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International Center for the Studies of Chinese as a Foreign Language (ICSCFL)

Director of ICSCFL

Ke Chuanren

Associate Director of ICSCFL

Helen Shen

Executive Committee of ICSCFL

Ke Chuanren, Chair
Michael Everson, Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition of Chinese, UI College of Education
Helen Shen, Assistant Professor of Second Language Acquisition of Chinese, UI Graduate College
Kathy Heilenman, Associate Professor of Second Language Acquisition and Co-Director of UI Ph.D. Program in Second
Language Acquisition/FLARE, UI Graduate College

Mission

With the number of students enrolling in Chinese language classes worldwide growing exponentially and with the anticipated sustained growth in the decades to come, the field of teaching Chinese as second/foreign language is faced with two fundamental challenges. The first challenge comes from the need to transform a field that has been predominantly experienced-based into a discipline whose instructional practice will be theory and research based. The second challenge lies in the need to train CFL teachers of the 21st century to meet the growing instructional demand. To deal with these two challenges research and theory development is the key. Knowledge generated from our concerted research efforts will guide our instructional practice and can facilitate our students’ learning process. This knowledge base will also be a crucial component in our teacher development program.

The International Center for the Studies of Chinese as a Foreign Language together with the Journal of Chinese Applied Linguistics play a leadership role and serve as a platform for our international CFL research and teacher development efforts. The University of Iowa has a critical mass of top-notch scholars in research in second language acquisition of Chinese and Chinese language pedagogy. The University of Iowa offers MA degree in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and Ph.D. degree in Second Language Acquisition with concentration in Chinese as a foreign language. UI is one of a handful institutes with a Chinese teacher certification program for K-12. UI offers MAT and undergraduate or certification-only (PDF) certificates in teaching Chinese as a foreign language for K-12. The State of Iowa has agreements with Illinois, Michigan, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Certifications received at The State of Iowa are recognized in those states.

ICSCFL and JCAL will play a leadership role in research on the learning and teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language and will serve as a platform for coordinating international efforts on major CFL research projects. Our CFL research has a reference to a language learning framework and is consequently relevant to solving problems that hinder the progress of Chinese language learning. Our research projects are prioritized based on the goals of the field. Specifically, the missions of ICSCFL and JCAL will include, not limited to, the following:

  • Play a leadership role in Chinese language teacher development. Concerted efforts are made to provide degree and non-degree certification, pre-service and in-service Chinese language teacher training during the regular academic year as well as summer programs.
  • Play a leadership role on research in the learning and teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language (CFL) in the international arena by undertaking major research projects for the field and by holding periodic international symposiums for CFL researchers worldwide to share their research findings and to promote theoretical framework development for CFL learning and teaching.
  • Identify and formulate an array of purposeful and prioritized research projects that will have the most effect on CFL study. It is important to focus on research efforts that can be sustained and knowledge of which can be accumulated and its usability can be optimized.
  • Build on the strengths of CFL researchers in the world and improve the status of CFL research vigor in terms of choosing research methods appropriate to the research task.
  • Play a leadership role in Chinese language teacher development. Concerted efforts are made to provide degree and non-degree certification, pre-service and in-service Chinese language teacher training during the regular academic year as well as summer programs.
  • Play an active role in CFL teacher development by conducting periodic international workshops on curriculum development, classroom methodology, assessment, instructional materials development, and technological application to CFL learning and teaching. Contents of the teacher training workshops should be theoretically grounded.
  • Train SLA Chinese researchers of the 21st century, including Ph.D. students and post-doc fellows from China, either degree- or non-degree-oriented students, through joint-training with universities in mainland China and Taiwan.
  • Use Journal of Chinese Applied Linguistics as an academic platform for CFL teachers and scholars worldwide to publish their CFL research works and theoretical frameworks, as well as to communicate and share their academic practice and ideas.