverse culture.

Going forward, the OCAC will continue to improve its Chinese language materials to raise
interest in studying the Chinese language among ethnic Chinese children. By helping overseas
compatriot schools boost their teaching capabilities, the OCAC hopes to further enhance Taiwan’s
reputation in the area of teaching the Chinese language using traditional characters and to
accomplish its objective of preserving cultural heritage through language education.

Overseas Community Affairs Council