Language Centres at a Crossroads

This paper focuses on designing and launching the first year-long executive education programme, namely Chinese Language and Culture for Business (CLCB) at LSE Confucius Institute for Business London. The essential features of this program include the curriculum design, delivery mode and on-going student support. A blended learning (BL) approach is adopted in the Mandarin teaching, with course delivery and assessment taking place in face-to-face contact hours in class, combined with the use of online learning environment and mobile technology out of class. This combination is used to meet the needs of busy business professionals, to provide them with online and offline support, and thus to maximise their learning outcome. From the intercultural communication perspective, the programme provides intensive training and business master sessions addressing core values of Chinese culture and Chinese business communication styles. The invited guest speakers who hold senior positions in different businesses areas share their live experiences with the students on the unique Chinese business concepts and practice such as 'hanxu' and 'heqishengcai'. Meanwhile, talks and events, from China Business Briefings to Open Business Forum, are organized to provide the students with global networking opportunities. Embedded in this program, a fortnight summer study trip to Tsinghua University enables students to fully immerse themselves in Chinese language and life. The paper addresses some practical considerations and challenges in designing the programme with the hope to shed light on and provide pedagogical implications for other programme leaders and course designers in the field of language teaching for specific purposes. The paper specifically orients to integrating blended approach and technological innovation, an intercultural dimension as well as business skills to its language learning purpose. It aims provide an account of how these different features are developed, how resources are used, and how methodological approaches are adopted. It sheds some light on how further integration of language skills with culture and business skills could be achieved. More research is needed to understand the best ratio for different features in such programme and the measurable effect of each and the combined effect of these features on students‟ linguistic and intercultural competence in their specific business contexts. Challenges remain on the on-going support to students and building staff capacity to ensure the sustainability of such programme.

本文的重点是在伦敦LSE孔子商学院设计和启动第一个为期一年的高管教育课程，即商务汉语及中国商务文化课程（CLCB）。本文包括课程设计，授课模式和学生支持等方面的接受。语言教学采用混合学习（BL）方法，课程授课和评估在课堂上面对面的接触时间进行，并结合使用在线学习环境和课堂外的移动技术。本文讨论了在设计程序时的一些实际考虑因素和挑战，希望能为特定目的的语言教学领域的其他程序负责人和课程设计者提供启发并提供教学上的启示。本文专门针对融合混合方法和技术创新，跨文化维度以及商务技能来实现其语言学习目的。它旨在说明如何开发这些不同的功能，如何使用资源以及如何采用方法学方法。它阐明了如何实现语言技能与文化和商务技能的进一步融合。文章指出需要更多的研究来了解该程序中不同功能的最佳比例，以及每种功能的可测量效果以及这些功能对学生在特定业务环境中的语言和跨文化能力的综合影响。在为学生提供持续支持以及建立员工能力以确保此类计划的可持续性方面仍然存在挑战。

Catherine Xiang (MEd, PhD) is an established author and applied linguist with rich experience in the higher education as well as high profile consultancy industry to businesses that wish to engage with China. She is head of East Asian Languages at LSE, Programme Director for BSc International Relations and Chinese; as well as UK Director for LSE Confucius Institute for Business London. Originally from Shanghai, she is skilled in intercultural communication, translation, foreign languages, lecturing, TV and public speaking. She is also an expert in e-learning and innovation in language learning. Her recent publications include 'Mastering Chinese – a Complete Textbook for Beginners', 'Audio-visual Media in Language Education' and the forthcoming 'China Ready – Chinese for Tourism and Hospitality'. In addition to her roles at LSE, she is an executive member of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society, a school governor and chief examiner of Charted Institute of Linguists.