On March 23 2018, The Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine (CITCM) held a one-day teacher training session for all of its teachers and volunteers. A total of 120 colleagues participated in the training.
Professor Yinong Xu, Executive Director of CITCM, opened the training by delivering a short speech which was very inspiring for the teachers. Jing Fang, Chinese lecturer from Oxford University, and Rhoda Pennington, Chinese teacher from Highgate Primary School, are both specialists in the field of Mandarin teaching and were invited to deliver lectures at the event. Jing Fang delivered a lecture titled ‘Right Time, Right Place, Right People-Oral Chinese Practice Based on Sentence Pattern but not Grammar’. From the perspective of her own teaching practice, she analyzed the learning characteristics of British university students, the practical problems she encountered in Chinese teaching and she finished by offering some valuable suggestions to our teachers and volunteers. Rhoda Pennington focused on the topic of ‘Positive Behavior Management and How to Build a Respectful Relationship in the classroom’. She explained how to guide students to behave well in the classroom and how to establish positive interactions with students.
Members of the CITCM management staff also spoke at the event. Professor Rui Wang, Co-director of CITCM, shared his personal experiences of living in Canada and the UK. While Jiaqi Guo, Chinese Lector at CITCM, elaborated on the ‘Influencing Factors in Second Language Acquisition’. All of the teachers and volunteers exchanged ideas on this topic as in-depth discussions were conducted during the lecture.
Before Professor Tingting Liu, co-director of CITCM, made her closing statement, teachers and volunteers exchanged ideas and shared their teaching experiences.
At the end of the training session, CITCM teachers and volunteers spoke very highly about the event, with one volunteer stating that “this training targeted crucial aspects of language teaching and was very practical in delivery’. The skills and knowledge learnt during the training will be of great value as the teachers continue to work in primary and secondary schools throughout London. CITCM works with more than 60 schools in London. We attach great importance to teaching quality and consider this training an integral part of teacher development.