Chinese Language and Culture College (CCLC) of Beijing Normal University was founded on the basis of “the Chinese as a Foreign Language Teaching Center” (1965—1996) and “the School of Chinese as a Second Language” (1996-2000). After a development of about half a century, CCLC has now become a national base for the teaching and research of Chinese as a second language and for the talents training of teaching Chinese to students of other languages.
The Dean of the College, Professor Xu Jialu, is a famous linguist, scholar of culture and social activist. Faculty at the College consists of 58 permanent members, including 10 professors, 24 associate professors, 19 lecturers and 5 administrative staff members. The College has 3 departments and 2 research offices for each, including the Pedagogy Office and the Cognition and Learning Office of the Chinese Teaching Department, the Chinese Culture Office and the Cultural Communication Office of the Cultural Communication Department, as well as the Phonetics and Grammar Office and the Character and Vocabulary Office of the Chinese Language Department. It has 5 research institutes including the Confucius Institute Development Strategy Institute, the International Chinese Education Faculty Training Institute, the Chinese Culture Overseas Transmission Institute, the Chinese Teaching for Overseas Adolescents and Children Institute and the Curriculum and Pedagogy Institute. Moreover, it has a research center for lexicography.
The College boasts a well-structured and effective teaching and management system. Its high-level faculty, fist-class teaching facilities and curriculum set-up, scientific teaching methods and great teaching results have been highly appreciated and recognized by both the academic world and the learners, which has become a world-renowned brand of BNU. Our undergraduate program for international students (i.e. BA in Chinese Language) offers three majors: Chinese Language and Culture, Business Chinese and Chinese Education. According to the evaluation conducted by the Degree Education Development Center of the Ministry of Education, this degree program has always been one of the top universities among all the 70 relevant universities in China.
The College offers MA and PhD programs in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics (specialized in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language, Lexicography, Chinese Information Processing and International Chinese Education), as well as a MA program in Chinese Philology. Over 350 master and PhD students from all over the world are currently studying here. Over the past 5 years, the College’s program in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics has consistently ranked among the nation’s top three, and its MA program in International Chinese Education has also been nationally recognized for its high quality. In 2006, the College was one of the four institutions in China approved by the Ministry of Education to pilot the offering of the Professional Master Degree in International Chinese Education. In 2009, it was rated as No.1 in the Hanban-conducted evaluation of all MA programs in International Chinese Education programs of 24 universities in China.
CCLC has not only shown notable characteristics in Chinese teaching and faculty training, but also made remarkable achievements in scientific research with the joint efforts of the 5 research institutes. Besides, it proactively takes the responsibility to provide social service, that is to offer all-around training to Chinese teachers and Chinese teaching volunteers both at home and from abroad. We have trained about 1000 Chinese teachers from all over the world every year since 1996. Moreover, our staff members go abroad to carry out the teacher training programs as well.
The College has formed long-term and close relationships with a number of overseas universities such as Princeton University, Dartmouth College, University of California, Oberlin College, Ohio State University, San Francisco State University, Iowa University, Minnesota State University, London University, Kanazawa University, Osaka University of Foreign Studies, Meikai University, Kanagawa University, Seoul National University, Sung Kyun Kwan University, The University of Melbourne, etc.
The College has established two collaborative Confucius Institutes with San Francisco State University (USA) and Manchester University (UK) respectively. In 2011, the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University was named an Outstanding Confucius Institute.
