The Conference ‘From Helplessness to Mutual Help: Learning and Teaching of Chinese Language for multi-cultural learners’ Conference’ which was held on 22 April 2017 at HKU Graduate House was organized by a CACLER research project ‘Accommodating Diversity: Supporting the Learning and Teaching of Chinese Language for non-Chinese Speaking Students in Primary Schools (USPP)’ led by Dr. Wai-ming Cheung.
In the hope of fostering the exchange of research-based and classroom-based knowledge, we offer this platform in which in-service teachers and practitioners locally and regionally 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 at primary level. The Conference themes were addressed through 26 various plenary and featured presentations, poster demonstrations and forum.
The distinguished keynote speech entitled ‘the key factors leading to the language learning success of multi-cultural learners’ was delivered by Professor Victoria Murphy, Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Oxford. The other plenary speeches included ‘From Helplessness to Mutual Help: Synergy in the University-school partnership project’, delivered by Prof. SK Tse, Faculty of Education, HKU; ‘An Extraordinary Chinese Language learning and professional teacher development’, delivered by Dr. WM Cheung, Faculty of Education, HKU; ‘Stress management on teaching multi-cultural learners’, delivered by Prof. Hector WH Tsang, Professor and Associate Head of Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; and ‘Effective Chinese character and vocabulary learning’ delivered by Dr. Joseph WI Lam, Faculty of Education, HKU.
The Conference was a great success, with around 160 delegates from 51 local schools, including 23 teachers from 9 partnership schools, who have stepped out to generously share their school-based experiences and knowledge generated with fellow researchers and teaching professionals. Their experiences and perspectives are, without doubt, invaluable assets to those in our field. For details, please visit the website: http://www.hkuuspp.com/
Conference Rundown (Download)
Conferene Poster
Officiating guests at Conference Opening (1st from right) Dr. Joseph Lam, Prof. SK Tse, Dr. WM Cheung, (3rd from left) Prof. Victoria Murphy, our invited keynote speaker; Mrs. Winnie Yeung, Chief School Development Officer, School-based Support (Kindergarten) Section, Education Bureau
Teacher together with their students from our partnership schools shared their school-based experience at poster sessions.