Ou Mali (front center) & Tu Chao- Mei杜昭玫 Associate Executive Director (front, 5th left) of the Mandarin Training Center at a welcome for the teachers

In order to support professional development and enhance the teaching quality of Chinese language educators in the Greater New York area, the Ministry of Education and the Education Division of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York co-organized the Summer Seminar for Chinese Language Teachers in the Greater New York Area. It was held at the Mandarin Training Center at National Taiwan Normal University from July 1 to July 12, 2024. The participants—20 Chinese language teachers working in mainstream senior secondary schools or tertiary institutions in New York and New Jersey—were organized by Ou Mali 歐瑪麗, the president of the Association of Taiwanese Teachers in Mainstream Schools in the Greater New York Area.

The theme of the seminar training program was the Application of Artificial Intelligence and Technology in Chinese Language Teaching. Prominent experts in Chinese language teaching in Taiwan gave lectures on the latest trends in integrating AI and technology into Chinese language education, covering topics ranging from how to use AI to help teach speaking, grammar, and reading, and for testing, and they demonstrated innovative teaching methods developed by Taiwan educators.

In addition to the lectures, the program included cultural visits highlighting different aspects of Taiwan's local culture: to Yilan for tea picking; to Dadaocheng for an indigo dyeing workshop, to Jiufen, a now famous mountain town, and to places to experience Hakka culture, and indigenous peoples’ culture. These visits sparked the teachers' enthusiasm for integrating Taiwanese culture into their Chinese language teaching.

On the last day, the group visited the Taiwan Chinese Language Education Resource Center, where Deputy Executive Director Kuan Fang-Fang 關芳芳 showed them the center's abundant resources for Chinese language education. First Education Secretary Liao Yi-Ken 廖苡亘 and Section Chief Zhuang Yu-Xuan 莊祐瑄 from the Ministry of Education also attended and gave the group information about Learning Mandarin in Taiwan opportunities, and Ministry of Education scholarships.

Professor Dongdong Chen, director of the Chinese Program at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, said afterwards that the seminar had resulted in many excellent academic exchanges and given all the participating teachers ideas and inspiration for new approaches. The highly innovative interactive function of the T-Robot introduced in the seminar prompted the teachers to reflect on new ways to integrate technology into Chinese teaching. Association president Ou Mali thanked the Ministry of Education and the NTNU Mandarin Training Center on behalf of the seminar participants, for the support and resources they had provided, and she encouraged all the teachers to actively apply what they had learned in Taiwan to give fresh momentum to Chinese language teaching in schools and classrooms in the US.