This fall, Texas State students will be able to take Mandarin Chinese for academic credit as the Department of Languages unveils its newest course listings.

The classes are made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Texas State’s Center for International Studies. The grant is in support of courses with an emphasis on Southeast Asia and China.

Mandarin Chinese is spoken by one-fifth of the world’s population and functions as the official language of the People’s Republic of China.

“Mandarin Chinese is a language of the future, given the fast development of the Chinese economy,” said Jennifer Ching-hui Hsiao, who will instruct the classes. “By learning Mandarin Chinese, students will gain access to a world of international business; international relations; Chinese art, history and culture; Eastern philosophy; martial arts; natural wonders; fine cuisine; cool tattoos and much more.”

The three courses to be offered include Beginning Chinese I (Chinese 1410), Beginning Chinese II (Chinese 1420), and Intermediate Chinese (Chinese 2310).

In each course, listening, speaking, reading, and writing will be integrated with innovative instructional technology and Chinese culture. For example, Chinese character strokes will be demonstrated through video clips to assist students’ recognition and writing, and Chinese typing will be introduced through free downloadable software. Cultural activities will introduce Chinese festivals, such as Moon Festival and Chinese New Year.

After the successful completion of Chinese 1410, students should be able to correctly pronounce any Chinese character in the written Pinyin. They will have accumulated 350 Chinese vocabulary words and know something of Chinese culture and etiquette.

Chinese 1420 (prerequisite Chinese 1410) continues the first year of study and introduces 350 more characters.

Chinese 2310 (prerequisite Chinese 1420 or an acceptable score from a placement test) will provide advanced training in four Chinese language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Another 350 Chinese characters will be introduced.

Course instructor Hsiao is a doctoral candidate in foreign language education at the University of Texas. She has taught Chinese to college-level students in the United States for more than five years.

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One of the projects we have worked on for over a year to develop is an IELTS training program for China. It begins this week in Guangzhou in conjunction with Broadlearn and Queensland in Australia. Using Cambridge and Queensland University content the Dreamblogue is delighted to be part of this project.
Franchise opportunities and teaching opportunities are available for qualified individuals.

For students who would like to enroll, just click on the banner below:

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The IELTS and TOEFL exams are known and feared by English language students worldwide. Both exams are used by universities to assess the English language ability of applicants. IELTS is widely used in the UK and Australia and also recognised by most American and Canadian universities, including Harvard Business School; TOEFL is used mainly by American universities, though also accepted in the UK and Australia. Next month we will examine the TOEFL exam; this month we will focus on IELTS.

IELTS stands for the International English Language Testing system. It operates on a nine point band, where a nine indicates that the student has a level of English equivalent to a highly educated native speaker, and it tests all four skills ( reading, writing, listening and speaking) in an academic context. Generally speaking, undergraduate students need to obtain a score of 5.5 overall to gain university admission and postgraduate students need a score of 6.5 overall. Some universities will ask for higher grades for all courses, or for specific programmes. The IELTS exam can be taken at centres worldwide and at frequent intervals throughout the year. Candidates pay a fee to take the exam.

For language school owners the preparation courses for the IELTS exam are frequently a major source of income. IELTS is becoming increasingly popular throughout Asia and students usually need to attend a year long preparation course to do well enough in the exam to apply to an overseas university. There is a wealth of preparation material to use on these courses, including plenty of mock exam material. Teachers who are asked to teach IELTS should be given a thorough briefing on the demands of the exam and a brief training course. Details can be found on the IELTS website (www.ielts.org).

Article Source:http://www.eslemployment.com/esl-employers/ielts-toefl.htm

Trainees from a makeup school put on makeup for model brides at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009. More than 100 companies in photographing, catering, wedding arrangements etc. participated in the expo to provide the “one-stop” services to the newlyweds.

Visitors look into wedding decorations at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009.

Two visitors look into traditional dolls exhibited at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009.

