With the support of the Centre for English Language Education (CELE), UNNC has trained thousands of teachers, education professionals and school managers to enhance its contribution to the development of Chinese education.
Last week, 32 teachers from around the nation attended the 2019 UNNC Summer Outreach Teacher Training Project. The teaching experience and degrees they hold varied considerably. Yet all of them were deeply rooted in schools in rural or underdeveloped areas, industriously dedicating themselves to enlighten, inspire and empower their students to explore a brave new world. UNNC aims to provide a platform for mutual communications and help them to improve English teaching techniques.
Ke Wang, a primary school English teacher from rural Yuyao, Ningbo, said that he was impressed by the interactive teaching methods presented in lectures. “Although I’m already very familiar with the text, the instructor as well as the other teachers showed me brand new possibilities to enhance student engagement in class”.
“Most of our students are ‘left-behind’ children, which means they do not have as much access to resources as their urban peers, so I want to try my best to stimulate their interest in English,” said Ke.
For Shuang Wu, from Inner Mongolia, this was the first time she had participated in such training during an 18-year teaching career. “I used to study and explore teaching methods by myself, so I appreciate this opportunity very much,” she said.
She found the five-day intensive training, which included theoretical guides, presentations and micro-teaching, quite helpful. “In the future I may adopt games or even pantomimes to help pupils pronounce rather than read along to tapes.”
Xia Yang, a teaching researcher from Hubei Province, also found the training supportive. With 24 years’ teaching experience, Xia had concern about the English-only teaching environment as well as the practicability of the training at first, “All the instructors are foreigners with international teacher training experience.” she said. “I was not sure if I could perfectly understand their views or apply their experience to Chinese schools in rural or underdeveloped areas, but the training turns out to be quite localised.”
Peter Beech, the programme coordinator, summarised: “We frequently visit schools to observe lessons and to teach demonstration classes and regularly participate in conferences, by which means we are very well aware of the issues faced by Chinese teachers of English, such as the difficulties of trying to motivate children in rural areas, and the need to adapt the communicative approach to suit the Chinese context.”
Besides receiving teachers to learn and communicate at UNNC, CELE teaching teams have also delivered training programmes to rural Ningbo areas, Yuanqu in Shanxi Province, Yongde in Yunan Province and Zunyi in Guizhou Province. Ya Zeng - a trainee from a high school in Yongde - said that his students’ average English score in high school entrance exams improved to 4th place in the city after three years of effort.
The CELE teaching team consists of about one hundred instructors from 16 countries and regions. Ellen Zhao, Manager of CELE, said: “We are glad to see that our efforts make a difference. Since 2017 we have provided training to over 280 rural teachers. Every teacher benefits from our programme by not only improving their own abilities, but also by promoting the development of his or her class or even the English teaching of the whole school.”
UNNC will continuously endevour to fully support teachers from rural or underdeveloped areas by enhancing their English language proficiency, improving teaching techniques and expanding their international horizons. In this way, UNNC and its partners hope to contribute to education equality and poverty alleviation in China.