Jacob ALGRIM, Xi MATTOX, Jing WU, Cynthia NING

Given the tension between the world’s two most influential nations, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is keenly aware of the nation’s need to bolster critical language education, especially Chinese. After all, China begins English language instruction universally in elementary school, and it is widely held that the country with the greater skill in the language of the interlocutor holds the upper hand. The U.S. Department of Education has thus long promoted Foreign Language and Area Studies through direct aid to students and programs. For the past two decades, the DOD has been pushing schools to teach foreign language more effectively as well as extensively by using six cutting edge STARTALK pedagogical principles. These focus on standards and themes, learner activities, comprehensible input, integrating language with culture and content, authentic materials, and performance-based assessment. This session will discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by such evolving dynamics in the field, and the effect of these on classroom teachers and the learning experiences they construct for students.

 

Jacob ALGRIM is a lecturer of Chinese and a Ph.D. student in EALL. He lived and worked as a foreign language instructor in southern China for seven years and holds a master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and Foreign Language Pedagogy. His research interests include cognitive linguistics and cross-cultural communication.
 

Xi MATTOX is a PhD student focusing on interactional linguistics and language pedagogy in EALL. She teaches Chinese at Kapiolani Community College, UHM, and the Island Pacific Academy. She holds MA degrees in Ethnomusicology and Chinese.

Jing WU is an instructor of Chinese and a Ph.D. student in EALL. She has taught UHM novice to advanced Chinese courses for over 10 years, worked as a Faculty Resident Director for the UHM Semester and Summer in Shanghai Study Abroad programs and was a Faculty/Instructor Evaluator for the UHM Center for Teaching Excellence. Her research interests include sociolinguists, second language assessment and evaluation, and intercultural development in study abroad settings. 

Cynthia NING (moderator) is Associate Director of the UHM Center for Chinese Studies. She was the principal investigator for 14 UHM STARTALK programs, US director of UHM’s Confucius Institute for the 13 years of its existence, and the author of three Chinese language textbook series published by Yale University Press.