Study On The Design Of Chinese Language Curriculum In Ethiopia

The rise of China is undoubtedly one of the great dramas of 21 century.[1]China's extra ordinary economic growth is already transforming the world.[2]In 1980 China's trade with the outside world amounted less than 40 Billion Dollars but by 2015 it reached 4 trillion Dollars.In 1980 China's GDP was less than 300 Billion Dollar but in 2015 it was 11 trillion Dollars and today China is the second largest economy in the world which no body imagined just three decades ago.[3]Even in the lowest growth rate in 2015 China's economy created a Greece every 16 weeks and Israel every 25 weeks measured by purchasing power parity China has not only surpassed the US but also owned the accounts of 18%of the world GDP but it was only 2%in 1980s.[4]China's education,health care and related indicators reflect similar improvements in peoples'well-being.Further decade will see even greater increases in Chinese power and influence.This is the main factor attracting more and more people to pay attention to China.[4]When we talk about China,knowing the Chinese language becomes the necessity.Due to the above-mentioned reasons,the number of people who want to learn Chinese in Ethiopia has increased.The Confucius Institute has a Chinese major at three Universities of Ethiopia.The challenge is that in fact,those who are eager to learn Chinese are not only University students but many others.The author believes that for all of these people the Ethiopian government should design curriculum because this can only be done by government capacityThe writer wants to play his part by developing two types of curriculum for a school he established in Southern Ethiopia.They are Chinese curriculum for Children and Chinese curriculum for adults.In this thesis,we will discuss about the motivation behind promoting Chinese language in Ethiopia.We will develop two types of curriculum that will be applied in Ethiopian private schools and also discuss the factors that determine the curriculum planning and practical teaching methods.According to the writer classroom lecture is only one method of teaching.The problem with this method is that it does not work for everybody.There are people who cannot attend every classroom lecture but still want to learn Chinese.How do you teach these types of people?We must develop a curriculum which fits their situation.The writer will develop a special curriculum for these types of people.They will learn Chinese through seminars and apprentices,mentoring,discussion groups,storytelling,internships and so on.Students will be assigned to nearby Chinese community and will have exposed to have conversation with the Chinese people.The second group of students that the writer will focus are children.According to linguists,Children are capable of learning two to three languages at the same time.We will design a curriculum that would help the Ethiopian Children lay a good foundation in Chinese,so that when they grow up,they know how to communicate with the Chinese community in Ethiopia and around the world.