Texas Southern University Confucius Institute successfully held the 2018 Houston Spring Chinese Language Seminar

May 5th , 2018

On May 5, 2018, Texas Southern University Confucius Institute (TSUCI) successfully hosted the 2018 Houston Spring Chinese Language Seminar. The participants of this conference included Houston Chinese teachers, volunteers Chinese teacher, and Chinese learners. During the meeting, the teachers shared their experience and skills in Chinese teaching and discussed problems they met in teaching.

The meeting began with a group of volunteer Chinese teachers and TSUCI Chinese teachers to share teaching experiences and techniques in topical groups. Three volunteers Chinese teachers who teach in the HISD (Houston Independent School District) shared the characteristics and techniques of immersion Chinese teaching.

Six volunteers Chinese teachers who teach in Afro-descendant schools shared their teaching experience in terms of student characteristics, classroom games, and teaching methods. The sharing of the experience and skills of the six Volunteer Chinese teachers has won enthusiastic applause from the participants. Two volunteer teachers are Chinese students. They analyzed the characteristics of Chinese American students , summarized the difficulties in Chinese teaching of Chinese students, and introduced effective teaching methods. Later, TSUCI Professor Hu Xiaobin introduced the Chinese courses of Texas Southern University, elective requirements, teaching materials, syllabus, and course design, and presented the students and the teaching results of learning Chinese in previous years.

At the conference, the organizer of TSUCI also invited three local teachers, Dr. Chang Junrui, Principal Wang Rong, and Professor Marshall McArthur to share Chinese teaching experience. Dr. Chang Junrui teaches at Sharptown International School in Houston and has extensive Chinese teaching experience. In this meeting, she shared her teaching experience by the topic "Making Cultural Connections in Chinese Classes".

Another sharer, President Wang Rong, is the founder of a Chinese school Houston Dragon Academy and a Chinese teacher in a public school in the United States. During the conference, she shared the teaching experience of Chinese in public schools and self-founded Chinese schools, compared several Chinese textbooks, and demonstrated how to use 5C teaching principles in Chinese teaching (5C: Communication, Culture, Connection, Comparison, Communities).

Finally, Marshall McArthur, a professor of Chinese at the University of Houston, introduced Quizlet's use of Chinese multimedia learning tools and presented a wonderful Chinese lesson. Professor McArthur's "rice bag teaching method" deeply attracted the teachers and students on the spot. Professor McArthur took out the teaching-related props one by one from the rice bags to connect the contents of the lesson into a coherent dialogue. The teachers and students at the scene were full of praise for this novel and interesting teaching method.

After the sharing, the teachers and students attending the meeting asked questions, discussed and exchanged the content of the sharing. The 2018 spring Chinese language teaching seminar in the Houston area came to an end after a lively discussion. The successful outcome of the seminar has expanded the teaching ideas of volunteers Chinese teachers and is of great significance to the progress and development of the Chinese teaching in TSUCI.