山穷水尽疑无路柳暗花明又一村 - umd college of education.doc

Teaching Heritage Language Learners Translated by Qiong Xia Like most of the Chinese weekend schools across the U.S., the Chinese weekend school in Howard County in Maryland offers Chinese classes on weekends. The enrolled students in the school are mostly Chinese heritage language learners (CHLLs), who are the children of Chinese immigrant families. The Chinese teachers in the school are from China, and they finished their college education in China and pursued their advanced degrees in the U.S. Most of them have their full-time jobs on weekdays. There are also some community volunteers who teach the students. Because of their Chinese educational and cultural backgrounds, the teachers tend to use more traditional teaching methods with which they were taught in China to teach the CHLLs. Although these teachers work very hard and try their best to help the students with Chinese learning, there exists a conflict between their teaching styles and the American teachers who the CHLLs have on weekdays in the public schools. These CHLLs were sent to the Chinese weekend school at a young age. However, with their ages increase, their motivation and interests in Chinese learning decrease. It has been a puzzling issue for both the Chinese teachers and parents for a long time. To discuss and address the issue, Howard Chinese School invited Ms. Alice Zhang, the co-director of the Center for Chinese Language Teacher Certification and Development in the College of Education at the University of Maryland, to give a professional workshop for the Chinese teachers in the School. Ms. Zhang discussed the issue from the following four aspects: The Chinese schools; the research on CHLLs; family, children and adolescence development and identity development. Teaching methodology adaptation; the commonalities between the East and West. The Teaching standards for heritage language learners in the U. S.; textbook, lesson planning and classroom activities. The design of effective Chine