Word cards, pictures, slides, multimedia, singing and games … various skills were presented, with teachers of Chinese performing enthusiastically and Thai students listening carefully. After more than a month of competitions, the final round of the First Teaching Skills Competition for Teachers of Chinese in Southern Thailand, sponsored by the Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn High School in Thailand, came to an end. More than 30 teachers of Chinese from both China and Thailand showed their talents in Chinese teaching, and all Thai students present were deeply impressed by the Chinese language and culture.
“A wonderful class presentation comes only from daily accumulation,” first-prize winner Zhang Tingting said, “Our students are young, and creative teaching methods are very important, so, in order to attract them and convey them the beauty of Chinese language and culture, we need to employ more modern multimedia technology and use simple words,” she continued.
“This competition is entirely based on the real classroom situation, and from lesson preparation to lecture, from preparing aids to actual teaching, each step is essential to the success of Chinese teaching,” said Jiang Aichun, Chinese Director of the Confucius Classroom at the school, “The competition is held to fully enhance the Chinese teachers’ ability of teaching Chinese in southern Thailand. At the same time, it also gives them an opportunity to display their talents and learn from each other. ”
The teaching facilities of private schools in southern Thailand are diverse in quality and it takes them a long time to update their Chinese textbooks. In 2017, Sichuan Xinhua Distribution Group cooperated with the Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn School in establishing the Xinhua Intelligent Chinese Research Base in southern Thailand to digitalize the local international Chinese education, and to rapidly develop Chinese language teaching in primary and secondary schools there. At present, many schools in south Thailand have adopted “Easy Chinese” digital teaching materials and installed multimedia equipments, which have greatly enriched their Chinese teaching resources and teaching methods as well as aroused more students’ interest in learning Chinese.
Qin Li, Head of Sichuan Xinhua International Cooperation Department, stated that, in the next three years, Sichuan Xinhua would again cooperate with the Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn School to build more than 20 “Xinhua Intelligent Chinese Classes”, and work with local teachers of Chinese to jointly promote the development of Chinese education in southern Thailand. The Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn School organized more than 80 teachers from 49 schools in Thailand to further their study in China last year. Lehua, a Thai native teacher of Chinese in the study program, said: “There is no end to learning. We local teachers should take good advantage of the opportunity to improve our abilities and impart knowledge we have learned in China to our students.”
To encourage all the teachers of Chinese in southern Thailand, to highlight the sense of honor and responsibility of overseas Chinese educators in teaching and educating, to inspire more talents to join in and support the education of Chinese language overseas, and to improve the overall quality development of Chinese education in primary and secondary schools in southern Thailand, the Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn School has twice conferred Outstanding Contribution Awards for Chinese Promotion in Southern Thailand on 21 teachers. In addition to the teaching skills competition, the Confucius Classroom at Srinakorn School has also set up a platform for Chinese teachers, local teachers of Chinese, educational experts and senior teachers from various schools to exchange skills, thus providing support for building excellent teams of teachers for schools in southern Thailand. (cited from Confucius Institute Headquarters, source: People's Daily, Story by Sun Guangyong)
