Local high schools across the nation are scrambling to add Chinese classes to their curriculum and the teachers chosen to teach those courses are often struggling to feel adequate to the task. This past summer, six American teachers, who were awarded fellowships funded by the Department of State, traveled to Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Beijing to train in current teaching methodologies and update their own language skills.

The Teachers

Just who are the teachers entering the Chinese classroom across America?

The six Chinese language teachers who participated in the 2007 Intensive Summer Language Institute are representative of the spectrum of today’s Chinese teachers in the U.S., i.e., they do not follow any one career path.

The teachers’ divergent backgrounds ranged from a West Point graduate and 20-year veteran of the U.S. Army to a 2007 graduate of Union Graduate College in the Masters in Teaching program to a 1997 recipient of a National Security Educational Program Scholarship to Harbin, China.

Pictured left to right: Steve Bollens, Susie Tattershall, professor, Debra Wells, Rod Becker, and Cynthia Cramsie at Hong Kong Institute of Education

Photo taken by Joe Svoboda 

The diversity of this small group of teachers is indicative of the variety of backgrounds, education, experience and goals of the Chinese language teachers in today’s classrooms. The Chinese language teaching experience of the group ranged from one to 11 years; the academic level from 5 th to 12 th grade and included community education. Five of the six teachers had a background in teaching English as a second or foreign language. The last time they had studied Chinese formally ranged from 1985 to 2001. . Five of the group had traveled and/or studied in China previously and two have done the same in Taiwan. While all of the teachers were focused on building or sharpening their own language proficiency and developing a new or existing language program in their school, some of them were keen to explore technology advances in language instruction and others wanted to research Chinese language textbooks or focus on Chinese culture.

Teachers in China

Pictured left to right: Rod Becker, Cynthia Cramsie, Steve Bollens, Joe Svoboda, Debra Wells, Susie Tattershall

The range of backgrounds was counter balanced by the teachers’ common passion for Chinese language and culture. As Susie Tattershall explains, “Motivating my students to learn and continue studying Chinese is my life’s work.” Susie’s own journey began in 1981 when she herself was a student at Booker T. Washington High School where she now teaches. That is where she started her studies in Chinese and her teachers took her class to Shanghai Normal Institute for six weeks. Her life was transformed! Susie has been running an exchange program with Beihai Middle School in Guangxi province so that she can pass along her passion to others.

Rod Becker, a teacher at Asheville School in North Carolina, spent nine months at Beijing Teachers College as part of a scholar exchange program in 1983-84. “The experiences I had then, as one of the earliest American students to go to China, put me in a unique position of being able to place the changes that have taken place in China over the past two decades into historical perspective.” That summer he continued his studies at Taipei Languages Institute where he met the woman who would become his wife. Another life transformed forever by an early interest in China - Rod is currently working with one of the teachers he met in Beijing this summer so that he can introduce his own students next year face-to-face to Chinese culture and students.

The Program

“I just spent my first full day in mainland China. The Chinese red flag with five gold starts is flying everywhere; the National Anthem is posted in our classroom. I saw several pictures of Mao today in various shops.” (Debra Wells, who lived and studied Chinese in Taiwan, and currently teaches Chinese at Provo High School in Utah, kindly shared this and the subsequent quotes from her emailed letters to her family.)

The teachers met each other in late June at a pre-departure orientation in Washington, DC, after which they traveled to Hong Kong where they resided on the campus of Chinese University of Hong Kong. For the next three weeks they studied intensive Mandarin, attended workshops on teaching methods and pedagogy, celebrated Hong Kong’s 10 th SAR Establishment Day, and visited museums and cultural sights such as Lantau Island. They next traveled to Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in Guangzhou for two weeks of language instruction and pedagogy.

“I went on an adventure tonight with two companions and they both split off to do their own things so I had to complete it by myself. No problem! I wandered the night market, bargaining with various vendors just for fun and to impress them. ‘Wow! You speak Chinese!”

