Textbooks

I use a series of well selected and authentic textbooks for various levels / ages of Mandarin Chinese learners

1. Young Children

The series of Chinese Paradise: the Fun Way to Learn Chinese consists of 6 textbooks (and 6 workbooks) and is a major work by the Office of Chinese Language Council International. It is mainly designed for children aged between 6 years and 12 years old. Considering that children are active and vigorous, Chinese Paradise book series are designed with colourful, vivid and interesting pictures and games, and includes plenty of highly applicable teaching activities appealing to children.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids include 4 books, and each book consists of one textbook and one workbook. It is designed for primary school students who start to learn Chinese as total beginners. The focus of this series is: basic knowledge of pinyin, basic knowledge of strokes and stroke order of writing characters, listening and speaking skills, learning Chinese characters for recognition, a lively and free learning atmosphere of Chinese language learning through songs, pictures and story-telling, tasks and activities designed for this age group, and up-to-date topics relevant to primary school students.

2. Beginner to Intermediate Level

The series of Chinese Made Easy consists of 5 textbooks (and 5 workbooks) and is suitable for non-native learners from beginner to advanced level. These books are designed to emphasize the development of communication skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The primary goal of this series is to help the learners use Chinese to exchange information and to communicate their ideas. The unique characteristic of this series is the use of the Communicative Approach adopted in teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

3. Intermediate to Advanced Level

The series of New Practical Chinese Reader consists of 6 textbooks (and 6 workbooks). These books are designed for native English speakers to learn Chinese and develop students' ability to communicate in Chinese through the study of language structure, function and related cultural knowledge along with the training of listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. This series is compiled under the guidance of the new HSK (Standard Chinese Proficiency Test for non-native speaker) guideline.

4. GCSE Level, AS & A Level

This series of Chinese GCSE consists of 3 textbooks (and 3 workbooks). This series has been designed especially for teaching Chinese to secondary school students in Britain, compiled by an experienced group of teachers from the best-selling Chinese textbooks and the heads of Chinese from UK secondary schools. The series covers all areas in new Chinese GCSE syllabus. Each textbook has eight units, with each unit containing three lessons that focus on a common topic or activity. By using the series, students will be able to reach the standard requirement for GCSE Chinese in listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Edexcel Chinese for AS & A Level is designed to help students master the skills they need for success in the latest Edexcel GCE A Level specification in Chinese.

5. Intensive Speaking & Conversation

Short-Term Spoken Chinese is a serial textbooks for foreign students who study in short-term Chinese training programs. It mainly aims to develop the students’ communication skills. There are altogether five volumes corresponding to five levels which fall into the elementary, intermediate and advanced categories according to the Standards of Chinese Proficiency in order to meet the different needs of short-term learning. This series gives detailed division of teaching contents and emphasizes the training communication skills. The selected linguistic materials are practical, lively and vivid, illustrated with pictures and supplemented with speaking exercises. Since its publication in 1999, Short-Term Spoken Chinese has been well-received by teachers and learners home and abroad and has become the best-selling textbook for short-term training of spoken Chinese.

6. Intensive Reading & Listening

Short-Term Reading Chinese is a series of textbooks written according to the characteristics of students of short-term training courses. Focusing on improving the students’ ability in reading and comprehending Chinese texts and paragraphs, it combines intensive reading with fast reading and integrates some typical questions in HSK reading tests into the exercises. The selected texts cover a wide range of genres and styles and encompass a great number of topics and hot issues concerning all aspects of modern China so as to familiarize the students with the cultural background knowledge relevant to language learning. The series includes five volumes, namely Threshold, Elementary, Pre-Intermediate, Intermediate and Advanced. Each volume comprises 12 lessons and each lesson is composed of two parts: intensive reading and fast reading. Both parts include new words, notes, texts and exercises.

The Stories of the Chinese are intensive audiovisual and reading course books for intermediate Chinese learners. These course books is based on the documentaries of the same title broadcast in China Central Television (CCTV), which displays the living and working conditions and mental outlook of contemporary Chinese people in an intuitive and vivid manner. There are a total of 16 lessons in two volumes in the textbooks and supplemented with an exercise book. These textbooks combine audiovisual learning and intensive reading & listening, and incorporate Chinese language learning into the learning of Chinese culture and China's national condition.

The series of Reading Newspaper, Learning Chinese are designed for intermediate, lower advanced and advanced learners focusing on intensive reading. All the articles chosen for the books were published on Chinese newspapers and cover a wide ranges of topics of common interests. The articles are of reasonable difficulty with explicit language points and practical usefulness.

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