The Integration of CEFR in Designing Chinese Teaching Materials for Local Resources

I. Organisation Background

The project Chinese Visual Learning (CVL): A Leadingedge Methodology for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) is a long-term Chinese language teaching programme developed as a joint partnership with Chinese Studies and Confucius Institute at University of Wales Trinity Saint David (CI-UWTSD)in collaboration with a panel of linguistic experts from SOAS, University of Westminster, Faculty of Education and Communities at UWTSD, and Canolfan Peniarth(UWTSD’s Welsh education resources publisher and leading course provider).

The CI-UWTSD is the doorway into China for local schools, university students, businesses and communities in Wales. Set up with the backing of the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2006, it is a major centre for Mandarin provision in Wales. With an of fi ce in Swansea of Wales and the HQ in Lampeter, the CI-UWTSD manages an ever-growing network of Confucius Classrooms and Associate Schools. There are currently four Confucius Classrooms and 10 Associate Schools managed by the CI. 2015 saw a significant increase in the number of pupils in primary and secondary schools who bene fi tted from regular weekly teaching of Chinese. Compared with 2014 when 664 pupils received regular weekly courses,this fi gure rose to 979 by the end of 2015.

Hanban, the Office of Chinese Language Council International, is a non-government and non-profit organisation af fi liated to China’s Ministry of Education.According to its mission statement, ‘Hanban is committed to developing Chinese language and culture teaching resources and making its services available worldwide, meeting the demands of overseas Chinese learners to the utmost degree, and to contributing to global cultural diversity and harmony’ (Hanban, 2015).The CVL project development phase and pilot phase have been granted fi nancial support from Hanban since 2015.

“⟸”:设F为X的非空可数既约闭集,即F∈csX,由η为双射,存在唯一x∈X使得F=η(x)={x}-,于是X为可数sober空间。

II. Setting the Stage

In the context of sweeping changes to the curriculum in Wales in response to the Donaldson report called Successful Futures: Independent Review of Curriculum and Assessment Arrangements in Wales (Donaldson,2015-2), and with the new Global Futures initiative from the government encouraging triple literacy in schools, CI-UWTSD needs to be ready to respond with a coherent, sustainable language programme.

In the report, Donaldson suggests the following principles of curriculum design:

· Authentic: rooted in Welsh values and culture and aligned with an agreed set of stated purpose

· Evidence-based: drawing on the best of existing practice within Wales and from elsewhere, and on sound research

二是虚假信息的泛滥。网络上充斥着大量虚假新闻、虚假事件以及损害他人利益、损害国家名誉等的不良信息，影响公众对舆论的判断力。一些违法分子甚至在网络上发布凭空捏造一些子虚乌有的事件，煽动公众情绪，尤其是煽动公众损害他人利益的信息、影响政府声誉的信息、甚至是危害国家安全的信息，对社会公共安全形成威胁。

· Responsive: relevant to the needs of today(individual, local and national) but also equipping all young people with the knowledge, skills and dispositions for future challenges as lifelong learners

· Inclusive: easily understood by all, encompassing an entitlement to high-quality education for every child and young person and taking account of their views in the context of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),and those of parents, carers and wider society

· Ambitious: embodying high expectations and setting no arti fi cial limits on achievement and challenge for each individual child and young person

· Empowering: developing competences which will allow young people to engage confidently with the challenges of their future lives

· Unified: enabling continuity and flow with components which combine and build progressively

在繁荣的景象下，酒店业对增长抱有乐观预期，在未来三年间，首尔计划新增1.5万间客房，韩国酒店业迎来历史性的高速发展期。然而，高收益预期必然伴随着高风险隐患。以首尔为例，到首尔旅游的韩国客人多数都有亲朋可投宿，因此旅游旺季时酒店入住率的大幅增长主要受益于国外客人，而游客量的过半由中国和日本贡献，韩国的酒店业过于依赖中国和日本市场。一旦三国关系有风吹草动，都会对韩国酒店业造成冲击。

· Engaging: encouraging enjoyment from learning and satisfaction in mastering challenging subject matter

The section entitled the Stage Profile (reverse of the A3 Presenter) needs special attention. This particular section responds to the Welsh government report on the curriculum and assessment. The report emphasises the need to address problematic issues of globalisation,employment, society, resources and education in the classroom. The report particularly highlights that teaching practice should take into account ‘opportunities to apply learning more holistically in “real life”situations, or to use that learning creatively to address issues that cross subject boundaries’.

· Manageable: recognising the implications for and supported by appropriate assessment and accountability arrangements. (Donaldson, 2015-2)From the experience of the past 10 years, the Confucius Institute has noted that there are a number of areas of weakness in delivering Chinese language courses. These may be summarised as follows:

· Continuity of Chinese language provision.Teachers provided by Hanban can only offer a short two-year contract in schools. Schools suffer disruption in teaching Chinese after the departure of the language teacher and before the new arrives. This results that schools are reluctant to embark on long term progression of Chinese.Although this is beginning to change with the new visa regulations allowing up to four years’stay in the UK, not all teachers are willing to be away from family and work in China for such a long time.

