China News Service, June 13 (European Times) reported that Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is a city with diverse cultures and languages. Most of the students here master multiple languages, and Chinese may be the fourth and fifth languages for them. If the weekly Chinese class is stopped due to the epidemic situation, it will have a great impact on the children's learning effect and interest. Wang Xiaomei and Chen Yan, principals of Ouhua Chinese Language School, hope that through online education, they will "suspend classes, non-stop, and learn during the epidemic."
Li Aping, chairman of the German Chinese Overseas Chinese Federation and the director of Datang Chinese School, said that under the epidemic, German Chinese schools faced the same challenges and needed online classes to ensure students’ weekly learning.
"A coping method in extraordinary times"
Wang Xiaomei introduced that Ouhua Chinese Language School will be closed from the end of January this year. Since February, the school has tried to maintain the basic interaction and communication between students and teachers through WeChat voice and other forms, and organized teachers to start training related to online teaching.
After many attempts, Ouhua Chinese Language School decided to conduct online lectures for students in 13 classes through the ZOOM online conference software starting from March 7. Wang Xiaomei said that teachers pay attention to adjust the rhythm of the classroom within three hours of teaching time, so that students can combine work with rest. In addition to using traditional interactive forms such as questioning and raising hands to speak, teachers have also added pictures, videos, animations, and PPT document courseware to attract students' attention and improve learning effects.
The picture shows the Chinese class transferred to online teaching. ("European Times" / Photo courtesy of interviewees)
After class, teachers will share relevant courseware to students and parents to help them review. Wang Xiaomei believes: "The network guarantees the communication between students and teachers, and the communication between students and students."
Different from traditional classrooms, teachers need to face the challenges of technology and teaching methods, and parents also need to participate in the children's learning. Home-school cooperation has become a key part of improving learning effectiveness.
According to Li Aping, Datang Huawen School started to conduct online teaching in March this year, and in her words it is also "there is no way."
Li Aping said that the new coronary pneumonia epidemic forced Chinese schools to make teaching attempts, but there are still many challenges: First, the interaction between students and teachers, and the interaction between students and students still have limitations. Second, it is very difficult for younger children to continue to attract their attention. Third, in traditional classrooms, teachers’ physical movements, expressions, etc. can help students understand knowledge. At the same time, teachers can also directly understand students’ mastery of knowledge points, but online classrooms cannot achieve this effect.
Chen Yan believes that online teaching is a coping method in extraordinary times, and it cannot replace traditional classrooms. "Traditional classrooms not only learn knowledge, but also cultivate each other's feelings. With the help of Chinese learning, Chinese culture, teachers and students, students and students have gone through an unforgettable time together."
China's rapid development, Chinese learning enthusiasm is ignited
How will the epidemic affect the Chinese schools? Wang Xiaomei admitted that the epidemic has increased the crisis management capacity of Chinese schools. In the past, temporary situations, such as climatic reasons such as heavy snow, terrorist attacks and other man-made reasons, the school could only be forced to suspend classes, did not expect to take other forms of teaching. "The new crown epidemic has a long duration and a wide range of influences, which makes us realize that we must ensure that the continuation of teaching cannot be suspended.
"Since running a school, we must always understand our responsibilities on our shoulders." Wang Xiaomei said.
"The more we live in a multilingual and multicultural environment, the more we hope that the children of overseas Chinese and Chinese teenagers can deepen their understanding and application of the language of their ancestry's "root" and their ancestral (country) country." Chen Yan introduced that it was for this reason that Ouhua Chinese Language School was established in 2008.
The picture shows students and teachers communicating online. ("European Times" / Photo courtesy of interviewees)
It is understood that in more than ten years, the students of Ouhua Chinese Language School consisted of 85% of students from Chinese and overseas Chinese families (including about half of mixed-race families), and 15% of students from non-Chinese families (there were more than a dozen Students of different nationalities study at school).
When Li Aping organized a Chinese language school with several parents in Frankfurt, Germany in 1995, he only started from the perspective of the needs of his family and children. "Now it has become a social responsibility." The Chinese school she founded has expanded from Frankfurt to "Hometown of the Brothers Grimm"-Hanau. She found that the source of school students is no longer limited to the children of Chinese families, and more and more locals are joining because they are interested in Chinese culture. "Behind this is actually closely related to China's rapid development. In Germany, more and more companies are linked to China in business, and more and more people want to know and understand China."
Du Xiaofei was awarded the "Overseas Chinese Teacher Lifetime Achievement Award" at the 4th World Chinese Education Conference. She is both a teacher of Ouhua Chinese Language School and a mother of two children. She can feel the changes in her children's passion for overseas Chinese youths learning Chinese.
"The two children were born in Belgium. When they were young, they were reluctant to use Chinese-marked items. They were unwilling to be different from other children. As they grew older, as China grew stronger and stronger, they recognized themselves as The Chinese are very proud." Du Xiaofei said that before they signed in French, they would spend a lot of time learning Chinese and practicing Chinese signature. "The recognition of Chinese culture has given them a unique temperament in a multicultural context."
The ignited enthusiasm for learning has strengthened the confidence of Chinese education practitioners. The epidemic is just an "episode". When everything is back on track, Li Aping hopes that the Chinese school can truly play a role as a platform to help more people with the same interests and hobbies communicate.
Wang Xiaomei and Chen Yan are concerned about the localization of Chinese education textbooks, Chinese education and the credit certification of schools in China and other countries. (Ling Yun)