WORKSHOP HIGHLIGHTS
Overview
As part of our mission to serve the development and enhancement of Asian language and area studies in the United States, the University of Hawai'i National Foreign Language Resource Center and National Resource Center for East Asian Studies, with the support of the National Security Education Program (NSEP), jointly propose to offer 2 two-week intensive language courses to non-native-speaking teachers currently or imminently in service teaching Chinese and Korean at the K-16 level, with a focus on teachers in underserved areas such as Alaska and the Pacific. The intensive courses, to be delivered entirely over the World Wide Web using a tested and proven pedagogic model, will focus on the development and/or maintenance of communicative language skills at the Advanced level, with strong emphasis on written communication meeting high standards of literacy.
Participants
Participants (15 in each of two courses, one course per language) will be selected for each two-week course on the basis of professional need. The target audience comprises non-native-speaking teachers, including heritage speakers of limited proficiency in the written language, whose professional qualifications would be boosted by additional training in written expression. There will be no tuition charges for these special non credit-bearing courses; instruction will be financially supported by the sponsoring Centers.
Content
Participants will complete four thematic units based on authentic materials for an equivalent of thirty contact hours of instruction. A daily time commitment of approximately 4 hours of on- and off-line computer work will be expected. The Web-based courses, each of which uses a UH-developed CD-ROM as its "core textbook", also feature a robust interactive component, so that participants will form an online learning community in which they will perform role-play tasks, hold discussions, and share compositions. The "online community" of the classroom will remain open for one year beyond the intensive course, so that participants may return at will to explore the course environment further and/or to discuss topics of professional interest.
Application & Selection
The application process will be competitive, by committee review, with applicants demonstrating the greatest professional need receiving priority. "Professional need" shall be deemed to include the need for teaching resources in the applicant’s location versus available means to develop those teaching resources, as well as applicant’s demonstrated need for language maintenance and development.
Features of these Web-based Chinese and Korean workshopsIn each course, participants will find:
- Core course text is a multimedia CD-ROM comprising lessons based on authentic texts (Korean) or video interviews (Chinese)
- Use of Web and CD-ROM is combined, with a mixture of activities
- A balance of tasks performed independently and tasks involving communication with fellow participants in Web-based forums
- Carefully designed lesson stages leading participants from pre-reading through skill-getting and composition
- Daily attention and support from the instructor through the Grammar Clinic and the "What's New?" forum