· There are cultural differences in teaching styles and methodologies. Hanban teachers are not familiar with classroom management techniques and pupil expectations. Inevitably they are not familiar with UK accreditation. There is a mismatch between the needs of the schools and ability of Hanban teachers to meet these needs, despite their good will and enthusiasm.Consequently the standard of delivery and content of Chinese in different schools is patchy.

· There is no single methodology used across all the Confucius Classrooms and Associate Schools.Different Hanban teachers all tend to conduct the class with their own teaching pedagogy and methodology. This brings difficulties for the CI in trying to establish standards across the schools,and there is no clear language framework which allows schools to compare or compete with the others. (Source: The Proposal of CVL Project)

In order to respond to these issues, CI-UWTSD has developed the leading-edge CVL teaching methodology and TCFL teacher training programme. The pedagogical approach is backed up by research and has been designed and developed by the authors of this paper from Chinese Studies at UWTSD.

· The Stage Pro fi le: contains the criteria for pupils developing not only language skills but also other relevant skills targeted in the British education curriculum.

从试评价结果的分析看，一是选用的8项评价指标还值得进一步斟酌和优化。因为我国幅员辽阔，各省区的自然地理条件，生态环境差异较大，有的指标可能对一些省区欠公平。二是对子系统（A）、（B）、（C）应赋予合适的权重，弱化子系统（A）得分对区域水资源综合评价得分的影响。

The CVL project presents the opportunity to create a stable, continuous and sustainable learning environment for Chinese in Wales starting with pupils at Key Stage 2 (KS2). The key to the success of the project is the training programme for both Hanban teachers, and Welsh teachers who have no prior knowledge of Chinese. It is only by creating a cohort of home-trained teachers of Chinese that the CI can guarantee to reach the maximum number of pupils and ensure the Chinese curriculum meets the requirements of the government. Nevertheless, this programme still relies on Hanban teachers who will play a vital role in ensuring the quality of speaking and providing a real life Chinese practice environment.

第一伤害视力。因为用手机上网时间过长，手机离眼睛太近，导致眼睛过度疲劳，视力急速下降，轻者近视，重者失明。现在中国的中小学生近视人数逐年增加，可能再过二三十年，视力能达到兵检要求的人少之又少了。

There are three phases to designing the CVL teaching materials targeted at KS2 pupils, and the development of the CVL Welsh teacher training programme.

1. 2015-2016: creation of the panel of Chinese and Welsh language and education experts;preparation of CVL teaching materials targeted at KS2 pupils, and the development of the CVL Welsh teacher training programme.

2. 2016-2017: the CVL teacher training programme takes place; the CVL methodology is piloted in a small number of schools; CVL teaching resources are tested and feedback noted.

【实验装置制作过程】1.如图2，在一个橡胶塞上用打孔器打两个孔，一个用来安装自行车轮胎充气阀，另一个用来安装电子数显温度计。

3. 2017-2018: The re fi ned CVL teaching resources are published in Welsh and English language versions. Additional schools are invited to participate via the CVL teacher training programme and apply the CVL teaching methodology in class. The related workshop,conference, and publicity will continuously enhance the development of this programme.

III. Case Description

This paper focuses on the initial stage beginning with the development of Welsh and English language versions of the CVL teaching materials for classroom resources. Three main sections are highlighted:

3.1　CVL Methodology

The development of visual technologies in the 21st century has saturated modern life with more accessible images and visual practices. This new media environment challenges the traditional approach of accessing to information as well as the learning styles of our students. A number of facts demonstrate this shift in learning styles and the salient features of visual learning. For example, approximately 65% of population are visual learners (Mind Tools Ltd., 1998);90% of information that comes to the brain is visual(Hyerle, 2000); visual aids in the classroom improve learning by up to 400% (3M Corporation, 2001); and‘1/10 of a second is all it takes […] to understand a visual scene’ (Maskeroni, 2015). These facts and fi gures call for teachers to reconsider their teaching pedagogy and recognise this changing learning style among students.

In order to react to this shift in learning styles, CVL as discussed in this paper offers a model for visual coding which stresses the application of colours and shapes in Chinese grammar teaching. The theoretical framework behind this model is a multimodal study of Fleming’s VAK model, the Textual Input Enhancement (TIE) method and the unique features of Chinese lexical and syntactic structure. The CVL model is the main methodology applied in the design of teaching materials for Welsh local resources.Moreover, the project team believes that the visual nature of CVL model can also be applied into other linguistic media as it does not require the language scaffolding of the L1 of learners.Whereas CVL teaching materials use visual symbols to convey the grammatical function of words, the principle of colour coding has been applied to the teaching and learning of tones (Dummitt, 2008) and to radicals of Chinese characters. Both of these, however,have been adopted by teachers and learners over the years though different colours may be preferred by different users. The following is one example to teach and learn the tones of Chinese pinyin.

