Date: 2021-08-10 Visitcount: 94
From July 20 to 31, the College of Education of Zhejiang University and the University of Hawaii at Mānoa jointly held an online summer school online. Since its inception in the year of 2016, the summer school program has been held for five periods. Due to its unique Hawaiian culture, rich and lively teaching content and form, it is very popular among ZJU undergraduates. Due to the impact of the epidemic, this year’s program was held online for the first time, focusing on academic English learning, cultural exchanges, professional lectures, workshops and virtual visits. Eighteen ZJU undergraduate students participated and successfully completed their study tasks.
On the morning of July 20th (Beijing time), the summer school held the opening ceremony and the first cultural course. At the opening ceremony, Xiaoxin Ivy Mu, the program Manager, and three teacher representatives from UH Mānoa, Gonzalo Isidro Bruno, Stephanie Vie and Krystyna Aune, welcomed the students, stressed the program arrangement and matters needing attention, and encourage students to study hard, communicate with teachers actively, and improve their academic English level and English application ability. At the first class, the teachers explained the history, culture and natural features of Hawaii to the students, and also gave a brief introduction to the major Settings and subject characteristics of UH Mānoa. The students are looking forward to the next two weeks of study!
The academic English course is the main content of this summer school. Through teaching, Englishlearning skills sharing, after-class reading, and practical communication with local students, the course aims to improve the students' academic English level and practical application. The course is taught by Tim Dang. The course focuses on listening, speaking, reading and writing as well as grammar and pronunciation. Through classroom teaching, homework and self-assessment, the learning content is continuously strengthened. The course also organized three online face-to-face conversations with students at UH Mānoa, which helped students to use, test and consolidate their learning through practice and to further understand Hawaiian culture and American students' learning experience.
According to the students' professional background, Xu Di, a Chinese American professor in the field of Kinesiology from UH Mānoa, was invited to give professional lectures. In consideration of the professional content of the lecture, Prof. Xu was very considerate to use a combination of Chinese and English to help students understand. In the lecture, Ms. Lin Chen from this field was invited to share her professional learning in UH Mānoa with the students.
The summer school arranged the training of English resume writing and English mock interview. Personal statement, resume and interview are important business cards for students, which play a key role in applying to a university or a position. On the morning of July 27th, Ivy, Kristen and Megan introduced to the students how to write personal statement and resume in English and how to prepare for the interview in detail. On the morning of July 29th, students were divided into two groups to have a mock interview. Through these two courses, students have mastered the writing methods of personal English materials and interview skills, and improved their confidence in applying for further study in prestigious universities in the future.
In order to improve students' English proficiency and as an effective supplement to the Academic English course, the summer school arranged the students to read English books. The students are required to select their favorite English classic books from Little Women, The Little Prince, Pride and Prejudice, One Hundred Years of Solitude, A Thousand Splendid,and read them carefully for a week, and then to share and show the main content of the books and introduce their feelings and understanding of the books in English. Reading and displaying the English books not only stimulated the students' interest in reading books, but also improved their English reading, expression and writing skills.
As a special arrangement of this summer school, the students visited Pearl Harbor online in a virtual form. On July 30, Teacher Neil Yamamto let the students watch a video about Pearl Harbor online, which is a detailed version of the attack on Pearl Harbor. When students and teachers communicated their views on the Pearl Harbor event, they all believed that war was cruel and peace was hard won, so we need to cherish it.
On the morning of July 31, the closing ceremony of summer school was held. Krustyna Aune, dean of The Graduate School, Ms. Harriet Abe, associate dean of the School of Continuing Education, and Ms. Ivy Mu, delivered speeches and presented certificates to all students. The students also shared the learning and exchange experience of this summer school, and expressed their sincere thanks to all the teachers who were responsible for and participated in the program.
Through the two-week exchange, the students felt the enthusiasm, carefulness and responsibility of the teachers of the University of Hawaii. The summer school comprehensively improved the students' knowledge and ability in English, history, culture and other aspects. The students also expressed their regret that this activity could only be held online due to the epidemic. They hope to have the opportunity to exchange and visit the University of Hawaii after the epidemic!
By JIANG Ruizhe, YANG Piao, MAO Dingmeng, LIU Linjia