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Online Research Language Centers in Taiwan Chinese Language Teachers

Association Learning Chinese Online Chinese Language Association Government Official Organization Overseas Language Institutes Academic Institutes

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What to look in a language center? Faculty: quality and requirements for a language

teacher, the organization of the language center Course Design: levels, terms, language and culture Teaching Methods: lectures, drills, interaction Numbers and Nationalities of the Students Testing and Assessment: CPT (Chinese Proficiency

Test), HSK (漢語水平考試 ) Textbooks: 視聽華語 , 今日台灣 , Practical Chinese,

Integrated Chinese Facilities: computer, multimedia classroom, internet Center Information: languages provided

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What to look in an association?

Purpose of the association Members of the association Resource and publication of the

association: online course, conferences, papers, reports, discussion on teaching methodology

Student homework sharing The relationship between the development

of CSL and the association

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What to look in an academic Institute?

Course Design: what kinds of courses are offered? What kinds of training are required?

Faculty: background of the faculty Connection: the institute and the market of

CSL (language centers), other universities Resource: Online, libraries (books and

journals) Facilities: computer room, seminar room,

multimedia room, conference room Internationalization and Achievements

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What should be in your mind? What CSL is, and its meaning Your competitiveness (競爭力 ): you have

noticed that many centers and institutes offer CSL courses, and their courses are well-designed

Your competitors are other trained language teachers from these language centers and institutes in Taiwan AND Mainland Chinese

The motivation of the learners How can you win in the CSL job market?

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Career Planning Foreign language skills: if you plan to work

abroad, learn English, Japanese, Spanish, French, Korean, Indonesian, Vietnamese, Thai, Hindi…etc. now. The more, the better

Teaching Experience: the more, the better. Language buddies or pen pals數位教學技能 : apply your computer skills 化被動為主動 : visit or audit language

centers

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Language courses offered Elementary Modern Chinese Intermediate Modern Chinese Advanced Modern Chinese Advanced Readings in Modern Chinese Advanced Conversational Chinese Formal Chinese Writing and Speaking Business Chinese Cantonese Beginning/Intermediate Taiwanese

Conversation Readings in Modern Chinese Literature and

Culture

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Simplified Characters and Pinyin Simplified character is not a big deal

Learning Pinyin is very easy: b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh

ch sh r z c s Exercise: jin1 ri4 de jing4 zheng1 li4 xin1 xiang3 shi4 cheng2 ci2 bei1 de xiong1 huai2 xue2 yi3 zhi4 yong4 zi4 ji3 de sheng1 ya2 gui1

hua4

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Language and so-called Culture

Language carries culture Leaning a language is also learning

the culture What is culture? Phonetics and Grammar of a language

are concrete Culture is abstract Goals of TCSL: standard and authentic

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Training of Mandarin Teachers

The impact of teaching theories: proficiency is everything, and language teaching is functional only

The background and knowledge of Mandarin teachers: the discipline of Chinese literature and history

Which one is more important for a language teacher? Teaching theories or knowledge of Chinese literature and history?

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Technology What do you think about Computer-

assisted instruction? What about Multi-media instruction? How much can the computer-assisted

and multi-media do in TCSL? Can online learning tools replace

Mandarin teachers and classroom learning?

What can technologies do in TCSL?

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Conclusion The promotion of Mandarin teachers The training of Mandarin teachers:

linguistic training (phonetics, syntax, semantics), and teaching methodology, PLUS the discipline of Chinese literature and history

Mandarin teachers are capable of teaching language and literature courses