  

Note: The colour-coded tones from the left to right in the diagram above are highlighted in the colour of red,yellow, green and blue respectively.

Similarly, some meaning-carrying or semantic components of characters, usually known as radicals,such as 女 in 妈妈 , 姐姐 and 妹妹 can be highlighted in colours. For example, 18 commonly used radicals possibly can be identi fi ed through colours, as follows.

 

These radicals are all found in Level 1 vocabulary of YCT. There are more radicals in the vocabulary in KS2 materials but only 18 will be highlighted. More could be introduced in later grades to ensure a gentle and manageable expansion. At this initial stage, it is the concept of components of the characters that is introduced and explained.

彼时，他正在山东忙于工作，谈及获奖，淡淡一笑，谦逊道：“我们正是赶上了好时代，好政策，加上自身的努力，才能有一点成绩。”

The CVL methodology, however, starts by identifying word classes coded with different corresponding colours and shapes. Fundamental to the structure of Chinese grammar are the dual concepts of shici and xuci (‘full’and ‘empty’ words) which in CVL are conveyed through the aid of colour-coding. Nouns and pronouns appear in black font within a blue shape, indicating that they belong to the shici classification. Verbs appear in black font within a red shape, and adjectives follow suit appearing in a green shape. Words falling into the xuci classification are not highlighted in colour, but appear in black font within an empty shape outlined in black. The reason for doing this is that shici words in Chinese are considered to be words which carry substance and meaning, while xuci words are regarded as functional or logical words that provide syntactic connections. By colour coding the basic structures of the Chinese language, learners can immediately identify the underlying linguistic patterns and go on to establish their own semantic net, which can be best described as a system of nodes that are hierarchically and linguistically interconnected.

Moving on from colour coding word classes, the use of different shapes visually develops the next syntactic stage. For example, a blue circle indicates a pronoun phrase, while a red rectangle indicates an action verb phrase. The triangle presents a preposition phrase.Thus, learners are able to instantly and visually identify the syntactic structure of a sentence. This is applied primarily to the target language – Chinese, but can also be applied to the native language of the learner for the purposes of comparison.

 

Table 1　Shape and Colour Coded Parsing in Chinese Syntax in Contrast to English

  

English Syntactic Pattern　Chinese Syntactic Pattern I am studying in Beijing.　我在北京学习。Welsh Syntactic Pattern Rwy’n astudio yn Beijing.Note: According to the CVL coding system, the shapes of circle and rectangle are highlighted in the colours of blue and red respectively, while the shape of triangle is in the colour of white.

In Table 1, the sample sentence is ‘I am studying in Beijing’ in English; and ‘Rwy’n astudio yn Beijing’in Welsh. In this particular sample, the syntactic patterns in both languages are identical, that is, a pronoun (blue circle) takes an action verb phrase (red rectangle) followed by a preposition phrase indicating location (white triangle). However, the syntactic order is changed when the same meaning is expressed in Chinese, as ‘我在北京学习 (w6 z3i B0ijng xu 9x!)’.

The grammatical pattern is visually demonstrated as: a pronoun (blue circle), which is followed by a preposition phrase indicating location (white triangle), takes an action verb phrase (red rectangle) at the end. In this case,the learners see the grammatical pattern in either English or Welsh is different from Chinese, as the preposition phrase is located after subject and before verb predicate.This combination of visual assistance of colours and shapes is more straightforward to access by learners, and accelerates their learning speed.

This visual input enhancement is embedded and delivered with deductive grammar exercises (learners are given the rule and asked to apply it) and inductive exercises (learners recognise the rule and then practise it). Trained through this coding approach, students are seen to acquire the knowledge of underlying abstract rules, which in turn allows them to understand and create new utterances.

笔者在高一第一学期首先对学生进行各种摸底考查，目的是了解学生对初中英语的掌握程度，看是否有该会未会、该记未记的东西，以便有的放矢地进行“填平补齐”的教学工作。在考查中发现有些学生对音素和读音规则掌握得不好，语音、语调有待改进，词汇也遗忘了许多，语法仍比较模糊。

CVL methodology considers language as a product of rule formation. Firstly, this model establishes the basic logic patterns of Chinese grammar and syntax visually without the need to map these onto English or Welsh grammatical or any prior linguistic knowledge terms. It enables learners to ‘use their own thinking processes,or cognition, to discover the rules of the language they are acquiring’ (Larsen-Freeman & Anderson, 2015),and to gain ground rapidly through the use of colour and shape coding. Secondly, learners using this method(with the assistance of colours and shapes) can quickly break down a Chinese sentence into its essential logic components in order to read, understand and enhance their own linguistic performance. This ability is the result of a sense of form classes and their distribution – items with the same distribution are placed in the same form class.

