In the run up to the 2017 Annual Chinese Conference, we will be writing a series of blogposts based on the Conference workshops. In this first post, we ask Liqun Dai of Archbishop Senatumu Academy about her workshop and her experiences of being a teacher of Chinese. Liqun’s Conference workshop will be called Motivate the indifferent, stretch the eager.
- Can you tell us a little bit about what your Conference workshop Motivate the indifferent, stretch the eager will entail?
I feel that as subject teachers, we have an issue due to the fact we are teaching teenagers to speak a language that three or four year old children can speak. How can we provide enough intellectual challenges to the mind of teenagers? This is something that will be considered in my workshop.
2. How did you become interested in the topic of your Conference workshop?
The theme of my workship is an issue that needs to use every ounce of my knowledge and experience to solve. I am very pleased that the entire community, my school, my students and their parents have been motivated to realise the importance of motivating students to learn Chinese.
3. Do you have any words of wisdom for other Chinese teachers who have issues with indifferent students?
It is very important to give your students a vision and show them the way to realising this vision.
4. You’ve been to the Conference a few times before. What do you most enjoy about coming to the Conference?
I very much enjoy sharing teaching practices with my Chinese teaching colleagues, networking with colleagues from around the county and meeting new teachers. I also really enjoy the Conference dinner, which is a lovely way to socialise with all attendees.
5. What is your favourite thing about being a Mandarin teacher?
When my students no longer laugh at the fact that Chinese people eat chicken feet; when they can see themselves using the language in five to ten years time; when they believe in themselves and feel proud of being a part of something big and fantastic such as learning Chinese.
Thank-you Liqun!
Liqun Dai is both Head of Chinese and the Confucius Classroom Manager at Archbishop Sentamu 
Academy in Hull. Her past experiences include being a journalist and editor for International Trade News: Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation in China, an indexer for academic books on Chinese history and culture, as well as a librarian in a UK state school. Liqun has developed Mandarin teaching and learning as a part of school curriculum from primary to post-16 level during the last five years, and the Confucius Classroom at ASA was selected ‘Confucius Classroom of the Year 2016’.
The 2017 Annual Chinese Teaching Conference will take place on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th June at the UCL Institute of Education.
Please click here to book your place.
To find out more about the Conference and the Exhibition, please visit the following webpage: https://ci.ioe.ac.uk/annual-chinese-teaching-conference2017/
