06/14/2022
LEARN CHINESE FOR FREE Summer 2022:
www.dllc.appstate.edu/undergraduate/startalk
The APPSTATE-STARTALK Student program includes 60-hour pre-camp and 30-hour post-camp virtual activities and a three-week, residential, immersive program from July 11 to July 29, 2022.
We plan to enroll 30 rising 11th-14th students (rising high school juniors and seniors and college freshmen and sophomores) with previous education in Chinese and/or at Novice-Mid/High level from the universities and colleges in the High Country, where Appalachian State University is located, and its surrounding Southern Appalachian region, especially Western North Carolina and East Tennessee.
Our program is designed to be equivalent to three semesters of high school/college foreign language classes (180 instructional hours and 180 co-curricular in-language cultural activity hours).
Its goals are to assist our students to reach the proficiency level of Intermediate Mid/High.
The immersive program will use a standards-based, student-centered, backward-designed and technology-integrated curriculum.
The highly structured theme- and task-based program will focus on the theme “The High Country Meets the Middle Kingdom” and aim to give students an authentic insight into modern day China by embarking on a virtual journey to Beijing.
Students will explore many aspects of the Chinese culture starting with an imaginary arrival at the Beijing Airport, visiting a local Beijing family, making friends at a Beijing high school, dinning at a Peking Duck restaurant, shopping at the Silk Market, and visiting local sites of historic and cultural significance, such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
Furthermore, students will learn to inform, explain, persuade, describe, and narrate on a variety of topics on their travel and cultural experiences in Beijing.
Students will also participate in a series of cultural workshops, such as guest lectures on aspects of Chinese culture and hands-on activities, including Chinese martial arts (Tai Chi), calligraphy, painting, paper cutting/crafts, singing, dancing, film viewing, etc.
The APPSTATE-STARTALK Student program is a year-round community-building initiative designed to improve students’ knowledge of Chinese language and culture.
More importantly, the program will support students in future learning and career goals by equipping them with the language skills and experience to use in the professional world.