Administration Evidence

There is one Mandarin language and two dialects (Hakka and Taiwanese) are spoken in Taiwan. I grow up in a small city where there most of the people speak Hakka dialect in there.

Even there are different spoken language and dialects. The text is the same in Chinese. Most of the people can learn these three communication tools from audio or TV. According to my learning experience, I learned my mother language –Hakka dialect from my family members. We did not have any media to expose this dialect for young kids. Before the school age, this is the only language I used to communicate with people in my hometown. In Taiwan, All the young kids could learn the Mandarin and Taiwanese by watching TV with the text or listen to the radio. By using these two resources, the kids literally develop their comprehension skill to another language besides their mother tongue language.

The ‘nature order’ of language skill acquisition is listening, speaking, reading and writing (Larsen-Freeman p.45). My sister is a physician and work in Taipei City. Due to her occupation, to communicate with her patients, she has to learn different dialect –Taiwanese at her work site. Therefore, she speaks the Taiwanese more fluently than me. Even I understand the meaning of the conversation, the main reason I do not speak it well is I do not have any chance to practice the speaking. I believe” The more often something is repeated, the stronger the habit and the greater the learning” (Larsen-Freeman p.42)

I was a certify Hakka language teacher in Taipei. Besides teaching Chinese Dance, I also taught the Hakka dialect in Elementary school. At that teaching experience, I started developing my language teaching method by using variety fine arts, such as music, paint, and songs to integrate my lesson.

I barely had a chance to use or speak English when I live in Taiwan. There was my language transforming stage when I immigrated to the US. Since 2007. I was very lucky to get a job at a public school in the second year. To work in Pre-K classroom, I went to LCC to study Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential. That was my first time having courses to study in the US.

That study was a difficult time to me to study textbook in English. “Writing is an important skill, to be developed from the beginning of language structure” (Larsen-Freeman, p.29). In order to comprehend fast, I usually check the Google dictionary and translation a lot. Even I studied many textbooks; I knew my English speaking and writing still need to approve because of the lacking practice.

For my English speaking learning experience, I had to appreciate Carla Way who was my colleague at Post Oak for five years. Every day we had one hour to discuss everything. She was a good listener and patient teacher to correct my speaking. I learned her parallel phrase when she understood what I wanted to express. She had shaped me as an English speaker. After many years conversation, I was not only improving my speaking but also learned different aspect point of views from American.

In order to improve my communicative skill in English. I decided to run an after school dance program as a volunteer since 2008. I knew what dance skills I could teach. That was a good reason helps me being confident to try different ages students. I had never thought about I could speak English to teach students Chinese Dance. This experience and challenge that pushed me forward to achieve it.

Through many years teaching in the public school, I had gained how to interpret American students when they got frustrated. I observed one thing was students learn best when I speak to them Chinese from their daily experience. That was easier for them to comprehend the sentences than just book reading in the class. But sometimes, I still need to speak English to communicate with young kids when they have social and emotional needs.

I started to teach Chinese PreK program at CELTA, MSU in 2013. I teach two classes. Children age is from 3-12. I have tried to use 100% target language teaching in the class to develop students’ communication competence with authentic materials.

After living ten years in U.S., I felt I am not afraid anymore since my speaking skill improving a lot by the previous experiences. I felt very relaxed in answering a phone call, walking an appointment or knowing how to held a parent conference, etc. In 2016, I applied a part time job being a local Chinese interpreter. I keep accepting any opportunity and creating my journey as bright way. From now on, I am very excited to join the master program at MSU. I wish I could pursue my dream goal to be a great Chines language teacher in the future.