The 2nd edition of Easy Steps to Chinese is especially de-signed for non-Chinese background students, who are learning Chinese as a second/foreign language. The series can be used by secondary school students as well as fifth and sixth graders in primary schools.

This series will help students establish a solid foundation of Chinese in terms of characters, words, sentences and grammar through natural and gradual integration of language, themes and culture. The simultaneous development of listening, speak-ing, reading and writing is especially emphasized. The ultimate aim is to help students develop communication skills in Chinese in real-life situations and express their viewpoints appropriately, precisely, logically and coherently.

The series consists of seven books in three stages:

Stage 1 (Books 1, 2, 3): the focus of this stage is to establish a solid foundation through the learning of pinyin, characters, vocabulary and grammar. The aim is to help students foster an interest in learning Chinese and develop skills in using simple Chinese for communication.

Stage 2 (Books 4 and 5): the focus of this stage is to learn more vocabulary and grammar so that students are able to use the language functionally when communicating with people in real-life situations.

Stage 3 (Books 6 and 7): the focus of this stage is to provide students with authentic materials, and help them develop com-munication skills. It is believed that when the time comes, the students will be confident in expressing their viewpoints pre-cisely, appropriately, logically and coherently in both oral and written forms.