Through the previous research, the great potential of CVL approach has been seen in an early years environment where it highlights new patterns of meaning formation which young pupils adopt with great ease. To offer this alternative cognitive coding approach in Chinese language learning thus accelerates the learner’s reading comprehension and writing skills in beginner-level Chinese.

3.2　Sample Studies of CVL Teaching Materials for Key Stage 2 (KS2)

Based on the previous research, the CVL project will target groups of KS2 (years 3-4, ages around 7-9) in a pilot programme. In responding to the specific ages and their generic learning nature of this target group,this project takes into consideration the cognitive development of these students at the earliest stage of L2 learning. The CVL teaching material is specifically designed for the classroom environment. Furthermore,the teaching materials are designed for Chinese language and culture courses delivered by primary school teachers who have no prior knowledge of the Chinese language.This section uses CVL teaching materials at KS2(thereafter, KS2 CVL course) as a sample in order to demonstrate how this CVL project works through the relevant sectors of syllabus design, the macro package of the CVL teaching materials, the micro structures of each lesson, the embedded CVL methodology, and the stage pro fi le embedded in the curriculum of British school.

· Questions for Exercise: enables development from each one of the sections in Classroom Instruction. A group of exercises reinforces the communication skills of students.

The YCT (Youth Chinese Test) was launched by Hanban‘in an effort to encourage foreign young students to learn Chinese and improve their Chinese language pro fi ciency’ (Hanban, 2016). This test is developed from different disciplines such as Chinese language teaching,linguistics, psychology and educational measurement to work on the programme pro fi le taking into account the latest trends in overseas Chinese language teaching and learning.

GCSE (General Certi fi cate of Secondary Education) is a national, compulsory quali fi cation in the UK in speci fi ed subjects for 16-year-old schoolchildren before they leave secondary school. With variations for different subject areas, students complete a series of coursework assignments over the two years and then take a final examination at the end of the learning period.

Firstly, the KS2 CVL course is mindful of progression towards GCSE level and takes on board the final outcomes required by the GCSE. The KS2 CVL course has integrated YCT and GCSE components in order to deliver appropriate teaching materials particularly for primary school teachers, teaching Chinese specifically based on the Welsh educational requirement, but hopefully could be equally transferable to the broader UK environment. For example, the current KS2 CVL course syllabus is referenced to Level 1 of YCT.That means there are 83 words accompanied by 10 grammatical items and nine functions of communicative competency.1 However, with regard to the sustainability of acquiring L2 (Chinese language in this case), we take into account the different approaches to teaching and learning and target language performances from the perspective of Chinese teaching strategies in contrast to the education strategies in the UK. Thus, the CVL course has fully taken into consideration the teaching and learning strategies required ultimately by the GCSE language quali fi cation in the structuring of lessons. For example, the visible features of Edexcel GCSE detected are that the GCSE course is structured according to themes and topic areas (seen in Table 2).

Table 2 demonstrates a very different approach to teaching and learning Chinese in the UK. In order to comply with this difference, the CVL course structures the lesson under the theme and topic guidelines of the GCSE qualification, which is to appropriately use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support modern foreign language learning.

For this reason the KS2 CVL course has been divided into 10 topics. In each topic, a grammatical point is covered, which will be further reinforced in later lessons. The 10 topics are in Table 3.

The grammar items covered in Table 3 are identical to the grammatical functions required by YCT (Level 1) and cover the same vocabulary of 83 words.In contrast to the syllabus of YCT, the teaching and learning content of CVL teaching materials is organised through topics that mirror the topic areas of GCSE. For example, the topics of My Family, In the Kitchen, and My Pets in KS2 CVL course contain essential reference to topic areas such as Personal Information (Family and Friends, Healthy Eating and Lifestyle) recommended in GCSE.

The integration of YCT and GCSE in the CVL syllabus design draws on benchmarks from both Chinese and British course regulators. This is not a compromise but to serve the best interests of pupils to prepare them for the national and global challenges of Chinese language learning.b The Design of KS2 CVL Course Package

 

Table 2　The Coverage of Themes and Topic Areas in Edexcel GCSE

  

Themes　Topic Areas· Media and culture Music/ fi lm/reading Fashion/celebrities/religion Blogs/Internet· Sport and leisure Hobbies/interests Sporting events Lifestyle choices· Travel and tourism Holidays Accommodation Eating, food,drink· Business, work and employment Work experience/part-time jobs Product or service information· Out and about Visitor information Basic weather Local amenities Public transport Directions· Customer service and transactions Cafes and restaurants Shops Dealing with problems· Personal information General interests Leisure activates Family and friends Lifestyle (healthy eating and exercise)· Future plans, education and work Basic language of Internet Simple job advertisements Simple job applications and CV School and college Work and work experience

