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Chinese Culture Websites

Portal Web sites to many different resources:

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?pageSize=&page=2&category=2447& - A

gateway to many Chinese language and culture resources.

http://k12east.mrdonn.org/China.html - Mr. Donn's Lesson Plans on China. This site

has everything – links to online games related to China (including a majiang game and

an online shadow puppet demonstration), powerpoints on Chinese culture, concise

explanations of Chinese history, etc.

Other useful Web sites:

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/ - Columbia University's East Asia Department (这个网站主

要针对大学生，但是也可以用同样的内容改变一下 教高中生)

http://www.chinapage.com/china-rm.html - China the Beautiful, contains multiple

resources for teaching Chinese culture

http://www.chinavista.com/experience/index.html - The China Experience

http://www.t2tweb.us/Workshops/Sessions.asp?SessionID=104 - Creating Classroom

Activities for Learning Chinese Culture

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?pageSize=&page=2&category=2447& - A

gateway to many Chinese language and culture resources.

http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/chinese-music/ - Chinese music internet

archive. Includes all sorts of Chinese songs, including children’s songs, popular music,

ceremonial music, and other

http://sinophilia.org/ - Introduces some basic aspects of China, such as language,

history and religion

http://www.wellesley.edu/Chinese/Chinese_Fables/index/index.html - an introduction

to Chinese fables and their origins (in Chinese)

http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/khsu2/poetrygallery.html - Chinese love poetry and

folklore (good traditional Chinese stories to teach during Valentine’s day)

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/youngchina/ A series of videos about Chinese

youth, “The Young and Restless.” The videos, produced by PBS, include lesson plans

and discussion questions. All free! Good for a high school Chinese culture class.

http://www.bc.edu/research/chinagateway/ A “toolkit” for Chinese history and culture.

Tons of links. It also provides many links to resources in the Boston, Massachusetts

area: http://www.bc.edu/research/chinagateway/boston/commOut.html

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Language Resources and Tools

Portal Web sites to many different resources:

http://chinalinks.osu.edu – Links to search engines, teaching strategies, games,

software and more

www.mandarintools.com/ Good portal site for Chinese learning tools such as language

flashcards, encoding/converting, and dictionaries.

http://newton.uor.edu/Departments&Programs/AsianStudiesDept/china-language.html

– Directory of Chinese language Internet resources. Includes language instruction and

learning, and dictionaries.

http://www.merlot.org/merlot/materials.htm?category=2448&&& - A gateway to many

Chinese language and culture resources.

Other useful Web sites:

http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Chinese/index.html - Chinese multimedia resources –

conversations, videos, pronunciation guides

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/ - great resources for teachers

and students, including tone and character games, TV transcripts, conversations, and

more!

http://www.liwin.com/calligraphy/ - Chinese cyber calligraphy

www.zein.se/patrick/3000char.html – The 3,000 most common Chinese characters,

listed in order of frequency. Contains alternate pronunciations and explanations.

http://clta-us.org/cltalinks/teaching.htm – Sources for Chinese teaching and learning.

http://www.chinesepod.com – Language training service. Download learning Chinese

lesson pod casts to your iPod or mobile phone for free, or pay for transcripts.

http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese – Provides 40 online Chinese lessons.

Starts from basics and gradually promotes student to level of smooth and confident

communication.

http://readchinese.nflc.org/?page=home –READ CHINESE!, a project of the National

Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland, provides online reading lessons

in Chinese for “novice” and “intermediate” students. Each lesson includes primary

source materials, reinforcement activities and a quiz at the end.

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/ This is the website for a travel company

in China, but it also has province and city-specific information. Use it as a resource for

cultural and province/city descriptions. New!

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http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org/FCBSTWeb/web/index.html#link= The Forbidden

City: Beyond Space and Time is a virtual educational game where users can explore the

Forbidden City. Best for high school students. New!

http://enterzon.com/ A virtual world designed for students to learn Chinese. Not very

effective for beginning learners but a fun virtual exploration of certain sites in Beijing.

