The Naperville Chinese School set up its Taiwan Center for Mandarin Learning (TCML) in February 2022 to increase the awareness of traditional Chinese characters and promote diverse Taiwanese culture to the mainstream community in the Greater Chicagoland area. The center also highlights the connection between traditional Chinese characters and Chinese/Taiwanese cultures.
TCML currently offers Wednesday and Saturday online sessions taught by two teachers. The weekly 90-minute lesson content is the same for both sessions. Students have the flexibility to attend either session depending on their schedule. TCML encompasses commonly used Chinese sentence structures as the main teaching material. The short-term goal is to build students' ability to converse in simple Chinese sentences, including self-introduction, daily expression needs, asking basic questions, and basic listening and speaking skills. The introduction of Taiwanese culture is also integrated into the curriculum.
The educational program of the TCML currently focuses on reaching overseas adult learners aged 18 and over, and the themes and situations covered by the learning materials are tailored to overseas adult learners. The course design is based on the "Taiwan Benchmarks for the Chinese Language" (TBCL) developed by the National Academy for Education Research of the Republic of China. The TCML uses the Overseas Community Affairs Council’s textbook "Let’s Learn Mandarin", which emphasizes natural dialogue and learning the vocabulary needed in daily life to lay the foundation of the Chinese language learning. Aiming to meet the basic daily language needs of adults, it focuses on practicality and functionality. The lessons are sequenced according to the learning environment and ability of adult learners, focusing on the balanced development of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills according to situational activities. The homework is designed with multiple exercises and listening practices. Cultural activities are also provided to connect the themes of the textbook and enable learners to further understand Taiwanese culture through language learning.
The TCML of the Naperville Chinese School plans to improve the motivation of overseas adults to learn Mandarin through the development of multiple teaching models, highlighting a positive image of Taiwan that reflects the abundance of professional Mandarin teaching in Taiwan. Taking orthodox Chinese language teaching as the starting point, the teachers will take a cross-cultural perspective, aiming to deeply engage the mainstream community to deepen the awareness of Taiwan's role in the global cultural village. For registration please contact Ms. Jenny Hong, https://www.chicagomandarin.org/, FB: TCML Chicago。
