“Certificate for Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages” Launched in KL, Malaysia

Some 70 teachers, undergraduate students, professionals, executives and others attended a briefing and participated in a mock exam at the launch of the “Certificate for Teachers of Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages” (CTCSOL) held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 4 March 2017. The event was hosted by HSK Centre (Crestar) and Crestar Education (M) Sdn Bhd.

Dr Chen Qi, a director of HSK Centre (Crestar) briefed them on the features and the details of the examination to attain the CTCSOL certification. She also answered questions from the floor on the international-standard test administered by Hanban that assesses the abilities of Chinese language teachers in five areas. After that, the participants sat for a 2-1/2 hour mock exam that allowed them to better understand the types of questions expected and the level of difficulty by answering 150 questions taken from past exams.

After the event, some 30 of the participants registered for the CTCSOL written test scheduled to be held on 23 April 2017. The majority of the registrants are educators from international and government schools. About 90 percent of them also registered for the intensive training courses that help prepare them for the exam.

Increase in Demand for International Chinese Teachers

According to data from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia, more non-Chinese are encouraging their children to learn the language. About 15 per cent of students in the country’s National-type School (Chinese) are non-Chinese. In addition, the latest report published by The International School Consultancy (ISC) shows the number of international school students in Malaysia during first quarter of 2017 has reached 71,589, the highest in South East Asia.

With the rise of China and the significance of Chinese as the language of international trade, there is increasing demand for international Chinese language teachers in Malaysia. This means that CTCSOL holders in Malaysia can expect very promising career prospects.

CTCSOL is administered by Confucius Institute Headquarters/Hanban. It consists of a written test and an interview test, which assess the suitability of candidates to serve as international Chinese language teachers based on their abilities in the following 5 domains: Basics in Chinese Language Teaching, Chinese Language Teaching Methodology, Instructional Design and Classroom Management, Chinese Culture and Cross-cultural Communication, Professional Ethics and Disciplinary Development.