NEW YORK—A five-year plan to collaborate on a new Chinese Language and Culture Initiative was announced today by China's National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (Hanban) and the College Board. A Chinese education delegation, led by Minister of Education Zhou Ji of the People's Republic of China, attended the signing of an agreement for the first year of the partnership at 11:15 a.m. on April 19, 2006, at the College Board's New York Office. College Board President Gaston Caperton and Hanban Director-General Xu Lin signed the agreement on behalf of both parties in a ceremony also attended by representatives from the Chinese Consulate in New York City.
Heralded by Caperton as "good for U.S. students, good for the United States, and good for the world in the twenty-first century," the initiative will address the critical shortage of teachers of Chinese in the United States, support schools wishing to begin new Chinese language programs, expand professional development for teachers and the production of high-quality instructional materials, and provide students with a pipeline to the College Board's new AP® Chinese Language and Culture Exam.
Established by the Chinese government in 1987, Hanban is the nation's official agency authorized to promote Chinese language and culture internationally, fulfilling a function similar to that of the UK's British Council and France's Alliance Française. Chinese is the national language of the more than 1.3 billion inhabitants of China and millions more ethnic Chinese around the globe and is the world's most widely spoken language.
"We are pleased and enthusiastic about this initiative between the College Board and Hanban," said Caperton. "We appreciate the support Hanban will be giving us to help American students learn Chinese, discover the vibrant culture of China, and participate more fully in the cultural exchange between our two countries. At a time when more than 200 million children in China are studying English, yet only 24,000 children in the United States are studying Chinese, this initiative is one whose time has surely come. The College Board is proud to help the thousands of schools that want to offer their students a twenty-first-century choice."
Having received his doctorate in mechanical engineering from SUNY-Buffalo in 1984, Minister Zhou possesses a deep and personal appreciation of the value of language learning in education. Zhou said, "We warmly welcome education institutions from all over the world to join us in our efforts for international promotion of the Chinese language, and we are willing to strengthen cooperation in fields of common interest. Institutions such as the College Board and universities that are hosting Confucius Institutes have taken the first steps, and we hope more institutions among you will join us."
In an AP survey conducted in 2004, nearly 2,400 high schools expressed an interest in offering the AP Chinese course in 2006-07, but for many of these schools, this goal may go unrealized. They either are understaffed or have no teacher of Chinese, and many see no prospect of finding the teachers necessary to build their programs. This increasingly common predicament underscores the critical shortage of qualified teachers of Chinese in the United States.
In response, the plan announced today will temporarily place 150 guest teachers from China in American classrooms over the next three years. To ensure program continuity when the guest teachers return to China, the plan will also enable the College Board to support nearly 300 American teacher candidates in their efforts to attain state certification to teach Chinese.
Even before today's signing, the plan's partners had already moved forward with a number of the projects outlined in the agreement. In an immediate effort to support the ongoing professional development of teachers already in the classroom, 60 American teachers of Chinese will benefit from intensive, three-week Summer Institutes to be held at Beijing Normal University and Shanghai International Studies University this summer. These programs will expand to include greater numbers of teachers and to involve cities beyond Beijing and Shanghai in the coming years. In all, nearly 600 American teachers of Chinese will have access to these programs over the next five years.
Also starting without delay is a program in which, each year, 400 American educators will have the opportunity to travel to China during the summer months to become familiar with China's people, language, culture, and education systems. Beyond the obvious benefits of cultural enrichment these tours will offer, it is anticipated that they will also provide incentives and strategies for the educators to return to the United States better able to support the growth of Chinese programs in their own districts.
Hanban's contribution will further enable the College Board to support a number of other initiatives, including the provision of financial support to nearly 2,000 schools that may be struggling to manage the introduction or expansion of their Chinese programs.
"Only by preparing our students to thrive in a global society," Caperton said, "will it be possible for the United States to form strong ties with one of the world's most exciting cultures. The Chinese Language and Culture Initiative will help build an educational bridge to a country whose growing importance in the world is undeniable. For American students to be prepared to work and succeed in a global economy, they must better understand world languages and cultures, if we are to bring prosperity and peace to the world."
In 2003, the Trustees of the College Board approved in principle a plan for four new AP courses and examinations in world languages: Chinese, Italian, Japanese, and Russian. For U.S. students to be ready to take college-level courses, they must be prepared with the basics in elementary and secondary school. This initiative will help them be ready to take on advanced study and to become citizens in a global economy.
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