CTCSOL case studies
CTCSOL · Put your knowledge to work in context.
CTCSOL - the Certificate for Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (国际中文教师证书) - is a professional credential for people who teach Chinese as a second or foreign language. Candidates typically include university students in Chinese language education or linguistics, practicing teachers in language schools and international programs, and career-changers who already speak Chinese well and want to teach it. The CTCSOL case studies are 5 cases and about 3,773 words.
1Retroflex collapse and tone neutralisation in an HSK 2 evening class
An evening course at a university continuing-education centre has 18 adult learners (ages 22–55; mostly English L1, two Japanese L1) in a 16-week HSK 2 course meeting twice weekly for 90 minutes. After week 8 the teacher records a 3-minute read-aloud and a 2-minute free talk from each student.
745 words, about 4 min2Fossilised measure-word omission and 了 overuse in an advanced learner
A 26-year-old English-L1 learner has studied Chinese for three years, including six months in Beijing, and now uses Chinese daily with clients in logistics. She speaks fluently and is widely intelligible, but a 10-minute recorded monologue and two role-plays show stable patterns: she omits measure words after 这/那 and after numbers in 17 of 20 obligatory contexts (for example, 这三个书, 我买了两个票); she uses 了 in 8 of 10 past-time clauses regardless of aspect; and she avoids 把 entirely, preferring topic-comment structures.
784 words, about 4 min3One 90-minute lesson for true beginners, false beginners and heritage speakers
A community-college Chinese programme has one 90-minute lesson for a 25-student Chinese 101 class. The group is mixed: 9 true beginners, 10 false beginners who studied pinyin and about 100 words, and 6 heritage speakers who understand family talk but cannot read.
752 words, about 4 min4An off-task student in a group role-play and a two-rater discrepancy
A Year 9 Chinese elective at an Australian secondary school has 30 students in the final three weeks of a unit. The summative task is a group role-play (four students, 4–5 minutes) assessed on a five-band rubric for pronunciation, fluency, vocabulary and grammar, task completion, and interaction.
734 words, about 4 min5Pressure to place a child above level and two requests that breach policy
A teacher at a private Chinese-language centre in Shanghai teaches 12 children aged 8–11 in a Saturday HSK preparation class. A parent wants her daughter, who scored 58% on a mock HSK 2 and cannot yet write 50 characters, placed in the HSK 4 class starting next month because she needs to be challenged.
758 words, about 4 min