Teaching development grants final and financial report: Teaching and learning of Chinese philology: Research on evaluating Chinese major students' knowledge and competence of classical Chinese (Phase I)

In the 21st century tertiary education, Chinese programs often give not much emphasis on philological training. Students lack learning interests in classical Chinese, and the design and contents of classical Chinese courses seem less attractive compared with courses such as modern literature and cultural studies. Currently, to enrich the knowledge foundation of students and to broaden their horizons, Chinese programs offer a wide range of courses for students. However, the more courses are offered, the less likely students will enroll in classical Chinese courses. Classical Chinese texts have long been regarded as indispensable sources in understanding and examining our ancient culture. The capability to comprehend basic classical texts is considered one of the requirements for Chinese major students. In recent years, although secondary schools and universities have already put much effort into teaching classical Chinese, the competence levels of reading classical Chinese among Chinese major students are still deteriorating. By evaluating the Chinese programs offered by local universities, together with those offered by Mainland China and Taiwan, this project aims to provide suggestions and recommendations on the competence structures of classical Chinese for Chinese major students to design and develop a feasible and efficient classical Chinese benchmark test. To present the latest research findings and to seek advice and gather the latest outputs from overseas experts, the project team also plans to organize a workshop and 2 consultant meetings to address the issues in classical Chinese teaching and learning. The objectives of this project include the following: 1. Explore the reasonable level of classical Chinese language competence and knowledge a graduate of Chinese major should possess; 2. Study how to construct these language abilities and knowledge, from which we will deduce how courses should be structured to make the percentage of the classical Chinese courses more relevant; and 3. Construct the teaching and learning modes of classical Chinese language in the 21st century higher education.