Models display bridal dresses at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China’s Hubei

Wedding & Tourism Expo held in Wuhan,  China

Three weeks ago The Newzealand Herald invited readers to send in their best international travel photo, giving them the chance to win one of three Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 compact waterproof cameras, worth $800.

Twelve finalists were chosen and readers were invited to vote for their favourite of the 12 images.

The votes have been tallied and the top three entries are:

1. Chris Jephcott’s photo of a cormorant fisherman in China.

2. Brian Walker’s photo of two sea iguanas at the Galapagos Islands.

3. Mark Finlay’s photo of the Louvre in Paris.

All of the three winners will receive a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 compact waterproof camera.

Everyone who voted for their favourite of the short-listed photos was also entered in a draw to win one of the cameras and the winner of that draw is Kerri Ward.

The text is from: Winners of travel photo competition

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The United States isn’t the only place grappling with the best way to teach students another language.

Eight graduate students from the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College traveled to China earlier this summer with their instructors and others to learn more about Chinese culture and how schools there teach English as a second language.

The group of 12 visited five cities and three education sites during their two-week trip and spoke with educators there about how they incorporate a second language in their instruction while maintaining their student’s first language.

They saw that schools in China too have their challenges in teaching students English, which is the primary second language taught in the world’s most populous country.

Cynthia Galvan, a teacher with the Mercedes school district and a student at UTB/TSC, said she was surprised to learn that Chinese schools also struggle with teaching students English as a second language.

“They’re teaching them to read and write English but they’re not exposed to the oral language,” she said.

One thing she and other teachers on the trip noticed was that Chinese schools teach children a second language at a much younger age than in American schools.

“They start in pre-kinder(garten). English is their second language. All the signs are in Chinese (with English below it),” Galvan said. “They’re very committed to learning English.”

The schools also teach students culture. During one visit she noticed a class did a lesson on coffee and how coffee is consumed more often in the United States rather than China.

“Part of it is understanding the culture,” she said. “Culture has to be part of the program.”

Weslaco High School Assistant Principal William “Trey” Roach said seeing how the Chinese schools used everyday situations to teach students English made him think how schools in the Rio Grande Valley can use community’s bilingual culture to teach students English.

“I think we need to understand the culture of the students we’re receiving,” he said.

Teachers should also be mindful of the level of education their students received in the countries from which they emigrated, he said.

“Just because a child can speak to us doesn’t mean (that child) can read and write,” Roach said. “We have to make sure they are able to read and write in their native language.”

UTB/TSC professors Bobette Morgan and Graciela Rosenberg developed the program to give their students the opportunity to experience another culture and understand better the frustrations some of their students learning English may face.

Usually, students at UTB/TSC are familiar with Mexican culture, which makes teaching foreign students coming to Rio Grande Valley schools — who mostly come from Mexico — a bit easier. But if those educators were to move to other parts of the state or to another state, they would encounter students from all other parts of the world who speak different languages, Rosenberg said.

“You have to be aware of other languages, you have to understand the (students’) cultural background,” she said.

Students received firsthand experience in what it was like to be in a country where they don’t know the main language. Though the group had interpreters during their tours, there were times where they had to rely on the kindness of strangers to translate for them, Morgan said.

“It was a good experience for (our) students to feel that level of frustration,” she said.

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The opening of the fifth China Shanhaiguan International Great Wall Festival was held in Shanhaiguan on July 29th. Meanwhile, the Museum of the Great Wall Shanhaiguan  also opened its door to the public for free.

The Museum, in which relics in Shanhaiguan – the essence of the Great Wall -  is shown, was first established in 1991. In order to strengthen its patriotic function, the central and the local governments invested RMB 42 million to enlarge the Museum in 2007.

The extended Museum of the Great Wall collected all sorts of unearthed artifacts along the Great Wall. Using contemporary exhibition media, including historical documents, photos, models of landscape, television, the Museum produces a comprehensive view on the Great Wall about its history, construction, military events, sites and artificial scenery. The so far largest and richest in Great Wall content museum in China is considered to be the “encyclopedia of the Great Wall”.

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