Advancing Chinese language education in Texas

Advancing Chinese language education in Texas
Led by Rice’s Meng Yeh, group receives prestigious national grant

BY JESSICA STARK
Rice News Staff

Led by Rice lecturer of Chinese Meng Yeh, the Chinese Language Teachers Association of Texas (CLTA-Texas) has been awarded a national grant to provide Chinese education programs for Texas students and teachers. It is the first such grant, a STARTALK or “Start Talking” grant, to be awarded in Texas.

STARTALK was launched in 2006 by the National Security Language Initiative to increase the number and expertise of students and teachers in critical languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Persian, Hindi and Urdu.   

“The grant will be a great help in advancing Chinese language education in Texas,” said Yeh, the president of CLTA-Texas and a faculty member of Rice’s Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian Studies. “The main purpose is to introduce the language and culture in a real and practical way to middle and high school students and teachers.”

The grant brings to more than $500,000 in outside funding that Rice Chinese language faculty have received in the past year for their efforts in education outreach. In July, Lily Chen, senior lecturer of Chinese, the Chao Center and the Susanne M. Glasscock School of Continuing Studies received a Freeman Grant to establish the Institute for Chinese Language Teaching, which trains Chinese-language proficient individuals to teach in middle or high schools.

“I too wanted to do something to improve K-12 education,” Yeh said. “It’s a good time to take the momentum behind the interest in Asia and turn it into an opportunity to serve those students and teachers who want to be better global citizens.”

The STARTALK grant will fund a summer camp for middle and high school students and a workshop for teachers in Dallas at no cost to participants. The program plans to serve 120 students and 50 teachers.

The four-week summer camp for middle and high school students will immerse them in Chinese culture and language through ice-breaking activities that will allow them to apply their new skills and knowledge. Like most summer camps, there will also be educational games and competitions with opportunities to win prizes such as iPods.

There is no language proficiency requirement for students, but an oral proficiency exam will be conducted before the camps begin to place the students in appropriate class levels: beginning, beginning-high and intermediate.

“China plays an important role in the global economy, so we need to educate our children on the culture,” Yeh said. “No matter which industry they go into, they will be working with all kinds of people. They need to know how to understand other cultures and how to interact.”

In addition to the student component, the CLTA-Texas will offer the Chinese Teacher Professional Workshop to improve K-12 teachers’ pedagogical skills. The workshop provides 90 hours of instruction on topics such as curriculum design, teaching Chinese as a second language and Chinese language structure. Right away, teachers will have the chance to apply what they’ve learned by implementing their newly developed lesson plans during the students’ summer camp.

Before taking part in the summer program, teachers must complete 90 hours of instruction.

Yeh said that CLTA-Texas plans to apply for another STARTALK grant for summer 2009 to expand the student and teacher programs to Houston, Austin and San Antonio.

For more information or to take part in the program, e-mail tx-startalk@hotmail.com.