New!

http://popupchinese.com/lessons At this website, you can download short language

classes in MP3 format (similar to ChinesePod, but not as well developed). The most fun

part are the KTV videos of pop songs with translations and explanations. New!

http://www.learnchineseez.com/ This site has a diverse collection of Chinese-learning

tools. Check out the list of “4000 simplified Chinese characters” – it’s well organized

and shows stroke order for each character. New!

Classroom Strategies and Tips

http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/archives/classmanagement.shtml – Articles for

educators. Classroom management tips and ideas, and tools for teaching.

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/teaching-methods/teacher-

training/6495.html?detoured=1 – Tips for behavior management and classroom

management, and advice on lesson planning, from veteran teachers.

www.busyteacherscafe.com – Games and ideas for classroom management and

organization. Includes classroom setup photos, classroom routine, and discipline plans.

http://www.fvsd.ab.ca/stm/classroom_management_tips_and_be.htm#classroom%20

management – Classroom strategies and ideas for elementary schools. Compiled by an

elementary school teacher.

http://startalk.umd.edu/tt_res_ch_cm.htm – Portal Web site with many links to

classroom management and other resources.

http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OHSICS/forlang/chinese/index.htm – An overview of Chinese

courses at Fairfax County Public Schools. Includes the syllabus for Chinese I, II and III.

http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/archives/fillers.shtml –“Five minute Fillers” –

a compilation of hundreds of games/activities to start or end class, or for when you

just have a few minutes to kill.

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Professional Organizations

http://www.actfl.org – American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL).

National organization dedicated to the improvement and expansion of the teaching and

learning of all languages at all levels of instruction throughout the U.S.

http://www.askasia.org/chinese – Asia Society Education Program. Valuable resource

and distribution center for information on teaching of Chinese in American schools.

http://www.adfl.org – Association of Departments of Foreign Language. Central

resource for the language and literature community in the U.S. and Canada.

http://www.cal.org – Center for Applied Linguistics. Private, non-profit organization

working to improve communication through better understanding of language and

culture.

http://www.classk12.org – Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary

Schools (CLASS). Promotes teaching of Chinese language and culture in American

elementary and secondary schools, and dialogue between Chinese language educators.

Includes links, membership lists, K-12 standards, announcements, teaching tips.

http://www.clta.osu.edu – Chinese Language Teacher Association (CLTA). Professional

organization devoted exclusively to the study of Chinese language, culture and

pedagogy. Includes many resources and publications related to Chinese learning.

http://www.csaus.org – Chinese School Association in the United States (CSAUS).

Association of more than 150 Chinese schools in the U.S. Includes events, links, E-

forum, books for purchase, newsletters, aid for forming Chinese schools.

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/Controller.jpf – College Board AP Home Page.

College Board's official online home for any professional interested in or involved with

the Advanced Placement Program (AP) or Pre-AP strategies.

http://www.nctasia.org – National Consortium for Teaching about Asia. Multi-year

initiative to encourage and facilitate teaching and learning about Asia in world history,

geography, social studies, and literature courses in the U.S.

http://www.ncacls.org – National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools

(NCACLS, 全美中文學校?合總會). Website is in Chinese.

http://www.ncssfl.org – National Council of State Supervisors for Languages. Initiative

with a long-term effort to raise public awareness about the importance of learning

languages and understanding cultures in the lives of all Americans.

http://www.nflc.org – National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland.

Dedicated to promoting a language-competent America by developing and

disseminating information that informs policy makers and improve the capacity of the

U.S. to communicate in languages other than English.

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http://www.hanban.edu.cn – National Office for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign

Language (NOCTFL, 国家汉语国际推广领导小组办公室). Website is in Chinese.

http://www.princeton.edu/~ssclc – Secondary School Chinese Language Center,

Princeton University (美国中小学中文教学中心). Home page containing information about

the language center and its initiatives.

