Chinese Student and Teacher Programs at Rutgers: Learning to Teach and Communicate Across Cultures

For the past five summers, Rutgers has been the fortunate recipient of STARTALK Federal Funding to support the learning and teaching of the Chinese language.

This summer in collaboration with the Highland Park School District the GSE offered programs in Chinese language teaching for novice teachers and intensive Chinese language programs for 3rd-5th graders and middle and high school students.  The theme for the summer programs was 园 游 会 Yuán Yóu Huì, Outdoor Gatherings with Friends.  At the end of the program, student participants were able to use basic Chinese for introducing themselves, talking about their families, discussing their leisure activities and their likes and dislikes, making a purchase, and more.  The students were also able to participate in many Chinese cultural activities, such as TaiChi, calligraphy writing, Chinese yo-yo, cooking, and shadow puppet theater. 

The teacher participants were exposed to classroom management techniques, resources for teaching Chinese, strategies to introduce characters, storytelling methodology, and much more.

In addition, GSE co-adjunct Donna Stelluto simultaneously taught an English for specific purposes course "Creating a Learner Centered English Teaching Classroom" to a group of middle and high school English teachers who were visiting from China and attending the Summer Institute for English Teachers from China.

For more information about GSE programs for Chinese language teachers, please contact Dr. Mary Curran at mary.curran@gse.rutgers.edu.