Conclusion

This chapter has explored several issues in Chinese language education in Australia.The Chinese language evolved from a community language to a language of acquisition in formal education.Categorisation of learners of Chinese in Australia is far from providing an accurate picture of what types of learners there are because categories are by nature loosely defined;but generally three groups of learners can be seen，and they are second language learners，background speakers and native speakers.In the area of language education planning，there is a need to address the challenge of learning Chinese characters and its resulting disincentive effect for learners from European language backgrounds，and a lack of continuity in the transition from primary school to secondary school curriculum and subject offerings.At the university level，grouping of different types of learners in classesshould be improved so that each type of students can feel encouraged to learn Chinese and be able to learn it more effectively;intensive in-country Chinese programs of different models are invaluable to participants in terms of learning the language while living among native speakers of the target language and expanding their horizon in their personal development in a new culture;and recently needs of international students from Chinese backgrounds have to be included in course design and teaching.Chinese has become an international language given the large number of speakers in almost every corner of the world，and in this context，effective Chinese teaching and learning should be focused on localisation of teaching，including textbooks and other teaching materials，so that learners can feel Chinese is more relevant to them and they can live the language.