Last Lecture- Kathy

We can tell we are getting very near the end of the semester because we have been invited to deliver our “Last Lecture.”  South China University of Technology hosts an International Scholar program each year and invites the Foreign Teachers to present a lecture to the University audience, both professors and students are invited to attend, usually on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening in an auditorium.

The invitation was posted on the International Office website and throughout the university.

The latest cultural lecture will be given by Prof. Kathryn Anderson from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm on May. 20, in Room 302 of the 34th building on the Wushan Campus. The lecture is entitled Mandarin in American Schools.

I wanted to share with SCUT the efforts being made in Utah to develop and implement our Dual Immersion Mandarin Chinese program in our public schools.  Since I do have some prior knowledge about that program, it was fun to put together.  It has continued to grow and expand and is currently very popular and difficult to enroll students.

I wanted Chinese professors and students to understand the efforts being made by public school students in Utah to learn Mandarin Chinese.  I started with 2008 Governor Jon Huntsman and later Chinese Ambassador as a great example of a politician fluent in Mandarin Chinese.  Utah Senate Bill 41 and the implementation of the first schools to implement Mandarin Chinese in a 50/50 Dual Immersion content area program including my school, Lone Peak Elementary.  I took the opportunity to share my experiences in the development and implementation of that program and the impact it now has on students. 

Most of the audience was aware of the efforts to learn Chinese in the secondary schools across the country in a stand-alone pull out program during the daily schedule. They were not aware of any program that reached as far as Kindergarten and was imbedded in the curriculum.  It was a real ah-ah moment for them to recognize that Utah is moving forward rapidly to prepare future business leaders to communicate in Mandarin

It was an opportunity to stand and be proud of the hard work being done by teachers, principals, district and state leaders to support student success.