An Elementary Chinese Reader is designed for advanced beginners of the Chinese language, especially college-level students. It can also be used by students without a Chinese background, as a supplementary reader after they have studied Chinese for at least one year. This book can be used both inside and outside the classroom, either as a textbook for a regular course, or as a supplementary or self-study reader. When I began to teach “advanced Beginner” elementary Chinese at Columbia University in 1999, I found that this group of students is different from the very beginners of the Chinese language. They need a course designed especially for them to improve their reading and writing skills and at the same time to better their listening and speaking abilities. This also requires a different pedagogy and an appropriate textbook. However, for various reasons, textbooks for “advanced beginners” of Chinese are still very limited. Therefore, designing a practical textbook for “advanced beginners” of Chinese is a task in need.
To meet this need, I have written the textbook of An Elementary Chinese Reader, at Columbia University in New York. My aim in writing this textbook is to provide reading materials for advanced learners.
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