Introduction

As the increasing economic power of China and the closer economic and trade relationship between the UK and China, in recent years, Chinese is becoming a kind of popular foreign language in the UK. Some kind of Chinese course is offered in nearly every British universities. In an increasing number of sencondary schools, Chinese language courses have become or are going to become part of curricula. Additionally, it is very common for some adults to learn the Chinese language or experience the Chinese culture in the Confucius Institutes (Confucius Classrooms) or similar organizations in UK. Every year, hundreds of Chinese teachers introduced by Chinese government work in British universities, elementary schools and Confucius Institutes (Confucius Classrooms). Meanwhile, there are also a lot of part-time teachers teaching Chinese in some Chinese community schools. What is more, in last ten years, Chinese teaching materials in the UK do not just rely on exporting from China or Australia and achieve a lot.

However, as a result of the lack of financial, political and professional supports for Chinese education, the shortage of qualified teachers and limited unsuitable teaching materials, Chinese teaching in UK still faces many difficulties.

In order to solve the problems in teaching Chinese in the UK, this project will firstly focus on the current status of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in Great Britain, before attempting to give some suggestions for the supports for British Chinese teachers and Chinese teaching materials publishing by British local publishers, proceeding to explore some of the difficulties of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the UK.

The current status of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the UK

1.In Universities
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(1)Chinese Courses Due to the societal needs for the graduates with Chinese language skills, and the financial support from the Higher Education Funding Council for Chinese courses in universities, teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the British tertiary education has developed rapidly. There are two kinds of Chinese courses which belongs to optional courses in a degree program, single honours and joint honours.

At the moment, only Oxford, Cambridge, the School of Oriental African Studies (SOAS), Leeds and Edinburgh offer four-year single honours Chinese and the postgraduate programs in Chinese Studies. The number of postgraduate students whose subject is related to Chinese language is increasing with the establishment of the Chinese research center in more British universities (Zhang G.X and Li Linda M, 2010).

On the other hand, joint honours in Chinese is much more popular in British universities, because these courses more easily to meet the demands of students who want to learn Chinese or know more about China, because it usually takes three or four years, and can include other introductions to other aspects of China, such as business studies, history and customs (ibid/op cit).

(2)Chinese teachers Most Chinese teachers teaching in British universities have a Master's degrees or a phD qualification. They have their own support system named the British Chinese Language Teaching Society(BCLTS), which was founded in 1997. BCLTS holds Chinese teaching seminars attracting more than 80 teachers from over 40 higher education institutions, and it is believed that the number of the seminar participants will increase continuously in the next few years (Zhang G.X and Li Linda M, 2010).

(3)Argument

2.In secondary schools (1)Chinese courses Chinese is now available in over 400 secondary schools in England, and the number of schools offering Chinese courses will continually keep growing (Wang L and Higgins L.T, 2008). Most secondary schools offering Chinese courses are supported by some organizations like the HSBC Global Education Trust, an educational sponsored program supported by The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, and the British Council, an international educational and cultural organization managed by British government. There are also GCSE exams and A-Levels for those students who are interested in studying Chinese further .

(2)Chinese teachers In secondary schools, the British Council and the HSBC Education Trust have sponsored a Chinese language assistant programme since 2001, in which hundreds of qualified and experienced teachers from Chinese middle schools are selected to work as teaching assistants in British secondary schools for a year.

Because of the demand for quality Chinese teachers, a Post Graduate Certificate in Education(PGCE) in Chinese is now offered in some universities such as Goldsmiths College, University of London, London Metropolitan University and the University of Manchester, and more colleges are thinking about to doing so altough the number of students of PGCE in Chinese now is still limited.

3.The Confucius Institute and the Confucius Classroom (1)Chinese course The Confucius Institute and the Confucius Classroom are two types of non-profit Chinese teaching organizations. They are sponsored and managed by the Chinese Language Council International, also known as "Hanban". Usually, a Confucius Institute is located at a local university under a co-operation agreement between it and a Chinese university, while a Confucius Classroom is in a elementary school. The chief aim of the
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Confucius Institute is to help non-native speakers to learn Chinese language or to experience Chinese culture in higher education, and the Confucius Classroom is in elementary schools.

There are 13 Confucius Institutes and 57 Confucius Classroom in the UK now, the most extensive network in Europe. Responsible for teaching Chinese language and organizing Chinese cultural activities, some Confucius Institutes even satisfy the special demands, such as business, Chinese traditional medicine and Chinese educational theory (Zhang G.X and Li Linda M, 2010). Confucius Institutes also run some teacher training programs to improve teachers' teaching skills.

(2)Chinese teachers Teachers working for the Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms are mainly from The Government Sponsered Teachers Programs and The Chinese Teaching Guest Teachers Program, which are superintended by the Chinese Language Council International ("Hanban"). As in other the Confucius Institutes around the world, teachers in The Government Sponsored Teachers Programs in a British Confucius Institute are lecturers or professors from a Chinese universities. Meanwhile, teachers in The Chinese Teaching Guest Teachers Program are strictly selected by "Hanban" from some Chinese provinces or cities.

Some Confucius Institutes, for instance, those at SOAS and the University of Manchester, have run Chinese teaching skills training courses for local teachers who are British people working at secondary schools( Wang L and Higgins L.T, 2008).

