It's official: There are now millions of learners worldwide poring over picture-like characters and trying to master the four tones.

 

According to The Office of Chinese Language Council International (better known as Hanban), China's leading governmental agency in charge of promoting the Chinese language abroad, there are some 30 million people outside China learning Chinese, and some 2,300 universities in more than 100 countries that are teaching Chinese.

 

But after complaints regarding teaching inefficiencies, educators have had to reevaluate how the language is being taught.

 

After three years of research, Hanban has found an answer. Great Wall Chinese, a new kind of Chinese teaching, aims at improving communicative competence in a short period of time. The project features a personalized course through an integrated method combining e-learning and face-to-face tutorials.

 

New students to the Great Wall Chinese Center, which is located in Beijing's CBD, start with a comprehensive assessment. The process includes a proficiency evaluation on computer and an oral test.

 

The center provides six levels of study with various sections ranging from personal introduction, communication in study and work, and discussions of hot social topics.

 

The textbook contains more than 40 real-life situations based on the life stories of five foreign students in China. The scripts reflect multiple social dimensions infused with Chinese culture and history, presented in various formats including cartoons.

 

Students are expected to absorb 230 Chinese words and 40 grammatical points to complete each level on a flexible timetable.

 

Students will receive an assessment report at the end of each unit, jointly evaluated by the computer learning system and the tutor.

 

There are now more than 20 students from across the world at the Great Wall Chinese Center.

 

"Students have shown great interests in our multi-media learning system. Even when they are on a business trip, they can go on with their study through the Internet," said Lu Xinli, a teacher at the center.

 

Ma Jianfei, deputy director of Hanban, said Hanban has established more than 130 Confucius Institutes across the world.

 

(China Daily March 14, 2007)