Two BYU professors revamp traditional language textbooks to bring students from intermediate to advanced Chinese.
Language professors at BYU understand the value of an effective language textbook—after all, BYU wouldn’t be considered the language university without productive learning tools. Some Chinese professors, though, have noted a need for textbooks that more fully support the development of listening and speaking skills.
Hoping to fill this need, Teaching Professor ShuPei Wang (Chinese Media, Curriculum Design), Adjunct Professor Yina Patterson (Chinese Linguistics, Chinese Pedagogy), and University of Pennsylvania lecturer Qiang Zhang developed a two-volume textbook: 华闻视野 Developing Advanced Proficiency in Chinese through Modern Issues. They explain that unlike traditional textbooks, this series will help students develop advanced listening and speaking skills while improving both language and cultural literacy.
A New and Improved Chinese Textbook
Many Chinese professors have noticed their students struggle when transitioning from intermediate to advanced Chinese, in large part because of the difference in learning content between the courses. While mid-level classes discuss daily conversation topics, food, and culture, advanced courses dive deeper into modern-day topics and debates in China. Hoping to help students adjust, the three professors set to bridge the gap between the 200- and 300-level classes in their textbooks, which will be available November 2025.
Wang explains that these books help take students “step-by-step from travel and food to higher and more complicated topics.” And they believe their books do so more efficiently than other Chinese textbooks currently in use.
Patterson explains that in traditional textbooks, “each unit is introduced by reading passages, so you learn grammar and vocab first from a long reading passage.” She continues, “For our textbook, we introduce each unit with audiovisual content.” This comes in the form of short podcasts on modern topics such as music, sports, and housing in volume one to news videos about technology, green energy, nuclear weapons, and disease in volume two.
After listening to these podcasts and watching the news clips, students will use the textbook to complete a series of grammar and vocabulary practices, specifically those that invite students to express their own opinions. “One of the biggest characteristics of this textbook is that we include a lot of discussion questions,” Patterson explains. “Not just related to the text, but anything related to the topic.” Discussion prompts encourage students to develop their opinions on modern topics—and to express them in Mandarin.
Lifelong Pursuit of Language
Patterson believes the textbooks’ unique learning activities help fulfill the Chinese program’s overall goal of enhancing students’ linguistic and cultural literacy. She says, “I think it’s very important for students not just to learn the language but to learn about real world issues that are happening in modern China.”
If they can master listening skills, that will be really helpful for their long-term learning process.
Though these textbooks will help students transition into their upper-level courses, Wang believes the books have the potential to foster lifelong language study beyond the classroom. The key to maintaining language skills, she believes, rests in students’ abilities to comprehend and contribute to conversations on a variety of topics: “I think listening is probably the hardest part for students, but if they can master listening skills, that will be really helpful for their long-term learning process.”
Learn more about their newest volume here.