 

Table 3　The Coverage of Topics in KS2 CVL Course

  

Topics　New Grammar Items　Reinforcement Grammar Exercises· My Family　是sentence　----· Big and Small　Adjective Predicate with the word of 很· 是sentence· Life in School　Verbal Predicate　· 是sentence· Adjective Predicate with the word of 很· 1, 2, 3　Numbers　----

 

（续表）

  

Topics　New Grammar Items　Reinforcement Grammar Exercises· Shopping　Numeral measure words　· Verbal Predicate· Numbers· Telling the Time　Time　· Numbers· Hide and Seek　Location with the word 在　· Numeral measure words· 是sentence· Adjective Predicate with the word of 很· In the Kitchen　有sentence　· Numbers· Numeral measure words· 是sentence· Adjective Predicate with the word of 很· Location with the word 在· My Pets　Attributive Structure with the structural particle 的· Numbers· Numeral measure words· 是sentence· Location with the word 在· Hi and Bye　Greeting　Summary

As mentioned early in this paper, the KS2 CVL course is designed for use in a classroom environment. The teaching package therefore contains an A3 tabletop presenter, a key-ring style teacher in-classroom instruction book, and an A3 format general guidelines literacy and language pro fi ciency table.

The A3 table-top presenter is the main vehicle for classroom teaching, and includes 12 full coloured pages,presenting one topic per page with bright, visually attractive images. When the presenter is set up, it forms a triangular framework, and can be set up on a table.The front page is visible to pupils, while teachers can see the other side. The front page is full of images, with new words highlighted in their colours using the CVL colour coding scheme, and located at the top of the page. For example, the fi rst lesson topic is My Family.Eight new words, 爸爸 (Dylan), 妈妈 (Rhianna), 哥哥(Morgan), 姐姐 (Ceri), 我 , 弟弟 (Dai), 妹妹 (Nia), and the interrogative words谁 with pinyin written above,are located within the visually coded eight blue circles.The blue colour denotes the word class of noun and pronoun, further reinforced by the circle symbol. The rest of the page contains the image of a family: daddy and mummy with a little baby girl in her arms in the middle. In front of the figures of daddy and mummy stand my teenage brother, my teenage sister, I around 8 years of age, and my toddler brother. By the foot of my teenage brother sit two dogs, and in front of my toddler brother sits a cat. Behind the dogs, there is a bird in a cage, and there are three fi sh in a fi sh bowl on the right hand side of mummy. The choice of images (dogs, cat,bird and fi sh) is dictated by vocabulary requirements of YCT which supports the grammar of using numbers in a later lesson.

On both sides of first page, one grammatical point is presented in CVL mode (as seen below).

 

The basic structural 是sentence of is conveyed visually through the circle是 circle pattern. Without any complicated linguistic explanation, the multimodal symbol visually shows the formative grammar for identifying people in this lesson.

On the reverse side of the display the teacher sees an instruction page containing fi ve sections which are Front Slide, Glossary, Classroom Instruction, Questions for Exercise, and the Stage Pro fi le.

· Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity

在与客户谈生意时，凯迪拉克成了程晓信誉和实力的象征，尽管他并不是十分能说会道的人，但凯迪拉克却给他做了活广告，使他信心大增，业绩直线上升。

· Glossary: includes the new words marked according to the CVL colour coding.

· Classroom Instruction: gives clear instructions and step-by-step processes for the teacher to follow in class. This starts from memorising new words; encouraging students to absorb the grammatical pattern through the colour coded sentences; drilling exercises; questions for practicing; and other literacy, cultural and physical exercises.

a The Integration of YCT and GCSE in Mapping the Syllabus of CVL in Teaching Materials

Chinese Studies at UWTSD have for the last three years been carrying out research into visual learning methods for teaching Chinese and testing the approach in a small number of primary and secondary schools, as well as among UWTSD Chinese Studies students. As a result of this initial work, Chinese Visual Learning (CVL)teaching methodology has been developed, which makes the language highly accessible not only to learners at all levels (from KS2 through to University level students),but also, potentially, to teachers in schools who have no prior knowledge of Chinese and who wish to teach the subject. Through this sound research it is clear that the approach favours pupils with learning difficulties such as dyslexia as well as visual learners with no learning dif fi culties.

The design of the teaching materials as explained above is for the use of classroom teaching and practice. A clear structure and comprehensive package of lesson reduces the workload of teachers who are non-native Chinese speakers for preparing the lessons in advance. That the teacher is fully supported by the information contained on the reverse of the A3 presenter enables the teacher and pupils to learn together.