4.Other institutes (1)Chinese courses Other institutes, for example, the Chinese community schools, play an important role in Chinese teaching. The courses there range from language to Chinese traditional cultural skills, including Chinese calligraphy, Chinese painting, Kungfu and Chinese ethnic dances. Furthermore, some of these institutions partner with British
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secondary schools or universities to run Chinese courses or organize Chinese cultural activities.

(2)Chinese teachers One problem focused by is that the majority of them lack teaching experience. In Wang and Higgins's survey, only 25% of them were found to have been teaching Chinese for are 5 years, while 40% of Chinese teachers had less than a year's experience(Wang L and Higgins L.T, 2008). Most of them were Chinese and working part-time as teachers with a 4-hours weekly working time average. Compared with full-time teachers, there part-times can not provide enough time to help students on learning and to improve themselves on teaching. A related problem is the lack of qualified teachers. Wang and Higgins reported that even though most British Chinese teachers have bachelors or masters' degrees, there were no one with a qualification specifically in Chinese teaching(Wang L and Higgins L.T, 2008). What is more, in terms of the teachers selected and sent by Chinese government, language assistants, Sponsored Teachers and Guest Teachers, it takes a long time for them to adapt to the classroom management and the teaching model in UK, as a consequence of the educational differences between China and the UK, such as teaching styles,teaching stratagems and organizational skills in classroom(Wang L and Higgins L.T, 2008).

Another issue is the shortage of support for teachers. There are few professional organizations or associations for the development Chinese teachers do except BCLTS. It means that the majority of the Chinese teachers in Great Britain are working without any professional supports. Both China and British governments try to run some Chinese teaching programs, but teachers do not know much about the programs because of the lack of the Chinese teacher contacting networks.

3.The current Chinese teaching materials (1)Some achievements in British local-published teaching materials There are a lot of Chinese textbooks in the UK now. "Chinese for GCSE" and "Chinese in steps" are the most popular in British schools. In recent years, 'New Practical Chinese Reader "(Liu 2002) and "40 Lessons for
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Basic Chinese" (Chen 2002) have become popular among adult learners. But most textbooks are published by either Chinese or Australian publishers, and only few of them are published by British publishers( Wang Li& Higgins L.T,2008).

(2)The problems existed in British Chinese teaching materials Although there are some achievements in British local-published teaching materials, most the teaching materials using in UK now are unsuitable and out of date. Only little of them are exactly written for British daily life or business. On the other hand, the majority of textbooks ignored the learning characters of English-spoken people(prefer speaking than writing). That is why learners do Chinese, especially the beginners, will have a feeling that Chinese is difficult and even impossible to speak well. Furthermore, the contents of these teaching materials show little information about Chinese culture, which is so important for learners to better understand the Chinese idioms and slang( Zhang G.X& Li L.M,2010).

Summary

Until now, with the work done by both the Chinese and British governments, the schools and the other relevant organizations, the current status of teaching Chinese as a foreign language in the UK is quite satisfying. However, for improving the Chinese education in the UK, there will be a lot to do in the future.

For the British government, first of all, more funds should be injured into different types of schools for offering various Chinese courses. Teachers who are introduced from China should enjoy more conveniences on visa extension and living welfare, and the Chinese community schools and other similar organizations should be encouraged by some tax policies.

For Chinese teachers working at British elementary schools, the priority is to establish some professional organizations or build local contact networks. Then they can hold some Chinese teaching seminars to share their teaching experiences and resources. More information about Chinese teacher training programs and Chinese teacher qualifications can also be propagandized through these professionol organization regularly.

For British local publishers, the co-operation with "hanban" and other Chinese organizations including Chinese publishers and universities should be enhanced. Except to the text books, other kinds of teaching materials, such

as Chinese characters cards, teaching charts and multimedia software, should be paid more attention to exploiting. On the other hand, some advanced media, for instance, the Internet, the Podcasts and the apps for smart phones, should also be taken a good use to attract the young people and help businessmen learn Chinese anywhere and anytime.

References

1.The Chinese Language Council International(2006).The Chinese Language Council International Annual Report.Available at:<http://www.hanban.edu.cn/report/pdf/2006_final.pdf>[Accessed 7 August 2011]. 2.Wang Y(2006).The Trade between China and UK Is Going to Reach 100 Billion US

Dollars.Available at:<http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-06/24/c_121581703.htm>[Accessed 23 August

2011]. 3.The

HSBC

Global

Education

Trust(2011).

About

Us.

Available

at:<http://www.riversoftheworld.org/1905>[Accessed 23 August 2011]. 4.The British Council(2006).About Us.Available at:<http://www.britishcouncil.org/china-aboutus.htm>[Accessed 23 August 2011]. 5.Wang L& Higgins L.T(2008).Mandarin teaching in the UK in 2007: a brief report of teachers'and learners' views.The Language Learning Journal, 36:1, 91-96. 6.Zhang G.X &Li L.M(2010). Chinese language teaching in the UK:present and future,The Language Learning Journal, 38:1, 87-97. 7.Starr D(2009).Chinese Language Education in Europe: the Confucius Institutes,European Journal of Education,Vol. 44, No. 1, 2009, Part I. 8.Wang P(2009).The Provision of Mandarin Chinese in the UK Secondary Schools: whats in the way,European Journal of Education,Vol. 44, No. 1, 2009, Part I.