The 23rd Annual Chinese Teaching Conference, Expanding Horizons through Chinese: Connecting Language, Culture, and Careers, takes place this Saturday, 10th October 2026.
Featuring a packed schedule of plenaries, keynote speeches, performances, and diverse workshops, this year’s event offers plenty to explore. To give you a preview of what’s in store, we are continuing our series of conversations with workshop presenters, diving into the practical ideas, classroom strategies, and themes they will be bringing to delegates.
Shu Ding is the Second in Charge of MFL (Mandarin Lead), Head of Year 7, and a KS4 Mathematics teacher at Ark Greenwich Free School, one of the highest-performing state schools nationally for student progress. She specializes in teaching groups of high-performing, non-native Mandarin scholars. An alumna of UCL IOE with an MA in TESOL and a Languages PGCE, her current work bridges mathematical mastery concepts with language acquisition frameworks to design meticulously scaffolded resources and elevate student outcomes.
Can you tell us a bit about your workshop content?
My workshop explores how to seamlessly integrate the popular Variation Theory from Maths Mastery with Gianfranco Conti’s EPI framework to design highly effective, scaffolded Mandarin learning resources.
What style of workshop are you planning to deliver?
It will be a practical presentation. I will introduce the Variation Theory with some basic maths (hopefully!), then share specific examples of scaffolded resources and demonstrate exactly how these cross-curricular pedagogical theories can be applied to everyday Mandarin classroom practice.
What made you choose this subject for this year’s conference?
Teaching both Mandarin and Mathematics, I noticed powerful synergies between how maths mastery builds conceptual understanding and how language structures are acquired. I wanted to share this cross-curricular approach to help other teachers design materials that better support student progression.
What will attendees take away from your workshop?
Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how to apply Variation Theory and the EPI framework to language learning, along with actionable strategies for designing their own meticulously scaffolded Mandarin resources.
We look forward to welcoming Shu Ding and many other inspiring speakers to this year’s conference. Don’t miss the opportunity to be part of the conversation. Book your place today.
See you at the conference.
UCL IOE CCLE team