· Make distinct and strong contributions to developing the four purposes of the curriculum

· Based on subsidiarity: commanding the con fi dence of all, while encouraging appropriate ownership and decision making by those close to the teaching and learning process

The design of the CVL course content indeed aims to respond to the Successful Futures report. The chosen topics are closely linked to the experience of ‘real life’of young pupils. For example in KS2 CVL course, the lesson 1, 2, 3 is mapped onto the area of Numeracy, which is further expanded into the area of literacy in Telling the Time. Furthermore, the Stage Profile section has been planned to meet the suggestions from the report.

In the report, Welsh government stresses four actions in areas of learning and experience, which include Expressive Arts, Humanities, Mathematics and Numeracy,Health and Well-being, Languages, Literacy and Communication, and Science and Technology. The four actions which are in need of consideration are as follows:

c Introducing Features of the Welsh Government Report Successful Futures into the Design of the Stage Pro fi le

· Should be internally coherent

· Employ distinctive ways of thinking

初始时刻,直流端接入5 V低压直流电,S1和S2开通,简化的等效电路如图5(a)所示。此时A相与C相同时开通,状态方程为

· Have an identifiable core of disciplinary and instrumental knowledge (Donaldson, 2016-8-1)

“一带一路”是我国“21世纪海上丝绸之路”与“丝绸之路经济带”全面建设的简称，是由习近平总书记在2013年9月所提出国际合作倡议。 “一带一路”的总体规划是加强我国与周边国家经济联系，与沿线国家共建利益同盟，形成双多边机制的全新形式。借以古代丝绸之路的历史符号，秉承经济融合、政治互信、文化包容的态度，与沿线国家创建合作关系，促进责任共同体、命运共同体、利益共同体的全新发展格局。

Thus, the Stage Profile avoids only focusing on learning Chinese as a foreign language in isolation. The design makes a ‘distinct and strong contribution’ to developing other learning areas. In the fi rst lesson titled My Family in KS2 CVL course, three distinct areas are internally coherent with the school curriculum. The learning content in this lesson impacts on three areas of experience below:

· Language, Literacy and Communication

成人、青少年及18个月龄以上儿童，符合下列一项者即可诊断HIV感染：（1）HIV抗体筛查试验阳性和HIV补充试验阳性（抗体补充试验阳性或核酸定性检测阳性或核酸定量大于5 000拷贝/mL）；（2）HIV分离试验阳性。

· Front Slide: contains new vocabulary, a detailed description of the image, and the CVL grammatical patterns.

· Physical Development

In the Personal and Social Development, Well-being and Cultural Diversity sections, for example, pupils are presented with a simple family structure and the idea of family and home. They are able to begin communicating with others through introducing their family, and understanding that other family structures might be different from theirs. Students are encouraged to embrace the well-being of respect and love in the family. Last but not least, the cultural diversity dictates the different living style in other cultures. Pupils also need to know that there are common things shared in different cultures, such as love and respect, etc.

其次，国家审计人员应转变传统的思维定势，在实施审计时，不能就事论事，而是应通过审计发现潜在的风险因素，保持合理的职业谨慎，进行理性的、科学的风险评估与应对，以便将危害国家经济安全的风险降低到可以接受的程度。

Although it might look like some areas in the Stage Profile take the emphasis away from Chinese language learning, it is necessary to secure the role of Chinese language learning within the wider curriculum, so that it is not treated as a single and isolated subject. The main purposes of the curriculum in Wales as identi fi ed by the Donaldson report are that children and young people develop as:

· Ambitious, capable learners: ready to learn throughout their lives.

· Ethical, informed citizens: ready to be citizens of Wales and the world.

· Healthy, con fi dent individuals: ready to lead ful fi lling lives as valued members of society. (Donaldson,2016-8-1)

The design of the Stage Profile thus promotes congruence with the national curriculum and encourages children to make connections across different aspects of their learning in school. Chinese language learning is thus integrated to re fl ect directly and promote the curriculum purposes as a whole.

3.3　Learning, Teaching and Assessment from the Perspective of CEFR

The design of KS2 CVL course is based on the careful consideration of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) and Youth Chinese Test (YCT), both of which will be fully discussed in this session.

At its inception, the CEFR was based on assessment of European languages in a European context. However,over the years, the CEFR has gradually included non-European languages (still in a European context, such as Chinese), and at the same time, its use has grown well beyond Europe (Byram & Parmenter, 2012). For example,Japanese language teaching worldwide as demonstrated by its dedicated development by the Japan Foundation. See also the overview of the CEFR in China (Zou, 2012) and in Japan (Sugitani & Tomita, 2012).

