Re-imagining the Teaching Materials & Pedagogy of International Chinese Teaching and Promoting the Dissemination of Chinese Language and Culture – the 10th International Conference on Teaching and Learning Chinese Commences in Shenyang

Chen Zhenggao, Governor of Liaoning Province making a speech

From August 18th to 20th, the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching and Hanban co-sponsored the 10th International Conference on Teaching and Learning Chinese in Shenyang in China’s Liaoning province. The theme of the conference was “New Teaching Materials and Pedagogy in International Chinese Teaching and Learning”. Important guests, including leaders of Liaoning provincial government, members from the department of education of Liaoning province, the Northern United Publishing & Media (Group) Company Limited (NP&M) and provincial higher education institutions attended the opening ceremony. Nearly 400 members and authors of academic papers from 38 countries, such as the US and Canada, as well as 154 foreign and Chinese Taipei delegates also participated in the conference.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Chen Zhenggao, Governor of Liaoning Province gave a welcome speech and praised the achievements of Confucius Institutes and international Chinese teaching. Chen also expressed his expectations in regards to the conference and what it aimed to accomplish.

Xu Lin, General Director of Confucius Institute Headquarters making a speech

Mdm. Xu Lin, Director-General of Hanban and General Director of Confucius Institute Headquarters, pointed out that since the conclusion of the 2008 conference, there have been 4 significant achievements made concerning Confucius Institutes and international Chinese teaching with the vigorous support of members of all countries of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching: first, the steady development of Confucius Institutes and increasing number of Confucius Classrooms; second, the strengthening of the contingent of Chinese teachers and the improvement in the quality of teachers; third, the reinforcement on the development of multilingual Chinese teaching materials and increasing in the coverage rate of Chinese teaching materials; four, the increasing awareness of the Confucius Institute brand and the increased ability to promote cultural dissemination.

Xu Jialu, Chairman of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching making an opening remark

Mr. Xu Jialu, Vice chairmen of the Standing Committees of the 9th and 10th National People's Congress and Chairman of the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching, stated that the 10th International Conference on Teaching and Learning Chinese is a gathering of the elites of international Chinese teaching as well as an exhibition of the fruits of labor in international Chinese teaching. He stressed that the research on the teaching of Chinese language conducted by the International Society for Chinese Language Teaching will influence Chinese education in an imperceptible way. International teaching of Chinese is an opportunity for Chinese citizens to explore the world, and for international citizens to increase their knowledge about China and it also will become a microcosm and model of the reforming of Chinese education in the next decade or even longer time. He also stated his hope that the conference would serve as a morale booster to encourage people and institutions around the world to increase their support of teaching Chinese, particularly in terms of human resources, and teaching materials.