A Study On Teaching Chinese To Speakers Of Other Languages In Cameroon

In the history of international Chinese education, the Confucius Institute has and continues to play a very prominent role in the promotion of Chinese language and culture. In an effort to enrich the global community the Confucius Institute has taken many measures to provide easy access to Chinese culture, language and modern to universities around the world. As the flagship of Chinese education in Cameroon, the Confucius Institute at the University of Yaounde II depends on its unique structural format "one Confucius Institute, many different locations" to fully satisfy the local people’s need for Chinese language and culture. This unique structure also allows the Confucius Institute to serve the entire international body. As one may naturally suspect taking such a monumental task has not been without difficulties.Accordingly, on the basis of careful investigation and survey, this thesis focuses on the development of the Confucius Institute in a single country. First, this paper outlines the five aspects of the current development of Chinese education in Cameroon:(1) the scale of the Confucius Institute and the student populous;(2) the organization of Chinese cultural activities;(3) the localization of Chinese teachers and Chinese textbooks;(4) the promotion of HSK and YCT;(5) its "one Confucius Institute, many different locations" structure. Following the discussion of current development of the Institute in Cameroon the paper seeks to highlight the reasons for the developments and achievements made by the Institute. The paper will also address the main problems encountered during the developmental process of Confucius Institute. This analysis includes:the basic functions of Confucius Institute; teaching resources; curriculum setting; faculty and staff; relevant systems which contains more details about those problems and their consequences. In conclusion the paper proposes five recommendations for reference which are intended to:support the continuing evolution of comprehensive and efficient systems and functions of the Confucius Institute; maintain and improve the capability for sustainable development; develop specialized programs and methods for the specific regional demographic; expand the pipelines of Chinese education; integrate theory with practice throughout the whole process. The fore mentioned measures are intended to aid the popularization of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages in other countries.