A Study on the Effective Paths of Enhancing the Speaking Competence of German-learning College Students in Mainland China

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2021 in the subject Didactics - German - German as a Foreign Language, grade: 1.0, University of Louvain, language: English, abstract: English has long been a global language and it is also a compulsory subject in primary and middle schools and colleges and universities in Mainland China. Yet, with the deepening of China's reform and opening up, the demand for new second and third foreign languages has considerably increased. Given Mainland China's increasingly harmonious relations with Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the demand for German-speaking talents has been growing. Correspondingly, the (Chinese) National Entrance Examination for Postgraduates has included a German test as one of the foreign language tests, and the Chinese Ministry of Education has included German in the high school curriculum since early 2018. As learning English is compulsory in Mainland China, most German learners have studied English for at least six years before learning a second foreign language and most German learners are college students. Yet, because of the differences between the Chinese language and the English and German languages, the college students encounter more difficulties than the Indo-European language speakers do while learning English and German. Furthermore, foreign language learners in Mainland China often find reading and writing easier than listening and speaking.