2016 Autumn CLTA-WPA & Chinese Teaching Symposium Was Held At Carnegie Mellon University
Release time: 2016-10-28author:
(Reported
by the Confucius Institute at the University of Pittsburgh
Reporter:
Tang Cheng, Liu Chen, Lou Tianxiao)
On October 16,2016 Autumn CLTA-WPA & Chinese Teaching Symposiumwas held at
Carnegie Mellon University. It was organized bythe Chinese
Teachers Association of West Pennsylvania(CLTA-WPA) and co-sponsored by
the Confucius Institute at the University of Pittsburgh (CI-PITT). Prof. Wu
Sumei (Department of Chinese, Carnegie Mellon University) and Vice Chairman Yu
Yueming (Director of the Department of Chinese, Carnegie Mellon University)
presided over the meeting. A total of 120 Chinese teachers and students from
Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh were invited to
participate in the symposium. Prof. Xiao Ying, Director of CI-Pitt, and ten CI-Pitt
Chinese volunteer teachers attended the symposium.
The symposium lasted from 9:30 a.m. to
2:30 p.m. It was separated into two venues. A total of 21 Chinese teachers
shared their teaching experiences. Ms. Wang Haixia, the graduate student
assistant of CI-Pitt, introduced the importance of Chinese songs in teaching, which
are of great interest to the students while they are learning Chinese. She also
emphasized that we should focus on simplifying the songs to make them fit the
class. Lei Zhechao, the volunteer Chinese teacher of CI-Pitt, gave a
presentation about her independent study “The Strategy of Teaching the Verb ‘打’in a Second Language,” which triggered a lively
discussion. Liu Shijuan from Indiana University shared a case study on
successful language learning processes, and discussed with teachers about successful
learning methods which will promote language teaching.
In addition, three teachers from CMU,
Zheng Xiangyao, Zhou Difan and Han Yiting, conductedon-siteteaching simulation, showing a wonderful teaching site, which is lively and
interesting. Prof. Yuyue Ming stressed that we should pay attention to the
distribution of the target language and the mother tongue, and try to use the
target language more to help students feel the target language context.
CLTA-WPA was established in Pittsburgh in
May 2014 with the assistance of CI-Pitt. Dr. Guo Tingting, the former Chinese
Director of CITT, and Prof. Xiao Ying, the Chinese Director of CI-Pitt, are the
board members of CLTA-WPA. CLTA-WPA has successfully hosted five Chinese
teaching seminars since its inception, which has helped the Chinese teachers of
Pennsylvania in academic exchange and resource sharing. CLTA-WPA will join
forces to promote the development of Chinese language teaching in Pennsylvania.
