CACLER organized Conference on Enhancing the Chinese Learning and Teaching for Non-Chinese Speaking Students: Challenge and Breakthrough (面向跨文化學習者的中文學與教：挑戰與突破) with Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL) at HKU campus from 30 Nov to 1 Dec 2012. It aims to provide a platform for scholars, researchers and teachers from schools and institutions locally and regionally to discuss and share their ideas, perspectives, experiences and research findings of teaching and learning of Chinese for non-native learners in terms of curriculum, teaching materials and pedagogy in school settings. The themes are 1) Curriculum design to develop non-Chinese speaking students’ Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing skills; 2) Effective and creative pedagogy; 3) Catering to non-Chinese speaking students’ needs; 4) Teacher development and school development; 5) Assessment; and 6) Evidence-based Practices. It was our great honor to have Prof. Ference Marton to deliver a distinguished keynote speech entitled ‘Keys of Learning’ which addressed ‘that we have to use the sources of difficulties, the differences between the two languages (L1 and L2), as our tools. These differences have to be overcome, they are actually the keys of learning.’ The other keynote speakers are Prof. SK Tse, who gave a speech entitled ‘Learning Chinese as Second Language: High Frequency Word List’ and Dr. Chee-Kuen Chin, Executive Director of SCCL, who gave a speech entitled ‘Collaborative Inquiry: A Feasible Solution for Increasing the Effectiveness of Chinese Language Teaching and Facilitating Professional Development for Chinese Language Teachers’.

The Conference was a great success, with over 200 participants, consisting of EDB officials, education professionals, researchers, school principals and teachers, coming from approximately 70 educational institutions in 7 countries and regions in Asia, including Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Mainland China, Vietnam, Japan and Hong Kong. The Conference themes were addressed through over 60 various featured presentations, workshops, papers, posters, demonstrations and forum. This is the third Conference on teaching and learning of Chinese for NCS students since 2009.

Standing from left: Prof. SK Tse, Director of CACLER; Prof. F. Marton,

Professor Emeritus, Department of Education, The University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Prof. S. Andrews, Dean of Education, HKU; Dr. CK Chin, Executive Director of Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL)

The Conference attracted over 200 participants including EDB officials, education professionals, researchers, school principals and teachers coming from 70 educational institutions within and across the Region.

Discussion forum at Conference Closing

Sitting from left: Dr. WW Ki, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU; Miss Samantha Wong, Postgraduate Student in Faculty of Education, HKU; Prof. F. Marton, Professor Ference Marton, Professor Emeritus, Department of Education, The University of Gothenburg, Sweden; Prof. SK Tse, Director of CACLER; Prof. S. Andrews, Dean of Education, HKU; Dr. CK Chin, Executive Director of SCCL; Dr. JWI Lam, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, HKU

Conference Booklet (Download)

Conference Rundown (Download)

The book"Teaching Chinese to Chinese Language Learners: Theories and Practices" (in Chinese: 面向中文學習者的中文教學－－理論與實踐), published by SCCL, was an outcome of this Conference