The Virginia STARTALK Chinese Teacher Academy, developed and directed by Miao-fen Tseng, has received up to 1.5 million since 2008. The program strives for excellence in preparing Chinese language teachers to teach in-person, hybrid, and online and offers graduate course credits to enhance and advance participants’ teaching credentials toward the pursuit or renewal of their certificate in teaching Chinese as a foreign language. With proven excellence and glowing testimonials from teacher participants since 2008, the VSCTA program at the University of Virginia (UVA) has established an excellent reputation for academic rigor and quality training and continues to inspire Chinese language educators. Through UVA STARTALK’s innovative training model, participants develop strong global leadership for teaching in Mandarin Chinese through face-to-face, hybrid, and online instructional modes.
In its first eight years (2008–2015), UVA STARTALK successfully implemented in-person teacher training and practicum. With a combination program in 2016–2019, UVA STARTALK demonstrated its ability to also prepare teachers to teach online. In response to the high demands for online teaching with the outbreak of COVID-19, the UVA STARTALK team mobilized quickly to launch free training sessions for the wider Chinese language teaching community in 2020. Many UVA STARTALK Teaching Fellows acted as regional leaders and played impactful roles in offering free online sharing sessions in different regions of the nation. We feel enormously grateful for the continual federal funding in the past thirteen years, and for the opportunity to help our community face the challenges of such a critical and challenging time.
The 2021 program marks a milestone for a new programmatic framework: the program length is extended beyond intensive summer training to also include fall teaching in local classrooms. This has proven to be the most effective design for transitioning to “real” teaching through a seamless coaching and reflective process. The 2023 program will continue to build on the success of the 2021 innovative model to help fulfill individualized professional goals in accordance with the educational endeavors of teaching fellows’ local schools.
The 2023 program celebrates its 14th anniversary and marks its 6th year in leading national pioneering work on online teaching in Mandarin Chinese. It aims to recruit 12 passionate teachers nationwide. The recruited teachers will actively engage in synchronous and asynchronous interactive platforms. The three-week online teacher program begins with one week of ONLINE asynchronous training (June 26–30), followed by two weeks of IN-PERSON training (July 2–14) at the Academic Village of the University of Virginia. Intensive summer training is followed and strengthened by post-program coaching activities in the fall.
Please visit the 2023 STARTALK program website https://startalkuva.as.virginia.edu and complete online application. Selected teacher participants will enjoy free graduate credits, lodging and food, and receive travel reimbursement up to $680. Admission will be granted on a rolling basis. Please send inquiries to the assistant director, Dr. Pei-Ying Gosselin at uva-startalk@virginia.edu. The following provides a list of peer-reviewed publications on STARTALK teacher and student programs.
Tseng M., & Gao, Y. 2021. Teach Chinese Online: An Essential Guide. Phoenix Tree Publisher.
Tseng, M., Geng Z., & Cai, L. 2021. 以教師反思分析線上中文教學有效原則之應用 (An analysis of the application of effective principles for online Chinese language teaching). 國際漢語教學研究 (Journal of International Chinese Teaching), p. 27-38.
Tseng, M., Sun, Y., & Lan, Y. 2020. A study of online synchronous immersive communication in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, 11(2), p. 1-23.
Tseng, M. 2020. 線上華語教學必備技能培訓之研究報告 (A study of required skills for online Chinese language teaching). 華語文教學多元視野與跨界思考 (Thinking from Multi-Perspectives and Cross-Disciplines in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language), p. 283-310. National Taiwan University Press.
Tseng, M., Gao, Y, & Cai\, L. 2019. 中文線上課堂有效結合科技工具以強化互動之報告 (Enhancing interaction through the effective incorporation of technology tools for a virtual Chinese language classroom). Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, 10(1), 91-113.
Tseng, M., Lin, C, & Chen, H. 2018. An immersive flipped classroom for learning Mandarin Chinese: design, implementation, and outcomes. Journal of Computer-Assisted Language Learning. https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ncal20/current.
Tseng, M. 2017. The Development of Skills Required for Online Chinese Language Teaching, in Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching, 8(1), 36-55.
Tseng, M., Broadstock, M, Chen, H. 2016. An investigation of the design of a four-stage flipped classroom in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of Technology and Chinese Language Teaching 7(1),15-42.