Open the Treasure Box: Establishing Collaborations between Heritage Language Communities and the Mai

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Open the Treasure Box Establishing
Collaborations between Heritage Language
Communities and the Mainstream in the U.S.
National Chinese Language Conference, April
17-19, 2008

• Dr. Qingyuan Han ???
• Managing Director
• Qingyuan.Han_at_csaus.org
• Chinese School Association in the United States

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?? Acknowledgement
Some of the slides in this presentation are
modified from the presentation materials
generated by Dr. Jason Ma, Formal CSAUS
President, for the 6th CSAUS National Conference
in 2006
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Chinese School Association in the United States

• A (501) (C) (3) not-for-profit organization
• The goals of the Chinese School Association
• Promote the Chinese language and cultural
  education
• Help the younger generation to preserve and
  appreciate Chinese heritage
• Bridge educational and cultural exchanges and
  friendship between US and China

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Chinese School Association in the United States

• Funded in 1994, originally with 14 member schools
• Now a large organization with 350 member
  schools, covering all the major and medium
  metropolitan areas across the country
• Over 80,000 students and 5,000 teachers
• Over 5,000 volunteers
• CSAUS has offered educational services to and
  exerted impact on tens of thousands of families
  in the United States

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Chinese School Association in the United States

• Coordinating and supporting Chinese school
  operations
• Providing services to member schools
• Conducting cultural and educational projects
• Involved in editing the Chinese text books
• Working with other organizations, persuaded
  College Board to add AP Chinese program
• Developed and conducted mock SAT II Chinese
  examinations
• Conducted Art Competition, Chinese composition
  contest, and Chinese cultural knowledge contest,
  etc.
• Organized art performance tours, international
  culture and art exchanges and root seeking summer
  camps, etc.

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???? CSAUS Progress
Phase 1 - 1995
Phase 2 1995 -2002
Phase 3 2003 -
Starting period 1989, Xilin Chinese School,
Chicago, IL 1991, Cambridge Chinese
School, Boston, MA 1993-1995 Large of
Chinese schools established 1994
CSAUS Established - 14 member
schools 1995 1st CSAUS Conference _at_
Columbus, OH, 50 member schools
Rapid growth period. 1997 2nd Conference
_at_ Houston, TX 100 members 1999 3rd
Conference _at_ Washington D.C.,
150 members 2002 4th Conference _at_
Chicago, IL 230 members
Continuous growth diversifying period 2004
5th Conference _at_ Las Vegas, NV
300 members 2006 6th Conference _at_ San
Francisco, CA 300 members 2008 7th
Conference _at_ Newark, NJ 350
members
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???? School Functions
Culture Heritage Education ????
Community Center ????
Putong Hua ???
Traditional Chinese Education ????
Jianhua Zi ???
Hanyu Pinyin ????
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???? School Structures
Size Structure ??? ??
Funding Facility ??? ??
School Days ????
Ownership ??? ????
1. Non-Profit Org. - Membership -
Parents/BOD/PC - Most popular 2. Non-Profit
Org. - Non-membership - Board of Directors
- Steady growth 3. Small Business -
Professionals - Steady growth
1. Single Campus - Most popular 2. Multiple
Campus - Huaxia 18 - Hope 6 3.
of Students small town 100-600 majority 600
multiple campus schools
1. Funding - Tuition main source -
Donations business, org, foundation 2.
Expenses - Teachers comp. - Facility
rental 3. Classrooms - Rental local school,
church, college - School-owned
1. Weekend only - Most popular (one day /
both days) 2. Weekend week day after
school - Metropolitan areas 3. Summer camp
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???? School Curriculum
Special Curriculum ????
Academic Enhancement ????
Regular Chinese ???
Cultural Curriculum ???
Language listening Speaking Reading
Writing Knowledge History Geography
Culture
Cultural Chinese Calligraphy Chinese Chess
Weiqi Music Dance Painting Crafting
Musical Instrument Martial Arts
Bilingual Classes Adult Classes
Conversation Business Chinese
Olympic Math SAT - prep SAT II prep
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???? Source of Students
?? Young Students
?? Adult Students
Yes
No
Yes
No
Chinese Environment _at_ Home ?????????
Chinese Heritage ????
Children adopted from China Children not
speak Putonghua _at_ home Children of non
Chinese heritage families

