STARTALK Chinese Language Teachers
Summer Institute

STARTALK and the China Program Center at UMass Boston offer two, grant-funded Summer Institutes for Teachers of Chinese titled Integrating Culture into the Mandarin Language Curriculum and Methods and Materials for Teaching Mandarin along with a practice-teaching course titled Practicum/Field Experience for Teaching Mandarin, and a new course, Independent Study (for Teachers of Mandarin Language).

Programs

Summer Institute I: Integrating Culture into the Language Curriculum (for teachers of Mandarin)
Credit: APLING 612 - 3 Graduate Credits or
Non-credit: PRFTRN 026 - 37 PDPs
Location: Bentley University
The focus for 2010 is authentic Chinese crafts, songs, poems and dance from all regions of China. A visiting scholar from Shaanxi Normal University will be at the institute to train teachers in these areas.
This course takes a hands-on approach and bridges the gap between theoreticians and classroom practitioners. Participants can tie in their critical understanding of cross-cultural perspectives into numerous aspects of the language curriculum. They explore how culture has been taught traditionally and how cultural values are embodied in authentic documents. They gain awareness of potential cultural conflicts between their own culture and the culture they teach or their students’ culture. Discussion and research are directed towards developing instructional units based on a large variety of authentic documents that reflect multicultural diversity and help students discover and resolve cultural conflicts.
Participants are required to attend a Follow-up Day on October 2 at UMass Boston.
Summer Institute II: Methods and Materials in Foreign Language Instruction - Mandarin
Credit: APLING 611 - 3 Graduate Credits or
Non-credit: PRFTRN 027 - 75 PDPs
Location: Bentley University
This course seeks
  1. to relate methods of teaching a foreign language to current Second Language Acquisition (SLA), research and theory and evaluate these methods;
  2. to discuss classroom problems in light of current SLA theory;
  3. to look critically at textbooks and create new, specific course material to be tested and shared among all class participants.
The course’s hands on approach bridges the gap between theoreticians and classroom practitioners: Students are encouraged through reading, discussion, teaching demonstrations, and classroom observations to explore and define the language teacher’s role and to question their experience as language learners and teachers.
Participants are required to attend a Follow-up Day on October 2 at UMass Boston.
Summer Institute III: Practicum/Field Experience for Teaching Mandarin
Credit: APLING 698 - 3 Graduate Credits or
Non-credit: PRFTRN 028 - 50 PDPs
Location: Bentley University
Pre-requisite: APLING 611 or 612 or equivalent.
Participants will spend 10 days at the STARTALK Mandarin Summer Camp for Students Grades 6-12. Together with master camp teachers and summer institute instructors, participants will develop differentiated, authentic materials for lessons for an interactive, investigative classroom for students. Participants will conduct lessons in these classrooms with four levels of Chinese language students.
This course takes a hands-on approach and bridges the gap between theoreticians and classroom practitioners. Participants can tie in their critical understanding of cross-cultural perspectives into numerous aspects of the language curriculum. They explore how culture has been taught traditionally and how cultural values are embodied in authentic documents. They gain awareness of potential cultural conflicts between their own culture and the culture they teach or their students’ culture. Discussion and research are directed towards developing instructional units based on a large variety of authentic documents that reflect multicultural diversity and help students discover and resolve cultural conflicts.
Participants are required to attend a Follow-up Day on October 2 at UMass Boston.
Independent Study (for Teachers of Mandarin Language)
Credit: APLING 696 - 3 Graduate Credits
Non-credit: PRFTRN 095 - Variable PDPs
Location: Bentley University
This new course is intended to expand the professional development offerings and provide the opportunity to practice teaching at a higher level, develop in-depth/specific curricula for classrooms, pursue second language theories to prepare differentiated learning experiences for American classrooms. Our goal is to actively recruit teachers of Mandarin to advance their study and practice of foreign language instruction using the STARTALK model and meeting the National Standards of Foreign Language Education.
Teachers of Chinese Language may make proposals to work on in depth projects focusing on course and materials development, differentiated and student-centered learning, and cultural studies.
This course will provide opportunities for students to work independently in one of the following areas: Applied Linguistics, Second Language and Bilingual Methodology, and Cross-Cultural Studies. Students who wish to do an independent study should submit a study plan which should include: a brief description of their area of interest and an outline of the topic they plan to research in terms of content, time and the structure of their project. All research plans for an Independent Study should be approved by their advisor (the director of STARTALK programs) and the GPD.
Participants are required to attend a Follow-up Day on October 2 at UMass Boston.

Credits

Attendees will earn three graduate credits and PDPs from the Applied Linguistics Graduate Department, University of Massachusetts Boston upon completion of each summer institute.

Housing

Chinese Language Teachers Summer Institutes I-III are offered as residential programs for students living 50 miles or further from Bentley University in Waltham, MA. A limited number of rooms have been reserved for participants requiring accommodations.