“Series of Teaching Foreigners Chinese Grammar” is the achievement of “Research and Development of Grammar Syllabus for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and Teaching Reference Grammar Series (Multi-volume)”, a major project of National Social Science Fund of China sponsored by Professor Qi Huyang, which has been selected as the “2022 Funding Project of National Publication Foundation”. As an important reference book for international Chinese language education, it aims to build and improve the “Grammar System of Chinese Teaching” for foreign students to meet the development needs of the new era. It mainly serves the front-line Chinese teachers, researchers, graduate students and undergraduates majoring in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages. This series consists of 39 volumes, including 4 outline series, 8 summary series, 26 book series, and 1 collection of essays.

Spoken Syllabus of Grammar in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language is the first spoken grammar syllabus in the Chinese as a Foreign Language academia in China. The syllabus consists of  an explanatory list of grammatical items, a list of grammatical function items and a framework for the list of grammatical items. A total of 837 grammatical items are included, each of which is graded according to the importance, difficulty and colloquialism. The syllabus pays attention to the ‘menu’ of grammatical items, highlighting the ‘grammatical’ focus and reflecting the practicality of real-life communication. At the same time, it is functionally oriented and emphasizes the importance of reflecting interactions in real scenes. Moreover, the syllabus can serve as a basis for the development of spoken language teaching materials, as well as a reference and guide for the teaching and learning of spoken Chinese grammar.

Zhang Wangxi, the editor-in-chief, has a PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Shanghai Normal University, and is a professor and doctoral supervisor at Beijing Language and Culture University. His research mainly focuses on modern Chinese grammar and teaching Chinese as a foreign language. He has published nearly 60 papers and more than 30 monographs, edited books and textbooks.

Tang Yili, the author, is a PhD in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Shanghai Normal University, and an Associate Professor at the School of Chinese Studies and Exchange, Shanghai International Studies University. Her research mainly focuses on modern Chinese grammar and international Chinese language education. Professor Tang has published more than thirty papers in core journals such as Chinese Teaching in the World, and has co-published one textbook and two monographs.

Zhu Jianjun, the author, is a PhD in Chinese Language and Literature from East China Normal University and a professor and deputy dean of the School of Chinese Studies and Exchange, Shanghai International Studies University. His research mainly focuses on philology and international Chinese language education. Professor Zhu has published more than thirty papers in core journals such as Journal of East China Normal University and The Study of Chinese Characters, and has co-authored two monographs.

As a spoken grammar syllabus, it fills the gap of this field. The most influential grammar syllabuses used in examinations and teaching in the Chinese as a foreign language academia are those for the general language, and there are no grammar syllabuses for the sub-languages so far. The development of Spoken Syllabus fills this gap, providing a basis for the preparation of spoken language teaching materials and a reference for the teaching of spoken language grammar.

This syllabus has a wide range of corpus sources and is scientifically organized. Based on the big data analysis of existing textbooks, reference books and dictionaries, syllabuses and grammatical works, the authors extract the typical and commonly used grammatical items in oral communication. Meanwhile, based on the annotation of grammatical items in existing literature, the grammatical items are divided into three categories in terms of the importance, difficulty and colloquialism,  each of which can be further divided into three relative categories.

This syllabus focuses on verbal interaction and is highly practical. Spoken Syllabus includes many high-frequency spoken language formats in verbal communication, and also attaches great importance to the expression of the tone of meaning, thus including the language forms that can best reflect the tone of spoken Chinese, in order to meet the spoken needs of the real society. The examples are concise, vivid and highly lifelike, and are “super useful” for oral expression and can be used directly by readers.

This book is recommended for frontline Chinese language teachers, researchers, graduate and undergraduate students majoring in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Language.