Abstract: Based on the teaching practice of elementary Chinese Comprehensive course, the new classroom teaching mode of international Chinese language education is explored. Based on the relevance theory, a new classroom teaching model of international Chinese language education is put forward from two aspects of “creating the maximal relevance in line with students’ cognition” and “helping students to construct the optimal relevance”. On the basis of understanding students’ cognitive structure, teachers should strive to create the maximal relevance for students’ communication by associating new knowledge with students’ old knowledge, with students’ life, with the country’s cultural customs and national conditions, and by interconnecting various links of classroom teaching process. At the same time, teachers can help students construct the optimal relevance in terms of proper teaching language, ostensive information, multi-modal teaching resources, and non-verbal ostensive behavior. The research results show that this teaching mode can effectively help students learn and understand new knowledge and improve the teaching effect.

Key words: international Chinese language education, relevance theory, teaching mode, comprehensive course