--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jiangsu Province introduces foreign intelligence to train primary and secondary English teachers Chronicle <
In the afternoon of August 2, 2000, in the Yangzi Hall of Jinling Hotel, the Chinese and foreigners attending the award sending-off ceremony were wrapped in the heat of true love. Ms. Donna Donna, the chief leader of the Canadian Lecturers' Group, who was the beneficiary of the project of introducing foreign intelligence to train primary and middle school English teachers of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, received the Jiangsu Friendship Prize awarded to her by the provincial government from Mr. Qian Xingrong, the deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of the province; and Mrs. Zhou Qiqiu, the deputy director of the Provincial Department of Education of the province, gave a warm farewell speech to the fifth batch of foreign teachers who would soon be going back to their home countries.
In the face of this scene, more than ten days to visit 10 cities 11 training sites seen and heard, condensed into a hot words: "Separation, we do not say goodbye."
Study abroad without going abroad
"From Bonavista to Vancouver Island, from the Arctic Circle to the Great Lakes. This land was created, for you and me ......" Barbara and Sandra?were gesturing in front of an oversized map of Canada to teach the Chinese teachers the song, titled "This is My Hometown," as we crept into the Zhenjiang Teachers College course.
When they walked into the classroom of the Suzhou Education Center training course, how did Richard move so many things? It turns out that he is going to talk about how to eat Western food today. The desks were set up in a rectangle, and while he was explaining, he was arranging tablecloths, knives and forks, arranging seating, ordering food to be served, and teaching the use of cutlery. ...... "A family dinner is centered on the hostess. Whichever dish she ate first, everyone followed. This is not the Lady first (Ms. first) of today, once upon a time, the status of women in the West was also low, and the hostess was told to taste first for fear of poison in the food." During the whole course of the lesson, Richard integrated words, sentence patterns, dialogues, humanistic backgrounds and communication situations, and used humorous language to communicate with the advanced teachers in both directions, talking passionately.
The foreign teacher always creates an intuitive teaching situation, alternating between games, songs, riddles, thematic dialogues and other teaching methods. This requires professors to be versatile: singing, dancing, painting ......, but also promotes the modernization of teaching methods: slides, projections, playing videos, making multimedia courseware ...... More importantly, it effectively guides the teaching object to enter into the role and participate actively. Nancy, a Canadian teacher who teaches in the Xuzhou area, told us, "There is a middle-aged female teacher in my class who is more introverted and does not speak a foreign language on public *** occasions. One day she raised her hand to speak and I was so moved that I almost cried."
Teacher Li Jie of Jinhu County Middle School said with deep feeling, "After teaching for more than ten years, we have never come into contact with a foreign teacher. Without this training, we will have to take more detours in the change of modernizing our teaching methods and teaching tools." Mr. Yuan Fengcun, a teacher from Sohe Middle School in Suyu County, said, "Our voice intonation has been corrected, and our oral expression and writing skills have been improved. The foreign teachers' teaching methods and kind and amiable manners also gave us a lot of inspiration." Mr. Wu Xuyu from Changzhou 22nd Middle School expressed the general feeling of Chinese teachers: "This is not only speaking and listening training, but they also taught us how to create an atmosphere that teaches us to turn students' boredom with learning into learning, and low self-esteem into self-confidence." Mr. Song Shun, a teacher from Huaiwen Middle School in Shuyang County, suggested, "The principal wants us to take back what we have learned. In fact, there is something that can't be taken back, it needs to be experienced personally. I hope the training courses will continue year by year so that every foreign language teacher will have the opportunity to be trained and be able to participate in the grand cycle." "Bringing foreign teachers in is a kind of study abroad without going abroad, and it is especially important for less developed areas." That's what most of the trained teachers think.
