Following the core compilation philosophy of “equal emphasis on cultivating Chinese language proficiency and disciplinary literacy”, General Academic Chinese: Critical Thinking and Expression is designed for degree-seeking students (undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral) studying in China, as well as pre-university students preparing for Chinese university enrollment. Focused on academic scenarios, the textbook aims to cultivate and enhance learners’ critical thinking skills, academic competencies, Chinese expression abilities, and cross-cultural communication skills, featuring prominent “academic skills training” and “Chinese language knowledge”.

Based on language teaching principles, the textbook selects content from cutting-edge disciplines such as computer science, food science, environmental science, aerospace, and psychology, and integrates essential academic skills—including defining, classifying, questioning, explaining, summarizing, and argumentation—into theme-based learning across disciplines, promoting immersive professional study to train students’ thinking and expression. This enhances their academic Chinese proficiency and lays a necessary linguistic and academic foundation for specialized studies.

Additionally, the textbook is supplemented with teaching resources like MOOCs and micro-courses, integrating teaching, classroom activities, and learning materials to create a new model of blended online-offline teaching. It strives to achieve “digitalized MOOCs and micro-courses, blended online-offline delivery, exploratory self-guided or mentored learning, and question bank-based practice or tests”.

Shi Hong, the Chief Editor, is an Associate Professor and Postgraduate Supervisor at the International College, Zhejiang University. She serves as the Director of the Teaching Center of the International College and the Person in Charge of the Chinese Language Program. Her research mainly focuses on language and culture communication and teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

This textbook integrates language learning with the enhancement of disciplinary literacy, improvement of cross-cultural communication skills, and strengthening of national conditions education, demonstrating characteristics in five aspects:

· Universality of Chinese language knowledge and basic disciplinary knowledge

· Interactivity of professional knowledge from advantageous disciplines

· Critical thinking in communication and expression during cross-cultural academic activities

· Advanced ability to complete professional study tasks and participate in academic competition

· Educational significance for positive understanding of contemporary Chinese national conditions

Based on the above five characteristics, the textbook focuses on cultivating students’ abilities in five aspects:

· Comprehensive application ability of academic Chinese

· Critical thinking and expression ability in professional study and research

· Interdisciplinary and cross-cultural understanding ability

· Comprehensive competitive ability in professional study and research

· Understanding ability of contemporary Chinese national conditions

The five characteristics of the textbook and the cultivation of students’ five abilities enable teaching to achieve a paradigm shift from general Chinese to general academic Chinese.

This book is suitable for degree-seeking students (undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral) studying in China, as well as pre-university students preparing to enroll in Chinese universities.

One volume is designed for a semester’s use, with 48–64 class hours per semester and 3–4 hours per week. It is supplemented by MOOCs, micro-courses, etc., and a blended online-offline teaching model is recommended.