Dear Lingwei (and everyone)
Sorry for the delay in replying to this. The problem is that there are not the same hard and fast requirements for university tutoring -- it tends to vary from one place to another.
For a full-time lecturing post you normally require at least a PhD in a relevant discipline and native/near-native language skills in Chinese and English. Most departments which offer Chinese (the main universities which teach Chinese for a whole programme are Leeds, SOAS, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Durham, Nottingham, Manchester, Oxford, Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores) also employ full-time non-research-active staff who are called teaching fellows, or language instructors, or lectors (depending on the institution). Normally at least a Masters level degree would be required, but teaching experience/interest etc is more important. These positions do not come up very often, but are usually advertised on places like 'jobs.ac.uk' or the HFES website.
As well as this, many of the departments employ part-time, or hourly paid staff to take lessons (often conversation classes, or aural classes). If you are interested in this kind of work, it might be worth sending in a CV to the department in question, stressing previous teaching experience. Another thing you could consider if you just wanted some extra hours' work would be to put up adverts for one-to-one tuition by an experienced teacher on the UG noticeboards of your local department.
Hope this helps
Frances
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mandarin Chinese Teaching [mailto:MANDARIN-
> [log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of yang
> lingwei
> Sent: 09 February 2006 17:52
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Chinese at university
>
> Dear Frances Weightman,
>
> I am wondering what are the requirments for being
> a Mandarin tutor in
> university? Would you please be kind to provide
> some informations or
> suggestions?
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Lingwei
>
> Chinese Language Assistant
>
>
> >From: Frances Weightman <[log in to unmask]>
> >Reply-To: Mandarin Chinese Teaching
> <[log in to unmask]>
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: Chinese at university
> >Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2006 08:49:00 -0000
> >
> >Dear all
> >
> >
> >
> >Just to add to Oliver's comments from the
> universities' perspective.
> >
> >
> >
> >I teach at Leeds University (still, as far as I
> know, the largest
> >Chinese course in the UK) and am also a council
> member of the British
> >Association of Chinese Studies. I am sure that
> all university admissions
> >tutors would absolutely endorse Robert Chard's
> comments: a GCSE (or any
> >other qualification in Chinese) would only be
> evidence of an applicant's
> >commitment to the study of the language and would
> in no way prejudice
> >against admission (it may have been the case some
> years ago, but things
> >really have changed since then).
> >
> >
> >
> >Moreover, in my own surveys of Leeds' students,
> around half of the
> >intake each year have some background in the
> language, whether formal
> >training, or (more often) a year or two spent
> teaching English in China.
> >We are therefore (as I'm sure are all university
> departments) very used
> >to having a mixed level for the first few weeks
> of term. In our
> >experience, however, because of the intensity of
> language classes that
> >students attend, most of the differences even out
> fairly quickly.
> >
> >
> >
> >At Leeds there has always been the option of
> skipping the first
> >semester, and from next year we will have options
> for fast-tracking
> >level 1 to provide more flexibility in the system.
> I understand from the
> >recent council meeting that most other
> departments are doing similar
> >things - we are always receptive to suggestions
> from schools, though, so
> >please do pass any on.
> >
> >
> >
> >I hope this can help reassure if anyone is
> concerned about encouraging
> >pupils to apply for further study of Chinese. We
> would be delighted to
> >have more applications from your students!!
> >
> >
> >
> >Best wishes
> >
> >Frances Weightman
> >
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Mandarin Chinese Teaching
> >[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On Behalf Of Oliver
> >Kramer
> >Sent: 08 February 2006 19:23
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Chinese at university
> >
> >
> >
> >Dear all,
> >
> >
> >
> >as you are aware, all British universities
> offering Chinese teach the
> >language ab initio, that is, they do not cater
> for students with prior
> >knowledge of Chinese. As most courses have a
> heavy emphasis on the
> >acquisition of spoken and written Chinese, the
> exclusion of native
> >speakers made some sense (leaving aside the
> question of fairness), and
> >with hardly any non-background speakers having
> previous knowledge of
> >Chinese, there was also no need for a university
> course beginning at
> >advanced level, unlike, say, French and German
> for which most
> >universities require a successful A level in the
> respective subject.
> >
> >
> >
> >Seeing that Chinese is gaining in popularity,
> particularly among
> >non-native speakers, my concern has been that a
> successful GCSE
> >candidate might be discriminated against when
> applying for a place to
> >read Chinese at university; anecdotal evidence
> seemed to confirm that.
> >Some of you may share these concerns, and that is
> why I am quite happy
> >to pass on to the list the replies I have
> received very recently from
> >admission officers and lecturers, also
> underlining the recognition
> >Chinese is gaining as a subject in secondary
> education.
> >
> >
> >
> >SOAS, University of London, introduced a "fast-
> track" course for
> >students with prior knowledge of up to 500
> characters.
> >
> >A lecturer at the University of Edinburgh
> informed me that taking the
> >GCSE course is seen as showing commitment to the
> subject and therefore
> >beneficial to an application. And most
> encouraging, I received the
> >following line from Dr Chard at Oxford University,
> which (legal
> >disclaimer) is not official policy but his
> privately expressed opinion;
> >however, he was happy to give me permission to
> quote him to this list:
> >
> >
> >
> >"To answer your question, we are positively
> prohibited from
> >discriminating against any student with prior
> experience of Chinese, and
> >now often take people with exam results at
> various levels. We are having
> >to make special arrangements for those with
> strong language background
> >when they start (requiring them to do the course
> in 3 years instead of
> >4, or doing an additional language (Korean,
> Tibetan), but a GCSE
> >wouldn't put them in that category.
> >
> >In short, doing the GCSE will make no difference
> to how their
> >applications will be considered."
> >
> >It is good to see that university departments are
> aware of the
> >development of the subject, and I hope this will
> also be heartening news
> >to you.
> >
> >Best wishes,
> >
> >
> >
> >Oliver
> >
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