Teacher Education Curriculum for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language

Abstract

The worldwide growing demand of CFL (Chinese as a Foreign Language) teachers has many implications for both curriculum development and teacher education. Much evidence has shown more in-depth research is needed in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language (Tsung & Cruickshank, 2011). Studying in-service teachers’ experience in curriculum of teacher education programs is a good point to initiate the exploration. This article investigated in-service teachers’ perceptions on curriculums of preparation programs in Chinese higher education though the phenomenological method. Seven experienced teachers who graduated from CFL teacher preparation programs were involved in this study. The findings show that the participants think the curriculums of their preparation programs successfully construct the teachers’ professionalism and teachers’ identity, but the curriculums need to be more practical. The educators should also improve their teaching quality when they implement the curriculums. The findings also indicate that lacking of adequate teaching practicum might lead to the unsatisfactory performance of Chinese language teachers in the global context. To contribute to further study, suggestions are given for helping educators and curriculum makers improve the curriculum effectiveness of Chinese language teacher education programs.