The College of Humanities and Education at Chung Yuan Christian University held two International Scholars’ Lectures on December 3 and 4, 2024, featuring Veronika Teryngerová, a Chinese language expert from the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, Czech Republic. The lectures focused on cross-cultural perspectives in Chinese language teaching, offering invaluable academic insights and practical recommendations to faculty and students of Chung Yuan’s Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature.
Charles University, founded in 1348, is an academic treasure of Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It is not only the largest university in the country but also one of Central Europe’s oldest higher education institutions, boasting a history of 670 years. Sinology studies at Charles University began in the late 19th century and are currently part of the “Oriental Studies” discipline. Within this esteemed university, Ms. Chien Chia-Hung, an outstanding alumna of Chung Yuan Christian University’s Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature, serves as a Chinese language instructor, further strengthening the academic ties between the two institutions in the field of Chinese language education.
Veronika Teryngerová has 18 years of experience teaching Chinese. Since 2006, she has been offering Chinese oral courses at the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University, focusing her research on 20th-century Chinese literature. During her week-long visit to Taiwan, she delivered two insightful lectures titled “Best of Both Worlds: How Learning Chinese in Taiwan Shapes the Western Mind” and “Personality Test: Teaching Chinese from a Czech Perspective,” sharing her inspiring teaching experiences and observations.
The lectures began by contrasting the linguistic structures of Czech and Chinese, analyzing the challenges faced by Czech learners of Chinese. Veronika Teryngerová illustrated, through practical examples, how integrating cultural elements and adopting balanced teaching methodologies can significantly enhance learning outcomes. She emphasized that fostering students’ motivation is a crucial factor in successful teaching—a perspective that holds great inspiration for teacher training students in the Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature.
Veronika also provided actionable suggestions for the development of Chung Yuan University’s Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) courses, particularly in refining strategies for curriculum and teaching material design. The teaching framework inspired by these lectures not only broadens students’ global perspectives but also supports the Department’s ongoing online cross-national collaboration projects with Charles University and U.S. institutions, strengthening bilateral educational exchanges.
Professor Penny Peng, Dean of the College of Humanities and Education at CYCU, expressed her hope that through the “Collaborative Learning” model, students in the Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature could enhance their curriculum design expertise and cross-cultural communication skills. This approach aims to help international learners acquire Chinese more naturally while fostering closer collaboration between Taiwan and the Czech Republic in Chinese language education.
Students who attended the lecture shared that it helped them recognize the importance of starting from learners’ native language structures to deeply understand their learning challenges and design targeted teaching strategies. They found this approach highly beneficial for future Chinese language teaching.
This lecture not only advanced teaching innovation and international collaboration in the Department of Applied Chinese Language and Literature but also highlighted the College’s commitment to integrating cultural education and expanding global perspectives. Chung Yuan Christian University will continue to promote its “Collaborative Learning” initiative, contributing further to the internationalization of Chinese language education.
