Abstract: The competency of "thinking development and improvement" is one of the important components of the key competencies of Chinese Language (CL) subject. In order to evaluate students' thinking competency effectively, this paper constructs a thinking competency evaluation model that includes four key elements: 1) generating diverse and reasonable ideas; 2) making accurate and effective reasoning; 3) forming one's own opinion; and 4) self-reflecting and improving learning results. This paper then develops an independent thinking competence evaluation tool, and tests 1,283 11th grade students. According to the results of data analysis, the performance of students' CL thinking competency can be divided into several levels. It was found that the elements involved are highly correlated, and the gender difference of the students is significant. Facing the future development of students, it is necessary that CL teaching give the training of CL thinking competency a high degree of attention.

Keywords: CL subject in senior middle schools, thinking development and improvement, CL thinking competency, key competencies, evaluation

Abstract: Cultural responsiveness refers to the understanding of the cultures of different ethnicities in education. As a result, educators teach Chinese and local new cultures as well as building students' knowledge by making use of their own culture and experiences. There were 20 participating kindergartens in this project. Students' language proficiencies were tested using a language assessment tool. Multiple case studies, in-depth observation, video recording, interviews with principals and teachers were conducted. Research findings revealed significant improvement of students' language proficiencies. There were four major patterns of culturally responsive pedagogies, namely cultural induction, cultural exchange, cultural awareness, and application of cultural responsive pedagogy to be used when there are different learning needs.

Keywords: cultural responsiveness, teaching and learning of Chinese language, ethnic minorities, cultural exchange and awareness, pre-school education

Abstract: "Liushu" was a subject for elementary school study in ancient China. "Liushu" theory involves the research on the origin of the forms and structure of Chinese characters etc., which constitutes the teaching system for fundamental Chinese characters study. The significance of "Liushu" lies more in teaching practice than in theory. Based on the online questionnaire "Survey on Teaching Chinese Characters" responded by Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL), the paper utilises the theories of "Liushu", summarises the methods and existing situation of characters teaching in International Chinese Education and explains the issues occurred during teaching. The ultimate goals are to seek suitable educational models for Chinese characters teaching and apply it to International Chinese Education.

Keywords: "Liushu" theory, International Chinese Education, Chinese character

Abstract: In order to understand the current situation of Chinese students' reading competence and improve students' reading comprehension, this study researched 56796 fourth grade students from 283 primary schools in Mainland China through the quantitative method. Firstly, this study discussed the reading engagement of Chinese fourth grade students and reading instruction of Chinese languages teachers in the natural state. Secondly, this study analysed the effects of school-level reading instruction and students-level reading engagement on reading comprehension through a hierarchical linear model. The results showed that: (1) Chinese fourth grade students have a high level of reading engagement, but there are obvious group differences; (2) Chinese language teachers prefer choosing stimulating tasks rather than rote tasks in reading classroom, but the text-centered teaching approach is still common for Chinese language teachers; (3) Reading engagement and reading instruction have positive effects on students' reading comprehension. And there is an interactive effect of emotional engagement and reading instruction on reading comprehension. For students with low emotional engagement, the higher frequency of reading instruction, the greater positive effect of emotional engagement on reading ability.

Keywords: reading engagement, reading instruction, reading comprehension, empirical study