Week five took the teachers to Macau and back to the Hong Kong Institute of Education for additional workshops. The final week was a special, optional opportunity in Beijing with PRINCH (Pragmatic Internship in China), a cultural and language immersion learning experience.

“We took our big four chapter test today. I may not have aced it, but I finished it in the time allotted. I read three short paragraphs in Chinese and wrote a short essay. I could not do that when I came here. I could not have even read the fill-in-the-blank questions at the beginning of the test. I may succeed at this language yet!”

Outcomes

All of the teachers improved their Mandarin language skills as a result of the program (assessed by differences on pre- and post-tests). They enthusiastically remarked on their expanded spoken vocabulary or writing and reading skills, self-confidence in speaking to native Chinese speakers, and increased use [another phrase needed?] of tones.

The teachers also shared these outcomes:

“The program turned my curriculum upside down! It was wonderful. I came back to my classroom with lots of ideas, games, books and the decision not to begin teaching written Chinese for nine weeks.”

“I hadn’t been to mainland China for 20 year so it was great exposure. And now I am coordinating with teachers in China to bring some of my students back there next year.”

“The benefit is priceless. I’m ecstatic - I loved being in China! I learned language and topics that are relevant to my students, such as, the latest text messaging. And I bought 70 books to bring home!”

“It fit – it was just what I needed. I’m so much more fluent now with more authentic language.”

“I love being able to say to my students: ‘I just got back from China and there they are saying/doing . . .’”

“As soon as I got back to my school I learned that I have to teach a Multicultural Class which is new to me. Much of what I learned this summer is relevant.”

Some may ask, “In areas where native Chinese speakers are rare, is it possible to implement a full Chinese program in a local school?” The answer is a resounding yes! The 2007 Intensive Summer Language Institute alumni from Oklahoma, Utah, Florida, North Carolina and upstate New York are proof of that.

Joe Svoboda in bustling Hong Kong

American teachers sampling teas in a tea shop in Guangzhou, with the department chair from GDUFS, Ms. Zhou Dong Lan.

Photo by Debra Wells

The Department of State is pleased to announce Intensive Summer Language Institutes in Chinese, Arabic and Russian for 2008 as part of the National Security Language Initiative. The goal of the program is to strengthen critical need foreign language instruction at U.S. schools by providing intermediate and advanced level Chinese, Arabic and Russian as a Foreign Language teachers with the opportunity for intensive language study. The summer 2008 program is open to current K-12 teachers as well as community college instructors of Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic and Russian. It is also open to students enrolled in education programs intending to teach these languages.

Successful applicants will gain further knowledge of the language and a greater understanding of the target culture through the following: attending intensive language classes; collaborating with foreign and American teachers on foreign language teaching methodology; and living abroad.

Scholarship Benefits for Selected Participants: International airfare, in-country travel, housing, meals, incidentals, classes, books, pre-departure orientation, educational and cultural excursions. In addition, participants may be eligible for post-scholarship grants as well as academic credit.

To be eligible, candidates must:

• Speak intermediate or advanced Chinese, Arabic or Russian and score in the intermediate or advanced range of the ALTA exam. All candidates will be tested through the oral ALTA exam by telephone during the application process.

• Be current teachers of Chinese, Arabic or Russian as a Foreign Language at the primary or secondary level at an accredited U.S. public or private school, or be enrolled in a 4-year education program (B.A. or B.S.) teacher certification program or a Masters of Education program. Instructors of Chinese, Arabic or Russian at Community Colleges are also encouraged to apply. Candidates must be committed to teaching the language upon their return to the U.S.

• Be U.S. citizens

For information and applications: Applications will be available in November, 2007 with an anticipated deadline of February 2008. Please contact William Heaton, Department of State, Educational and Cultural Affairs, (202) 453-8888 or HeatonWE@state.gov.