The English and Foreign Languages Branch of the Ministry of Education organized a two-day capacity development program aimed at newly recruited Chinese language teachers. This program will focus on enhancing their teaching skills and methodologies for effectively delivering Chinese language teaching at the school level.
Therefore, Ven. Snr. Prof. Nadalagamuwe Dhammadinna Thero, Head of the Department of Modern Languages at the University of Kelaniya, Dr. Jani Samarakoon, Co-Director (For Sri Lanka) of the Confucius Institute at the University of Kelaniya, and Assoc. Prof. Sun Cuibi, a Chinese Lecturer at the Confucius Institute at the University of Kelaniya, and Ms. R.M.S.P. Rathnayake, a Teacher at Lakdas de Mal College at Kurunegala, were invited as guest lecturers in this training program as well. On both the 11th of March and 12th of March 2025, the training program was conducted at the National Institute of Education (NIE) of Sri Lanka for newly appointed for National Schools 70 Chinese Language teachers from various Districts. All teachers were appointed in July 2024, with 99% being graduates of the University of Kelaniya.
As requested by the Ministry of Education, this program was coordinated by Dr. Jani Samrakoon from the University of Kelaniya. At the beginning of the program, all attendees were welcomed by Mr. Dhrshana Wijesinghe, the Assistant Director of Education. Following this, a speech was delivered by the Thero from the English and Foreign Languages Branch. On March 11, 2025, Dr. Jani Samarakoon began the training lectures by giving a lecture on the Chinese language and introducing the systematic knowledge of Chinese Pinyin.
Furthermore, she explained the contents of the current Chinese textbook "Contemporary Chinese," which is used by Sri Lankan school students the use workbooks, and the analysis of the content of the syllabus, the system of evaluation, and the criteria, so that new teachers can fully understand the teaching materials, class arrangement, the system of evaluation and so on. Later, after Lunch Break, Ven. Snr. Prof. Nadalagamuwe Dhammadinna Thero lectured on the Theory of Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language.
On the second training day, March 12, 2025, Dr. Jani Samarakoon and Assoc. Prof. Sun Cuibi gave a lecture on "Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language." In the lecture, they eagerly combined the latest education theories with Chinese teaching methods and techniques to explain what Chinese Language teaching, the elements of Chinese language teaching, comprehensive courses, and other aspects are to the training teachers. Moreover, they analyzed the difficulties of Sri Lankan students in learning Chinese practically analyzed its causes, and suggested practical solutions. After the lunch break, Ms. R.M.S.P. Rathnayake explained the problems that can be faced by foreign language teachers.
The lecturers have prepared a few Class Activities. The Teachers actively participated in the Class Activities and Games. After the training sessions, the newly appointed teachers didn’t forget to express their thoughts regarding the training lecture sessions.
“From Dr. Jani's session, I managed to recollect a lot of knowledge. She taught us how to attract new students by teaching some basic things about China and the Chinese language. I will use them to promote the Chinese language in my school.”
“This event, hosted by the new Chinese teachers, was very important. First of all, I would like to thank Ms. Sun from the Confucius Institute at the University of Kelaniya and our teacher, Dr. Jani. Because they explained to us a lot of important content about Chinese teaching. Ms. Sun's class is very interesting. In this event, Ms. Sun taught us how to teach interestingly. For example, how to design the first lesson, we also learned about Chinese character teaching methods, vocabulary teaching methods, and grammar teaching. For us, Ms. Sun's class is very useful. Ms. Sun, you are busy with work and affairs, but you still take the time to participate in this event and help us improve our teaching ability. I thank you again!”
“The event was very successful for us. It was a great opportunity to review the past and learn new things. We would like to thank the dedicated Dr. Jani, Ven. Snr. Prof. Nadalagamuwe Dhammadinna, the Chinese teacher Ms. Sun Cuibi, and all the other teachers.”
The greatest asset of a school is the personality of the teacher. Therefore, the teacher training programs really help elevate the whole teaching process.
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