About the Program

The STARTALK Texas Teacher Program At The University of Houston

StarTalk is a federal grant from the National Security Language Initiative.

Dates: July 8-19 (8:30-3:30) 2013, plus follow-up sessions, Oct. 12 and Nov. 2 (9:00-1:30) 2013.

Location: University of Houston, Main Campus.

Application Deadline: Monday, April 1, 2013. Only 20 seats are available.

Download the online application.

Along with other application materials, applicants should include a one-page essay in English, that describes:

What do you hope to achieve by the end of the program?
What project do you plan to develop to share with other teachers. The projects may include a standards-based curriculum design with theme-based units, daily lesson plans, curriculum materials tailored to their own students, or a course syllabus with instructional and assessment samples.

Participants must hold an undergraduate degree. A copy of your last degree transcript must submitted together with your application
Teachers of Chinese in K-12 public and private schools, community colleges, and Chinese heritage schools in Texas.
Out-of-state teachers who pay for their own transportation to Houston and a partial of the room cost are also welcome to apply.

Zero for participants who fulfill the course requirements and successfully complete the entire program. Scholarships are offered to cover tuition & fees, instructional materials, and part of the housing cost for non-local participants.
The registration fee ($200) is due after being accepted to the program. The fee, however, will be refunded to the participants upon successful completion of the entire program.
The participants will receive a certificate for their successful completion of the entire program.

A 3-credit graduate course (CHNS 6398: Issues in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language) may be applied towards the Alternative Teacher Preparation Program leading to Texas teacher certification in Chinese, teacher certificate renewal, or the Master of Arts in teaching Chinese as a second language.
Participants will work on curriculum design, materials, and instructional development during the program. Participants will develop an understanding of the nature and process of learning Chinese as a foreign language, identify critical issues in Chinese foreign language pedagogy, and enhance their ability to develop appropriate teaching plans and materials.
Each participant will develop a program project based on his/her teaching needs, implement the project when returning to school in fall, evaluate it in actual teaching, and report the results to the class in follow-up sessions.
There is an online post-program center that uses materials created by the participants, which include standards-based curriculum with theme-based units, daily lesson plans, curriculum materials tailored to particular student groups, and the course syllabus with instructional and assessment samples, videos, presentations, teaching points and cultural resources.
This intensive program consists of 70 contact hours during the period of July 9 – July 20, and follow-up sessions on Oct.12, Nov. 2, 2013.

Conceptualize the National Standards; apply the standards to theme-/content-based curriculum design and learner-centered instruction. See the national Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century. Use the national standards and teaching principles to evaluate sample teaching plans and curriculum materials.
Discuss Chinese vocabulary instruction: from theories to methodology, through analysis of critical issues such as learning processes and interactive learning.
Examine Pedagogical Grammar in the areas of tones, sentence structures, pragmatics and culture.
Backward design: application of the theories to CFL curriculum and instruction. Microteaching: Develop curriculum and/or instructional projects for your students.
Techniques for differentiated instruction to accommodate different needs of learners.
Conduct performance-based assessments with a focus on "what students can do with language" rather than "what they know about language."

Through lectures, observations, hands-on activities, presentations, and collaborative learning, participants construct their knowledge in a learner-centered environment, and develop their capacity to become master teachers.
The participants will first evaluate existing curriculum materials and instructional plans, and report their assessments.
They will then design a standards-based curriculum with theme-based units, including daily lesson plans, curriculum materials tailored to their own students, or the course syllabus with instructional and assessment samples.
The projects will include curriculum goals for theme units, objectives for each lesson, and instructional focus for each class activity, with formative / summative assessments integrated throughout the process.
The projects developed will be learner-centered and task-based, helping students develop communicative competence, cognitive skills, and learning strategies.