Assessing Learners’ Competence in L2 Chinese 二语汉语能力测试

Assessing Learners’ Competence in L2 Chinese is the first book intended to answer the question on whether existing standardised and classroom-based assessments can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese.

The Chinese language has enjoyed increasing global popularity amongst second/foreign language learners and has become one of the major modern languages for school and university curricula. However, to many teachers and researchers, it has been difficult to answer with confidence whether the existing standardised and classroom tests can reflect learners’ competence in L2 Chinese. This book defines and redefines the constructs for assessing L2 Chinese competence that have been overlooked or misplaced because of the unique features of the Chinese language.

The book provides theoretical backgrounds and practical methodologies for assessing competence in L2 Chinese trainees and experienced teachers of Chinese as a second language. It will provide invaluable guidelines and ready-made workshop materials for postgraduate teacher training programmes. Researchers and academics will find innovative frameworks on the subject for further studies and debates.

Yang Lu is a retired lecturer of Chinese language who taught at the University of Nottingham, UK. Her research interests have covered the assessment of L2 Chinese and spoken competence in ESL, teaching methodology for L2 Chinese grammar, and comparative studies of Western and Chinese literature. Yang has published an edited collection, Teaching and Learning Chinese in Higher Education, and research articles on standardising L2 Chinese competence with the Common European Framework of Reference, the criterion-referenced validity of the New HSK Intermediate tests, explicit instruction of L2 Chinese grammar, Chinese EFL test-takers’ spoken discourse competence and the impacts of examiners’ conversation styles on learners’ performance.