AUCKLAND, New Zealand, April 2 (Xinhua) — The two-day Fifth Oceania Chinese Teachers\’ Conference 2023 is held in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, during the weekend.
The conference featured dedicated speeches and multiple workshops. Over a hundred Chinese language teachers from New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Islands countries participated in the conference either in person or through online live streaming.
Participating Chinese language educators shared their experiences and insights into Chinese language education through these sessions and explored the new environment, demands, and pedagogy of overseas Chinese education, especially in terms of multi-faceted Chinese education and the adoption of artificial intelligence applications such as ChatGPT in the post-pandemic era.
Laura Deng, chairperson of the New Zealand Chinese Language Teachers Association, said this conference is the first on-site conference of its kind in the post-pandemic times.
\”In the past decade, there has been a growing interest in the Chinese language and culture. As Chinese language teachers, we have an important role to play in nurturing this interest and helping our students to develop the language skills and cultural understanding they need to succeed in an increasingly interconnected world,\” said Deng.
Zhou Xuelin, director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Auckland, believed that school teachers had demonstrated incredible abilities and intelligence to make extraordinary achievements in Chinese language education.
\”At the 2022 National Chinese Bridge Speech Competition, local kiwi students from secondary schools across the country sing Chinese songs and dance Chinese dances. They perform \’cross talks\’ in Chinese and tell Chinese stories using bamboo clappers,\” Zhou said.
He noted that the first English-language book on Chinese cinema was authored by a New Zealander who speaks perfect Chinese, and nearly every New Zealand ambassador to China is fluent in Mandarin.
Chinese Ambassador to New Zealand Wang Xiaolong encouraged Chinese language teachers in New Zealand and Oceania to take their students to China to experience Chinese history and culture, meet the hospitable people, deepen exchanges on the latest developments and trends in Chinese education, and cultivate more \”Rewi Alley\” of the new times and enhance mutual understanding and friendship between China, New Zealand and the rest of the world.
Stephanie Mortimore, project manager and facilitator from the Tui Tuia Learning Circle at the University of Auckland, an organization that undertakes the support of foreign language learning, teacher education, and professional development work from the New Zealand Ministry of Education, said that the organization would continue to support Chinese language teachers and teaching activities.
She also hoped to see Chinese language teachers provide their feedback on the New Zealand curriculum refresh of language next year.