The general tendency of global Chinese teaching has entered into the transition period from the enlargement of scale to the improvement of teaching quality. As the population of learning Mandarin increases sharply in the world, the structure of learners becomes complex. The requirement of students who learn Mandarin also is diversified. Teachers and learners have been raising higher requirements for the TCSL textbooks.
The general textbooks that we are accustomed to compiling and the unitary teaching approach according to the textbook can hardly adapt to the latest situation of international Chinese teaching and the requirements of people who are learning Mandarin. They urgently request that Chinese textbooks can be customized so that their diverse studying purposes and needs can be met.
Chinese as the foreign language teaching, its textbooks are the basement of teaching. We should research that how to compile Chinese textbooks which can adapt to the overseas teaching environment, improve and innovate Chinese textbooks faced with overseas people who want to learn Mandarin and attract more people to learn Chinese in China.
Seeing from the worldwide, textbooks that foreigners use to learn Mandarin are mainly the general textbooks that Chinese people compile for students who learn Chinese in China. Recent years, the amount of domestic Chinese textbooks increases greatly and the variety of them diversifies. Generally speaking, we should think about that how to compile a textbook which can be used in the domestic class consists of students from different countries. The general textbooks can meet the teaching needs at home basically, but teachers abroad will feel awkward to use these books and students who learn Mandarin in their own countries have different opinions. Therefore the urgent affair is to research the innovation and breakthrough of Chinese textbooks, get rid of the stale and bring forth the fresh to adapt to the diversified teaching environment in the world.
We already have many Chinese textbooks which have been used abroad and accepted by students and teachers of learning Mandarin program in the world mainstream universities and all kinds of education institutes. Recent years, Chinese textbooks have great progress in ideas, contents, models and exercise. But overseas teaching environment has higher and higher requirement for Chinese textbooks, especially the textbooks that focus on different language cultural backgrounds, foreign teachers, students who learn Mandarin for special purpose, different education institutes and domestic Chinese teaching.
Because students are from different language cultural background or they have limited time for studying, textbooks must be compiled according to the real situation of learners. Foreign Chinese teachers have special expectation for Chinese textbooks they are going to use. Textbooks which are compiled by native Chinese teachers will be awkward for foreign Chinese teachers. They hope to have a set of fixed Chinese textbooks and not to change textbooks every year. Some Chinese teachers in US said that overseas students have no Chinese learning environment and enough time to learn Mandarin. The textbooks for American students must be customized.
Chinese textbooks facing to a certain country or language can basically meet the requirements of common people who are learning Mandarin. But a certain country or language is a general range. They should consider about the difference of all kinds of learners.
In overseas universities, Chinese is learnt as a specialized course or foreign language. However in Chinese language schools which are mainly established by overseas Chinese, the teaching purposes are different and textbooks are different.
Hence one can see that TCSL textbooks are related to different countries and areas. The languages and cultural backgrounds of students who learn Chinese are different and their religions, nationality habits, customs and values are also different. Besides, the foreign teaching traditions and study habit are different. Thus we should try our best to compile special Chinese textbooks for learners in different countries and areas according to their requirements and adjust measures to local conditions.