A win-win situation at Welsh Teaching Championship for Cardiff Confucius Institute tutors

The UK Mandarin Teaching Championship for Wales was organised by the Centre for Language Education and Cooperation (CLEC – formerly Hanban) and was the first competition of its kind to be held in the country.

16 teachers from the three Welsh Confucius Institutes of UWTSD, Cardiff and Bangor universities took part, as well as several overseas volunteers. Participants were asked to choose and teach either a streamed 15-minute language or culture class, then were posed one question in English and another in Mandarin by a panel of judges. The panel was made up of language professionals from educational establishments teaching Chinese across the UK.

Cardiff Confucius Institute’s teachers presented interesting, fun and imaginative lessons on areas including colours, birthdays, the future tense and Chinese painting. Competition was tough with such creative output but after much deliberation, the winners were announced with Ling He and Linyan Tian from Cardiff Confucius Institute taking first and second place.

Ling and Linyan’s classes were both aimed at beginners, and their topics were respectively parts of the body and telling the time. First-prize winner Ling, who mainly teaches primary school children, said: “I designed many interesting class games to help them to practice and strengthen memory of what they have learned. Besides, I'm good at using my body language and making teaching aids to make my lessons more attractive.”

Linyan, who took second place, said: “The 15-minute presentation to me was like every lesson I give in everything, the key is to involve everyone, as I always believe a proverb in teaching: ‘Tell me and I will forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand’."

Judge Fang Xiao, an examiner and Mandarin teacher at Cardiff Sixth Form College said of the event: "All who participated did really well in this competition. We can see the excellent teaching materials and multiple teaching strategies with innovative and inclusive views, and it will help promote Mandarin teaching and learning in Wales to a high standard in the future".

Ling and Linyan will now go on to represent Wales in UK final – the exact date is yet to be announced.

To read an article in Chinese on the competition, visit this page.