Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Taiwan

"Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Taiwan: Fusion and Inclusion is an essential resource for Chinese teachers in training and students of Chinese as a second language who are eager to understand Taiwan’s unique learning environment. It offers a comprehensive exploration of CSL from linguistic, societal, and pedagogical perspectives, highlighting the differences and nuances between Taiwan and China. By incorporating local linguistic features and language variations, the book provides invaluable socio-cultural insights into Taiwanese society. A must-read for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of Mandarin as it is taught and spoken in Taiwan."

Yufen Chang, PhD, Director of the Chinese Language Instruction, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

"The pedagogy of prescriptive grammar prevails in Chinese as Foreign Language (CFL) education. This teaching method allows CFL learners greater access to the target language communities by eliminating linguistic variations. For learners of Chinese as a second language (CSL) in Taiwan, however, the pedagogy of prescriptive Chinese might not successfully help the learners’ desire to navigate the local linguistic environment. A solution to that problem is now suggested by the descriptive approach to grammar, as presented in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language in Taiwan: Fusion and Inclusion.

In this book, Chinese instructors can find not only empirical pedagogical sequences for teaching CSL that are implemented in Taiwan but also theoretical foundations for the needs of such pedagogy. This book reorients our attention to the pedagogy of Taiwan Chinese, which may be nonconventional but is surely legitimate."

Hsin-fu Chiu, PhD, Associate Professor of Chinese, California State University, Los Angeles