Press release: Göttingen University establishes the first Chair for Chinese as a Foreign Language

Nr. 59/2013 - 23.04.2013

Dr. Henning Klöter aims to improve teacher training and Chinese language didactics

(pug) As per the summer semester of 2013, Göttingen University has established the first Chair for Chinese as a Foreign Language nationwide. The sinologist Dr. Henning Klöter, who until now was on the staff at the University of Mainz, has received the professorship. In addition to improving the teacher training and further developing their degree programmes in „Chinese as a Foreign Language", the University of Göttingen's objective in setting up the Chair is to further expand basic research efforts in the field of Chinese language didactics. This is meant to take place in close collaboration with other scientific disciplines.

"Dr. Henning Klöter's is an outstanding scholar and his appointment to the Chair for Chinese as a Foreign Language will, among others, reinforce our emphasis on teaching and research," affirms Dr. Axel Schneider, Head of the Department of East Asian Studies at Göttingen University. The first projects to be implemented will be in the areas of China-related educational research and linguistics. "The modern concept for sinology studies at Göttingen University and its Centre for Modern East Asian Studies, and its versatile academic environment all provide ideal conditions for these projects," underscores Prof. Klöter.

Henning Klöter, born in 1969, studied Sinology, German Studies and Political Science at the Universities of Trier, Münster in Germany and Leiden in the Netherlands. He received his doctorate from the University of Leiden in 2003, after which he worked at the University of Bochum and the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei. In 2010, he earned his post-doctorate at the University of Bochum, where he collaborated on the development of specialised didactic degree programmes among other projects. From April of 2012, he had held a professorship for Chinese in the areas of translation, linguistic and cultural studies at the University of Mainz.

Contact address:
Professor Henning Klöter
Georg-August University Göttingen
Faculty of Humanities – Department of East Asian Studies
Centre for Modern East Asian Studies (CeMEAS)
Heinrich-Düker-Weg 14, 37073 Göttingen
Phone +49 (551) 39-21260
E-mail: kloeter@uni-goettingen.de
Website: http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/120565.html