The Third Cloud Symposium on International Chinese Language Teaching, which was attended by all Chinese teachers from the School of International Education of Wuxi Institute of Technology on 28 and 29 May 2022, was rounded off. The Symposium was hosted by Chinese Testing International and Confucius Classroom (Crestar) in partnership with East China Normal University Global Education Centre, Canadian International School Singapore, and Dalton School Hong Kong. A total of 23 distinguished International Chinese language teaching experts and experienced International Chinese teachers all over the world were invited this year to deliver keynote speeches on the theme of “International Chinese Teaching Design, Planning and Resource through Diverse Perspectives”.
The Symposium was comprised of a main conference and several teaching workshops, and attracted nearly 600 international Chinese language teachers in 20 countries on five continents. Mr. Kang Kai, Education Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore addressed at the opening ceremony with the origin of Grain Rain, one of the 24 solar terms, and the establishment of the United Nations’ Chinese Language Day in the beginning, and spoke about the beauty of the forms, structures and rhythms, as well as the history and cultural heritage of Chinese language. He called on all teachers, experts and scholars in international Chinese language teaching to advance the development of international Chinese language cause through greater collaboration.
Celebrities including Professor Zhou Aoying, Vice Principal of East China Normal University, Ms. Xiong Huali, Chinese and Principal of Canadian International School Singapore, and Ms. Liang Xia, Professor from the Faculty of East Asian Language and Cultures of Washington University and Vice President of Chinese Language Teachers Association, delivered keynote speeches at the main conference. Professor Zhou Aoying discussed the effects of digitalization and information technology in the new age, highlighted the idea that data could bring new rationality, new science and new humanism, and advocated the development of digital technology to catalyze and empower the digital transformation of Chinese language and international Chinese language education. All these would be conducive to realizing the Chinese educational goal of “providing education for all people without discrimination, teaching students in accordance with their aptitude, teaching through lively activities, and benefiting both teachers and students through teaching”. Principal Xiong Huali shared her experience of teaching and management in Canadian International School Singapore and provided an insight on how cross-subject bilingual lessons are designed in the International Baccalaureate in international schools with consideration of four aspects: course design philosophy, sharing of lesson case studies, teaching resource allocation and management, and the integration of language and culture. Professor Liang Xia spoke on the challenges faced by international Chinese language education brought about by online teaching with examples from tertiary institutes in America. She analyzed the pros and cons of online courses based on the current teaching situation and students’ feedback, and proposed strategies to address these challenges through varied teaching examples.
Chinese teachers of WXIT conducted a group discussion and analysis based on the video recordings of real-world lessons provided by the Symposium, and deliberated on the selection of teaching content, the design of teaching courseware, the screening of teaching resources, and the use of teaching methods and teaching language under different teaching targets and diverse learning contexts. Team of Chinese language teachers expressed willingness to attend various symposiums of Chinese Testing International in the future, work with people from all walks of life to adopt a learner-centered approach, and better integrate traditional and modern educational perspectives, so as to promote high-quality development of international Chinese language education together with their counterparts around the world.
