On March 7, the Annual “Second Language Matters” Conference was held at Fantasyland Hotel at West Edmonton Mall. The CIE was one of the sponsors for this conference which was attended by more than 400 second language teachers, among whom are a growing number of teachers of Chinese language.
At the conference, there were two sessions provided that related to the teaching of Chinese language. Dr. Mian Mian Xie gave a presentation on the use of mini-video in the Chinese language classroom. Her vivid teaching examples attracted a lot of interest and attention from the audience.
A second presentation was made by Dr. Wen Xiaodong, a visiting professor from Beijing Normal University. His topic was on the development and enhancement of thinking skills in the Chinese language classroom, which will serve to make the language learning more effective. His discussion was well received by the teachers. Dr. Wen will be providing a series of training sessions to Chinese language teachers in the area, during this coming spring.