CLTA-ISCLTL 2014

Symposium keynotes

Paul Sandrock, Director of Education at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), directs this national organization’s professional development and initiatives around standards, curriculum, instruction, and performance assessment. Previously, Paul was Assistant Director of Content and Learning at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) , beginning that state’s implementation of Common Core State Standards, coordinating the areas of English language arts, mathematics, international education, and world languages. He earlier served as the DPI state-wide consultant for world languages. Paul taught Spanish for 16 years in middle school and high school and authored The Keys to Assessing Language Performance and Planning Curriculum for Learning World Languages.

Using Standards to Focus Chinese Language Learning K-16: Standards identify what students should know and be able to do as they progress in their language learning from their first experience through professional applications of their skills.  Emphasizing the three modes of communication (interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational), language teachers can develop students’ essential 21^st century skills of communication, literacy, collaboration, critical thinking, and a global competence.  Assessment of language performance makes the standards real in the classroom, focusing instruction for teachers and learning for students.  Explore how to assess learners’ performance in a standards-based program, engaging and motivating students at all levels.

Prof. Shou-hsin Teng, Chunyuan Christian University, Taiwan. A native of Taiwan, received his doctoral degree in linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1973 and taught Chinese language and linguistics at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, from 1973 till 1995, when he accepted an appointment at the National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, to undertake the establishment of the first ever graduate degree program in teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language. He retired from the latter in 2009, and is currently a Chair Professor of Chinese Linguistics at Chungyuan Christian University in Taiwan. Prof. Teng had been an active member of CLTA, serving as the editor of its JCLTA for many years and the founder of its Newsletter. He was also the 2nd recipient of the Walton Lifetime Achievement Award, CLTA. His recent publications include A Pedagogical Grammar of Chinese as a Second Language, Beijing Language University Press, 2010 and Studies on Modern Chinese Syntax, Beijing Language University Press, 2012.

Globalization of the Chinese Language: Facts and Fantasies: The recent surge in the number of learners of Chinese as a second/foreign language world-wide has prompted various responses from different quarters in the homelands of the language, viz. Mainland China and Taiwan. Some of these responses touch on the very nature and properties of the Chinese language that can lead to an erroneous representation of the Chinese language to most learners of the language world wide. It is imperative that we in the field must face the reality, linguistic or otherwise, squarely and not indulge in what I call fantasies about the Chinese language. This presentation will also examine the various aspects of a call, on Mainland China, for the globalization of the Chinese language as well as a number of possible implications for our field outside the homelands of the language. In particular, I shall speak harshly against our past, current and future reliance on the supply of Chinese language instructors from Taiwan and Mainland China. (PPT in English, spoken in Mandarin)