Localising Chinese - Educating Teachers through Service-Learning

This book presents innovative strategies for teaching the Chinese language to English-speaking students around the world, using in-depth research arising from a long-running and successful Chinese language teaching programme in Sydney. Throughout the book its authors emphasise the importance of teaching methods which explore the relevance of Chinese to all aspects of students' everyday lives; 'Localising Chinese' by folding it into students' everyday sociolinguistic activities performed in English. The research presented here demonstrates how, through school-driven, research-oriented service-learning, university graduates from China learnt to use student-centred learning-focused language education as a basis for professional learning. In the context of China's growing influence in the global academic community, this book addresses the urgent need to promote effective communication and partnerships. It provides a valuable resource for language teachers and teacher educators, as well as education researchers in the areas of international education, linguistics, the sociology of education and knowledge exchange.


Michael Singh is a professor in the Centre for Educational Research at Western Sydney University, Australia. His research focuses on post-monolingual education, translanguaging practices, the business of English-only medium instruction and research, internationalising doctoral pedagogy, and research-oriented work-integrated service-learning. His recently co-authored books include Pedagogies for Internationalising Research Education (2017), and Deschooling L'earning: Young Adults and the New Spirit of Capitalism (2014).
Thị Hồng Nhung Nguyễn is a researcher in the School of Education at Western Sydney University, Australia. Nguyen's research focuses on work-integrated learning, multilingual education, non-formal education and pedagogical frameworks. Her research has been published in Education Sciences, Modern University Education, and the edited collection Globalisation of Higher Education - Internationalised Education Research and Practice (2018).