Wenyen Tung

"The most valuable aspect of the STARTALK program is that I have had the opportunity to observe teaching demonstrations from other experienced teachers and hands-on practices... STARTALK gave me support in the form of Dr. Tseng and all veteran teachers who pinpointed where I needed to grow and released time to observe other classes. This enhanced my instructional concepts and sharpened my teaching techniques."

Reminiscence: 

As I look back on last few years, I had confidence to build a Mandarin program in my district school. I drove Chinese learning home through fun and informative activities. It was quite successful, but one of challenges in the Chinese teaching is teaching in the target language. The most valuable aspect of the STARTALK program is that I have had the opportunity to observe teaching demonstrations from other experienced teachers and hands-on practices. First week concept instructions were good lessons that built the solid instructional foundations, so we were able to collaborate with other teachers as a team in the teaching practicum and teach Chinese in the target language.

The task-base communicative performance instruction was a shifting of learning. It helped me redesign my lesson plans, that I should transform to reflect an increasing emphasis on developing students’ communicative competence, such as student-centered learning, learner as “does” and “creator”.

Learning by doing. STARTALK gave me support in the form of Dr. Tseng and all veteran teachers who pinpointed where I needed to grow and released time to observe other classes. This enhanced my instructional concepts and sharpened my teaching techniques.