This training course will be run as a series of short intensive seminars for 6 hours a week over the course of two semesters. It is intended to prepare persons to teach Mandarin in the local Caribbean school system, and so will focus on improving language proficiency, the cultural knowledge of China, as well as providing training in the teaching of the language. It is therefore expected that persons wishing to enrol in the course have an HSK level of 4 or above, or the equivalent based on experience or as assessed through another Chinese language proficiency course. This course will serve as the prerequisite for a future one-year Special Teaching Certificate or Diploma in Mandarin offered out of the School of Education at the Cave Hill Campus.
On successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:
• Write Mandarin at a pre-intermediate proficiency level.
• Speak Mandarin at an intermediate proficiency level.
• Demonstrate proficiency in the comprehension of Mandarin at an intermediate level.
• Read Mandarin at an intermediate proficiency level.
• Use teaching techniques and strategies taught to engage students in mandarin classes.
• Use the Biography Driven Approach to teach Mandarin language and culture at the primary, secondary, and tertiary level.
• Individuals who have existing proficiency in the Chinese language and culture.
• Individuals who wish to continue pursuing and diversifying their options in teaching Chinese language and culture.
As the Confucius Institute continues to support the efforts of the Cave Hill Campus in broadening the scope of its activities in the teaching of Chinese language and culture, it has become apparent that there is an urgent need to increase the cadre of teachers of Chinese language and culture from within the region. The projected demand for trained teachers in Chinese simply cannot be met solely through the assignment of teachers from China. Moreover, this is not the ideal path on which to proceed if the region is to take greater responsibility for its own teaching requirements. The need for persons qualified to teach the Mandarin language and culture is also expected to increase dramatically once the Caribbean Examinations Council introduces the Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) curriculum in Mandarin. Currently there are nine (9) CIs/ classrooms in the Caribbean region namely Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. As a result, the number of persons learning Mandarin has been increasingly growing while the number of qualified teachers is still limited. Therefore, the aim of this course is to address the need for qualified teachers who are proficient in the Mandarin language.
Language and Culture:
Persons wishing to pursue this course should fall into one of the following categories:
• Completed the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK 4) certificate and above;
• Completed first degrees in China and are proficient in Chinese;
• Completed the Minor in Chinese (Faculty of Humanities and Education, Cave Hill)
• Other qualified persons (based on Chinese learning experience, or a Chinese proficiency test, other than HSK)
This course will be delivered predominantly online by means of seminars. However, there will be a one-week face-to–face immersion component of the course. There will be a combination of pedagogical and linguistic training. Students will be engaged in pair and group interactions to emphasise peer learning. Instructors will utilise audio-visual media to enhance the learning experience. Students will participate in oral presentations to evaluate their oral proficiency progress. The course will also employ the expertise of guest speakers to determine students’ knowledge of the language and its associative culture.
Dr Stacy Denny studied Linguistics at UWI at the undergraduate level where she became the first student to be awarded First class honours in Linguistics. She then received the Commonwealth Scholarship to pursue a Masters in Linguistics at the University of Cambridge in England. From there she moved on to the University of Exeter to pursue a Doctorate in Education- Teaching English as a Foreign language, where she received the School of Education and Life- Long Learning Award for students at the graduate level. She was also the first person to graduate from the newly formed programme. Her research interests include teacher attitudes to non-standard dialect, teacher proficiency, language policy and ESL teaching and learning. Currently she heads the Cave Hill’s Centre for English Language Learning and Teaching which allows her to formulate niche programmes for non-native speakers of English, design specific methodologies to address the issues of the nonnative English speaker, train ESL teachers and teach and interact with non-native English speakers, while also attempting to carry out research for improving the field.
Dr Li Renyan is a native Chinese speaker, Mandarin level 2B teacher, who has majored in Chinese Constitutional Law and Administrative Law. Her interests cover international Chinese education management, international Chinese teaching methods, Chinese Curricular, international Chinese teacher localization, localization of international Chinese syllabus, etc., and she has participated in related scientific research projects. Her experiences of teaching in Barbados include: 2 years teaching Chinese at the Ellerslie School, 2 years of teaching at St. Stephens Primary School, 3 years teaching Chinese at the UWI Cave Hill Campus for credit course along with teaching Chinese special interest classes as well.
Renyan, Li: li.renyan2@cavehill.uwi.edu
Tel: (246) 629-4969
Stacy Denny: stacy.denny@cavehill.uwi.edu
Tel: (246) 417-4816 | PBX: (246) 417-4000
