Program Introduction
The OSU Chinese Flagship Program is a two-year masters program for the advanced study of Chinese. It is designed for upper-intermediate and advanced speakers of Mandarin Chinese who seek to achieve a superior level of proficiency (Defined as the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) FSI/ILR level 3 "professional entry level" and level 4 "professional working proficiency").
As part of The Language Flagship( TLF) through the National Security Education Program (NSEP), the OSU Chinese Flagship Program's major focus is to establish a field-wide and institutional infrastructure that will support the production of advanced language-proficiency students in Mandarin Chinese. Through an innovative and intensive two-year campus and overseas curriculum, the Chinese Flagship moves intermediate to advanced students' language proficiency to a professional superior level.
The OSU Chinese Flagship Program requires an established general language proficiency and domain proficiency (i.e., the ability to use Mandarin in an academic discipline or career area). This program not only addresses general issues of advanced Chinese, but also makes an effort to insure that students will function well in professional domains in the target culture environment.
Following a year of classroom-based training at the Columbus campus of the Ohio State University, students proceed to the program's training center in Qingdao, China. During this intensive eleven-month of immersion in Chinese Language and Culture, the participants will undergo specialized training and complete a three to six month internship or equivalent assignment in a Chinese organization. Following the internships in China, students directly enroll for a term in classes at Nanjing University. In the spring students return to Columbus for proficiency assessments and completion of a thesis project. Those who meet the program's criteria will receive a master's degree in East Asian Languages and Literatures with a concentration in Advanced Chinese Language & Culture.
