Reviewer Notes on the 1st Edition

Professor Tang’s new textbook, Let’s Speak Chinese! builds on her well-established tradition of creating user-friendly materials for new and continuing students of Mandarin Chinese. As an instructor of Introductory Chinese in my consulting practice and as a faculty member at the University of Rochester, I have used her Taking Off with Chinese (2011) as a classroom staple. I’m now eager to introduce my students to the practical and educational aspects of Let’s Speak Chinese! Organized in four units (Shopping, Food and Drink, Asking for Help, and Personal Information and Daily Conversation), the text covers key conversation for everyday situations that are likely to be encountered by everyone—students, tourists, business people—in Chinese-speaking environments. What’s remarkable about the somewhat deceptive simplicity of the text’s design is the effective language-teaching pedagogy behind the practical conversation. Professor Tang keeps phrases relatively brief and simple, yet includes a great variety of language structures and vocabulary so that, gradually, a student will ‘intuit’ the larger framework and rules of Chinese! As a second language acquisition professional, I really appreciate this text, and I’m looking forward to using Let’s Speak Chinese in my next class!

Ellen Zuroski

Director, English Language and U.S. Culture Program,
Simon School of Business, University of Rochester

Owner, Zuroski Consulting