Using Confucius Institute at the University of Manchester as a case study, this essay examines the characteristics and demands of various Chinese language learners in Britain and pinpoints the problems in existing Chinese language textbooks. The authors argue that a truly localized textbook should take into account cultural and linguistic differences. Furthermore, they put forth specific suggestions for the formulation and development of Chinese language textbooks that are geared towards, respectively, adults and pre-college students.

Keywords: textbooks for teaching Chinese as a foreign language, user demands, textbook development, Confucius Institute

Data from both frequency analyses and language case studies reveal that the rules governing the intra-sentential co-reference of the pronouns ta（他） and ziji（自己） in Chinese are not as absolute or simple as what generative grammar has generalized, nor are they as trivial and complex as what cognitive grammar has generalized. In fact, there are two core factors which can impact the intra-sentential co-reference properties of the pronouns, namely the characteristics of the pronouns themselves and their reference points. On one hand, the characteristics of each pronoun determine its specific target of co-reference. On the other hand, its reference point determines the specific circumstances for the pronoun to realize its co-reference property.

Keywords: "ta（他）"，"ziji（自己）"，co-reference，reference point

Information in a narrow sense is a form of messages, resources or data. Writing can be viewed as an act of information processing, during which information is collected, utilized and processed for a specific purpose. The teaching of writing should therefore observe the procedure and principles of information processing and aim at the nurturing of students' information literacy. The present paper attempts to provide a solution to the typical problems in information processing found in secondary students' writings. It analyses the various processes in the different stages of students' writing, namely, information collection and storing in the pre-writing stage, information foregrounding, processing and expressing during writing, and feedback in the post-writing stage. It aims to come up with a fundamental approach to the teaching of writing and some practical methods to enhance students' information literacy.

Keywords: teaching of writing, information literacy, nurturing

Since the introduction of the new syllabus for Secondary Mother Tongue Language Curriculum by Ministry of Education in 2011, there has been a greater emphasis on oral proficiency. According to language acquisition theory in social constructivism, there is a strong correlation between the scenarios in learning environment and the content of learning. The authors have conducted an action research project which emphasized the use of authentic scenarios to engage learners based on the above theories. The aim was to explore ways to improve students' oral communication skills through the use of authentic scenarios, by applying Vygotsky's theory of zone of proximal development and communicative approach theories of Hymes and Halliday to support the classroom experiment. The research was carried out in 3 Secondary Three Express classes in 3 different Singapore Secondary schools for a period of two months. In this paper, we share our experience in using the theory of zone of proximal development to design effective authentic scenarios with a task-oriented approach to aid the teaching of oral communication skills.

Keywords: oral communication skills, task-oriented approach, zone of proximal development theory, communicative approach, pedagogical approach using authentic scenarios

Chinese as second language learners at the elementary level generally use the bottom-up processing model when listening in Chinese. However, due to insufficient linguistic knowledge of the L2, their decoding skills are non-automatic, and their information processing may thus be impaired. The top-down processing model could make up for such an insufficiency by activating the learners' prior knowledge. Two groups of learners were involved in our study. For the experimental group, two cognitive strategies, question preview and topic discussion, were applied in teaching. The controlled group underwent the traditional teaching method. The results show that the pre-listening activities used in the experimental group contributed to some extent to activate the top-down processing model and facilitate understanding. Though the results are not statistically significant, listening strategies relevant to the top-down processing model are still of value. Nevertheless, understanding contents without relying on context and prediction remains the ultimate objective of language learning. Therefore, the bottom-up processing model in listening comprehension should not be abandoned all together.

Keywords: cognitive strategy, top-down processing, teaching of listening, topic discussion, questions previewing

Readers in the twenty-first century need to quickly capture or grasp the main points of reading materials from huge amount of information available. It is our belief that keyword reading as a rolling reading strategy helps to enhance reading proficiency. In our study, we focused on "scan-sweeping" and "leap-seeking", the two most adopted techniques in keyword reading. Coupling with the keyword reading strategy, we also made use of the 5W1H keyword method and six-dimensional heart-shaped map method. A comparative analysis was made between different groups of students, who were grouped according to their backgrounds and performance levels. The results show that the effects of keyword reading strategy in reading speed and reading comprehension are obvious for both students learning Chinese as the first language and those as second language. The relation between reading speed and reading comprehension is non-linear. For second language students, keyword reading results in greater effects on their reading habits, comprehension and reading ability. The reading speed of students with better reading comprehension ability increases faster than other students.

Keywords: keyword reading, second language, reading ability, Chinese teaching, reading teaching