New Practical Chinese Reader is a series of Chinese textbooks compiled for the purpose of teaching Chinese to native English speakers or those who use English as their principal second language. It aims to develop the learner's communicative ability in Chinese by learning language structures, functions and related cultural knowledge as well as by training their listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. The series consists of seventy lessons in six volumes. The first four volumes, consisting of fifty lessons, are for beginners and pre-intermediate level learners. The last two contain twenty lessons for learners at an intermediate level. This set of textbooks is designed for overseas students who either take Chinese as an elective or major in the language for a period of three years, studying about one lesson a week, or one volume a semester. It can also be used by autonomous learners. Each volume comes equipped with a workbook, an instructor's manual, audiotapes, CDs and a DVD.
Liu Xun is a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, part-time professor at China People's University and Beijing University of Foreign Languages, member of the Hanban Expert Advisory Committee for Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, board member of World Chinese Teaching Association and consultant of Chinese teaching for the New York State Department of Education. His research focuses on Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Second Language Acquisition, teaching material development, teachers'training, etc. He once assumed the main responsibility in the design of the first set of HSK. He has compiled and co-compiled TCFL textbooks such as Practical Chinese Reader (1-4), Chinese Textbook for Children, Elementary Chinese, One Hundred Lessons on Communicative Chinese, etc, and has published monographs such as Introduction to Chinese as a Foreign Language Pedagogy, Introduction to Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, Brief Introduction to Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, An Overall View of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and a number of academic papers.