Confucius Institutes diversify as language program grows

Cynthia Ning, director of Confucius Institute at the University of Hawaii, says: "Localization is a wonderful initiative. When we have a summer camp, I often develop special information. I put a lot of Hawaii into the material."

Ning has authored Encounters, a textbook series tailored for US students that uses a task-oriented approach. It was published by Yale University Press in 2012.

To develop a global evaluation system for both Chinese learners and teachers is another goal of the Confucius Institute.

Similar to the Test of English as a Foreign Language, the HSK－the abbreviation for the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi－is the Chinese proficiency test used by Chinese universities to evaluate international applicants.

More than 550,000 people have taken the HSK this year, according to Chinese Testing International, a Beijing-based company which works closely with Confucius Institute and organizes the test monthly in more than 600 overseas centers.

The history of the test goes back to early 1990s, but it was not until the past few years that the number of people taking it started to soar.

"In 2009, only around 100,000 people took the test," says Zhang Yuan, the marketing director of the company. "But there has been a 30 percent increase each year since 2013."

In 2014, the company introduced the CTCSOL test, a certificate for teachers of Chinese to speakers of other languages.

"The Confucius Institute hopes that all its teachers will pass this test by 2020," says Zhang Yuan.

Contact the writers through xingyi@chinadaily.com.cn