The University at Buffalo has received a Fulbright-Hays award from the US Department of Education to fund a short-term group project abroad in China in summer 2014. The project will provide Mandarin language and Chinese culture immersion classes, seminars, tutoring, home stay, and guided sight visits through a six-week intensive immersion stay in Beijing. It will include pre-departure (Spring 14) and post-travel follow-up (Fall 14 and Spring 15) activities at the University at Buffalo. A concurrent research study will determine participants’ language gains, perceptions of and increases in knowledge about Chinese culture, and cognitive changes.
The program is open to Western NY educators in the field of Mandarin as a foreign language or global and international studies, and to undergraduate seniors committed to pursuing a Master’s degree in education and certification in Mandarin as a foreign language. Language instruction will be offered at HSK levels 1-4 (beginning to intermediate), so the program will not be appropriate for native speakers of Mandarin Chinese.
Applicants must participate in pre-departure guided activities that include Mandarin language and Chinese culture classes, lectures, celebrations, and individual tutoring. Selected participants must also attend orientation workshops to prepare them for the overseas experience and to collect data for the researchstudy. Post-travel activities will be implemented to collect data and to help participants integrate Mandarin language and Chinese culture content into their academic programs and/or schools, including the development of a theme-based curriculum unit as a capstone project.
Tentative dates for the overseas portion of the project are July 7 – August 18, 2014.
An application form is attached and is also available athttp://gse.buffalo.edu/news-and-events/10682. Nine participants will be selected and funded with Fulbright Hays scholarships to participate in this program. Applicants are encouraged to apply soon so they can begin their pre-departure activities.
The project is a collaborative effort between the UB Graduate School of Education, Department of Learning and Instruction, Confucius Institute, GSE Center for Comparative and Global Education, Office of the Vice-Provost for International Education, Office of Chinese Language Council (Hanban), and Capital Normal University in Beijing. Dr. Lilliam Malave, from the Department of Learning and Instruction, is the principal investigator and Dr. Eric Yang, executive director of the UB Confucius Institute, is the project co-director.
We encourage eligible teachers to apply and/or forward this announcement to colleagues who might be interested. For additional information contact the Fulbright-Hays Mandarin Language and Chinese Culture Immersion Project atmalave@buffalo.edu.