Parents who adopted Chinese children
College students Business persons
Children of graduate student families
Children of other immigrant families
ABC college students Ethnic Chinese
not speak Putonghua
K- 12 Students !
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?? Parents
High uniformity in education, backgrounds,
economic status, and value of Chinese culture.
Major source of school operation management. No
problems in teaching or assisting Chinese
learning. High motivation expectation. Often
Chinese school activity participants.
Varies in backgrounds, education, economic
status, Chinese (Putonghua, pinyin Simplified
characters) capabilities. May or may not be able
to help childrens learning. May need different
tools and methods in teaching.
Strong willingness to let children learn Chinese
cultures. Many learn themselves as well.
Majority have no ability to teach. Need special
tools and methods in teaching.
Interested in Chinese or have special purposes
targets. Many have lower expectations.
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?? Teachers
Already full time/part time Chinese language
teachers in colleges or private/public schools.
They either have a teacher certificate or do not
need one for their job. Most large schools now
have a few. Teaching in American way is the
strong point and it needs to be shared. Teaching
heritage students Chinese is a challenge. Most
desirable and become more and more available.
Retention remains a concern.
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?? Teachers
Have years of experience teaching Chinese in
China, some were first class teachers. Now have a
job but not related to their profession. Love
teaching, love kids, love their profession. Very
desire to become a teacher in public schools.
The challenge is how to get them certified.
English skill, time, and money are the problems
for them to obtain teacher certificate.
Major in education or language. Desire to become
a teacher in colleges or in public/private
schools upon graduation. The problem is some
public school system does not sponsor green card
applications.
Need to help them obtaining teacher certification
or getting work permit/green card
Source of high quality teachers
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??? Text Books

• ????
• Text books edited in US
• -????????????? Ma Liping Chinese for Overseas
  Chinese Children
• ??????Shuang Shuang Chinese
• ???? New Concept Chinese
• ????
• Other Text books
• ??????????
• -iChinese ??????

?? Zhong Wen Most popularly used among CSAUS
member schools. CSAUS worked together with Jinan
University in making this text book for students
learning Chinese in North America.
Diversity ??? Multi-choice in one
school ????? Multi-media ???? Fun filled ???
???? Biao Zhun Zhong Wen Largely used among
Chinese schools in North America. The 2nd popular
choice among CSAUS member schools.
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???? Other Teaching Resources
?????????? Sunrise Chinese Language Learning
System
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???? Other Teaching Resources
iChinese ??????iChinese Chinese Learning System

• ?????64??, 9????1500???
• ???????????,??????
• ???????????????, ??????
• ???????,??????
• ????????, ??????,??????

• Learn 64 Chinese characters each class. Master
  1500 most common Chinese characters in 9 months.
• Learn Chinese based on the frequency of being
  used, enable reading in short time
• Use human right brain power to improve learning
  efficiency
• Apply children psychology to stimulate learning
  interest
• Exploit scientific mnemonics, improve learning
  efficiency and

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???? Other Resources software

• Chinese Plus / ??? Total Solution for Chinese
  teaching
• ???????????????OCR?????
• Speech Plus / ??? Chinese Voice Synthesis
  software
• ?????????????????????
• Pen Plus / ??? Chinese Teaching and Learning
  software
• ??????????????
• Ebooks / ???
• ????????,?????

Booth No. 14, at this conference
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???? Other Resources magazine
???? The World of Chinese ???,???16??,???????,??
??,???????,??96?,???????????????????
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???? Other Resources magazine
???????Learn Chinese Monthly - Recommended
by College Board
Beginner Level Provide an introduction about
Chinese language and culture, with Pinyin and
English support, serves to stimulate students
interest in learning Chinese in and out of the
classroom. It has games, songs, poems, stories,
word puzzles, as well as educational and
instructive comprehensive reading selections.
Intermediate Level To deepen and broaden
students exposure to Chinese language and
culture. Full of ancient and modern reading
materials with exercises, in addition to SAT, AP
and HSK test exercises each month and students
writing showcases.
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???? Other Resources magazine
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????? Open the Treasure Box
Remember, there is another treasure box !
??????????
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Establish Collaborations

• CSAUS can help to establish communications and
  collaborations between local heritage schools and
  public school systems
• We want to help our teachers to obtain their
  teacher certification, so they can be teaching in
  public schools
• We want all schools to have Chinese programs from
  K-12, so our kids do not have to go to the
  Chinese schools on weekends
• Lets work together, enhancing Chinese Language
  Education in the US

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Chinese School Association in the United States
will hold a National Chinese Education
Conference (the 7th biennial conference) in
Newark, NJ, from November 7 9, 2008 You all
are cordially invited !
http//www.csaus.org
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Chinese School Association in the U.S.
Thank You All ! ????! Qingyuan.Han_at_csaus.org