Survey on Chinese Language
Courses at German
Universities
Andreas Guder
Hue San Do
Freie Universität Berlin
outline
1.General Information about Chinese courses at German
Universities
2.Chinese Language Courses Accredited to More Than One
Sixth of Total ECTS
3.Chinese Language Courses Accredited up to One Sixth of
Total ECTS Credits
4.Chinese Language Offered as a Non-accredited Course
5.Challenges when benchmarking Chinese and suggestions
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Courses Accredited to More Than One Sixth of Total ECTS
Germany (11), Austria (2), Switzerland (1)
Proportion of Chinese language language teaching
22% (FUB) – 50-60% (Vienna, Zurich, Bochum) ,
mainly between 30-40%
Number of students
600 (Vienna), mostly 50-120 students
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Courses Accredited to More Than One Sixth of Total ECTS
Germany (11), Austria (2), Switzerland (1)
Year 1
teaching units (tu)
16 tu (Zurich), mostly 8-12
course objectives/
syllabus related to CEFR
only University of Tübingen (12 tu x 28 weeks =
336 tu) and Zwickau University of Applied
Science (8 tu x 28 weeks = 224 tu), A1*
no. of 汉字
400-800, 1100 (Bochum)
no. of 词语
700-1500, 2000 (Tübingen)
*The Goethe Institute recommends 80 – 200 teaching units for A1 German
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Courses Accredited to More Than One Sixth of Total ECTS
Germany (11), Austria (2), Switzerland (1)
Year 2
teaching units (tu)
4-8 , 14 (Göttingen)
course objectives/syllabus only Tübingen (8 tu x 28 weeks= 224 tu)
related to CEFR
and Zwickau (6 tu x 14 + 8 tu x 14= 196 tu),
A2*
no. of 汉字
300-800, 1100 (Bochum)
no. of 词语
700-1500
*The Goethe Institute recommends 200 – 350 teaching units for A2 German
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Courses Accredited to More Than One Sixth of Total ECTS
Germany (11), Austria (2), Switzerland (1)
Year 3
teaching units (tu)
2-8, mainly 4, 14 (Göttingen),
year abroad
course objectives/syllabus only Tübingen and Zwickau B1
related to CEFR
And after returning from abroad B2
no. of 汉字
300-500, not specified
no. of 词语
1000, not specified
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Courses Accredited to Up to One Sixth of Total ECTS
Germany (5), Austria (1), Switzerland (1)
Year 1-2
teaching units (tu)
mainly sinology minor students taking the
course objectives/syllabus same classes as the majors without going
through year 3
related to CEFR
Except for Technical University of Dresden
no. of 汉字
and University of Applied Science in Austria
no. of 词语
(not linked to CEFR)
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Chinese Language Offered as a Non-accredited Course
Germany (2), Austria (2)
Year 1
no. of students
15 - 50
teaching units (tu)
2–4
course objectives/syllabus no (German), A1 (Austria): 3 tu x 30 weeks = 90
TU
related to CEFR
200 (Austria) - 400 (Munich)
no. of 汉字
no. of 词语
245 – 800
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Chinese Language Offered as a Non-accredited Course
Germany (2), Austria (2)
Year 2
teaching units (tu)
1–3
course objectives/syllabus only Austria A2: 3 tu x 30 weeks = 90 tu
related to CEFR
100-340
no. of 汉字
no. of 词语
150-480
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Necessary and helpful to link Chinese language
programme to CEFR?
yes
no
Chinese Language Courses Accredited to More
Than One Sixth of Total ECTS
8
6
Chinese Language Courses Accredited up to
One Sixth of Total ECTS
4
3
Chinese Language Offered as a Non-accredited
Course
3
1
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Major Challenges when Benchmarking Chinese?
„Chinese is too
different from
European languages
in general“
„Writing skill is a challenge because
of the writing system, difficulty of characters,
not comparable to writing
skill in other European languages“
„Chinese shouldn't be treated
As an exotic language“
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„Chinese character
teaching“
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Suggestions
writing skill should be taught and trained separately (extra class); the
amount of reading comprehension and writing characters should meet the
requirements of the specific field of study
writing system is major challenge; emphasis should be on skills (speaking,
listening, reading, writing), language performance doesn´t depend on
number of taught or learned characters, skills should be assessed
Chinese is a distant language for our target learners. Discrepancy between
oral and written competence. Separate character writing skills from skills of
expressing oneself in writing not using Chinese characters
Chinese characters: separate competence level according to character
writing skills, writing skills using Pinyin, spoken language skills
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谢谢大家!
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