ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a brief account of recent developments of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) teaching and learning in Asian countries with a particular focus on the school level. Drawing on statistics, it first sketches out the rapid growth of CSL education in schools where various types of CSL curricula are developed and provided to students who have different purposes and goals for learning Chinese as a second language. Following this, the chapter identifies challenges facing long-term and effective CSL education in most Asian schools, in particular the urgent need for new approaches to CSL teacher education to make the Chinese language more “learnable” to increasingly multilingual young learners in Asia. It ends with a brief discussion of important research agenda for CSL teacher education and suggestions to CSL curriculum development for Asian schools in order to provide enjoyable Chinese language learning experiences and achieve satisfactory learning outcomes.
