Background

Teaching and learning of Chinese can be traced back to 1850 when the first Chinese migrants came to Australia for the“Gold Rush”(Macintyre，2009).It was initiated by the communities of early Chinese settlers who wished to maintain the cultural identity of their younger generations by keeping their mother tongue.However，the teaching of Chinese was restricted as individual behaviour because of the limited resources of teaching materials and limited numbers of learners(Sun，2002，2007).Learning Chinese did not take place in the form of schools until in the early 20th century when community schools emerged because of the increasing number of various Chinese communities from different parts of China.In those community schools，there was no unified curriculum nor commonly used teaching methods since the teachers were the parents or community leaders who did not necessarily have a teacher’s qualification.Needless to say，the students in these community schools belonged to one cohort，all Chinese heritage background learners.

When the Australian government issued its first National Language Policy(Lo Bianco，1987)，Chinese language was regarded as one of the Languages Other than English(LOTE)and was introduced into the main-stream schools as a result of promotion and development of multiculturalism and multilingualism(Clyne，2005).In 2007，Lo Bianco and Liu classified a number of student’s cohorts who were learning Chinese in Australian schools.According to them，a composition of multicultural and multilingual learners is one of the distinctive features of Australian learners of Chinese in schools and universities(Lo Bianco and Liu，2007).

During the past a few of decades，the growth of Chinese teaching and learning in Australia has enjoyed the benefits from geographical ties，socioeconomic，and cultural contacts between Australia and Asia，especially China.The teaching and learning of Chinese language not only has been rapidly grown in Chinese community schools but also has been developed in Australian mainstream schools due to the Australian Government’s drive to produce“Asialiterate”graduates(Commonwealth of Australia，2012).

On the other hand，the teaching and learning of Chinese at tertiary level in Australia began relatively late.There were only three institutions，including the University of Melbourne，the University of Sydney，and Royal Military College，Duntroon，offered Chinese courses in the early 20th century(Zhang and Chen，1995).Only 9 universities and 4 colleges offered Chinese courses nationwide in 1988.It was surprisingly noted that，by 1992，the number of universities offering Chinese dramatically increased to twenty-three(Smith et al.，1993).Up to 2020，there are 29 Australian universities offering creditbearing Chinese courses on shore.Besides additional courses of translation，literature，history，culture，Chinese language for special purposes were also offered in those universities.Meanwhile，several universities offer various types of non-credit language program to their university students as well.In addition to universities courses，14 Confucius Institutes in Australian universities are offering non-credit language and cultural training to public，including university staffs and students.At present，Chinese related courses expanded to sinology，becoming an integrated component of degree study，and different level courses in Chinese language or about Chinese culture and society are provided as a major/minor，a part of major/minor courses，or as elective subjects.Chinese language study is also combined with another degree，in areas such as business，science，and education，etc.(Zhang，2009).

Möllering(2016)listed five decisive major language policy-related reports which were discussed in Lo Bianco and Slaughter’s work(2009).She highlighted the significances of the three most pertinent policies to the promotion of CLT in Australia:①The National Policy on Languages(NPL，1987);②The Australian Language and Literacy Policy(ALLP，1991);③The National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian School(NALSAS，1994).A more recently issued official document The Australian Government White Paper Australia in the Asian Century(2012)is also important.The establishment and implementation of those language policies affirmed the importance and values of learning Chinese in Australia.

However，even though CLT in Australia nowadays is much more prosperous than it used to be，a number of studies have kept a watchful eye on the challenges Chinese programs have encountered.First of all，non-Chinese background students’motivations on learning Chinese language is missing.Scholars have analysed the reasons why Australia is multicultural society，but most English-speaking students are monolingual.Contributing factors such as Australian’s monolingual mindset(Clyne，2005)and economic rationalism(Scarino and Papademetre，2001)have drawn an attention from researchers and teachers of Chinese.It is noticeable that Orton(2010，2016)argued that the implicit inherent difficulties of Chinese language also frightened students and discouraged them from continuing.Furthermore，the scarcity of appropriate resources also has restricted the teaching and learning Chinese(Wang and Niu，2014).Moreover，shortages of qualified teachers of Chinese language has always been a major concern by teacher educators(Chen，2015;Chen and Sit，2019;Cui，2014;DEEWR，2010;Scrimgeour，2010;Orton，2010;Sturak and Naughten，2010).

Meanwhile，dealing with the changing composition of leaners in Chinese classrooms has attracted an increasing attention of academics in recent years.In the wake of the internationalisation of education and the increasing flow of immigration，particularly from Asian countries，CLT has been strongly influenced by more and more Chinese heritage background learners.This special cohort of Chinese heritage background students show recognizable otherness from non-background students in learning motivations，learning strategies and achievements(He and Xiao，2008;Li and Duff，2008;Scarino et al.，2011).Scrimgeour(2014)provided a clear overview on the recent development of Australian curriculum，recognizing learner diversity in Chinese language learning through the provision of three separate pathways including second language，background language and first language of Chinese.He suggested that Chinese heritage background learners should be addressed separately in both curriculum and classroom practice.He emphasised that“there are still significant challenges to improving learning experiences and outcomes for all learners in the Chinese language classroom”.

However，how to create a supportive and productive learning environment which benefits learners of Chinese as the first language，second language and additional language(foreign language)remains an issue in Australian universities.The existing literature review shows that attention has been given on other issues.Some studied the historical development of CLT in Australia，some put sights on the influences of Australian language policies，a number of researchers discussed about the status and problems of teaching and learning Chinese，mainly at school level，and others focused on pre-service and in-service Chinese teacher training.But limited study is conducted so far in regard to the productive learning environment at tertiary level in the Australian socio-cultural context.

This article aims to answer a crucial research question:How can we improve existing learning environment by innovating Chinese programs in Australian universities?To answer this question，we first need to investigate university’s administrative policy in dealing with two cohosts of Chinese heritage background students and non-background students at the selected Australian universities.Apart from that，we need to listen to the lecturers’voices about how to cope with the two cohorts in the classrooms of Chinese.In addition，students of Chinese with various cultural backgrounds and their responses to the existing teaching and learning should be scrutinized in a systematic way.In order to answer the research question，a mixed research method rather than a single one with some limitations is designed and implemented.