This study reports a course design of Chinese as a Second language targeting a group of foreign exchange students from University of Texas, U.S.A., who are about to arrive in May, 2008. The author reviews foreign language theories and approaches and drew up her previous experience in teaching beginning Intermediate Chinese at Aletheia University. From that experience, the author had once conducted a survey and asked foreign students to score various teaching materials according to their level of difficulty and various teaching activities according to their level of interest. In this paper, the author would like to emphasize the significance of the survey results to improve the possibility of teaching effectiveness in the forthcoming course. Traditional foreign language teaching takes a structural view; students are asked to do a lot of reading analysis, grammatical exercise, as well as translation practice as part of class activities. Modem major trends such as the Natural Approach, Total Physical Response, or the Communicative Approach take a communicative or functional view. Students develop oral skills through a lot of listening input; reading and writing proficiencies come as secondary tasks, derived from transfer of primary goals of oral and listening proficiencies. To meet the goal of this intensive language course, the teacher takes a modem communicative/functional view with a direct and communicative method after evaluating foreign language learning theories and strategies.