When adapting any non-European language to the CEFR, one of the first questions should be whether the CEFR is suitable for a non-European language, in particular, a language with very different script or writing system such as Chinese or Japanese. From a closer look at the CEFR descriptors for different levels of competence as well as its accompanying documentation,it is clear that the CEFR does not claim to be used exclusively for European languages. It emphasises the concept of ‘plurilingualism’ which is not quite the same as ‘multilingualism’. To quote from the CEFR document:

Plurilingualism differs from multilingualism, which is the knowledge of a number of languages, or the co-existence of different languages in a given society. Multilingualism may be attained by simply diversifying the languages on offer in a particular school or educational system, or by encouraging pupils to learn more than one foreign language, …(the CEFR, Page 4).

This description applies perfectly to the CVL project in the Welsh context.

It is debatable whether the six levels of the CEFR can be readily applied to all non-European languages.The starting point, however, has to be an accurate and sensible understanding of the levels as prescribed by the CEFR. In other words, to simply classify a level of language competence, as people usually do,beginner’s level, or upper intermediate level, entails dif fi culties when comparing different language courses(e.g. a Japanese course vs. a German course) or even the across institutions (e.g. a Chinese course at a UK university and one at a Swiss university).

For clarity and convenience, the six levels of the CEFR are brie fl y given in Appendix 2 of this paper. This paper particularly considers the basic language competences at A1 and A2 in mapping the language pro fi ciency targeted in the CVL teaching materials (KS2).

 

Table 4 The Level of A1 and A2 in the CEFR

  

(Source: the CEFR, Page 24)

 

ser Basic U A2 Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g.very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.A1 Can understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases aimed at the satisfaction of needs of a concrete type. Can introduce him/herself and others and can ask and answer questions about personal details such as where he/she lives, people he/she knows and things he/she has. Can interact in a simple way provided the other person talks slowly and clearly and is prepared to help.

Furthermore, the CEFR offers much more detailed descriptors for different skills which will be presented later in this section in the context of Chinese language learning, teaching and assessment.

Apart from the fact that the CEFR was initially designed for European languages, it was also originally designed largely for adults, although Chapter 8 of the CEFR entitled ‘Linguistic diversi fi cation and the curriculum’does include sections where various curriculum scenarios and options in primary and secondary school context are described and discussed. Over the years, the CEFR has been gradually adopted for and adapted to the needs of young learners too. However, only the lower levels (i.e.A1 and A2) may be suitable for the cognitive maturity of younger pupils. It is important to note that it takes quite some time for young learners to even reach the full range of competence of A1. Therefore it is sensible to identify some learning objectives and outcomes and include them in a syllabus which may be lower than A1.The project of Assessment of young learner literacy linked to the CEFR (AYLLIT Project for short), for example, has correctly identified this need and comes with a pre-A1 level, called Approaching A1. For example, the description for writing competence at both A1 and Approaching A1 levels is as follows:

  

(Source: ATLLIT Project)

 

A1/A2 A1 Can adapt and build on a few learnt patterns to make a series of short and simple sentences. This may be a short description or set of related facts on a very familiar personal theme.Can use some words which may resemble L1, but on the whole the message is recognisable to a reader who does not know the L1. Spelling may be influenced by the sound of the word and mother tongue spelling conventions.Can write a small number of very familiar or copied words and phrases and very simple (pre-learnt)sentence patterns, usually in an easily recognisable way. The spelling often re fl ects the sound of the word and mother tongue spelling conventions.Approaching A1　Makes an attempt to write some words and phrases, but needs support or a model to do this correctly.

Like the initial stages of the CEFR development, the AYLLIT Project was also largely concerned with the non-mother tongue learning, teaching and assessment in the European context which predominantly involves different European languages. By looking at these proposed writing descriptors, one can see that it is very hard to apply this model to the learning and teaching of Chinese which is non-alphabet based.

What then should be included in content or ‘stuff’that the young learners learn when they start Chinese?Should young learners (pupils in the context of the CVL project) learn to hand-write Chinese characters? With the time span allocated to the learning period for Chinese,would it be sensible to engage young learners in learning to write the characters which may be extremely timeconsuming? If they ‘skip’ writing, do they miss out something very important and distinctive of the Chinese language?

These questions help us to look at the Chinese in a more considered way when developing the syllabus and teaching materials in relation to the CEFR. While each language may have its own distinctive features, it is generally the case that Chinese is very different from the European languages in several ways. Firstly, none of the European languages is a tonal language while Chinese, though not unique, is. Secondly, European languages are phonetic languages where the spelling represents or closely represents the pronunciation.This is not the case with Chinese. Chinese script is largely not phonetic, although its phonetic elements become clearer to intermediate learners. Beginners usually start by learning pinyin, the Romanised phonetic system for the pronunciation of the Chinese characters. Thirdly, the components of the Chinese script (whether simpli fi ed or traditional) are not always‘put together’ in a linear way as is the case in their European counterparts. All these, together with other cultural aspects, are likely to pose dif fi culty to learners,adults and children alike.

