The Chinese Language Center of the Open University of China (hereinafter referred to as "Chinese Center") participated in the second Chinese Language Education Forum in San Francisco, California, between 12-13 November. Representatives from the center introduced the MyEChinese integrated method of Chinese teaching, the design of online question banks, the development of Chinese language resources for mobile learning and the latest achievements in developing a Chinese distance education system in collaboration with California State University, Long Beach, etc. The following papers submitted by the Chinese Center were included in the Forum's Honorary List: "‘Integrated Learning’ Applied in the Design of MyEChinese Teaching Methods", "Mode, Strategy, Design and Operation of the Online Question Bank — Using the New HSK as an Example", "How to Use Online Learning Resources to Promote Classroom Instruction".
Experts and teachers at the forum thought highly of the Chinese Center's research and practical achievements in the aforementioned areas. Several schools and organizations, including the Defense Language Institute and Sino Language Gateway, expressed interest in using MyEChinese to conduct distance Chinese teaching and research.
The Chinese Language Education Forum held this year was hosted by the Chinese Language Education and Research Center in cooperation with the Confucius Institute at San Francisco State University and the National Center for K-16 Chinese Language Pedagogy, UC Berkeley, with the aim of providing a communication platform for Sino-American education policy makers, school administrators, teachers and publishers of teaching materials.
The forum attracted more than 400 Chinese education policy makers, school administrators and Chinese teachers from China, the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and various European countries. The participants generally agreed that how to better apply new technology to Chinese teaching is an important issue for Chinese educators to further explore and study.