The of Easy Steps to Chinese is especially de-signed for non-Chinese background students, who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. The series can be used by secondary school students as well as fifth and sixth graders in primary schools.
This series will help students establish a solid foundation of Chinese in terms of characters, words, sentences and grammar through natural and gradual integration of language, themes and culture. The simultaneous development of listening, speak-ing, reading and writing is especially emphasized. The ultimate aim is to help students develop communication skills in Chinese in real-life situations and express their viewpoints appropriately, precisely, logically and coherently.
The series consists of seven books in three stages:
Stage 1 (Books 1, 2, 3): the focus of this stage is to establish a solid foundation through the learning of pinyin, characters, vocabulary and grammar. The aim is to help students foster an interest in learning Chinese and develop skills in using simple Chinese for communication.
Stage 2 (Books 4 and 5): the focus of this stage is to learn more vocabulary and grammar so that students are able to use the language functionally when communicating with people in real-life situations.
Stage 3 (Books 6 and 7): the focus of this stage is to provide students with authentic materials, and help them develop com-munication skills. It is believed that when the time comes, the students will be confident in expressing their viewpoints pre-cisely, appropriately, logically and coherently in both oral and written forms.
- About the Author
Ms. Yamin Ma has an M.Ed. in Curriculum Design and Instruction from Queen’s University, Canada. She used to teach English at both secondary and university levels in Shanghai (China), Hong Kong (China) and Kingston (Canada) for over 10 years and has taught Chinese at primary and secondary levels in Hong Kong (China) for more than 20 years.Ms. Ma has been the Head of the Chinese Department in Island School (located in Hong Kong, China) for over two decades and has taught IGCSE, AS/A-Levels and IB Language B courses.
Ms. Xinying Li holds a postgraduate diploma in Applied Linguistics from Tsinghua University, China. She has taught English at university level in Beijing (China) before starting teaching Chinese at university and secondary levels in Edinburgh (U.K.), London (U.K.) and Hong Kong (China) for 30 years. Ms. Li is currently a Chinese language teacher and Head of Chinese Faculty in an international school in Hong Kong, China. She has rich experience in teaching I/GCSE, A/AS-Levels and IB Language B courses.
Both Ms. Ma and Ms. Li are experts in the field of Chinese language teaching and learning, and authors of two Chinese textbook series, which have been bestsellers worldwide for 20 years. Ms. Ma and Ms. Li continue to offer training and workshops to teachers of Chinese around the world.