Reading Chinese: engaging new audiences

这项名为“阅读中文：吸引新读者”的项目，源于我们之前由AHRC资助的关于新中文写作的研究，主要回应了教育部最近关于语言教学的指导方针所产生的迫切需求。这些指导方针明确了一项新的要求，即从中学早期开始，在现代语言课程中教授大量的文学作品。中国的课程是以欧洲语言为蓝本的。当我们与英国的中文教师讨论这些指导方针时，在我们在教育学院举行的年度中文教师会议上介绍我们之前的研究项目时，许多人表达了对找到既适合年龄又涵盖必要主题的资源的焦虑。人们达成了一个强烈的共识，那就是要想使用像中文这样具有挑战性的语言，还需要有英文翻译的版本。在一次后续调查中，许多教师表示缺乏对用简单的现代语言写成的文学的意识，因为这些作品通常既不在中国的学校课程中(重点往往是传统的古典作品)，也不包括在英国接受培训的教师的许多大学课程中。这也发生在政府在学校层面对中文进行大量投资的时候，2016年启动了1000万GB的普通话卓越计划。第二个确定的需求是我们在研究网络中与出版商、翻译家和新中文写作作者的讨论得出的。我们的网络普遍认为，在英语翻译中缺乏对新中文作品的非学术评论是推广新作品的关键障碍。出版商对没有这些的新项目持谨慎态度，特别是如果主题不符合标准的可接受的比喻，如文革回忆录。第三个需求(通过在以汉语为第二语言的人协会成员中的调查建立)是为毕业生和其他专业人员提供CPD培训，这些人已经学习了高水平的汉语，但需要寻找适当和可获得的阅读材料来保持他们的语言技能，尽管工作繁忙-当代文学文本可以提供一个明显的，令人愉快的解决方案，但它们需要被适当地选择。为了满足这些需求，我们将开发一个新的用户主导的可持续发展的中国文学网络资源，包括教学材料和书评，并连接到一个完全可搜索的、免费查看的英文翻译新中文写作全文数据库。我们还将制定一项教师培训计划，以解决教授文学的实际问题，这将包括在IOE的PGCE培训计划(普通话途径)上举行年度研讨会，并为选定的教师举办一次住宿讲习班，从而建立一个在课程中教授文学的大使网络。最后，我们将与领先的出版商合作，建立一个志愿者书评网络，仿照BBC Radio 2书友会，评论者将获得一本免费的盲人书评，作为回报，我们将为我们的网站提供评论。教材和培训计划将与教育学院的孔子学院合作开发，该学院在英国拥有800多名中文教师网络，并领导英国中小学普通话的发展和主流。数据库将与Paper Republic合作开发，Paper Republic是一家总部位于北京的翻译家和作家团体，站在新中文写作的前沿。书评网络将由我们的合作伙伴企鹅图书和巴雷斯蒂尔出版社(中国翻译小说的领先独立出版商)免费提供图书来促进。

Emerging from our previous AHRC-funded research on new Chinese writing, this project, "Reading Chinese: engaging new audiences", primarily responds to an urgent need arising from recent guidelines from the Department for Education on language teaching. These guidelines specify a new requirement for a significant amount of literature to be taught within the modern language curriculum, from the early years of secondary school. The Chinese curriculum is modelled on that for European languages. When these guidelines were discussed with UK-based teachers of Chinese, during a presentation we made about our previous research project at the annual Chinese Teachers Conference in the Institute of Education, many expressed anxiety about finding resources which were both age-appropriate and covered the necessary topics. There was a strong consensus that to be practicable with a challenging language like Chinese works needed also to be available in English translation. In a follow-up survey, many teachers expressed a lack of awareness of literature which was written in simple modern language, as these works are not generally covered either in school curricula in China (where the focus is often on traditional, classical works) or, for the UK-trained teachers, in many University programmes. This also comes at a time of significant Government investment in Chinese at school level, with a £10 million Mandarin Excellence Programme having been launched in 2016.The second identified need has emerged from our discussions in the research network with publishers, translators, and authors of new Chinese writing. There is broad agreement across our network that the lack of non-academic reviews of new Chinese writing in English translation is a key obstacle in promoting new works. Publishers are wary of taking on new projects without these, particularly if the topics do not fit the standard 'acceptable' tropes such as memoirs of the Cultural Revolution.The third need (established via surveys amongst the membership of the Association for Speakers of Chinese as a Second Language) is for CPD training for graduates and other professionals who have learned Chinese to a high level, but need to source appropriate and accessible reading material to maintain their language skills, despite busy working lives -- contemporary literary texts can provide an obvious, and enjoyable, solution, but they need to be selected appropriately.To address these needs, we will develop a new user-led sustainable web resource on Chinese literature, with teaching materials and book reviews, and linked to a fully searchable, free-to-view full-text database of new Chinese writing in English translation. We will also develop a training programme for teachers to address the practicalities of teaching literature, which will involve an annual seminar at the IOE's PGCE training programme (Mandarin pathway) and a residential workshop for selected teachers, leading to the establishment of a network of ambassadors for teaching literature in the curriculum. Finally, in partnership with leading publishers, we will set up a volunteer book review network, modelled on the BBC Radio 2 bookclub, where reviewers are sent a free copy, 'blind' in return for providing a review for our site.The teaching materials and training programme will be developed in partnership with the Confucius Institute based at the Institute of Education, which hosts a network of over 800 teachers of Chinese in the UK, and which leads the development and mainstreaming of Mandarin Chinese in secondary and primary schools across England The database will be developed in partnership with Paper Republic, a Beijing-based collective of translators and authors at the forefront of new Chinese writing. The book review network will be facilitated by titles provided free of charge by our partners Penguin Books and Balestier Press (the leading independent publisher of Chinese fiction in translation).