Full Description
This book will be the first account of the development of Chinese as a foreign language in the U.S., as it interacts with the relevant entities in China and beyond. There are virtually no systematic retrospective reflections on the field outside of the greater China region; and yet over the past decades the field has grown by leaps and bounds, and it is critical now that we pause to reflect on what has happened and what we can learn from the past. The contributors are among some of the most influential pioneers in the field whose entire academic lives have been dedicated to its development.
The Field of Chinese Language Education in the U.S.: A Retrospective of the 20th Century is aimed at those who are currently engaged in Chinese language education, as teachers or as students.
Contents
List of contributors. Prologue 1. Pioneering Chinese Studies in the era before Chinese language curriculum existed in American academia 2. A new calling for former missionaries in the secular world 3. Key roles played by elite Chinese émigrés 4. Institute of Far Eastern Languages at Yale University 5. Interface between U.S. government initiatives and academia 6. Immersion Chinese language programs, key to language proficiency and cultural literacy 7. Organizing and professionalizing the field: CLTA and its flagship journal 8. From rapprochement to engagement with mainland China 9. Memories of cultivating the field 10. Have Chinese, will travel! 11. Influential figures and unsung heroes in our time Epilogue. Index.
