Recently, the first topic training course on the construction of teaching resources for international Chinese language education in 2022, the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching advanced workshop, was successfully held. This activity was hosted by the Center for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC) and the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching (ISCLT), and organized by the world's largest international Chinese language education network platform, "ChinesePlus".
The 6-day training course aims to further strengthen the construction of teaching resources and teams and to continuously improve the quality of teaching materials and resources through study and exchange. The training course was held online, attracting a total of 450 representatives from 236 project teams responsible for the project "Construction of Teaching Resources for Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education", including colleges, vocational colleges, publishing houses, film and television media institutions, etc.
Song Yongbo, Deputy Director-General of CLEC, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. He focused on current achievements in the construction of teaching resources for international Chinese language education, and conducted in-depth exchanges with students on common problems in the compilation and publication of textbooks through vivid and specific cases. He expressed his hope that students could seriously participate in the training course, actively discuss and exchange, strive to improve the quality of resource construction, realize the transformation and reform of teaching resources, and create a new generation of popular and high-quality teaching materials.
Han Chunyong, Director of the Comprehensive Coordination Office of the Department of National Textbooks of the Ministry of Education, introduced the progress of work on textbooks and the new situation facing this work. He proposed that the working concept of construction of teaching resources for international Chinese language education should be innovative, and be good at extracting wonderful stories that reflect the changes in China today. It should also tell these stories in a way that learners enjoy and are satisfied with, thereby strengthening the awareness of high-quality products, making high-quality classic teaching materials, and providing learners with more choices.
The training course invited five experts to give live lectures on international Chinese language textbook compilation concepts, application and interpretation of guidance documents, digital resource construction and other five aspects. The experts guided students toward deep understanding of the training content through online interaction and group discussions.
Cui Yonghua, Professor of Beijing Language and Culture University, took his own experience compiling textbooks as an example and spoke from the perspective of textbook compilation in the new era, and emphasized respecting international Chinese language teaching rules and cultivating learners' cross-cultural communication skills. At the same time, he stressed that attention should be paid to the compilation of textbooks, the usage of good cultural content, achieve "quality over quantity", and the stimulation of learners' interest.
Wang Hongbin, Professor of Beijing Language and Culture University, and Zu Xiaomei, Professor of Nankai University, both chief editors, gave an in-depth interpretation of the content and application of the Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards for International Chinese Language Education and The Framework of Reference for Chinese Culture and Society Teaching in International Chinese Language Education. They put forward practical application guidance for the research and development of construction of teaching resources for international Chinese language education from the perspectives of research and development purposes, writing principles, theoretical basis, and content framework.
From the perspective of digital resource construction needs, Song Jihua, Professor of Beijing Normal University, focused on the overall trend of international Chinese language education in the current stage of digital transformation by saying that is necessary to make full use of digital software products, application-based service platforms and other tools in the era of digital media. He emphasized the beneficial inspiration of interdisciplinary education to international Chinese language education, saying we should make useful and convenient-to-use products.
Liang Yu, Professor of Editorship of Beijing Language and Culture University, made an overall review of the development status of teaching resources for international Chinese language education. She expounded the necessity and importance of simultaneous compilation and research on teaching resources construction from the aspects of teaching content, teaching methods, and overseas local textbook compilation principles. At the same time, she stated that the analysis of various types of local Chinese language textbook research and development provides a cognitive direction for research and development innovation.
During the exchange part, students actively participated in the seminars and communicated with experts on their respective concerns. Many sparks of wisdom flashed through the exchange, which led to more helpful ideas. The "message area" of the live broadcast room also showed a lot of intentional messages: "Through the training course, I have deepened my knowledge and understanding of the content and principles of the grading standard system, and learned about the construction status of digital teaching resources". "I am more confident in international Chinese language education, have a clearer understanding of the requirements for standardization and specialization in textbook compilation, and have also been inspired in how to use Chinese language resources and build a resource database." "I have a deeper understanding of the 'Chinese + Vocational Skills' teaching resources construction action" and so on.
Through this training, everyone reached a consensus on three points: first, to realize that international Chinese language education has entered a new stage of development; second, to realize that we must be determined to implement the new development concept and have a clearer understanding of the requirements for standardization, specialization, systematization, and digitization of textbook compilation; third, to realize that we must build a new development pattern in practice.
The students said that the theme of this training course is scientific and reasonable, and the content is pragmatic. This course achieved "thinking about what teachers think, and solving teachers' confusion", which is a "much-needed rain after a long drought" to the project. After the course, students still wanted to learn and expressed their expectations for further study and exchange. They hoped that under the leadership of the CLEC, they could forge ahead together and jointly build a community for the construction and application of high-quality teaching resources for international Chinese language education. (source from Center for Language Education and Cooperation)