Interestingly, these three main features of Chinese, i.e.tones, separation of the script and its phonetic system,and varied combinations of script components that form its writing system, are not directly described in the CEFR can-do statements for language competence and performance which are commonly used to describe and/or assess learners’ level of achievement in the target language.In order to address these and other issues when applying the CEFR to the learning and teaching of Chinese, an EU-funded project entitled European Benchmarking Chinese Language (EBCL) was carried out between 2010 and 20122. Although the EBCL project has mainly produced benchmarking descriptions of competence for A1 and A2 based on the Chinese language learning and teaching,these descriptions are largely devised for adult learners.However, some of the recommendations with regard to the graphemic and orthographic control of Chinese, as well as to phonetic aspects, can be used for syllabus design for young learners such as the target group of the CVL project.Here are some examples with our modifications and additions applied to the KS2 CVL course:

 

 

With these skills and knowledge integrated into the syllabus,the CVL project will be able to prepare young learners for their further development if they continue to learn Chinese. This syllabus will make the progression from the‘Approaching A1’ to the actual A1 level, and then A2 level, in a gradual and manageable process.These skills and knowledge, all very basic, are not intrinsically linked with a particular level of competence.Instead, the exposure to them and their acquisition is and should be managed in a gradual and controlled way with young learners. The actual level-related descriptors are presented below. These descriptors are based on the work of the EBCL project.

Again, we have slightly modi fi ed them with the intention of adapting them to the needs of young learners taking part in the CVL project. The EBCL project, though aimed at adult learners, has adapted the CEFR to the learning and teaching of Chinese in a European context. The revised descriptors for A1 and A2 levels can serve as a useful guide for the development of corresponding descriptors for young learners. To illustrate this, some descriptors for A1 are quoted below.

 

 

There is no clear-cut dividing line between levels as language competence development is always an ongoing and dynamic process. The can-do statements do not claim to be linear in that one criterion has to be met before learners can be exposed to or taught the next one.The CVL project follows the principles of the CEFR and integrates learning, teaching and assessment into the learning process. It is the awareness of and exposure to linguistic and cultural differences between Chinese and Welsh/English languages and the learning experiences of the pupils that is at the heart of the CVL project and the development of CVL materials.

The future development, i.e. a fully- fl edged A1 and A2 set of descriptors suitable for young learners in the CVL project, would again draw from the benchmarking work by the EBCL project and the work of others in a similar field, in particular in other European countries (see Hasselgreen 2003-9-2).

IV. Conclusion

This paper has provided a case study of how the CVL project has tailored its teaching materials to meet the needs of primary school level pupils in Wales, and demonstrated how a coherent and sustainable Chinese language teaching and learning programme may be combined with continuing professional development,while meeting the rigours of the CEFR. In this way,this paper has presented detailed analyses of the CVL methodology, the rational for setting up this project and the learning, teaching and assessment from the perspective of the CEFR. There are four key areas where integration is highlighted:

· Integration of the language policies of Hanban and the Welsh government through CI-UWSTD.

· Integration of YCT and GCSE in the syllabus design.

· Integration of CVL methodology with sound research.

· Integration of assessment of teaching and learning with CEFR.

Furthermore, the CVL project is supported by a panel of Chinese linguistic experts and UWTSD’s staff with expertise in Welsh linguistics, education and teacher training. CVL teaching materials encourage coherence with other subjects within the broader Welsh curriculum.It balances consolidation and pace in learning.

Finally, the CVL team is a strong research group with the expertise from different sectors in Wales and England. Together, we are driven by the goal of designing CVL teaching materials, by taking into account one of Donaldson’s key recommendations:‘[d]on’t make the complex complicated – It’s the teaching that counts.’ (Donaldson, 2016-8-1)

Dr Luan Duo, FHEA, is a lecturer and Chinese language programme coordinator of Chinese Studies at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David. She has been teaching Chinese as a foreign language (TCFL) since 2003. Her current research lies in the pedagogy of TCFL,visual-coding in Chinese syntax learning, and reading in a second language.

Song Lianyi is principal teaching fellow in Chinese at the SOAS, University of London, and has been teaching Chinese in the UK for over 20 years. He obtained his PhD in foreign language teaching at University of London. He was chairman of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society (BCLTS) from 2002 to 2004. His research covers Chinese language pedagogy,language assessment, etc.

About the Authors

Notes

1 For the detail of the references of words, grammar and communicative functions, see Appendix 1 at the end of this paper.

2 The EBCL project refers to the project entitled European Benchmarking Chinese Language (2010-2012), which was funded by the Lifelong Learning Programme, European Commission. Grant number: 511644-LLP-1-2010-1-UK-KA2-KA2MP / 2010-4147.

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