Investigation And Analysis Of Teaching Chinese As A Foreign Language In Primary School In The Republic Of Belarus

China and Belarus has a long history of friendly exchanges. In recent years, withthe rapid development of China’s economy, the closer relations and the deepening ofthe political, economic, cultural cooperation between the two countries, especially theincrease of cooperation in the field of folk culture and education, there arises aChinese Learning Boom in Belarus, with a pervasive and rapid growth in the numberof people who are interested in learning Chinese.Since1998, the year in which Chinese officially became a subject in nationaleducation system of Belarus, Chinese language education gradually gained popularityin primary and secondary schools in Belarus and has now become an important part offoreign language education of Belarus. However，compared to Chinese education inChina, the Chinese language education in primary and secondary schools in Belarus isstill in its infancy. A lof of improvements still need to be made in the aspects such astextbooks in Chinese, teaching methods, and qualified teachers. Finding solutions tothe problems in the above aspects is an important and urgent issue for the Ministry ofEducation in Belarus. It is obvious that the Chinese teaching in Belarus is far frombeing mature, and there is still a large space for development, supplement andenrichment.This paper consists of mainly three parts. The first part is the introduction. Thesecond part（the second, third and fourth chapters）is the description and analysis ofthe situation and problems of Chinese teaching in primary school in Belarus based onour study. Our study involves three kinds of investigations. The first is on the currentsituation of the Chinese teaching in primary school in Belarus and the relevantinformation is gained from the Ministry of Education of Belarus, with a focus on theanalysis of the current teaching principles, teaching methods, syllabus and teachingmaterials. The second investigation is done through a questionnaire survey on12Belarus Chinese teachers and some local people about their views on the specificconditions of Chinese language teaching in the related schools. Through the survey,information related to the following is collected, such as Chinese language course setting, time allocation for the course, teaching content, the quality of the teachingmaterials, the use of teaching aids, feelings of students and parents, and students’demands and difficulties in learning. The third investigation is a questionnaire surveyon the Grade1students in No.12middle school in Minsk city, with a focus to findout students’ motivation, age characteristics and learning effect. In the paper, itdiscussed the ways and countermeasures for solving practical problems existing inChinese teaching in primary and middle schools in Belarus. Some ideas andsuggestions for improving the Chinese teaching quality and the promotion of Chineselearning in Belarus are also included. The last part of the paper is the conclusion.We hope the ideas and suggestions on Chinese teaching given in this paper willbe not only helpful for solving the problems existing in Chinese teaching in primaryand middle schools in Belarus, but also will be helpful for improving the Chineseteaching quality, and for international promotion of Chinese teaching.