San Diego, CA school district to work with NTNU on Chinese instruction
A memorandum of cooperation signed between NTNU and the San Diego Unified School District will bring eager students from California together with expert teachers from Taiwan for Chinese language studies. A ceremony to mark the signing was attended by NTNU's Vice President, Lin Tung-tai (林東泰), and San Diego Unified School Board Trustee Scott Barnett.
Approximately US$20 million has been earmarked to help the school district develop an Asian languages center. In the first phase of the program, 20 teachers from Taiwan will head to California for internships in teaching Chinese, and it is hoped that this number will increase in the future.
The center aims to expand Chinese immersion language education for American students. San Diego's Barnard Elementary School, for example, has been recognized with various awards for its English and Chinese bilingual instruction in various subjects, such as math and science.
NTNU and Barnard Elementary have been cooperating since 2011 to provide American students with access to online Chinese learning and Taiwanese students with teaching experience. The success of that program led San Diego Unified School district to sign an agreement with NTNU in November of last year.
San Diego is the eighth largest city in the United States, and its school district is home to over 200 elementary, middle, and high schools.