Director
Chih-p'ing Chou
Princeton University
Assistant Director
Wei-ling Wu
West Windsor-Plainsboro High School, New Jersey
Mission:
1. Promoting Chinese language instruction at the pre-collegiate level.
2. Enhancing communication and networking among teachers of Chinese, administrators, and
educators at the pre-collegiate level.
3. Promoting the articulation of viewpoints between instructors in Chinese programs at the
pre-collegiate level and those at the collegiate level.
4. Providing information on various Chinese language programs, current pedagogical
methodologies, professional activities, and new publications in the field.
In the early '80s, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, under the leadership of executive director Scott McVay, launched a Chinese Initiative program in American high schools. Funded by the Dodge Foundation, sixty schools introduced Chinese language instruction into their curriculums. In 1989, the Dodge Foundation, recognizing that a national center could most effectively address the needs of newly established Chinese programs and could coordinate many functions of national consequence that individual programs alone were unlikely to be able to handle, approved the request of Dr. Ta-tuan Chen and Dr. Chih-p'ing Chou of Princeton University to establish the Secondary School Chinese Language Center (SSCLC) at Princeton University. Since 1989, the Dodge Foundation has been generously providing continuous funding to the SSCLC. Recently-approved three-year funding will allow the SSCLC to operate until the year 2001.
Since the Center's establishment in 1989, Dr. Chih-p'ing Chou, Professor of East Asian Studies and Director of the Chinese Language Program at Princeton University, has been serving as director. In 1989-1990, Luh Nelson served as assistant director, and since 1990, Wei-ling Wu has been serving in this position. Functions:
1. Maintaining a Nationwide Network of Teachers, Administrators, and Parents
Today, the Center's network reaches more than three hundred people in thirty-nine states. Through telephone conversations, letter correspondence, newsletters, workshops, seminars, and Advisory Board meetings, the Center has been staying in close contact with three groups of people: 1) teachers of Chinese; 2) administrators who are supporters of pre-collegiate Chinese language programs or who are interested in starting new Chinese programs; and 3) parents or potential teachers of Chinese who are lobbying for new Chinese programs. In recent years, the Center has been making a special effort to reach Chinese teachers on the west coast. Now the Center’s network stretches from across the country to Taiwan and Hong Kong, and from regular schools to weekend Chinese language schools.
2. Publishing the SSCLC Newsletter
The Center’s newsletter has become a major link among Chinese teachers, especially those who are teaching in isolated programs, and the Center has made every effort to make the newsletter an important source of information for all Chinese teachers. To date, the Center has published twenty-seven issues, including two special issues which recorded milestone events in pre-collegiate Chinese language education. The "School Profile" section of the newsletter provides information on Chinese language programs at all levels from kindergarten through twelfth grade. The "Students’ Voices" section provides a forum for students to express their views on Chinese language study. "In the Field" focuses on information exchange among teachers regarding such topics as professional activities, Dodge-NEH summer fellowships, and training opportunities. The newsletter also provides information on new publications, recent developments in the foreign language field, and most importantly, the rapid changes occurring in China. Since May 1995, the Center’s newsletter has been documenting the development of the historic Principal-Led Chinese Initiative for Children launched and sponsored by the Dodge foundation.
3. Conducting Annual National Surveys on Chinese Language Enrollments
Since 1991, the Center has conducted seven surveys on Chinese enrollments. In the past four years, the Center’s annual survey has expanded its scope from only Dodge-funded schools to include all the Chinese programs in the country. Every autumn a report on enrollment figures with an analysis is sent to the Dodge Foundation. The survey results are also reported to the Advisory Board members at the annual Advisory Board Meetings and published in the Center’s newsletter. At present, the Center is the only organization that has been consistently conducting annual Chinese enrollment surveys at the pre-collegiate level for an extended period.
4. Organizing Teacher Training Workshops and Seminars
The Center has conducted eight teacher training workshops, three at the Middlebury Chinese Language School and five at Princeton University. The Program in East Asian Studies at Princeton University and its summer programs (originally the Middlebury Chinese School and now the Princeton in Beijing program) have assisted these workshops in providing training in linguistic skills and instructional methodology. In recent years, the Princeton workshops have focused on providing resources for new teachers who have had little contact with other teachers of Chinese. Every year fifteen new teachers are invited to the workshop, where they receive training and exchange ideas. Recent workshops have also included twenty to thirty teachers from Chinese language schools.
The Center has also conducted two seminars and three meetings at Princeton University to involve administrators in promoting Chinese language instruction at the pre-collegiate level. These meetings have marked the Center's effort to reach out to administrators, who are the decisive force in the Chinese Initiative.
5. Assisting the Dodge Foundation in its Two Chinese Initiatives
The Center has been playing an important role in the Foundation’s long commitment to promoting Chinese language instruction in the Unites States. In the early '80s, before the Center was established, the Chinese Language Program at Princeton University headed by the late Professor Ta-tuan Chen was involved directly in the planning work and the selection of sixty schools. Since its establishment in 1989, the Center has been effectively serving the needs of the field through its regular activities and special events.
The Center’s leadership role for the Dodge Foundation’s second initiative, the Principal-Led Chinese Initiative, is even more significant. Since May 1996, the Center has organized visits, workshops, and meetings at Princeton University to stimulate an interest in Chinese among elementary school principals, and to discuss with Chinese teachers the details of implementing Chinese programs in elementary schools.
6. Providing Support to Teachers and Promoting Chinese Programs
The Center has written letters of support to school administrators on behalf of teachers of Chinese, provided new teachers with information on Chinese curriculum development, referred potential Chinese teachers to training opportunities and job positions, and advised school districts on how to initiate and maintain Chinese programs. The booklet How to Initiate a Chinese Program at the Secondary Level, written by Margaret Wong of the Breck School in Minnesota as the result of a workshop organized by the Center, has been published and distributed to people across the country and at different conferences. Through telephone communication and letter correspondence, the Center has provided information, advice, and support to those people who are trying to start or have started new Chinese programs in their areas.
7. Maintaining an Advisory Board
The Center's Advisory Board is composed of four officers and five regional coordinators from the Chinese Language Association of the Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS). Throughout the year, the Center stays in contact with its board members. In November, the Advisory Board members meet annually at the American Council of Teaching Foreign Languages conference, reviewing the Center's achievements and establishing new goals for the coming year. Every year, the contents of the meeting are reported to the public through the newsletter.
8. Promoting Professional Connections
The Center staff makes every effort to make the Center visible and strengthen its connection with schools and organizations. In past years the Center has made presentations at the American Council of Teaching Foreign Languages northeast conferences, annual meetings of the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools, and conferences of the Association of Chinese Schools. The presentations included: an introduction to the Center, curriculum coordination between high school and college Chinese language teaching, Chinese language instruction in American schools (K-12), the maintenance of a high school Chinese language program, and promoting Chinese language programs and the Principal-Led Chinese Initiative for Children.