Dictionaries

http://www.nciku.com – Great resource for students. Features conversations, theme

words and character writing exercises

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/dictionary.html – Good list of characters.

http://www.yellowbridge.com/language/chinese-dictionary.php – Shows stroke order

and etymology (radicals). Very user-friendly and useful.

http://www.zhongwen.com – Very good character, radical index, and etymology look-

up. Lists many words that use the same characters. However, not very user friendly.

http://www.xuezhongwen.net/chindict/chindict.php – Gives stroke order for 1500

characters. One of the best online dictionaries.

http://classes.yale.edu/chns130/Dictionary/index.html – Online Chinese picture

dictionary viewable by English, Chinese or Pinyin.

http://www.dictionary.com – Defines words in English.

http://www.thesaurus.com – Provides similar meanings for words in English.

http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/glossary/index.asp – Explains English words and

phrases related to education

Language Learning Articles

http://www.english-learning.co.uk/lombalkire.html – Kato Lomb, Hungary’s most

accomplished linguist who knew 17 languages, shares her secrets and methods.

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html – U.S.

Government ranking of the hardest languages in the world.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/58733.htm – National Security Language

Initiative: President Bush thinks learning Chinese is important.

http://www.pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html – Academic, yet humorous

explanation of Chinese. Makes students feel good about knowing some Chinese.

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United States Education Links

http://www.ed.gov/offices/OUS/PES/int_over.html#intro – Overview of Education in the

U.S. Contains information on policies, roles of the different types of U.S. government,

and links to examples of further information.

http://www.britishcouncil.org/usa-education-policy-us-overview.htm – Brief overview of

current issues in U.S. Education, including “Accountability,” “School Choice” and

“Teaching.”

http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/factover/ch6.htm – Portrait of the U.S.

Educational system’s structure, standards, and challenges.

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ous/international/usnei/us/edlite-struc-

geninfo.html – Information on the structure of U.S. Education and many other

education-related topics

http://www.leaderu.com/isr/lifeinamerica/howtosurvive/tableofcontents_all_linked.html

– Useful tips and information on how to survive in the U.S., including transportation,

finding a place to live, finding a job, receiving health care, making friends, shopping,

restaurants, and much more.

Other Online Resources

http://pbwiki.com/academic.wiki - This website is specifically designed to be used in k-

12 classrooms. Here, you can create free wikis (live online documents that multiple

users can edit and view) to use for the classroom. For a simple explanation of a wiki,

check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dnL00TdmLY

http://delicious.com/help/learn - Delicious.com is a “social bookmarking” site. You can

save interesting/helpful websites by “tagging” them with short descriptions (e.g.

“pinyin,” “middle school activity,” “warm-up,” “game for high school students,” “class

debate,” etc.). Then, you can easily find related websites by searching through your

tags/descriptions. You can also share these bookmarks with anyone you want (i.e. other

teachers or students) and you can access them for any computer. For a simple

explanation of Delicious, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/quizcenter/quizcenter.html - A website to create

free online quizzes/testing. More links for online testing here:

http://web20teach.blogspot.com/2008/05/top-5-quiz-generators-for-online.html

http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/teach.jsp Scholastic.com offers tons of teaching

ideas that are specific to different grade levels. Select your grade level and explore their

suggestions. New!

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http://nclrc.org/essentials/index.htm The essentials of language teaching from National

Capital Language Resource Center. The page is specifically designed for college

professors from foreign backgrounds teaching in the United States, but many of the

language teaching theories here can be applied to teaching k-12. New!

http://www.travelchinaguide.com/cityguides/ This is the website for a travel company

in China, but it also has province and city-specific information. Use it as a resource for

cultural and province/city descriptions. New!

http://www.nsliforyouth.org/ This program provides scholarships for high school

students to go to China and other foreign countries to study languages during the

summer and school year. High school students who are American citizens and between

ages 15-18 may apply. Annual deadline in February. Suggest to your students! New!

Regional Resources

http://www.bc.edu/research/chinagateway/boston/commOut.html Many links for China-

related resources in the Boston, Massachusetts area.

http://www.kwla-online.org/ The Kentucky World Language Association supports the

teaching and learning of a variety of world languages and cultures. The website has

content related to teaching Chinese. If you’re in Kentucky, check it out.

http://www.nflc.org/ The National Foreign Language Center at the University of

Maryland. Has content related to teaching Chinese. If you’re around Maryland, check it

out.

http://caisinstitute.org/ A non-profit organization located in San Francisco that

advocates for Chinese language and culture education. Also has a yearly conference

that California guest teachers may want to attend.

See the list of Confucius Institutes in the USA in the File section (美国孔子学院).