Based on a country-specific concept,Elementary Chinese for Burmese Studentsis designed for Burmese college students who are learning Chinese and other Burmese people who are taking optional Chinese programs. The aim is to develop the learners’ basic Chinese language and communication skills. The amount of contents of the texts matches the local educational system and length of classes in Burma; with the local Chinese teachers’ language level and teaching level taken into consideration, the book suits the current situation of Chinese teaching and learning in Burma.

The book is divided into two volumes, each with 12 lessons and 3 sets of unit exercises. The contents develop from daily communicative conversations to topic discussions, covering the majority of the Level 1 words in the Syllabus of Graded Chinese Vocabulary, a few Level 2 and Level 3 words, and a number of words related to Burmese culture; the focal grammar points can basically meet elementary Chinese learners’ needs in their everyday communication. Furthermore, the book has scientifically absorbed some of the important results in the comparative study of Chinese and Burmese, with all the directions and explanations in it, including the directions in the accompanying CD, provided in both Chinese and Burmese, in order to suit the Chinese teaching in Burma and highlight the country-specific feature.

This is Book 2, which comes with an MP3 CD and an exercise book of Chinese characters.

Zheng Tongtao, the chief author of this book, is a doctoral supervisor holding double doctorate degrees, an Australian Chinese who has returned to China, a renowned linguist, an expert in computer science, and the dean of the Overseas Education College and the International College of Xiamen University.

 

Among the other authors, Doctor He Shanyan is an associate professor and a tutor of postgraduate International Chinese Education majors, who now works in the Teaching & Research Office of the School of Liberal Arts, Guangxi University for Nationalities, engaging in the teaching and research of Chinese as a foreign language. Ms. He’s research focuses on Chinese Teaching in Southeast Asia, textbook design, and discourse analysis.