Recently The 3rd Chinese Innovation Forum was successfully held at University of Washington at Seattle (UW), and co-hosted by Middlebury Institute of International Studies (MIIS). From Monterey to Seattle, the forum always stays to true to our mission which is to sow the seed of awesomeness to the innovative educators in Chinese language teaching and learning, and thereby promoting sustainable development in our field.
As distinguished scholars in second and foreign language education, Dr. Cornelius C. Kubler and Dr. Aida Walqui delivered thought-provoking keynote presentations respectively on how to construct productive interaction in second language class, and tradition and innovation in Chinese language learning and teaching. Following the presentations, all the attendees seized the moment to raise questions on, for instance, the strategies of how to give activity directions in Chinese for novice learners.
In our innovation forum, what matters is not only what the educators take away but also what they bring in. All the participants, the Chinese educators from all over the country, from K-12 to college-level, were divided into different groups in advance according to their pedagogical and research interests. In the afternoon trade-fair session, each group was not only able to showcase and demonstrate their own innovative Chinese teaching and learning design (e.g., project-based activities, Chinese ancient poem pedagogy, scaffolding strategies, tech-assisted Chinese teaching etc.), but circulate around other showcase tables to learn and to potentially provide feedback. Most significantly, no words were strong enough to express our gratitude to the keynote speakers’ participation and their constructive advice for each “innovation-swap” table.
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Dr. Kubler pinpointed the essentially of continuous innovation. The Chinese innovation forum always tries providing a platform for Chinese educators to learn and share, to build on the peers’ efforts and make pedagogical innovations. Look forward to seeing increasingly leading innovative Chinese educators in the upcoming 4th Chinese Innovation Forum held at Chinese American International School at San Francisco in 2018.
“There are remarks that sow, remarks that reap.” -Ludwig Wittgenstein
