Ask the expert - In conversation with Prof George Zhang (Language teachers as Language Learners)

In this episode, I sit down with Professor George X Zhang, Richmond University, UK. We discuss his experiences and insights in teaching and learning Chinese. George encourages all teachers to reflect on their own language learning experience and to be more thoughtful to learners' challenges. George also provides his to three tips to learners of Chinese and friends of '字 espresso'.

Dr George X Zhang is Professor of Chinese and Director of the Centre for Modern Languages, in the School of Liberal Arts of the university. He has over thirty years’ experience in language teaching in British and Chinese universities as well as commercial experience in management consultancy and training. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies in China and obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham in 1991. He was first appointed as a professor in language education by a Chinese university in 1994.

Before joining Richmond University, Professor Zhang was the Director of SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies) Language Centre, University of London and the Director of London Confucius Institute (the first Confucius Institute in the UK). He has participated and managed quite a few projects on Chinese language learning and teaching, including EBCL (European Benchmarks for Chinese Language), the first EU funded non-European language CEFR benchmark project (2010-12), which he coordinated between 2010 and 2011. He was the Chair of British Chinese Language Teaching Society (BCLTS) between 2006 and 2008.

Professor Zhang is an Honorary Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Linguists, and an associate researcher of PLIDAM, INALCO (institut national des langues et civilisations orientales). He also serves as a vice president for the European Association of Chinese Teaching (EACT). As a language specialist, Professor Zhang sits on a number of national and regional language education boards or organisations, and he also lectures extensively all over Europe and other parts of the world.

Professor Zhang has researched and published on language policy, language learning and teaching, teacher training, intercultural communications and cross cultural business management. He is an author of a number of books, including several Chinese language textbooks, of which the Chinese in Steps series won the Outstanding International Chinese Teaching Material Award at the Fifth Confucius Conference in December 2010.

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