View Content #6121
| Contentid | 6121 |
|---|---|
| Content Type | 1 |
| Title | Article: Chinese Teacher Shortage in the US |
| Body | From http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0327/p03s03-legn.htm Chinese-language classes full, but teachers scarce in US: The shortage has school officials traveling to China for recruits and offering guest-worker visas. By Ben Arnoldy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor March 27, 2007 It takes brute memorization, meticulous pronunciation, and compared with Spanish, a good deal more time spent in bug-eyed incomprehension. Nevertheless, American students are clamoring to learn Chinese. The problem: There aren't enough teachers to meet the demand. Enrollment has soared, going from 5,000 primary and secondary school students in 2000 to estimates as high as 50,000 today, according to the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. When the College Board surveyed schools in 2004 about their interest in a Chinese advanced-placement test, 2,400 schools expressed interest – but many also said they couldn't find a teacher to start a program. Three years later, the topic still tops concerns. At the first national conference of Chinese teachers, held in San Francisco earlier this month, school administrators spoke of beating a path to China and its roughly 1 billion speakers of Mandarin in search of teachers. Superintendents are also keeping an eye on the growing number of college graduates from Asian-language programs, as well as tapping Saturday schools that teach Chinese-American children their ancestral tongue. Just as the United States has built up a huge trade deficit with China, the teacher shortage reveals America's language deficit. In China, some 200 million students are studying English through programs put in place decades ago. In the US, the sudden attention on Mandarin has exposed a serious lack of infrastructure. Read the entire article at http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0327/p03s03-legn.htm . |
| Source | Christian Science Monitor |
| Inputdate | 2007-04-29 09:34:35 |
| Lastmodifieddate | 2007-04-29 09:34:35 |
| Expdate | Not set |
| Publishdate | 2007-04-30 00:00:00 |
| Displaydate | Not set |
| Active | 1 |
| Emailed | 1 |
| Isarchived | 1 |
