Promoting Chinese Language Education in Arizona
The Ministry of Education has put enormous effort into supporting Chinese language teaching for many years now, and many universities in Taiwan have set up programs to train students there to teach Chinese as a second language. At the same time, the numbers of people in the US learning Chinese or wanting to learn Chinese have been growing steadily, and as a result the demand for well trained teachers is also increasing. During her visit, Dr. Liang presented the Arizona Department of Education with a proposal prepared in line with the Ministry of Education guidelines for cooperative initiatives. The proposed collaboration includes programs for recruiting teachers from Taiwan, organizing summer language camps in Taiwan, and conducting Taiwan’s Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language.
The personnel at the Arizona Department of Education expressed great high interest in possible collaborations and exchanged ideas on how to implement these projects. This is a very promising start to making more Chinese language education available in Arizona.
Another purpose of Dr. Liang’s visit was to extend an invitation from the Ministry of Education to the Superintendent of the Department of Education, Mrs. Diana Douglas to visit Taiwan to strengthen academic exchanges and cooperation between Arizona State and Taiwan. Mrs. Douglas was away on a business trip so her Chief of Staff, Michael Bradley, received the invitation letter on her behalf and promised he would deliver all the messages regarding strengthening the cooperation ties between Arizona State and Taiwan.
Photo：Dr. Mary Li-Ling Liang (in red), Michael Bradley; ADE Chief of Staff (on her right); Ms. Lee Lin-Ling, director of the Chinese Culture Academy, Arizona (2nd left); Ms. Leah Landrum Taylor, Associate Superintendent, ADE (3rd left); Ms. Pan Huichen, senior officer, TECO Education Division, (4th left); Ms. Chiu Wen Chyi, Chinese language teacher at Seton Catholic Preparatory High School, Phoenix (2nd right); and ADE staff members.