Confucius Institute Journey to China Spring 2014, Issue 21 | Page 34

CI NEWS SPRING2014

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Chinese Teacher Training with Duke University
On April 5th, Chinese teacher training, a workshop co-sponsored by NC State University’s Confucius Institute, Duke
University’s Chinese program of Asian & Middle-Eastern Studies and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute, was held in the
Franklin Conference Center at Duke University. Over 60 local Chinese teachers attended this training; they came from different
educational institutions, including UNC universities, K-12 public schools, and private Chinese schools. These teachers’ Chinese
teaching experiences also vary as some have taught Chinese for more than 20 years while others just began teaching. Coming
from different parts of North Carolina including Charlotte, Winston-Salem Fayetteville, and Waxhaw, many travelled far to
attend this training workshop. Director of Confucius Institute, Dr. Jianning Ding, made opening remarks and this training was
presided by Kunshan Li, director of the Chinese program of Asia & Middle East Studies at Duke University.
This training workshop composed of two major topics. The first topic dealt with how to survey and design the questionnaires;
this topic was led by Professor Heling Shen from Iowa University. Professor Shen, together with all the participating teachers,
practiced all the steps from designing the questionnaire, to applying the questionnaire, to analyzing the feedback data. All the
teachers benefitted from the theories and practices.
The second topic was about understandable input and the application of TPRS (Teaching Proficiency in Reading and
Storytelling) in Chinese teaching; this topic was given by Dr. Ling Cai, a Chinese expert and Education Consultant. For her
session, Dr. Cai analyzed the practicality and importance of TPRS teaching theories. All the teachers were impressed by Dr. Cai’s
demonstrations of vivid teaching approaches and lively gestures.
Everyone felt they benefited from attending this training as this workshop consisted of the perfect combination of
theories and practices, researches and teachings. They hope that Confucius Institute can continue to host similar trainings
regularly in the future. Our CI has been hosting Chinese teacher training workshops since 2009 and was able to penetrate
the pool of Chinese teachers working in the state of North Carolina. In the past five years, workshop attendants have greatly
enhanced their teaching approaches which in turn benefitted the public.