At the invitation of the Confucius Institute at De Montfort University (DMU-CI), Mrs. Carole Clohesy,a local English teacher with experiences in China, came to ateacher training workshopon Saturday afternoon, 9th November 2019. Herpassion for and rich expertise in language teaching as well asher love ofboth the Chinese language and cultureproduced a deep impression.

Mrs. Carole Clohesy leads an in-service training workshop at DMU-CI

She started the workshop with an intriguing game,“Diamond 9”, featuring a typical British style.It helpedhertocollectdifficultiesMandarin teachersmay encounter in teaching. After that,she distributedvocabulary flash cards to drawattention tosyllable division and patterns of rhythm in English. The gamewas followed naturally by a comparison of the accentual pattern in standard English with the tonal pattern in Mandarin Chinese.

In the Q&A section, Mrs. Clohesy responded to a question about how to manage a Year-9 class. She suggested that since year-9 boys are usually difficult to teach, teachers should findmore effectiveways to stimulate and engage students. This could be a lifelong task for a conscientious teacher. Shealsoanswered questions onlearning habits in the UKthat are different fromthose in China, encouraging Mandarin teachers to help studentstake advantage of the best of both.

Mrs. Clohesyalso shared her own stories in teaching, especially difficulties she has encountered and the ways shehas overcome them. She moved her audience with her willingness to share and passion for interculturalteaching.As a finishing stroke, she recommended some reference books, such asDoing Cultureand Help Your Kids with English.

Mrs. Clohesy with DMU-CI teachers

At the end of the workshop, Dr. Yang, Director of DMU-CI, presented special gifts to thank Mrs. Clohesy for her contribution.The giftswere paper-cuttingpieces handcrafted by Ms. XiupingTang, one of the CI teachers.“It’s a very practical and helpful workshop,” saidshe, “we’ll definitely benefit from this workshop and the strategies empower our teaching.”