On November 22 Jiongzhou Ford gave a workshop at the Chinese Language Teachers Association of New South Wales Annual Conference and Teach Meet in Sydney on Using Discovering Chinese Pro to promote learner independence. Discovering Chinese Pro is a fully interactive iPad/webapp Chinese textbook with contemporary and well structured curriculum content. 

Jiongzhou Ford (R) and AU/NZ distributor Belinda Dello-Iacovo (L)

Independent learning means shifting the responsibility for the learning process from the teacher to the students. Independent learners are generally more motivated, more aware and more proactive. The teacher's role is no longer to try to be the fountain of all knowledge but becomes that of coach and facilitator. Students can make learning choices and progress at different paces but this all occurs within the framework set up by the teacher.

Jiongzhou adopted Discovering Chinese Pro as the core resource for her students because of the greatly increased opportunities it offers for students to take ownership of their own learning. The core content for each topic is clearly presented in each unit and students can interact with the program to hear, read, write and record themselves, while the teacher can monitor their progress online and respond to each student individually. The program provides immediate feedback for listening and reading tasks which makes it much more practical for teachers to provide genuine differentiated instruction both in and out of the classroom.

DC Pro can be accessed on iPad or online Email us for a free trial of all four volumes

Independent learning is also about group and collaborative activities.  

As active participants in the learning process, students can influence the learning direction (with the teacher's guidance) and teachers can set up tasks which connect with students' lives. When nearing the end of a unit on days dates (on both the lunar and Gregorian calendars), Jiongzhou moved the focus to Chinese New Year. Even though the students were at beginner level, with Discovering Chinese Pro they could still access materials in the higher volumes and Jiongzhou selected and adapted the language from Festivals unit to suit their needs. As one of the students in the class was from an aboriginal community, she made the cross cultural focus between Chinese New Year and NAIDOC Week (Aboriginal Australia's major festival). The students and teachers worked as a group to adapt the language learnt to describe Chinese New Year to describe NAIDOC Week activities. Students were all highly engaged in the process and the written work produced by students was impressive for beginner level students