Associate Professor of Chinese De Bao Xu published an article, "On Language Use in Teaching Classical Chinese in the CFL Context," in the Journal of Chinese Language Teachers Association, Volume 41:1, February, 2006.
His article discusses (1) the history, current situation, and practice of classical Chinese teaching in the CFL environment, (2) the relationship between instructional language and the learner's psychology, (3) the relationship between cassical Chinese and modern Chinese, (4) comparison of advantages and disadvantages of using English vs. using Chinese as the instructional language, (5) reasons why English and Chinese were both adopted as the instructional language, (6) the rise of using Chinese as the instructional language in teaching classical Chinese in recent years, and (7) learners' background and teaching goals and objectives as factors determining the instructional form and language.
His study tries to answer the long-standing question: which language - English or Chinese - should be used as the instructional language in teaching classical Chinese. The conclusion reached is that there is rationale for using both English and Chinese as the instructional language of classical Chinese, and therefore both of them will be used for a long time to come.
To answer this long-standing question, he divides classical Chinese courses into four types according to learners' background and teaching goals and objectives, and makes specific recommendations on each one's instructional language.
