GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES IN CHINESE LANGUAGE
AND CULTURE INSTRUCTION
Alice Zhang
Chinese Language
Teaching Expert / Co-Director, Center for Chinese Language Teacher
Certification and Development (CCLTCD) at the University of Maryland
This presentation will review the challenges that have been
addressed by the Center for Chinese Language Teacher Certification and
Development (CCLTCD) in the College of
Education at the University of Maryland. The CCLTCD was founded in 2009, with funding
from Hanban and the College of Education,
after the University received permission to add Chinese as one of the foreign
languages in the Foreign Language Education program. The mission of CCLTCD is “to set a national
and international standard of excellence for Chinese language teacher
preparation, certification, and further development.” To accomplish this mission, it set as its
primary goal to prepare excellent teachers while meeting the requirements for
teacher certification in the State of Maryland.
In order to achieve this goal, one of the challenges facing
CCLTCD was to develop a variety of program options that would attract and meet
the needs of the different potential students interested in becoming Chinese
teachers. Other challenges included instituting
appropriate recruitment strategies, meeting the admission requirement
constraints of a prestigious university, and modifying foreign language
education courses to meet the demands of a more unique language.
With the State of Maryland
and the University cognizant of the shortage of qualified teachers to meet the
rising interest in Chinese language, the CCLTCD has addressed these challenges
as its first students enrolled in the program.
This presentation will address the successes and the challenges still
remaining.