Stepping into the 1990s, the contradiction that the improvement of the overall level of foreign language teachers in Jiangsu Province lagged behind the process of reform and opening up became more and more prominent, and the drawbacks of emphasizing grammar over listening and speaking and exams over application, which were common in foreign language teaching, were also more and more valued by all walks of life. The education authorities have conducted in-depth investigations and researches, thought about corresponding countermeasures, and explored reform programs. In the provincial education commission, the provincial education department of successive leaders of the support, guidance, a small investment, short cycle, quick results, the radiation surface of the approach through years of practice gradually matured: foreign affairs department, the teacher's office of the two departments to cooperate with the provincial and municipal linkage, up and down the support, the introduction of foreign intelligence, the use of the summer training of primary and secondary school teachers of English and as a form of continuing education, lifelong education for foreign language teachers.
Have a heart. Since 1996, in six years this program **** hired 5 batches of English teachers from the United States, Canada and other countries, 131 times, trained teachers have reached 2358 times.
Unexpected gains
Differences in cultural backgrounds and ideological concepts make Chinese and foreign teachers both collide and rub against each other in the dialog and comparison of learning and teaching, and moreover, sparks are generated in the collision, and then there are introspection and epiphanies that are difficult to exhaust.
The slideshow showed a flag on the screen through a projector. "This is the Canadian flag. The maple tree is our national tree, so in the center of the flag is a maple leaf; to the left of our country is the Atlantic Ocean and to the right is the Pacific Ocean, and the red vertical bars on either side of the flag represent the coastline. So we have a song that everyone will sing, named "From Sea to Sea" ...... "Participating in the 2000 Canadian lecturer group came to Jiangsu to train primary and secondary school English teachers in a line of 36 people, each of them will tell the Chinese teachers in detail about the composition of the pattern of their country's national flag and its meaning.
Oh, the foreign teachers gave Chinese teachers a demonstration lesson in patriotic education. The following story comes to mind: An American child studying at an elementary school in Nanjing asked for the American flag to be raised during the school's flag-raising ceremony. In order to comfort him, the teacher found the simplest and most acceptable reason for the child: we don't have an American flag in our school. Who did not expect, the next day the child brought a small American flag, which shows the effectiveness of patriotic education in the United States. The deep emotion and infectious power of the Canadian teachers' stories about their country's flag and hometown also gave Chinese teachers a profound inspiration.
"We understand very well China's family planning policy, but Chinese parents are especially pampered, often neglecting to teach their children to give to others, and some children don't even know how to take care of themselves. They are usually only children with no siblings, so what do they do when they lose the protection of their parents? Early in the morning, we see old people exercising, but never see children. When drawing, they only want to copy, not to create. China's ancient buildings have high artistic value, but they don't want to see them. China is speeding up its steps towards the future, and it is important to teach students to love their motherland and their culture, as well as to teach them to learn to take care of themselves, to help others and to create." Participating in this year's English summer camp for primary and secondary school students organized by the Jiangsu Provincial Education Travel Agency, foreign teachers, from the differences between Chinese and foreign education of their children, put forward for the next generation of "long term" suggestions, which is not worthy of our reflection?
Once the foreign teachers had dinner with us***, they insisted on not drinking, and left at 7:00: "I have to prepare for the lesson at night." Yes, they can't help but be busy: trainees are asked to do an essay every day, and their marginalia and comments often exceed the length of the essay. In the classroom without air-conditioning, they sweat but do not slack off. Their teaching time is eight hours a day. Ms. Hu of the Changzhou Education Commission gave the schedule to the foreign teachers, who counted 10 minutes less. "Not even 10 minutes less." The meticulous foreign teachers extended the dismissal time for the third morning class from 11:20 to 11:30 a.m.
In fact, their preparation for the class began as early as abroad: the teachers from Canada, all of whom are volunteers, were trained intensively on Saturdays two or three months before they came to China to learn about China's customs and prepare lesson plans and materials. No wonder everyone knows how to use chopsticks, which was part of the training.
The spirit of spring silkworms and red candles is not unique to our teachers. The dedication and work ethic of the foreign teachers have made every Chinese teacher consciously reflect on themselves, and unconsciously generated great internal motivation.
