On July 5th and 6th we, at the Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University, were delighted to hold the European Chinese Language Teaching Conference at St Catherine’s College, which was hosted by Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban) and co-organised by ourselves, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press and Macmillan Education.

A total of 31 talks were given over the two days with over 100 delegates from different parts of the world. This year, we saw topics from CLT standards & curriculum, teaching pedagogy & classroom management, teaching resource development & application of new technology, to CLT for special purposes.

Among the delegates were teachers from other Confucius Institutes, and researchers and teachers from universities and secondary schools world-wide, from countries such as the UK, USA, China, Netherlands, Italy and Singapore, etc. The variety of talks, diverse teaching and research backgrounds and present delegates enabled European Chinese language teachers to gain a new and fresh perspective of CLT practices.

During the two day conferences, researchers, such as Dr. Boping Yuan of Cambridge University, presented a variety of cutting edge talks on topics such as Second Language Acquisition and oral Chinese assessment.  Teachers also contributed efficient practices on topics such as improving students reading ability and Chinese classroom management. The combination of academic and practical presentations not only gave teachers theoretical guidance but also very feasible and applicable practices for their own lessons.

Publishing was another distinctive feature of this conference with Macmillian Education and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press were in attendance as co-coordinators. As well-known publishers, they have produced a series of CLT text books, including Discover China, Reading China, and Everyday Chinese and presented advanced concepts in writing and textbook development.  Simon Greenall, OBE and consultant for Macmillian Education, discussed adopting communicative teaching pedagogy into Chinese textbook writing.  Professor Anqi Ding, an author on the Discover China series, from East China Normal University presented detailed theoretical ideas and techniques on textbook writing. This conference created a smooth channel between publishers and teachers, making it possible for the teaching and research concepts and practices to be quickly brought into publication.

Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University was established in October 2015, by Oxford Brookes University and Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press. As a young Confucius Institutes, we commit ourselves to integrating Chinese and UK publishing resources, building a platform for CLT publications and providing potential textbook writers with professional and continuous service.