One of the most civilized nations in history, China has a long-standing writing tradition and many Chinese texts have become world treasures. However, the way the Chinese teach writing in various countries in contemporary times is little known to the outside world, especially in Western countries. Undoubtedly, the Chinese have had an established traditional method of writing instruction. However, recent social and political developments have created the perception amongst both practitioners and researchers of a need for change. Whilst certain socio-political changes, both in Mainland China and in the territories, acted as agents for reform of the teaching of composition, the shape these reforms are taking has been due to many different influences, coming both from inside the countries themselves and from foreign sources. Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have each developed their own approach to the teaching of composition.

The book is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the case of language in education reform and language policy controversies of Hong Kong over the initial two decades after 1997. It is a scholarly monograph of conscientious educators and researchers who have been active during the education reform, collaborating with different parties on school development and classroom teaching experiments. This book provides a multiple-perspective investigation into the education and language matters. Besides socio-political perspectives, this book also emphasizes the frontline educational and practical perspectives. The book explores the benefits and effective methods of mother-tongue and multi-lingual teaching that have emerged in the period. Based on the problematic experience of language purism and bifurcation in the reform, the book argues for an inclusive multilingual education policy with mother-tongue as the core. This book provides potential solutions and good practices to tackle the complex issues brought about by medium of instruction policy reforms in post-colonial times.

The culmination of more than a decade of research, this compelling volume offers a fresh approach for applying functional linguistics to assess student performance, to inform the teaching and learning of Chinese and to design curriculum and teaching materials. Documenting authentic systemic functional linguistics (SFL) studies in researching and teaching Chinese as a first or second language, this research is set in the multilingual settings of Hong Kong and Australia. The experiences of SFL and genre teaching in English have been well demonstrated as valid, viable and practical in different contexts; however this volume covers the relatively new domain of research into the applications of SFL to the teaching of Chinese. Using SFL as the research framework, the authors cover three major areas in Chinese language education: effective pedagogies, curriculum and material design, and text analysis. Covering major local curriculum reforms and the rapid growth of International Baccalaureate programmes worldwide, this book will be of interest to linguists, language teachers and teacher educators and those involved in the teaching and learning of Chinese around the world.

The culmination of more than a decade of research, this compelling volume offers a fresh approach for applying functional linguistics to assess student performance, to inform the teaching and learning of Chinese and to design curriculum and teaching materials. Documenting authentic systemic functional linguistics (SFL) studies in researching and teaching Chinese as a first or second language, this research is set in the multilingual settings of Hong Kong and Australia. The experiences of SFL and genre teaching in English have been well demonstrated as valid, viable and practical in different contexts; however this volume covers the relatively new domain of research into the applications of SFL to the teaching of Chinese. Using SFL as the research framework, the authors cover three major areas in Chinese language education: effective pedagogies, curriculum and material design, and text analysis. Covering major local curriculum reforms and the rapid growth of International Baccalaureate programmes worldwide, this book will be of interest to linguists, language teachers and teacher educators and those involved in the teaching and learning of Chinese around the world.

The book is an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of the case of language in education reform and language policy controversies of Hong Kong over the initial two decades after 1997. It is a scholarly monograph of conscientious educators and researchers who have been active during the education reform, collaborating with different parties on school development and classroom teaching experiments. This book provides a multiple-perspective investigation into the education and language matters. Besides socio-political perspectives, this book also emphasizes the frontline educational and practical perspectives. The book explores the benefits and effective methods of mother-tongue and multi-lingual teaching that have emerged in the period. Based on the problematic experience of language purism and bifurcation in the reform, the book argues for an inclusive multilingual education policy with mother-tongue as the core. This book provides potential solutions and good practices to tackle the complex issues brought about by medium of instruction policy reforms in post-colonial times.

One of the most civilized nations in history, China has a long-standing writing tradition and many Chinese texts have become world treasures. However, the way the Chinese teach writing in various countries in contemporary times is little known to the outside world, especially in Western countries. Undoubtedly, the Chinese have had an established traditional method of writing instruction. However, recent social and political developments have created the perception amongst both practitioners and researchers of a need for change. Whilst certain socio-political changes, both in Mainland China and in the territories, acted as agents for reform of the teaching of composition, the shape these reforms are taking has been due to many different influences, coming both from inside the countries themselves and from foreign sources. Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore have each developed their own approach to the teaching of composition.