While the foreign teachers are delighted with what they have gained in China.
Star, who was sent by the Amity Foundation, said: "Teaching is a profession that requires lifelong learning. Coming to China to teach is also a kind of learning." Many foreign teachers share this sentiment, "It's a whole new way of understanding China and the Chinese people. It's also a necessary internship for teachers who are teaching a second language."
Pat confessed, "Life requires a lot of experiences, in fact we have learned a lot from Chinese teachers, you have 50-60 students in a class, it's really hard to teach."
Lauren, Deputy Chief Leader of the Canadian Lecturer Corps, said proudly, "This is the fourth time I've been to China. This place gives me the opportunity to interact with some of the best students in the world. Helping my foreign counterparts to improve their English gives me a sense of accomplishment every time, and I am richer for it." Chief Leader Donna was even more excited: "I saw a woman selling tomatoes, and while she was haggling, her cell phone rang in her basket, and after she finished the call, she went back to selling vegetables. The primitive and the modern, the traditional and the transformative, are so harmoniously combined. I am amazed by the changes in China. I want to see China's ancient traditions, and even more, I want to see China's development." No wonder Sandra said, "When you ask me why I came to China, it's like asking me why I breathe, because I love the program and I came."
Not saying goodbye when parting
The fifth batch of foreign teachers of the program of introducing foreign intelligence to train primary and middle school English teachers are about to leave for their home countries. When bidding farewell, neither the guests nor the hosts say goodbye - Goodbye style. Because this universally welcomed program will continue to be run by the provincial education department for a long time, and many foreign teachers who are on their way home hope to come back in the future.
"I'm retiring this year and will have more time for this work. I'm even thinking of applying for a position in China after I retire solo." Donna, who is unmarried, also whispered to me, "My mom is afraid I'll move to China. I told her that email and phone calls are easy now, and it's only a ten-hour flight back." She is close to us compared to the sky-high distances between countries!
"In our training we found that English proficiency is higher for high school teachers than for middle school teachers, and for middle school teachers than for elementary school teachers. In fact, the level of elementary school teachers determines the growth of children's life. More attention should be paid to the training of elementary school teachers. Especially the pronunciation of foreign languages, it is hard to correct in the future if you pronounce it wrongly when you are young."
"Children have a gift for language, and foreign language teaching in Canada starts from kindergarten. Can China make reference to it?"
"Training principals is more important than training teachers, because the concept of principals determines the concept of running schools. In Canada, the first thing is to train principals."
Not long ago, when the vice governor of Jiangsu Province, Wang Min, and the director of the provincial education department, Wang Rong, went to Beijing to report on their work, Vice Premier Li Lanqing, who has always attached importance to foreign language teaching, instructed that foreign language teaching should be extended downward, and that advanced teaching methods and tools should be used....... The leader's instruction coincided with the foreign teachers' suggestion. Re-examining the program, those in charge of the authorities felt both relieved and more concerned about the long way to go.
With China's accession to the WTO approaching, the globalization of the economy will inevitably require to speed up the historical process of internationalization of education, non-English teachers of English and professional English teacher training, but also has shown an imperative development trend. In Jiangsu Province, the more economically developed areas are already a step ahead: Suzhou is already experimenting with foreign language training for non-English-speaking professional teachers; Wuxi has already taken action - 10 mathematics, science, chemistry and biology teachers in the city who will be teaching in English are about to go to Canada for further training with the help of Ms. Donna's enthusiasm. How to steadily develop such a huge follow-up project through pilot projects, and how to improve foreign language training for teachers at all levels and in all categories according to their needs, are all worthy of further study and research, and efforts to put into practice.
One step ahead of the others is the only way to seize the opportunity; one beat faster is the only way to occupy the high ground. Our education is truly modernization-oriented, world-oriented, future-oriented channel has been opened, the wind is sailing, just break the waves forward!
(China Education News, August 18)
[close window]