A major push in China for university professors and students to teach and learn in English will send CU-Boulder graduates and faculty to China this summer to teach the language.
The opportunity is the result of a partnership forged by the University of Colorado at Boulder with Xi'an Jiaotong University, a major technical and research university in Xi'an, China. The school is ranked as one of the top 10 universities in China, according to Anne Bliss, a faculty member in the Program for Writing and Rhetoric.
"The top 10 universities in China have been told by the government that they need to be teaching 30 percent of their classes in English by 2008," Bliss said. "So, among other things, we will be asking the teachers to use English full time and helping them learn applied linguistics as well as methods for teaching English as a foreign language."
The two universities have a memorandum of understanding that calls for CU-Boulder to continue to host Jiaotong faculty, and among other agreements, to make teaching positions at Jiaotong available to CU faculty and students in all mutual academic fields.
Bliss, who is largely responsible for creating the partnership between the two universities, will begin directing her second year of a five-year-long English faculty-training program in June. She will be joined by Damian Doyle, a writing and rhetoric instructor at CU-Boulder.
In the spring semester of 2003, the Program for Writing and Rhetoric hosted four English professors from Xi'an Jiaotong University, who studied and conducted research at CU.
For Tyler WolfKlain, a CU-Boulder senior graduating May 7 with bachelor's degrees in political science and psychology, the teaching position was something he couldn't pass up.
While he doesn't have any teaching experience, he is confident that he'll do well. "I have the summer to work on my Chinese," he said. High on his priority list will be working with students on their conversation skills and explaining cultural differences.
"I also hope to gain some insight into the Chinese culture," said WolfKlain, who will leave in September to begin his teaching job. "Any foot I can get in the door while there could be helpful in the future."
He will join five other CU-Boulder graduates teaching at the university.
Xi'an Jiaotong University is one of five technical and research Jiaotong Universities in China.