A Teaching Practicum For International Chinese Teachers: A Case Study

With the rise of China in the international stage, the Chinese Language has become a popularly sought language, especially in the Western Hemisphere. As the venues for teaching Chinese expands overseas, so the target audiences also experience substantial changes, teachers of Chinese must evolve themselves to be "international" teachers if they want to enter the elementary or secondary schools as foreign language teachers. Due to various limitations, Chinese teachers graduated from local universities are trailing their western counterparts both in knowledge and practical abilities, one of the most notable reasons being the lack of framework, structure and resources for teaching practicum in China. The case study for this research was the cooperation between East China Normal University and Shanghai American School in April, 2008. The goal of this research is to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the Chinese trained preservice teachers for teaching in western schools and the usefulness of the practicum activities employed in this case. The international schools proved to be a suitable venue for Chinese preservice teachers to experience Western educational philosophy and methodology, as well as for gaining cross-cultural awareness which is very important for teachers of less commonly taught languages.10 preservice teachers were selected to participate in this pilot case and they were assigned to elementary, junior high, and high schools in SAS. Teacher educators, mentor and master teachers were made available to guide and train the student teachers. The student teachers were to observe classes, help out with classroom activities, explore the school by attending various activities, write daily journals, and complete their weekly assignments. I collected their journals and performed a diary study. The result shows that the preservice teachers are solid in their language proficiency, linguistic knowledge and L2 acquisition theories and weak in their practical classroom skills due to lack of knowledge about children psychology, different learning styles, learning environments, instructional planning and strategies. Their communication and cross-cultural skills are also major concerns.