Study On Interactive Distance Learning Model In Confucius Institute At The University Of Kansas

With the rapid development of information technology, the means and forms of education are undergoing great changes. A variety of modern communication technology based on a new education philosophy and pattern is quietly changing the form of modern education, which is represented by Khan Academy, flipped classroom and cross-border cooperation of MOOC(Massive open online courses). Interactive Distance Learning as a new form of teaching, has attracted the attention of scholars. Confucius Institute at the University of Kansas (C.I.K.U) was established in 2006, co-founded by the University of Kansas, Hanban (Confucius Institute Headquarters) and Central China Normal University. In order to combat present problems, including the sparsely populated location, and lack of Chinese teachers. The Confucius Institute decided to cooperate with a remote teaching service center in the state of Kansas. They provide Chinese courses to students who are living in local and remote areas by using interactive video conferencing technology. The goal is to build an interactive remote Chinese teaching research center in the Confucius Institute at the University of Kansas. This form of teaching has been explored and been in practice for nine years at C.I.K.U, certain achievements have been made, thus making this form of teaching worthy of further study and exploration.This paper analyses education policies and Chinese foreign language teaching in the United States by collecting the relevant materials, and comparing "The 21st Century Standards of Learning Foreign Language" (United States language learning standard) and Hanban "International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education", under the teaching mode, environment and background of C.I.K.U. Furthermore, this paper analyses the teaching mode of C.I.K.U. via the four elements below; teaching concepts, teaching goals, operational procedures, and teaching evaluation. And it describes teaching process, teaching strategies and characteristics. Through analyzing the example of "STARTALK", which is a short-term program, this paper constructs an effective distance interactive teaching model, in C.I.K.U. Meanwhile, using the example of Confucius institute self-made teaching materials taught in high school grade one, the article includes overall conception of the teaching materials, architecture, corpus, topics and language factors. Moreover, this article summarizes the teaching achievements, and it puts forward the problems. In addition, the author designed a questionnaire, interviewed and observed research about teacher training belonging to interactive distance education and provided capability requirements of teachers who used an interactive remote classroom. Finally, the author will be comparing teaching modes between domestic Chinese classrooms and C.I.K.U, and will be providing related suggestions and recommendations.The content below is divided into four sections.Part one introduces the background knowledge related to C.I.K.U. This part includes teaching environment, the policy and standards of The United States towards foreign language teaching and their teaching philosophy, as well as the actual development of the Chinese language teaching. Meanwhile this chapter also analyzes the factors that influence the teaching of C.I.K.U, and compares and analyzes this educational background with Chinese teaching as a foreign language in the United States.Part two focuses on specific analysis of the C.I.K.U teaching mode, including teaching concept, and the establishment of teaching objectives, operating procedures, teaching evaluation and the analysis of the sample.Part three focuses on self-made textbook research materials for high school made by C.I.K.U.Part four analyses existing problems belonging to C.I.K.U and provides effective strategies to these issues. And also explores how to the domestic teaching of Chinese as a foreign language can learn from the teaching at C.I.K.U.