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1 The Chair’s Annual Report Membership: The British Chinese Language Teaching Seminar has currently 59 members from 24 universities and institutions in the UK. The BCLTS committee The committee, which is serving from September 2004 to September 2006, consists of the following members:
Main activities from September 2005: September 2005 Conference at the University of Nottingham A conference at Nottingham was held from Saturday 17th to Sunday 18th, September 2005, with a main focus on translation. Fifteen papers were presented (see abstracts below), including papers given by two professors from Peking University sponsored by Hanban. Centres present at the conference shared their experiences of teaching translation. Kan Shioyun did a presentation on the history of BCLTS which was very well received. April 2006 Seminar at the University of Leeds On 3rd and 4th of April 2006 at the University of Leeds a seminar on “Chinese Computing Skills Learning and Assessment” was held. The team in Leeds led a hands-on workshop on Chinese Computing Skills Learning, which included two parts. Part I demonstrated facilities in Leeds, including Chinese Character Writer, TriScripts and Vocabulary Management, Reading Exercises and Tests, and Internet Chinese Learning Facilities. Part II was on computer assisted translation. Both provided participants with hands-on practice. The second theme of the seminar was on testing and assessments in higher educational institutions. It provided a forum for participants to disseminate their findings from research or teaching, exchange new ideas and approaches in relation to the theme. There are 15 universities (including FCO) presented at Leeds seminar and they gave the brief introduction assessment in their university except Coventry University. The fourteen universities are Bristol, Cambridge, Edinburgh, FCO, Imperial College, LondonMet, Leeds, Nottingham, Nottingham Trent, Oxford, SOAS and SOAS Learning Centre, Westminster, Durham.
Preparation for the September conference in Cambridge The September conference 2006, entitled ‘Theoretical and Empirical Approach to Applied Chinese Language Studies’, will be held on 9th – 10th at Churchill College, Cambridge. We expect a wider participation of members and non-members from the UK and other countries. For the first time in the history of BCLTS, the submitted abstracts were anonymously reviewed before a decision on participants was made as we are expecting to publish the conference proceedings, sponsored by Cypress Book Company Ltd.
Funding from UCCL Thanks to various efforts, BCLTS is receiving £4000 a year for three consecutive years starting from September 2005, which is mostly being used to cover the travel and accommodation cost of UK and Chinese participants at the seminars/conferences/workshops. Teachers training programme – summer 2005 With the sponsorship of Hanban, four members attended the summer training course for teachers in the Teaching of Chinese as a Foreign Language in Beijing. The course was run by BLU. Seeking funding from Hanban, P.R. China A proposal consisting of 6 projects is being submitted to the Hanban, with a total sum of £66,210 requested to support these projects
Changes to BCLTS The Advisory Panel At the meeting in Leeds in April, the request from Prof Dudbridge and Yip Po-ching to step down from the advisory panel was discussed. All present voiced gratitude for their great contributions to BCLTS and wished them well in their retirement. It was also proposed and agreed that BACS’ chair should ex officio be a BCLTS’ committee member as there should be a close integration of BCLTS into BACS. In the light of that, it was proposed and agreed that the advisory panel be dissolved, as it was initially created in the early days to help advise the BCLTS Committee on its activities. Although the advisory board is dissolved, the previous retired advisers are entitled to remain as BCLTS members. BCLTS should send them the invitations of its activities and all the cost should be covered by BCLTS.
Funding Policy At the meeting in Leeds changes to the current funding policy were discussed and it was agreed that starting from September, all members should enjoy free accommodation when attending seminars/conferences but should be responsible for the costs of travel to the seminar/conference. BCLTS would continue to sponsor those whose papers are accepted by the seminar/conference, including both accommodation and reasonable travel costs. This change is related to the consideration of BCLTS accepting applicants who are not teaching in HE, for instance those teaching in FE and adult education colleges. By the change in the funding policy it is hoped to maximise the benefits to the members as a whole of the activities organised by the BCLTS.
Non-members should pay £20.00 registration fee for attending BCLTS seminars to cover costs (tea and coffee, lunch, and materials) even if they deliver papers. Members will not be required to pay the registration fee as before.
BCLTS seminar/panel A proposal was put forward and agreed that in future there should be more differentiation in the functions of the two seminars/conferences. The April seminar will be for internal issues related to BCLTS, i.e., be on a more practical level, and the Sept conference will be for a wider audience with presentations from beyond the UK and a more research-orientated focus. Website Our website remains at , and continues to be maintained and updated by Mr Kan Shio-yun at Oxford. Newsletters Two newsletters in electronic form are sent out every year.
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