Concordia is the first university in Nebraska to offer a Chinese teaching endorsement for education students in the Mandarin Chinese program.
“We want to prepare educators to fill the need for language teachers who can teach Mandarin, and teach it well,” said Assistant Professor of Education Vicki Anderson. “We anticipate that having this endorsement will make a teacher candidate who graduates from Concordia all the more marketable.”
The endorsement equips future educators to teach Mandarin Chinese to students in grades seven through 12. The endorsement requires 30 hours of course work including courses in Mandarin and language education plus a required semester studying abroad.
As part of the Mandarin Chinese program at Concordia, the university welcomed a new graduate assistant instructor, Ling-Yi Shao, to teach Mandarin courses this year. Shao grew up in Taiwan and received her bachelor’s degree in English with a minor in applied Chinese from Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages. She previously worked as an English and Mandarin tutor before applying for the scholarship program that assigned her to Concordia.
“I am very thankful and appreciate that they matched me with this school since this is a Christian school and so am I,” Shao said. “Teaching Mandarin is a very interesting thing, and because Mandarin is a tonal language, it will be a lot of fun to practice the pronunciation with students.”