News & Events

WEBINARS HELPING AND SUPPORTING ON-LINE TEACHING

Posted on 27 May 2020 in CLTalk

 

Just because Universities, Schools, Colleges have closed their classroom doors, the demand for teaching and learning hasn’t stopped and so teachers across the world within every discipline have been forced to look at alternative ways of teaching and for many teachers and students, this has been challenging.

For these reasons Macmillan Education and The Confucius Institute at Oxford Brookes University have joined forces to host a series of webinars designed to help Teachers of Chinese to not only adjust to teaching on-line but to show teachers what can be done, what resources can be used, which platforms are best suited.  What is so evident so far is that on-line teaching can be so creative, innovative and effective.

Attention is also focusing on teaching the different language skills whilst also providing advice on how to keep students engaged and the learning effective.

Here are our expert teacher trainers:

 

 

Our first webinar went live on 14th May and was presented by three of our teacher trainers; Dr. Zhu Zhu, Dr. Hongfen Zhou, and Dr. Duo Luan.  In fact, Ms. Lik Suen from S.O.A.S. University, was also supposed to present but unfortunately, she experienced technical problems on the day which prevented her from doing so; a very real and typical issue when relying on the internet!

Our second webinar is tomorrow, Thursday 28th May at 10.00 a.m. B.S.T.  This webinar will continue to cover the same theme but will focus on: Online Listening and Oral Language Teaching plus using Digital Resources for Chinese Characters & Pinyin Teaching                                     and will be delivered by Dr. Duo Luan and Dr. Hongfen Zhu.  To register for this webinar and all other future webinars then please go to the events page on this website or our ‘MyDiscoverChina’ Facebook page.

Our live webinars have attracted so much interest worldwide and naturally not everybody can attend the live event so we have and will continue to put them on our Youtube channel to make them accessible to everyone.  Here is the link to Webinar 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DENwKdbIM8A&list=PLKLrX30qj6AwZN1pzBEkWziRzRW78jcGZ

The timing of the webinars couldn’t be better for the launch of our electronic version of Discover China 1.  Our teacher trainers will aim to use the electronic version of Discover China to illustrate the teaching and by doing so they will demonstrate how good a textbook Discover China actually is.  One of the authors of Discover China; Ding Anqi will run a webinar very soon on D.C. and the way it was designed to teach in a unique effective way using a student centred approach.  Ms. Ding will be joined by Ms. Xiaojing Wu from F.l.T.R.P. who will demonstrate an APP; ‘AHA’ which has been designed by F.L.T.R.P using voice recognition technology and very cleverly it compliments and supports the specific teaching from D.C.  Details of this webinar will be sent out within the next couple of weeks.  The good news is that Macmillan Education are temporarily making the e-version of D.C. free to use.  Users will however have to request a special code to do this by emailing: discoverchina@macmillaneducation.com.

Enjoy our webinars and take advantage of using E-Discover China.

 

To download the electronic version of D.C. use the following steps to download:

  1. Access the URL: https:macmillaneducationeverywhere.com
  2. Click on “Register” to register as a new user or enter the existing user credentials if you are already registered.
  3. If you are new user, after clicking “Register” link you can enter the access code that is printed at the back of the book to redeem a new book or shared with you.

Or

  1. Email discoverchina@macmillaneducation.com and request one.

  • “Discover China replaces the rote memorization and drills adopted by standard Mandarin textbooks with a wide variety of enjoyable activities and interesting role-plays in the context of everyday life in modern China, making it possible for students to express themselves effectively as native speakers do.”

    Tang Chiu Kay
    Professor, School of Chinese at the University of Hong Kong

  • “Our students have really enjoyed using Discover China …It is informative, interesting and has provided terrific insights into Chinese culture which fits very well with the new Australian Curriculum. Well done, Discover China! ”

    Gregory Hughes
    Chinese Language Coordinator, Melbourne Grammar School, Australia; Secretary, Chinese Language Teachers’ Association of Victoria

  • “I highly recommend Discover China over all other textbooks I have used with my language students. The series is rich in culture awareness, language acquisition, and appeals to the 21st century learner.”

    Shaz Lawrence
    Founder, Creative Chinese

  • “Discover China is a well-thought out course that caters for the needs of Western students. It looks very attractive, has practical topics related to real life experience in China, and from a didactic point of view, the contents are well-planned and complete. The variety of exercises and tasks make it very easy to use. I can really recommend this course…”

    Gwendolyn Tates
    Chairperson Levende Talen Chinese section; Lecturer Chinese Language, The Hague University of Applied Science; Department Head Chinese Language and Culture, Rijnlands Lyceum Wassenaar

  • “As a teacher, my favourite parts of Discover China include the close-to-life conversations, clear learning structures and easy to follow exercises. The carefully chosen topics are highly connected to daily life, and much easier for students to learn and to use. The online support is abundant, and also very helpful for both teachers and students.”

     

    Bei Zhou
    Chinese Instructor and Head Teacher, The Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds

  • “I find Discover China carefully designed, well structured and beautifully printed. Its integrated approach to language instruction, inductive grammar teaching and abundant resources are distinctive. I am particularly delighted to see that most practice activities are constructive and consciousness-raising tasks.”

    Lening Liu
    Professor in Chinese Language and Program Director at Columbia University

  • “Discover China offers a series of meaningful topics, integrated task-based speaking activities and relevant exercises with direct links to the real world. Discover China minimises traditional teaching methodology, stimulates fun learning and empowers students to become effective learners. These unique features make it so different from other textbooks in the market.”

    Huang Dian
    Senior Lecturer in Chinese at the University of Westminster and Chair of the British Chinese Language Teaching Society

  • “The textbook takes a practical approach and develops around the learners: what they might need to use the language for inside and outside the classroom. While the textbook uses close-to- life scenes and situations, which are stimulating and entertaining, it also illustrates the language in a structured way.”

    Dr. Song Lianyi
    Principal Teaching Fellow in Chinese, China & Inner Asia Department, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

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